Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair, in full Upton Beall
Sinclair (b. Sept. 20, 1878, Baltimore,
Md., U.S.—d. Nov. 25, 1968, Bound Brook,
N.J.), American novelist and polemicist
for socialism and other causes; his The
Jungle is a landmark among naturalistic,
proletarian novels.
Sinclair graduated from the College
of the City of New York in 1897 and did
graduate work at Columbia University,
supporting himself by journalistic
writing. The Jungle (1906), his sixth
novel and first popular success, was
written when he was sent by the
socialist weekly newspaper Appeal to
Reason to Chicago to investigate
conditions in the stockyards. Though
intended to create sympathy for the
exploited and poorly treated immigrant
workers in the meat-packing industry,
The Jungle instead aroused widespread
public indignation at the quality of and
impurities in processed meats and thus
helped bring about the passage of
federal food-inspection laws. Sinclair
ironically commented at the time, “I
aimed at the public’s heart and by
accident I hit it in the stomach.” The
Jungle is the most enduring of the works
of the “muckrakers” (see muckraker).
Published at Sinclair’s own expense
after several publishers rejected it, it
became a best-seller, and Sinclair used
the proceeds to open Helicon Hall, a
cooperative-living venture in Englewood,
N.J. The building was destroyed by fire
in 1907 and the project abandoned.
A long series of other topical novels
followed, none as popular as The Jungle;
among them were Oil! (1927), based on
the Teapot Dome Scandal, and Boston
(1928), based on the Sacco-Vanzetti
case. Sinclair’s works were highly
popular in Russia both before and
immediately after the Revolution of
1917. Later his active opposition to the
communist regime caused a decline in his
reputation there, but it was revived
temporarily in the late 1930s and ’40s
by his antifascist writings. Sinclair
again reached a wide audience with the
Lanny Budd series, 11 contemporary
historical novels beginning with World’s
End (1940) that were constructed around
an implausible antifascist hero who
happens to be on hand for all the
momentous events of the day.
During the economic crisis of the
1930s, Sinclair organized the EPIC (End
Poverty in California) socialist reform
movement; in 1934 he was defeated as
Democratic candidate for governor. Of
his autobiographical writings, American
Outpost: A Book of Reminiscences (1932;
also published as Candid Reminiscences:
My First Thirty Years) was reworked and
extended in The Autobiography of Upton
Sinclair (1962); My Lifetime in Letters
(1960) is a collection of letters
written to Sinclair.
