Editing Upton Sinclair (section)

==Writing==
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.

===''The Jungle''===
{{further|The Jungle}}
His fictional novel based on the [[meatpacking industry in Chicago]], ''The Jungle,'' was first published in serial form in the socialist newspaper ''[[Appeal to Reason (newspaper)|Appeal to Reason]],'' from February 25, 1905, to November 4, 1905. It was published as a book by [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] in 1906.<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/27227.html "''The Jungle''"], History News Network</ref>
[[File:Upton Sinclair Oil.jpg|thumb|Upton Sinclair selling the "[[Fig Leaf Edition]]" of his book ''[[Oil!]]'' (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 for ''Appeal 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".<ref name= Joslyn /> The novel featured Jurgis Rudkus, a [[Lithuanian Americans|Lithuanian]] [[immigrant]] 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 "the ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' of [[wage slavery]]".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.socalhistory.org/bios/upton_sinclair.html |title=Socalhistory.org |access-date=2012-06-05 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120527075221/http://www.socalhistory.org/bios/upton_sinclair.html |archive-date=2012-05-27 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Domestic and foreign purchases of American meat fell by half.<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/jungle_5-10.html| title= Sinclair's 'The Jungle' Turns 100| work= [[PBS Newshour]]| via= PBS.org| date= 10 May 2006| access-date= 10 June 2010| archive-date= January 8, 2014| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140108185245/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/jungle_5-10.html| url-status= dead}}</ref>

Sinclair wrote in ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' in October 1906 about ''The Jungle'': "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."<ref name=timebelle /> The novel brought public lobbying for Congressional legislation and government regulation of the industry, including passage of the [[Meat Inspection Act]] and the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]].<ref>{{cite book| editor-first= Bloom| editor-last= Harold| first= Upton |last= Sinclair| title= The Jungle| publisher= [[Infobase Publishing]]| edition= 2002| page= 11}}</ref> At the time, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] characterized Sinclair as a "crackpot",<ref>{{cite book| author-link= Fulton Oursler| first= Fulton |last= Oursler| title= Behold This Dreamer!| place= Boston| publisher= Little, Brown| year= 1964| page= 417}}</ref> writing to [[William 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."<ref>{{Citation | contribution = July 31, 1906 | title = The Letters | first = Theodore | last = Roosevelt | editor-first = Elting E. | editor-last = Morison | place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | publisher = [[Harvard University Press]] | year = 1951–54 | volume = 5 | page = 340}}.</ref> After reading ''The 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]]."<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jupton.htm | contribution = Upton Sinclair, ''The Jungle'' | title = Spartacus | publisher = School net | place = UK | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060923121536/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jupton.htm | archive-date = 2006-09-23 }}.</ref> 

[[Bertolt Brecht]]'s play, ''[[Saint Joan of the Stockyards]]'', transporting [[Joan of Arc]] to the environment of the Chicago stockyards, is clearly inspired by "The Jungle".

===''The Brass Check''===
In ''[[The 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 of [[yellow journalism]] techniques created by [[William Randolph Hearst]]. Sinclair called ''The Brass Check'' "the most important and most dangerous book I have ever written."<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2006/no-1227-november-2006/upton-sinclair-and-jungle | title = Upton Sinclair & The Jungle | publisher = World Socialism | newspaper = Socialist Standard |date=November 2006 | number = 1227 }}.</ref>

According to ''The 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:

<blockquote>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?</blockquote>

===''Sylvia'' novels===
* ''Sylvia'' (1913) was a novel about a [[American South|Southern]] 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 published ''Sylvia'' (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 of ''Sylvia'' together, disagreeing about something on every page. But now and then each of us admitted that the other had improved something."<ref>{{cite book| first = Mary Craig | last = Sinclair | title = Southern Belle | pages = 106–108, 111–112, 129–132, 142; quote: pp. 111–112}}</ref><ref name=lives>{{cite encyclopedia| first = Peggy W. | last = Prenshaw | title= Sinclair, Mary Craig Kimbrough | editor-first = James B. | editor-last = Lloyd | encyclopedia= Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967 | pages = 409–410 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RfXGJBB1HvoC&pg=PA409 | via= Google Books | access-date = November 9, 2010| isbn = 978-1617034183 | year= 1981 }}.</ref> 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."<ref>{{Citation | url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30B10F93B5F13738DDDAC0A94DD405B838DF1D3 | title = 'Sylvia': Mr. Upton Sinclair's Novel upon a Much-Discussed Theme | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 25 May 1913 | access-date = November 6, 2010}}</ref>
* ''Sylvia's Marriage'' (1914), Craig and Sinclair collaborated on a sequel, also published by John C. Winston Company under Upton Sinclair's name.<ref>{{Citation | title = Southern Belle | page = 146}}.</ref> 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 called ''Sylvia''."<ref>{{cite book| first= Upton |last= Sinclair| title= The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair| place= New York| publisher= Harcourt, Brace & World| year= 1962| pages= 180, 195}}</ref>

