Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author,muckraker journalist, and political activist, and the1934Democratic Party nominee forgovernor of California. He wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the1943Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his muckraking fictional novel,The Jungle, which exposed the labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S.meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906Pure Food and Drug Act and theMeat Inspection Act.[1] In 1919, he publishedThe Brass Check, a muckrakingexposé of American journalism that publicized the issue ofyellow journalism and the limitations of the "free press" in the United States. Four years after publication ofThe Brass Check, the firstcode of ethics for journalists was created.[2]Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence" based on his wifeMary Craig Sinclair's book "Southern Belle: A Personal Story of a Crusader's Wife".[3] He is also well remembered for the quote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."[4]: 109 He used this line in speeches and the book about his campaign for governor as a way to explain why the editors and publishers of the major newspapers in California would not treat seriously his proposals for old age pensions and other progressive reforms.[4] Writing during theProgressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of the industrialized United States from both the working man's and the industrialist's points of view. Novels such asKing Coal (1917),The Coal War (published posthumously),Oil! (1927), andThe Flivver King (1937) describe the working conditions of the coal, oil, and auto industries at the time.
Sinclair was born inBaltimore, Maryland, to Upton Beall Sinclair Sr. and Priscilla Harden Sinclair. His father was a liquor salesman whosealcoholism shadowed his son's childhood. Priscilla Harden Sinclair was a strictEpiscopalian who disliked alcohol, tea, and coffee. Both of Upton Sinclair's parents were ofBritish ancestry. His paternal grandparents wereScottish, and all of his ancestors emigrated to America fromGreat Britain during the late 1600s and early 1700s.[5][failed verification] As a child, Sinclair slept either on sofas or cross-ways on his parents' bed. When his father was out for the night, he would sleep in the bed with his mother.[6] His mother's family was very affluent: her parents were very prosperous in Baltimore, and her sister married a millionaire. Sinclair had wealthy maternal grandparents with whom he often stayed. This gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived during the late 19th century. Living in two social settings affected him and greatly influenced his books. Upton Beall Sinclair Sr. was from a highly respected family in the South, but the family was financially ruined by theCivil War, the end of slavery causing disruptions of the labor system during theReconstruction era, and an extended agricultural depression.
As he was growing up, Upton's family moved frequently, as his father was not successful in his career. He developed a love for reading when he was five years old. He read every book his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world. He did not start school until he was 10 years old. He was deficient in math and worked hard to catch up quickly because of his embarrassment.[6] In 1888, the Sinclair family moved toQueens, New York City, where his father sold shoes. Upton entered theCity College of New York five days before his 14th birthday,[7] on September 15, 1892.[6] He wrote jokes,dime novels, and magazine articles in boys' weekly andpulp magazines to pay for his tuition.[8] With that income, he was able to move his parents to an apartment when he was seventeen years old.[6]
He graduated from City College in June 1897. He subsequently studied law atColumbia University,[9] but he was more interested in writing. He learned several languages, including Spanish, German, and French. He paid the one-time enrollment fee to be able to learn a variety of subjects. He would sign up for a class and then later drop it.[10] He again supported himself through college by writing boys' adventure stories and jokes. He also sold ideas to cartoonists.[6] Usingstenographers, he wrote up to 8,000 words of pulp fiction per day. His only complaint about his educational experience was that it failed to educate him about socialism.[10] After leaving Columbia without a degree, he wrote four books in the next four years; they were commercially unsuccessful though critically well-received:King Midas (1901),Prince Hagen (1902),The Journal of Arthur Stirling (1903), and a Civil War novel,Manassas (1904).[9]
Sinclair did not get on with his mother when he became older because of her strict rules and refusal to allow him independence. Sinclair later told his son, David, that around Sinclair's 16th year, he decided not to have anything to do with his mother, staying away from her for 35 years because an argument would start if they met.[11]
