Upton Sinclair

A child of privilege plunges into a world of oppression, violence, and danger in this gripping indictment of the coal-mining industry from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Jungle College leaves young Hal Warner feeling incomplete, with no sense of the "real" world outside its ivy-covered walls. So he leaves his life of privilege behind and signs on to work in a coal mine owned and operated by the General Fuel Company. But Hal finds out that...

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,...

A three-act drama about political corruption in early—twentieth century New York. First published in 1912, Upton Sinclair's “The Machine” tells the story of political grafting in New York City. The corrupt politicians of the Tammany Hall syndicate are using their business connections for their own financial gain, while some of the city's most vulnerable are drawn into a human trafficking ring. But a journalist, a lawyer, and an activist are...

Upton Sinclair's novel, 100%: The Story of a Patriot, follows young Peter Gudge, a poor and uneducated man living in America during the first World War. After being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Peter falls victim to false allegations of domestic terrorism. As a result, Peter must abandon his old ignorance to political issues. While becoming involved in politics and the government, Peter is swept into a plot to spy on the Socialist Party,...

It was that time of year when all the world belongs to poets, for their harvest of joy; when those who seek the country not for beauty, but for coolness, have as yet thought nothing about it, and when those who dwell in it all the time are too busy planting for another harvest to have any thought of poets; so that the latter, and the few others who keep something in their hearts to chime with the great spring-music, have the woods and waters all for...

1906 best-seller shockingly reveals intolerable labor practices and unsanitary working conditions in the Chicago stockyards as it tells the brutally grim story of a Slavic family that emigrates to America full of optimism but soon descends into numbing poverty, moral degradation, and despair. A fiercely realistic American classic that will haunt readers long after they've finished the last page. Published privately by Sinclair in 1906 after commercial...

The rivalry between two wealthy and unscrupulous power brokers for the attentions of the beautiful Lucy Dupree, a newcomer to New York society, causes them to engage in a series of high-stakes financial manipulations that lead to a major Wall Street collapse in 1907.