Upton Sinclair Biography

This novel was a big hit because of its subject. The novel was supposed to focus on the harsh conditions and overworked lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago. “However, most readers were more concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary use in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, based on an investigation he did for a socialist newspaper.” (Gilder Lehrman) This then got the people talking about the meat packing industries unhealthy work. In Sinclair’s novel he described “the disease of packinghouse workers, from severed fingers to tuberculosis and blood poisoning.”(Gilder

In 1900, there were over 1.6 million people living in Chicago, the country's second largest city. Of those 1.6 million, nearly 30% were immigrants. Most immigrants came to the United States with little or no money at all, in hope of making a better life for themselves. A city like Chicago offered these people jobs that required no skill. However, the working and living conditions were hazardous and the pay was barely enough to survive on. This is the bases for Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle.

Upton Sinclair is most known for his criticisms of the meat packaging industry in his book The Jungle. For close to 2 months, Sinclair worked in a Chicago meat package plant in order to expose the hidden truths of the industry. This was one of the first examples of a journalist immersing themselves in the material coved in

Upton Sinclair, the most influential writer regarding the food industry was born in Baltimore 1879. Growing up in a poor family with an alcoholic father was difficult for Upton (Simkin, John). Upton often lived with his wealthy grandparents during his childhood due to the instability in his own home. Moving from his poor parents house to his grandparents rich house constantly made him see the injustice in the American society, this made him become a radical socialist as young as his early teens. At 14, Upton being the intelligent and independent man he was, started attending New York City College. In order to make money to pay for his tuition, apartment, and still provide for his family, Upton sold magazines and news articles of his socialistic ideas. The childhood Upton struggled through with family and financial problems only made him strive to change the conditions of America in his writing.

Most famous people inspire authors to write books written about their achievements, however Upton Sinclair Junior did it backwards. Some of his ninety novels including an autobiography, and in particular The Jungle, changed America forever by using fictitious stories to depict the present issues at that time. Upton Sinclair was an author and activist in the early to mid 1900’s who was passionate about issues involving women 's rights, working conditions, and the unemployed. He wrote over ninety books in his lifetime, as well as countless articles and other works of journalism. As Sinclair grew up, he was exposed to both a lifestyle of poverty and wealth that shaped his world as well as his political views as a socialist, or someone who advocates the vesting of the control of the means of production and distribution, of capital or land in the community as a whole. Upton Sinclair was a controversial author who took a stand in history by vastly impacting the food industry, becoming politically active, and forecasting solutions to social problems.

Upton Sinclair was born in a small row house in Maryland, in 1878. When Sinclair was 10 years old, his father moved the family from Baltimore to New York. By this time, Sinclair had already begun to develop and interest and followed the works of Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley. When he turned 14, he attended the local college of New York and took several classes on English and Writing Skills to improve and create one of his own novels. At age 20 he finished his studies and decided to become a serious novelist and start writing his own book. During the same time is when he met his wife known as, Meta Fuller. Their relationship wasn’t very strong and this lead to Sinclair writing his first novel known as, Springtime and Harvest. In 1903,

Unlike Carson, who would find her naturalist roots to be her driving force, Sinclair's reasons for publishing his groundbreaking work would stem from his ties to the Socialist Party, rather than the actual material itself being covered. Sinclair would even go as to say that he had come to "write the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Labor movement"(Arthur, 124) Carson and Sinclair would differ greatly on the subject of cause and motivation for their novels, regardless of the similar sized conflict and controversy.

Uptons Sinclairs The Jungle from 1906 is a fictional book from the progressive era. Even though The Jungle is a fictional novel, it described conditions that were real during the progressive era, such as working class poverty and harsh working conditions. The novel was written as a way to exploit the real lives of working citizens at home and at work.

Upton Sinclair’s views differed greatly from those of affluent leaders in the nineteenth century. In fact, Sinclair was one of few people who

feared going to their workshops because they knew what they were getting themselves into. In 1906, Upton Sinclair, a writer during the gilded age, wrote a novel, The Jungle, in which took place inside work factories. He expressed the fact that the work was

Upton Sinclair was born in a small home in Maryland. His father was a raging alcoholic, mother a devout Episcopalian, who objected to the use of any substances. The extremes of such a relationship, one side a riches-to-rags liquor salesman, another a daughter of a wealthy family, left a lasting impact on Upton. Seeing both worlds gave him a broad view of how life could be like for those of the United States, helping fuel his ideals later in life.

     While the works of Upton Sinclair are not widely read today because of their primacy of social change rather than aesthetic pleasure, works like The Jungle are important to understand in relation to the society that produced them.  Sinclair was considered a part of the muckraking era, an era when social critics observed all that was wrong and corrupt in business and politics and responded against it.  The Jungle was written primarily as a harsh indictment of wage slavery, but its vivid depictions of the deplorable lack of sanitation involved in the meatpacking industry in Chicago resulted in public outrage to the point where Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection

Upton Sinclair was a young and very poor novelist and political writer in America. He was also the best muckrakers of 1900s. The aim of Sinclair was to rebuild

Upton Sinclair was an American Writer who wrote nearly one hundred books and others works in several genres.

Have you ever heard of the book called The Jungle? This book was written by Upton Sinclair, a muckraker. Harry Sinclair Lewis was a janitor at Upton Sinclair's socialist colony and he was influenced by Sinclair’s idea of socialism. Therefore, their ideas are very much alike even though their childhood backgrounds were completely different. Upton Sinclair had a great impact on society by addressing social issues in the early 1900’s, so what is the significance of Lewis’s works? Some of his major representative works are Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith (“Assignment Five -- Sinclair Lewis Babbitt”). These books played a big role on muckraking the social corruptions in his time period.