Upton became close with Reverend William Wilmerding Moir. Moir specialized insexual abstinence, and taught his beliefs to Sinclair. He was taught to "avoid the subject of sex." Sinclair was to report to Moir monthly regarding his abstinence. Despite their close relationship, Sinclair identified as agnostic.[6]
Sinclair considered himself a poet and dedicated his time to writing poetry.[6] In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise, working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants to research his novelThe Jungle (1906), a political exposé that addressed conditions in the plants, as well as the lives of poor immigrants. When it was published two years later, it became a bestseller. In the spring of 1905, Sinclair issued a call for the formation of a new organization, a group to be called theIntercollegiate Socialist Society.[12]
With the income fromThe Jungle, Sinclair founded the utopian—but non-Jewish white only—Helicon Home Colony inEnglewood, New Jersey.[13] He ran as a Socialist candidate for Congress.[14][15] The colony burned down under suspicious circumstances within a year.[16]
Upton Sinclair wearing a white suit and black armband, picketing theRockefeller Building in New York City
In 1913–1914, Sinclair made three trips to the coal fields of Colorado, which led him to writeKing Coal and caused him to begin work on the larger, more historicalThe Coal War. In 1914, Sinclair helped organize demonstrations in New York City against Rockefeller at the Standard Oil offices. The demonstrations touched off more actions by theIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW) and theMother Earth group, a loose association of anarchists and IWW members, in Rockefeller's hometown of Tarrytown.[17]
The Sinclairs moved toPasadena, California in 1916 and lived there for nearly four decades. During his years with his second wife, Mary Craig, Sinclair wrote or produced several films. Recruited byCharlie Chaplin, Sinclair and Mary Craig producedEisenstein's¡Qué viva México! in 1930–32.[18]
Aside from his political and social writings, Sinclair took an interest inoccult phenomena and experimented withtelepathy. His bookMental Radio (1930) included accounts of his wife Mary's telepathic experiences and ability.[19][20]William McDougall read the book and wrote an introduction to it, which led him to establish theparapsychology department atDuke University.[21]
In the 1920s, the Sinclairs moved toMonrovia, California, (nearLos Angeles), where Sinclair founded the state's chapter of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union. Wanting to pursue politics, he twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the Socialist Party ticket: in1920 for theHouse of Representatives and in1922 for theSenate. He was the party candidate for governor of California in1926, winning nearly 46,000 votes, and in1930, winning nearly 50,000 votes.
During this period, Sinclair was also active in radical politics in Los Angeles. For instance, in 1923, to support the challengedfree speech rights ofIndustrial Workers of the World, Sinclair spoke at a rally during theSan Pedro Maritime Strike, in a neighborhood now known as Liberty Hill. He began to read from theBill of Rights and was promptly arrested, along with hundreds of others, by theLAPD. The arresting officer proclaimed: "We'll have none of that Constitution stuff".[23] In the same year, Sinclair founded the Southern California chapter of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union.[24]
Sinclair on the cover ofTime magazine, October 22, 1934
In 1934, Sinclair ran in theCalifornia gubernatorial election as aDemocrat. Sinclair's platform, known as theEnd Poverty in California movement (EPIC), galvanized the support of the Democratic Party, and Sinclair gained its nomination.[25] Gaining 879,000 votes made this his most successful run for office, but incumbent GovernorFrank Merriam defeated him by a sizable margin,[26] gaining 1,138,000 votes.[27][28] Hollywood studio bosses unanimously opposed Sinclair. They pressured their employees to assist and vote for Merriam's campaign, and made falsepropaganda films attacking Sinclair, giving him no opportunity to respond.[29] Thenegative campaign tactics used against Sinclair are briefly depicted in the 2020 Americanbiographical drama filmMank.[30] Upton Sinclair later stated that there was a "campaign of lying" against him during the campaign which was "ordered by the biggest businessmen in California and paid for with millions of dollars" that was carried out by newspapers, politicians, advertisers, and the film industry.[4]: 99
