Editing The Jungle (section)

==Publication history==
[[File:Chicago meat inspection swift co 1906.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9| Chicago meat inspectors in early 1906]]

Sinclair published the book in serial form between February 25, 1905, and November 4, 1905, in ''[[Appeal to Reason (newspaper)|Appeal to Reason]]'', the [[socialist]] newspaper that had supported Sinclair's undercover investigation the previous year. This investigation had inspired Sinclair to write the novel, but his efforts to publish the series as a book met with resistance. An employee at [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]] wrote, 
{{Blockquote | I advise without hesitation and unreservedly against the publication of this book which is gloom and horror unrelieved. One feels that what is at the bottom of his fierceness is not nearly so much desire to help the poor as hatred of the rich.<ref name="Spartacus">{{Citation | publisher= [[Spartacus Educational]]| url = http://spartacus-educational.com/Jupton.htm | title = Upton Sinclair}}.</ref>}}

Five publishers rejected the work, deeming it too shocking for mainstream audiences.<ref>{{cite news|author=Gottesman, Ronald|title= Introduction |work=The Jungle|publisher= [[Penguin Classics]] }}</ref> Sinclair was about to self-publish a shortened version of the novel in a "Sustainer's Edition" for subscribers when [[Doubleday, Page]] came on board. On February 28, 1906, the Doubleday edition was published simultaneously with Sinclair's. 5,000 appeared under the imprint of "The Jungle Publishing Company" with the [[Socialist Party of America|Socialist Party]]’s symbol embossed on the cover, both using the same plates.<ref name="The Fictitious Suppression of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle"/> In the first six weeks, the book sold 25,000 copies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/politics-reform/essays/jungle-and-progressive-era|title=The Jungle and the Progressive Era|date=2012-08-28|website=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History|language=en|access-date=2017-10-21}}</ref>

It has been in print ever since, including four more self-published editions, in 1920, 1935, 1942, 1945.<ref name="The Fictitious Suppression of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle"/> Sinclair dedicated the book "To the Workingmen of America".<ref>{{Citation | editor-last = Bloom | editor-first = Harold | editor-link = Harold Bloom| title = Upton Sinclair's The Jungle |url=http://www.infobasepublishing.com/Bookdetail.aspx?ISBN=1604138874| pages = 50–51 | publisher = Infohouse | year = 2002|isbn=1604138874}}.</ref>

All works published in the United States before 1924 are in the public domain,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-03-27|title=Copyright Basics FAQ|url=https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/|access-date=2020-07-08|website=Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center|language=en-US}}</ref> so there are free copies of the book available on websites such as [[Project Gutenberg]]<ref>{{cite book| url= http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/140 | title= The Jungle | author = Sinclair, Upton |publisher = [[Project Gutenberg]]  <!-- | Copyright Status	= Public domain in the USA. -->| access-date  = May 8, 2017 }}</ref> and [[Wikisource]].<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=The Jungle}}</ref>

===Editions Based on Serialized Version===

In 1988, St. Lukes Press, a division of Peachtree Publishers Ltd, published an edition titled "The Lost First Edition of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle" based on the original serialized version of "The Jungle" as seen in "Appeal to Reason". This version was edited by Gene Degruson of Pittsburg State University, based on a correspondence regarding the novel found in the basement of a farm in [[Girard, Kansas]]. The book included an introductory essay by DeGruson detailing the process of how he "restored" the text.<ref name = "The Lost First Edition of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle">{{cite book|last=Sinclair|first=Upton|title=The Lost First Edition of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle|year=1988|publisher=St. Lukes Press|location=Atlanta, GA|isbn=0918518660|url=https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31295112060&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-tile7&searchurl=fe%3Don%26ds%3D10%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dthe%2Bjungle%26an%3Dupton%2Bsinclair}}</ref>

In 2003, [[See Sharp Press]] published an edition based on the original serialization of ''The Jungle'' in ''Appeal to Reason'', which they described as the "Uncensored Original Edition" as Sinclair intended it. The foreword and introduction say that the commercial editions were censored to make their political message acceptable to capitalist publishers.<ref name="The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition">{{cite book|last=Sinclair|first=Upton|title=The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition|year=1905|publisher=See Sharp Press|location=Tucson, AZ|isbn=1884365302|page=vi|url=https://archive.org/details/jungleuncensored00sinc}}</ref> 

Others argue that Sinclair had made the revisions of the original text himself, to make the novel more accurate and engaging for the reader, to correct the Lithuanian references, and to streamline the text to eliminate parts that would not appeal to the public, as Sinclair himself said in letters and his 1932 memoir, ''American Outpost''.<ref name="The Fictitious Suppression of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle">{{cite web|last=Phelps|first=Christopher| author-link = Christopher Phelps |title=The Fictitious Suppression of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle|url=http://hnn.us/articles/27227.html|work=[[History News Network]]|publisher=[[George Mason University]]|access-date=January 20, 2014}}</ref>