The Jungle

Upton Sinclair's muckraking masterpiece "The Jungle centers on Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant working in Chicago's infamous Packingtown. Instead of finding the American Dream, Rudkus and his family inhabit a brutal, soul-crushing urban jungle dominated by greedy bosses, pitiless conmen, and corrupt politicians. While Sinclair's main target was the meatpacking industry's appalling labor conditions, the reading public was most outraged by the disgusting filth and contamination that his novel exposed. As a result, President Theodore Roosevelt demanded an official investigation, which led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug laws. For a novel to have such an impact outside its literary context is extremely rare. Today, "The Jungle remains a relevant portrait of capitalism at its worst and an impassioned account of the human spirit facing nearly insurmountable challenges.

Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore in September 1878. His father moved the family to New York City in 1888. Although his own family was extremely poor, he spent periods of time living with his wealthy grandparents. He later argued that witnessing these extremes turned him into a socialist. Sinclair funded his college education by writing stories for newspapers and magazines. Sinclair’s first novel was published in 1901. Sinclair was extremely active in socialist politics throughout his life. His novel Dragon’s Teeth (1942) on the rise of Nazism won him the Pulitzer Prize. By the time Upton Sinclair died in 1968, he had published more than ninety books.