Sinclair's plan to end poverty quickly became a controversial issue under the pressure of numerous migrants to California fleeing theDust Bowl. Conservatives considered his proposal an attemptedcommunist takeover of their state and quickly opposed him, using propaganda to portray Sinclair as a staunch communist. Sinclair had been a member of the Socialist Party from 1902 to 1934, when he became a Democrat, though always considering himself a socialist in spirit.[31] TheSocialist Party in California and nationwide refused to allow its members to be active in any other party including the Democratic Party and expelled him, along with socialists who supported his California campaign. The expulsions destroyed the Socialist Party in California.[32]
At the same time, American andSoviet communists disassociated themselves from him, considering him a capitalist.[33] In later writings, such as his anti-alcohol bookThe Cup of Fury, Sinclair scathingly censured communism. Science-fiction authorRobert A. Heinlein was deeply involved in Sinclair's campaign, although he attempted to move away from the stance later in his life.[34] In the 21st century, Sinclair is considered an early Americandemocratic socialist.[35][36]
After his loss to Merriam, Sinclair abandoned EPIC and politics to return to writing. In 1935, he publishedI, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked,[4] in which he described the techniques employed by Merriam's supporters, including the then popularAimee Semple McPherson, who vehemently opposed socialism and what she perceived as Sinclair'smodernism. Sinclair's line from this book "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" has become well known and was for example quoted byAl Gore inAn Inconvenient Truth.[37]
Of his gubernatorial bid, Sinclair remarked in 1951:
The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.[38]
Meta Fuller SinclairSinclair's grave inRock Creek Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
In April 1900, Sinclair went toLake Massawippi inQuebec to work on a novel, renting a small cabin for three months and then moving to a farmhouse where he was reintroduced to his future first wife, Meta Fuller (1880–1964). A childhood friend descended from one of theFirst Families of Virginia,[6] she was three years younger than he and aspired to be more than a housewife, so Sinclair instructed her in what to read and learn.[6] Though each had warned the other against it, on October 18, 1900, they married. The couple having used abstinence as their main form ofcontraception, Meta became pregnant the following year. Despite Meta's several attempts to terminate the pregnancy,[6] the child, David, was born on December 1, 1901.[a][40] Meta and her family tried to convince Sinclair to give up writing and get "a job that would support his family."[6]
Sinclair was opposed to sex outside of marriage and viewed it as necessary only for reproduction.[41] He told his first wife Meta that only the birth of a child gave marriage "dignity and meaning".[42] Despite his beliefs, Sinclair had a love affair with Anna Noyes during his marriage to Meta. He wrote a novel about the affair calledLove's Progress, a sequel toLove's Pilgrimage. It was never published.[43] His wife later had a love affair with John Armistead Collier, a theology student from Memphis; they had a son together named Ben.[44]
In 1910, the Sinclairs moved to thesingle-tax village ofArden, Delaware, where they built a house.[45] In 1911, Sinclair was arrested for playing tennis on the Sabbath and spent eighteen hours in theNew Castle County prison in lieu of paying a fine.[46][47] Earlier in 1911, Sinclair invitedHarry Kemp, the "Vagabond Poet", to camp on the couple's land in Arden.[48][49] Meta soon became enamored of Kemp, and in late August she left Sinclair for the poet.[40][49] Sinclair, unable to obtain a divorce in New York, traveled to the Netherlands for amigratory divorce.[50]An Amsterdam court declared their marriage annulled May 24, 1912 on the basis of adultery by Meta. Sinclair declared before the court that they were both living in Hilversum, The Netherlands, Meta being temporarily in New York.
Sinclair's cousin wasWallis Simpson, asocialite whose romance withKing Edward VIII led tohis abdication in 1936.[56] Sinclair wrote in support of their marriage, and described Edward's decision to abdicate as "a democratic gesture whether [he] realizes it or not."[57]
Sinclair devoted his writing career to documenting and criticizing the social and economic conditions of the early 20th century in both fiction and nonfiction. He exposed his view of the injustices of capitalism and the overwhelming effects of poverty among the working class. He also edited collections of fiction and nonfiction.
His fictional novel based on themeatpacking industry in Chicago,The Jungle, was first published in serial form in the socialist newspaperAppeal to Reason, from February 25, 1905, to November 4, 1905. It was published as a book byDoubleday in 1906.[58]
Upton Sinclair selling the "Fig Leaf Edition" of his bookOil! (1927) in Boston. The book had drawn the ire of that town's infamous censors who objected to a brief sex scene that takes place in the novel.
