Arrowsmith, by Sinclair Lewis, is the story of Martin Arrowsmith, a bright and ambitious young man from the fictional town of Elk Mills, Winnemac, who sets out for New York City to make his name. His passion for science leads him to mentor ship by noted bacteriologist Max Gottlieb and to medical school. His passion for the ladies leads to an engagement with a woman and then to another at the same time, the first of many problematic entanglements. Before long he insults his mentor and is suspended from medical school. Impatient, impulsive, and aggressive, he proceeds through a whirlwind of positions and romantic entanglements, eventually landing at an elite research institute, where he makes an important discovery of a phage which destroys bacteria. This leads him and others from the institute to an island in the Caribbean suffering from an outbreak of bubonic plague. He resists mass deployment of his treatment pending proper testing, until it is too late to save his wife and others from the scourge. He relents, the treatment works, and he is hailed as a hero for saving countless lives.  Arrowsmith, however, feels he has betrayed his principles.

Published in 1925, Arrowsmith won the Pulitzer Prize in 1926. It was written at a time when medical education was undergoing major reforms following a report on the topic to the Carnegie Foundation. It is noted for its extensive treatment of medical training, practice, and ethics, as well as scientific research, fraud, and public health. Although not credited, science writer Paul de Kruif assisted Lewis with the book and received 25% of the royalties.

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