Upton Sinclair
1 book analyzed
Biography
Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) was a lifelong socialist who wrote nearly one hundred books but is remembered primarily for one. Born in Baltimore to an impoverished alcoholic father and a puritanical mother, Sinclair put himself through college by writing pulp fiction. In 1904, the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason commissioned him to write a novel about the meatpacking industry. Sinclair spent seven weeks living among the workers of Packingtown, investigating conditions firsthand. The resulting novel was rejected by five publishers before Doubleday accepted it. The Jungle made Sinclair famous and changed American law — but not in the way he intended. He ran for governor of California in 1934 on the EPIC (End Poverty in California) platform and nearly won. He continued writing and agitating for socialism until his death at ninety.