Sinclair had spent about six months investigating the Chicago meatpacking industry forAppeal to Reason, the work which inspired his novel. He intended to "set forth the breaking of human hearts by a system which exploits the labor of men and women for profit".[7] The novel featured Jurgis Rudkus, aLithuanianimmigrant who works in a meat factory in Chicago, his teenage wife Ona Lukoszaite, and their extended family. Sinclair portrays their mistreatment by Rudkus' employers and the wealthier elements of society. His descriptions of the unsanitary and inhumane conditions that workers suffered served to shock and galvanize readers.Jack London called Sinclair's book "theUncle Tom's Cabin ofwage slavery".[59] Domestic and foreign purchases of American meat fell by half.[60]
Sinclair wrote inCosmopolitan in October 1906 aboutThe Jungle: "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."[3] The novel brought public lobbying for Congressional legislation and government regulation of the industry, including passage of theMeat Inspection Act and thePure Food and Drug Act.[61] At the time, PresidentTheodore Roosevelt characterized Sinclair as a "crackpot",[62] writing toWilliam Allen White, "I have an utter contempt for him. He is hysterical, unbalanced, and untruthful. Three-fourths of the things he said were absolute falsehoods. For some of the remainder there was only a basis of truth."[63] After readingThe Jungle, Roosevelt agreed with some of Sinclair's conclusions. He said, "Radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the capitalist." But in the end he said he was opposed to legislation that he and others considered "socialist."[64]
InThe Brass Check (1919), Sinclair made a systematic and incriminating critique of the severe limitations of the "free press" in the United States. Among the topics covered is the use ofyellow journalism techniques created byWilliam Randolph Hearst. Sinclair calledThe Brass Check "the most important and most dangerous book I have ever written."[65]
According toThe Brass Check, "American Journalism is a class institution, serving the rich and spurning the poor." This bias, Sinclair felt, had profound implications for American democracy:
The social body to which we belong is at this moment passing through one of the greatest crises of its history .... What if the nerves upon which we depend for knowledge of this social body should give us false reports of its condition?
Sylvia (1913) was a novel about aSouthern girl. In her autobiography,Mary Craig Sinclair said she had written the book based on her own experiences as a girl, and Upton collaborated with her. According to Craig, at her insistence, Sinclair publishedSylvia (1913) under his name. In her 1957 memoir, she described how her husband and she had collaborated on the work: "Upton and I struggled through several chapters ofSylvia together, disagreeing about something on every page. But now and then each of us admitted that the other had improved something."[66][67] When it appeared in 1913,The New York Times called it "the best novel Mr. Sinclair has yet written–so much the best that it stands in a class by itself."[68]
Sylvia's Marriage (1914), Craig and Sinclair collaborated on a sequel, also published by John C. Winston Company under Upton Sinclair's name.[69] In his 1962 autobiography, Upton Sinclair wrote: "[Mary] Craig had written some tales of her Southern girlhood; and I had stolen them from her for a novel to be calledSylvia."[70]
EPIC book series and 1934 California gubernatorial campaign
I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future was a pamphlet[71] he published in 1934 as a preface to running for office in the state of California. In the book he outlined his plans to run as a Democrat instead of a Socialist, and imagines his climb to the Democratic nomination, and then subsequent victory by a margin of 100,000 votes.[72][73]
Between 1940 and 1953, Sinclair wrote a series of 11 novels featuring a central character named Lanny Budd. The son of an American arms manufacturer, Budd is portrayed as holding in the confidence of world leaders, and not simply witnessing events, but often propelling them. As a sophisticated socialite who mingles easily with people from all cultures andsocioeconomic classes, Budd has been characterized as the antithesis of the stereotyped "Ugly American".[74]
Sinclair placed Budd within the important political events in the United States and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. An actual company named theBudd Company manufactured arms during World War II, founded byEdward G. Budd in 1912.
