48 Facts About Upton Sinclair

In 1906, Upton Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muck-raking novel, The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the US meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

Upton Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party.

Upton Sinclair was the Democratic Party candidate for governor of California during the Great Depression, running under the banner of the End Poverty in California campaign, but was defeated in the 1934 election.

Upton Sinclair's father was a liquor salesman whose alcoholism shadowed his son's childhood.

Priscilla Harden Upton Sinclair was a strict Episcopalian who disliked alcohol, tea, and coffee.

Upton Sinclair had wealthy maternal grandparents with whom he often stayed.

Upton Sinclair developed a love for reading when he was five years old.

Upton Sinclair read every book his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world.

Upton Sinclair did not start school until he was 10 years old.

Upton Sinclair was deficient in math and worked hard to catch up quickly because of his embarrassment.

In 1888, the Upton Sinclair family moved to Queens, New York City, New York, where his father sold shoes.

Upton Sinclair entered the City College of New York five days before his 14th birthday, on September 15,1892.

Upton Sinclair wrote jokes, dime novels, and magazine articles in boys' weekly and pulp magazines to pay for his tuition.

Upton Sinclair subsequently studied law at Columbia University, but he was more interested in writing.

Upton Sinclair learned several languages, including Spanish, German, and French.

Upton Sinclair paid the one-time enrollment fee to be able to learn a variety of subjects.

Upton Sinclair again supported himself through college by writing boys' adventure stories and jokes.

Upton Sinclair did not get on with his mother when he became older because of her strict rules and refusal to allow him independence.

Upton Sinclair later told his son, David, that around Upton Sinclair's 16th year, he decided not to have anything to do with his mother, staying away from her for 35 years because an argument would start if they met.

Upton Sinclair considered himself a poet and dedicated his time to writing poetry.

In 1904, Upton Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise, working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants to research his novel, The Jungle, a political expose that addressed conditions in the plants, as well as the lives of poor immigrants.

In 1914, Upton Sinclair helped organize demonstrations in New York City against Rockefeller at the Standard Oil offices.

Upton Sinclair broke with the Socialist Party in 1917 and supported the First World War effort.

Upton Sinclair was the party candidate for governor of California in 1926, winning nearly 46,000 votes, and in 1930, winning nearly 50,000 votes.

For instance, in 1923, to support the challenged free speech rights of Industrial Workers of the World, Upton Sinclair spoke at a rally during the San Pedro Maritime Strike, in a neighborhood now known as Liberty Hill.

Upton Sinclair began to read from the Bill of Rights and was promptly arrested, along with hundreds of others, by the LAPD.

In 1934, Upton Sinclair ran in the California gubernatorial election as a Democrat.

Upton Sinclair's platform, known as the End Poverty in California movement, galvanized the support of the Democratic Party, and Upton Sinclair gained its nomination.

The unethical campaign tactics used against Upton Sinclair are briefly depicted in the 2020 American biographical drama film Mank.

Upton Sinclair had been a member of the Socialist Party from 1902 to 1934, when he became a Democrat, though always considering himself a socialist in spirit.

In later writings, such as his anti-alcohol book The Cup of Fury, Upton Sinclair scathingly censured communism.

Upton Sinclair told his first wife Meta that only the birth of a child gave marriage "dignity and meaning".

Upton Sinclair wrote a novel about the affair called Love's Progress, a sequel to Love's Pilgrimage.

In 1911, Upton Sinclair was arrested for playing tennis on the Sabbath and spent eighteen hours in the New Castle County prison in lieu of paying a fine.

In 1913, Upton Sinclair married Mary Craig Kimbrough, a woman from an elite Greenwood, Mississippi, family who had written articles on Winnie Davis, the daughter of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis.

Later that same year, Upton Sinclair married his third wife, Mary Elizabeth Willis.

Upton Sinclair is buried next to Willis in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Upton Sinclair devoted his writing career to documenting and criticizing the social and economic conditions of the early 20th century in both fiction and nonfiction.

Upton Sinclair exposed his view of the injustices of capitalism and the overwhelming effects of poverty among the working class.

Upton Sinclair's novel based on the meatpacking industry in Chicago, The Jungle, was first published in serial form in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, from February 25,1905, to November 4,1905.

Upton Sinclair had spent about six months investigating the Chicago meatpacking industry for Appeal to Reason, the work which inspired his novel.

Upton Sinclair intended to "set forth the breaking of human hearts by a system which exploits the labor of men and women for profit".

Upton Sinclair portrays their mistreatment by Rudkus' employers and the wealthier elements of society.

Between 1940 and 1953, Upton Sinclair wrote a series of 11 novels featuring a central character named Lanny Budd.

Upton Sinclair placed Budd within the important political events in the United States and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

Upton Sinclair wrote about this in his book, The Fasting Cure, another bestseller.

Upton Sinclair 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".

Upton Sinclair favored a raw food diet of predominantly vegetables and nuts.