Upton Sinclair

Upton Beall Sinclair (September 20, 1878 - November 25, 1968) was a prolific (90 books) American author who wrote in many genres, often advocating Socialist views, and achieved considerable popularity in the first half of the twentieth century. He gained particular fame for his novel, The Jungle (1906), which dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry and caused a public uproar that ultimately led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act in 1906. However the main point of the novel, The Jungle, was lost on the public. He wrote to demonstrate the inhuman conditions of the workers and the exploitation of the wage earner under capitalism. But, at least the fame and fortune he gained from publishing The Jungle enabled him to write books on almost every issue of social justice in the 20th century.

Summary of his life

As a young writer he rose from obscurity in 1905 with the publishing of The Jungle.

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Over the next 60-years Sinclair published 90 books, numerous plays and movie scripts and was frequently described as the most important American writer of the 20th Century ? then dropped into almost total obscurity again.

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Today it is rare to find anyone who knows anything of Sinclair except The Jungle.

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Meat packing and food and drug reform were not the true purpose of The Jungle? its real purpose was social justice. Exposing the evils of the workplace and the exploitation of the wage earner was its real purpose.

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However, the fame and fortune that Sinclair gained from this book enabled him to tackle head-on through his writing and his activism almost every other social justice issue in the 20th century.

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Thus he became a formidable enemy of all of the powerful forces in our culture; the church, the newspapers, higher education, secondary education, and the government. And, of course, the capitalist system itself.

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At every turn he was confronted by insidious slander and ridicule, even beyond his death.

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Of course, he asked for it. He was a magnificent propagandist and thrived on the publicity, good or bad, although mostly bad. When the hornet?s nest quieted down he poked another stick into it.

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The condemnation he received, however, was uniquely American. His close friends and supporters included many of the world leaders and thinkers. His books generally were refused

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by US publishers; so he often published them himself or published them first in England, and then later in the US.

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He personally met with, influenced, and cajoled US Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR, into action on social issues. The far-reaching effects of this are significant even today, perhaps, especially today. He was a fighter for women?s rights, free speech, labor justice, and a supporter of liberal religion. Critics and supporters alike credit his writing and propaganda as the enabling force for most of the modern reforms in American life and culture.

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His personal contacts, shared ideas, and correspondence influenced world leaders, writers, and social activists; Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Jack London, G.B Shaw, John Dewey, H.G. Wells, M.Gorky, Luther Burbank, Trotsky, Bernarr MacFadden, Eugene Debs, Clarence Darrow, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charlie Chaplin, Sinclair Lewis, H.L. Mencken, Will Rogers, Bertrand Russell, and hundreds of others. (Albert Einstein wrote a preface for Sinclair's book of telepathic experiments, Mental Radio.)

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and nominee for Nobel Prize in Literature, Sinclair also was the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California in 1934 in a historic campaign that changed American elections forever.

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