Let's talk about Upton Sinclair

Let's talk about Upton Sinclair, shall we?

Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 - November 25, 1968) was an American writer, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for the Governor of California. In addition, Sinclair has written nearly 100 books and other works in various genres. 

Upton Sinclair devoted his writing career to documenting and criticizing the social and economic conditions of the early 20th century in both fiction and nonfiction. Image retrieved from Wikipedia

Additionally, Sinclair grew up with poor parents; however, his grandparents were wealthy. Sinclair attributed his exposure to the two extremes of socioeconomic classes as the cause of his socialist beliefs.

Sinclair as a child. Image retrieved from Lauren Coodley Historian

Sinclair graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1897 and did graduate work at Columbia University. He had to support himself by "writing jokes for the newspapers and cartoonists and adventure stories for pulp magazines," writes Lauren Coodley for Britannica.

In 1943, Sinclair also won the Pulitzer Prize for his fiction novel "Dragon's Teeth." 

However, it was his classic muckraking novel "The Jungle" which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry that gave Sinclair particular fame. In 1905, the socialist weekly "Appeal to Reason," sent Sinclair undercover to investigate the conditions in the Chicago stockyards. Clearly, after his seven-week investigation, the conditions he found were not satisfactory. 

Below is a video of an excerpt of Sinclair's "The Jungle," on YouTube:

Understandably so, Sinclair's discovery created an uproar amongst individuals that his novel contributed to the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. 

"Though intended to create sympathy for the exploited and poorly treated immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry, the novel instead aroused widespread aroused widespread public indignation at the low quality of impurities in processed meats and thus helped bring about the passage of federal food inspection laws," writes Coodley for Britannica.

The bestselling novel, "The Jungle," was actually adapted into a silent film in 1914, with George Nash playing Jurgis Rudkus and Gail Kane playing Ona Lukozsaite. Unfortunately, if you're looking to watch the film it is deemed to be "lost" and no record of it can be found. 

Sinclair's "The Jungle" can be purchased on Target here. Image retrieved from Wikipedia

In 1917, Sinclair published "The King Coal," which is about the poor working conditions in the coal mining industry. Then in 1919, Sinclair went on to publish "The Brass Check," a muckraking exposé of American journalism. The novel additionally publicized the issue of yellow journalism and "the limitations of the free press in the United States."

Below is a short documentary about the muckraker extraordinaire: 

Approximately four years after the publication of "The Brass Check," the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Talk about progress, right?

Sinclair even wrote a children's story called "The Gnomobile" which was published in 1936. The story was actually one of the first books for children with an environmentalist message. Fun fact: Walt Disney made it a film in 1967.

Fun fact: Sinclair's "The Gnomobile" went for merely 50 cents when it was first published in 1936. Image retrieved from Britannica

Aside from being a journalist, or a muckraker if you will, Sinclair also organized the End Poverty in California social reform movement in response to the economic crisis of the 1930s. Sinclair even went on to run for the governor of California, the U.S. House of Representatives in 1906 and 1920, and for the U.S. Senate in 1922. Unfortunately, he lost each time, perhaps because he ran as a socialist. 

After the election, Sinclair started focusing more on his writing (and less on politics) and continued to publish books and articles until his death in 1968.