Upton
Sinclair (1878-1968)The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Upton
Sinclair (1878-1968)
Upton
Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His family came from the ruined
Southern aristocracy. His father, Upton Beall Sinclair, was a liquor salesman
and an alcoholic - he drank himself to death. Priscilla Harden, Sinclair's
mother, came from a relatively wealthy family. When Sinclair was ten, the family
moved to New York.
Books
comforted the young Sinclair, who started to write dime novels at the age of 15.
He produced ethnic jokes and hack fiction for pulp magazines to finance his
studies at New York City College. In 1897 he enrolled Columbia University,
determined to succeed while producing one poorly paid novelette per week.
In
1900 Sinclair married Miss Meta H. Fuller; she was the daughter of his mother's
friend. The unhappy marriage ended in 1911. During the first years of his
marriage, Sinclair lived in poverty. After the birth of their son, David, their
financial situation became even worse, but Sinclair refused to consider any
other work than writing. By 1904 Sinclair was moving toward a realistic fiction.
However, Sinclair was never an advocate of Communism, but he was frequently
pictured as a violent revolutionary. In 1934 he left permanently the Socialist
Party.
As
a writer Sinclair gained fame in 1906 with the novel The Jungle, a report
on the dirty conditions in the Chicago meat-packing industry. The book won
Sinclair fame and fortune, and led to the implementation of the Pure
Food and Drug Act in 1906. President Theodore Roosevelt received 100 letters
a day demanding reforms in the meat industry and Sinclair was called to the
White House. The proceeds of the book enabled Sinclair to establish and support
the socialist commune Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, N.J. William James and
John Dewey visited the place, and also the aspiring writer Sinclair Lewis. From
1915 Sinclair lived in Pasadena, California and later in Buckeye, Arizona. At
the age of 24 he joined the Socialist Party. He was also a board member of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
In
the 1940s Sinclair reached again his reading audience with his Lanny Budd
series, consisting of four million words in 11 contemporary historical novels.
Its hero, the illegitimate son of a munitions tycoon, always manages to find
himself in the middle of decisive moments in history. He travels the world,
meets such figures as Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler, Herman Göring, and
Franklin Roosevelt, and is involved in international political intrigues.
From
Pasadena Sinclair suddenly moved in 1953 to a remote Arizona village of Buckeye.
In 1960 Sinclair published MY LIFETIME IN LETTERS, his autobiography appeared in
1962. "In politics and economics," he said, "I believe what I
have believed ever since I discovered the Socialist movement at the beginning of
this century." Sinclair died in his sleep on November 25, 1968 at the
Somerset Valley Nursing Home.
from
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sinclair.htm
For further
reading: Upton Sinclair by F. Dell (1927); This Is Upton Sinclair by J. Harte
(1938); Upton Sinclair: Piirteitä hänen elämästään by Mikko Taipale
(1950); Upton Sinclair: An Annotated Checklist by R. Gottesman (1973); Upton
Sinclair, An American Rebel by Leon A. Harris (1975); Upton Sinclair
by Jon A. Yoder (1975); Critics on Upton Sinclair, compiled by Abraham
Blinderman (1975); Upton Sinclair by W. Bloodworth (1977); Art for
Social Justice: The Major Novels of Upton Sinclair by R.N. Mokerjee (1988); Upton
Sinclair: A Descriptive Annotated Bibliography by John Ahouse (1994); Upton
Sinclair, the Forgotten Socialist by Ivan Scott (1997); Encyclopedia of
World Literature in the 29th Century, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999, vol.
4) - See also: Sinclair Lewis
; Xiao Hong -
Film adaptations: The
Adventurer (1917); The Money Changers (1920); Marriage Forbidden (1938);
The Gnome-Mobile (1967) -
Lanny Budd series: World's
End (1940), Between Two
Worlds (1941), Dragon's Teeth (1942), Wide Is the Gate (1943),
The Presidential Agent (1944), Dragon Harvest (1945), A World to
Win (1946), A Presidential Mission (1947), One Clear Call
(1948), O Shepherd, Speak! (1949), The Return of Lanny Budd (1953)
- Novels as Clarke Fitch: Courtmartialed (1898); Saved by the
Enemy (1898); A Soldier Monk (1899); A Soldier's Pledge
(1899); Wolves of the Navy (1899); Clif, the Naval Cadet (1903); The
Cruise of the Training Ship (1903); From Port to Port (1903); A
Strange Cruise (1903)
Encyclopedia article about Upton Sinclair