Upton Sinclair

Sinclair's novel follows the journey of Samuel Prescott, an idealistic young farm boy who strikes out on his own to strike it rich when his father dies shortly after losing all of his savings in a bad stock market investment. What would typically be a rags-to-riches story becomes a rags-to-rags exercise in futility, as Samuel is confronted with every form of social injustice and societal ill that you can imagine. Upton introduces Samuel to the reader...

When Allan moves to New York City from Mississippi, his brother, Oliver, who had been living in the city for a few years prior, decides to introduce Allan to an exclusive group of wealthy people. Hoping that it will help Allan's law business, Oliver gets Allan invites to parties and meetings, which quickly grant Allan access to the decadence of the rich. With expensive cars, private trains, thousand-dollar clothing, and gluttonous meals made by servants,...

Upton Sinclair is primarily known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Jungle”, “Oil”, and “Dragon's Teeth”, and as a fiery advocate of social justice and reform. Few know, however, of Sinclair's deep interest in, and connection to, psychic research. Sinclair's own wife, Mary Craig Kimbrough, claimed to have "mind reading" or telepathic abilities, and asked Sinclair to help her better understand these abilities. He devised a fascinating...

An idealist Jimmie Higgins gets involved with the socialist movements that had begun to spread in Europe and the United States in the early 1900s. Jimmie Higgins is hired by German socialists and later joins the army to fight European imperialism, and finally ends up in Archangel in the Siberian Arctic to be introduced to Bolsheviks during the little known U.S. Attempt to restore the czarists to power.

In the early part of the twentieth century, Upton Sinclair earned a reputation as a prolific writer, committed socialist, and political activist. He gained enormous popularity when his eloquent 1906 novel The Jungle exposed conditions in the U.S. meat-packing industry, and years later, he earned a Pulitzer Prize for his series tale, Dragon's Teeth. In The Money Changers, Sinclair explores the Wall Street panic of 1907 in novel form, exposing greed...

Excerpt: "The whole class came to the meeting. There hadn't been such an important meeting at West Point for many a day. The yearling class had been outrageously insulted. The mightiest traditions of the academy had been violated, "trampled beneath the dust," and that by two or three vile and uncivilized "beasts"-"plebes"-new cadets of scarcely a week's experience. And the third class, the yearlings, by inherent right the guardians of West Point's...

A great expose about the perils of gonorrhoea -- estimated that at the time, 70-90% of men had it (even the doctor who provided that estimate had it). Women were kept in the dark -- didn't want to corrupt their innocence. Women were to be subservient to their husbands -- but with the help of an older woman, a suffragette who worked to eliminate child labor, Sylvia fought against society's norms. A great book that demonstrates how far women have come...

The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation is a nonfiction book, first published in 1917, by the American novelist and muck-raking journalist Upton Sinclair. It is a snapshot of the religious movements in the U.S. before its entry into World War I. The book is the first of the “Dead Hand” series: six books Sinclair wrote on American institutions. The series also includes The Brass Check (journalism), The Goose-step (higher education),...

Excerpt: -A letter for me, did you say?" The speaker was a tall, handsome lad, a plebe at the West Point Military Academy. At the moment he was gazing inquiringly out of the tent door at a small orderly. The boy handed him an envelope, and the other glanced at it. "Cadet Mark Mallory, West Point, N. Y.," was the address. "I guess that's for me," he said. "Thank you. Hello in there, Texas! Here's a letter from Wicks Merritt." This last remark was addressed...

Gnomes are rare these days - which is why so few people ever see them. But, Elizabeth and her Uncle find two forlorn little people, the last of a tribe of California Redwood gnomes. When they hear Glogo's sad story, they get in Uncle Rodney's shiny car (The Gnomobile) to search for another tribe of gnomes and a wife for young Bobo. But curiosity seekers cause one problem after another until something really terrible happens... Bobo and Glogo are gnome-gnaped! This...