===''I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty''===
This was a pamphlet<ref>{{cite web |title=Upton Sinclair's End Poverty in California Campaign |url=https://depts.washington.edu/epic34/ |website=Mapping American Social Movements Through the 20th Century |publisher=Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium / University of Washington |access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Morris |first1=Adam |title=Mankind, Unite! How Upton Sinclair's 1934 run for governor of California inspired a cult. |url=https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/mankind-unite |work= [[Lapham's Quarterly]] |date=May 13, 2019 |access-date=15 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| last= Lepore| first= Jill| url= https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/09/24/the-lie-factory |title= The Lie Factory| magazine= The New Yorker| date= 2012-09-24 }}</ref>

===Lanny Budd series===
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 and [[socioeconomic]] classes, Budd has been characterized as the antithesis of the stereotyped "[[Ugly American (epithet)|Ugly American]]".<ref>{{Cite news| title = Upton Sinclair: Revisit to Old Hero Finds He's Still Lively | first = Julie | last = Salamon | author-link = Julie Salamon | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/books/22sala.html | newspaper = The New York Times | date = 22 July 2005 | at = Books | access-date = 21 January 2010 | ref = Salamon }}</ref>

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 the [[Budd Company]] manufactured arms during World War II, founded by [[Edward 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 (novel)|Dragon's Teeth]]'' (1942), won the [[Pulitzer Prize for the Novel]] in 1943.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Brennan |first1=Elizabeth A. |last2=Clarage |first2=Elizabeth C. |title=Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners |year=1999 |publisher=Oryx Press |location= Phoenix |isbn=978-1-57356-111-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofpulitze00bren/page/493 493] |url= https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofpulitze00bren |url-access=registration |access-date=29 November 2011 }}</ref> Out of print and nearly forgotten for years, ebook editions of the Lanny Budd series were published in 2016.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.openroadmedia.com/series/the-lanny-budd-novels/| website= openroadmedia.com| title= The Lanny Budd Novels Volume One by Upton Sinclair| format= Review| access-date= February 5, 2016| archive-date= February 5, 2016| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160205141026/http://www.openroadmedia.com/series/the-lanny-budd-novels/| url-status= dead}}</ref>

The Lanny Budd series includes:

{{colbegin|colwidth=22em}}
* ''[[World's End (Sinclair novel)|World's End]]'', 1940
* ''[[Between Two Worlds (novel)|Between Two Worlds]]'', 1941
* ''[[Dragon's Teeth (novel)|Dragon's Teeth]]'', 1942
* ''[[Wide is the Gate]]'', 1943
* ''[[Presidential Agent]]'', 1944
* ''[[Dragon Harvest]]'', 1945
* ''[[A World to Win (Sinclair novel)|A World to Win]]'', 1946
* ''[[Presidential Mission]]'', 1947
* ''[[One Clear Call]]'', 1948
* ''[[O Shepherd, Speak!]]'', 1949
* ''[[The Return of Lanny Budd]]'', 1953
{{colend}}

===Other works===
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.<ref>[http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020106/02010600frame.html "'The Fasting Cure', by Upton Sinclair"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150810195028/http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020106/02010600frame.html |date=August 10, 2015 }}, ''Soil and Health''</ref> 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".<ref>[http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020106/020106perfecthealth.html "Perfect Health!" (chapter)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321071917/http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020106/020106perfecthealth.html |date=March 21, 2012 }}, ''The Fasting Cure'', at ''Soil and Health''</ref>

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.<ref>[http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020106/020106useofmeat.html "The Use of Meat" (chapter)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514060916/http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020106/020106useofmeat.html |date=May 14, 2015 }}. ''The Fasting Cure'', at ''Soil and Health''</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Sinclair|first=Upton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcoEAAAAYAAJ|title=The Fasting Cure|publisher=Mitchell Kennerly|others=Digitized by Harvard University|year=1911|isbn=978-1852286095|location=New York|pages=86–104|chapter=The Use of Meat}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Whitman" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=September 13, 1961 |title=Upton Sinclair Okays Series on 'Lanny Budd' |volume=35 |work=[[The Desert Sun]] |agency=[[United Press International]] |issue=34}}</ref>