It's All in the Game

You don't see many novels on the shelves of bookshops these days by Sinclair Lewis, though, if there is one, it will probably be "Main Street". It was his most famous novel but I found it difficult to read; it was one of those books (like "Women in Love" by D.H.Lawrence) that you put down and think "I won't pick it up again" but you do. It's about a "modern" woman (20's or 30's America) who marries a small town doctor and lives in a place with small town values. She revolts against her dreadfully dull life..... It's not a novel I'll read again - though now I've said something about it I must say I do have a desire to re-try it. His other novels like "Babbitt" or "Kingsblood Royal" or "Cass Timberlaine" or the wonderful "Elmer Gantry" I'm sure I could read again and enjoy them again.
But one of his novels I once tried to read I gave up on. It bored me. It was "The Man who Knew Coolidge". Coolidge was president of the US in the 20's and a duller man there never was - or, at least, that was the impression I got from Sinclair Lewis's novel. Now I have come across his name associated indirectly with a very sweet love song called "It's All in the Game".
The words of this song were written by Carl Sigman in the 50's but he used a tune that had been written in the 20's or earlier by a man named Charles Gates Dawes. This was the only tune Dawes wrote that was published. He didn't try to get it published but a friend did it for him. It was popular then, called simply "Melody in A Sharp" and was a favourite of the famous virtuoso violinist Frtiz Kreisler.
The connection with Coolidge is that Charles Gates Dawes became his Vice President.
They disliked each other intensely; perhaps a bit more than Dawes disliked hearing his own tune played over and over - like Elgar perhaps who didn't much like his Pomp and Circumstance March No.1, especially with those words!
Dawes never lived to hear the tune with words, so he never could enjoy its success - No.1 in the charts in a version by Tommy Edwards (he does it on Youtube), a favourite of Nat King Cole and Dinah Shore; later sung by Cliff Richard.
If Coolidge was a dullard, Dawes certainly wasn't. Not only was he a successful banker and writer of learned tomes on financial matters and Vice P:resident of the United States, he also won the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Must get the book again by Sinclair Lewis and see if Charles Gates Dawes is a character in it.