Bethel Merriday
by Sinclair Lewis
On her sixth birthday, Bethel's mother caught an old woman's leaning, slow gait and scolded her for bragging, speaking in the Church, and copying people in this state. Bethel said, "Oh! I'm not copying it. I'm trying to be his. I can be very different people." Sinclair Lewis' novel about theatre stirs the senses with the smell of battered costumes, cramped dressing rooms, and things that make actors and actresses do what they do, often for little money.
