Sinclair, Upton (1878–1968)

Seeking to initiate social reform during the early 20th century, Upton Sinclair established himself as a leading social activist and author. Guided by his socialistic ideology, Sinclair is remembered for such works as The Jungle (1906) and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Dragon's Teeth (1942), his electoral attempts as a socialist candidate for U.S. Congress in 1920 and 1922 and for governor of California in 1926 and 1930, and his efforts to establish the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in California.

The son of an alcoholic father and Episcopalian mother, Sinclair was raised in near poverty in Baltimore and New York City. Forced to finance his education by writing joke books, he discovered the socialist cause while studying philosophy at Princeton and began contributing articles and books to various socialist publications. Though these first works did not bring Sinclair financial success, his next and most widely read work, The Jungle, is often held as the most significant muckraking novel of its era. The Jungle sought to expose and reform the horrid living and occupational conditions of factory workers in Chicago's meatpacking industry. Hailed by supporters as a candid depiction of the working poor's social reality and criticized by others as too simplistic and naïve, Sinclair failed to achieve his overall goal of vast social and economic change. Whereas The Jungle prompted the establishment of the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug Acts, little notice was taken of the destitute lives and dispirited labor environments of factory workers.

Having become established as a leading critic of excess capitalism, Sinclair's endeavors continued to be motivated by his belief in socialistic optimism. After financing a communal living experiment in New Jersey, Sinclair wrote The Metropolis and The Moneychangers (both of 1908) as an attack on New York's privileged elite. Employing a template similar to that of The Jungle, occupational hazards of the coal mining industry were exposed in King Coal (1917). Though Sinclair split from the American Socialist [Page 1287]Party over his support of World War I, he continued to produce other socialistic works, including The Brass Check (1920) and Oil! (1927). Politically, Sinclair is noted for his gubernatorial platform plan to End Poverty in California (EPIC). Despite Sinclair's convictions, none of his later works or political involvement achieved the groundbreaking impact of The Jungle, and were even criticized by some as unconvincing propaganda.

Despite being labeled as an ideological idealist by his detractors, Upton Sinclair has been largely remembered as an essential figure in the fight for social justice whose work questioned an unbridled free-market system and brought the blights of industrialism to the forefront of popular discourse.