The novels were bestsellers upon publication and were published in translation, appearing in 21 countries. The third book in the series,Dragon's Teeth (1942), won thePulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943.[75] Out of print and nearly forgotten for years, ebook editions of the Lanny Budd series were published in 2016.[76]
Sinclair was keenly interested in health and nutrition. He experimented with various diets, and with fasting. He wrote about this in his book,The Fasting Cure (1911), another bestseller.[77] He believed that periodic fasting was important for health, saying, "I had taken several fasts of ten or twelve days' duration, with the result of a complete making over of my health".[78]
Sinclair favored a raw food diet of predominantly vegetables and nuts. For long periods of time, he was a complete vegetarian, but he also experimented with eating meat. His attitude to these matters was fully explained in the chapter, "The Use of Meat", in the above-mentioned book.[79][80] In the last years of his life, Sinclair strictly ate three meals a day consisting only of brown rice, fresh fruit and celery, topped with powdered milk and salt, and pineapple juice to drink.[31][81]
Sinclair appears inT. C. Boyle's novelThe Road to Wellville (1993), which is built around a historical fictionalization ofJohn Harvey Kellogg, the inventor ofcorn flakes and the founder of theBattle Creek Sanitarium. In the book, Sinclair and his first wife, Meta, appear as patients at the Sanitarium. Later, Kellogg is outraged when he discovers that another of his patients has been fasting after reading a typescript of Sinclair'sThe Fasting Cure.
Sinclair appears in theAmerican Empire trilogy (2001–2003), part of the widerSouthern Victory series ofalternate history novels byHarry Turtledove. In the series, Sinclair becomes president of the United States, serving from 1921 to 1929, as the first president from the Socialist Party. During his administration, he builds up social welfare programs at home and tries to foster peace abroad. Sinclair takes a more lenient stance towards theConfederacy than his predecessorTheodore Roosevelt did, cancelling Great War reparations following the assassination of Confederate President Wade Hampton V in 1922.
Sinclair is featured as one of the main characters inChris Bachelder's satirical novel,U.S.! (2005). Repeatedly, Sinclair is resurrected after his death and assassinated again, a "personification of the contemporary failings of the American left". He is portrayed as aquixotic reformer attempting to stir an apathetic American public to implement socialism in America.[82]
The Jungle (1914) is a silent film adaptation of the 1906 novel, with George Nash playing Jurgis Rudkus and Gail Kane playing Ona Lukozsaite. The film is consideredlost.[83] Sinclair appears at the beginning and end of the film as a form of endorsement.[84]
^abYoder, Jon A. (1975).Upton Sinclair. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.
^Derrick, Scott (2002). "What a Beating Feels Like: Authorship Dissolution, and Masculinity in Sinclair's The Jungle". In Bloom, Harold (ed.).Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Infobase. pp. 131–132.
^Laidler, Harry W. (October–November 1915). "Ten Years of ISS Progress".The Intercollegiate Socialist.4 (1): 16.
^Patterson, William H.Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907–1948): Learning Curve. New York: Tor Books, 2010; pp. 187–205, 527–530, andpassim
^"Tantor Media – Upton Sinclair".Tantor Media. 2020. RetrievedFebruary 18, 2023.In 1914, Sinclair moved to Croton-on-Hudson, a small town close to New York City where there was a substantial community of radicals. He pleased his socialist friends with his anthology of social protest, The Cry of Justice
^Oursler, Fulton (1964).Behold This Dreamer!. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 417.
^Roosevelt, Theodore (1951–54), "July 31, 1906", in Morison, Elting E. (ed.),The Letters, vol. 5, Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press, p. 340.
^"Upton Sinclair,The Jungle",Spartacus, UK: School net, archived fromthe original on September 23, 2006.
^Sinclair, Mary Craig.Southern Belle. pp. 106–108,111–112,129–132, 142, quote: pp. 111–112.
^Prenshaw, Peggy W. (1981)."Sinclair, Mary Craig Kimbrough". In Lloyd, James B. (ed.).Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967. pp. 409–410.ISBN978-1617034183. RetrievedNovember 9, 2010 – via Google Books..
^Sinclair, Upton (1911). "The Use of Meat".The Fasting Cure. Digitized by Harvard University. New York: Mitchell Kennerly. pp. 86–104.ISBN978-1852286095.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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