Few American writers have revealed their private as well as their public selves so fully as Upton Sinclair, and virtually none over such a long lifetime (1878—1968). Sinclair’s writing, even at its most poignant or electrifying, blurred the line between politics and art–and, indeed, his life followed a similar arc. In Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Anthony Arthur weaves the strands of Sinclair’s contentious public career and his often-troubled private life into a compelling personal narrative.
An unassuming teetotaler with a fiery streak, called a propagandist by some, the most conservative of revolutionaries by others, Sinclair was such a driving force of history that one could easily mistake his life story for historical fiction. He counted dozens of epochal figures as friends or confidants, including Mark Twain, Jack London, Henry Ford, Thomas Mann, H. G. Wells, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Camus, and Carl Jung.
Starting with The Jungle in 1906, Sinclair’s fiction and nonfiction helped to inform and mold American opinions about socialism, labor and industry, religion and philosophy, the excesses of the media, American political isolation and pacifism, civil liberties, and mental and physical health.
In his later years, Sinclair twice reinvented himself, first as the Democratic candidate for governor of California in 1934, and later, in his sixties and seventies, as a historical novelist. In 1943 he won a Pulitzer Prize for Dragon’s Teeth, one of eleven novels featuring super-spy Lanny Budd.
Outside the literary realm, the ever-restless Sinclair was seemingly everywhere: forming Utopian artists’ colonies, funding and producing Sergei Eisenstein’s film documentaries, and waging consciousness-raising political campaigns. Even when he wasn’t involved in progressive causes or counterculture movements, his name often was invoked by them–an arrangement that frequently embroiled Sinclair in controversy.
Sinclair’ s passion and optimistic zeal inspired America, but privately he could be a frustrated, petty man who connected better with his readers than with members of his own family. His life with his first wife, Meta, his son David, and various friends and professional acquaintances was a web of conflict and strain. Personally and professionally ambitious, Sinclair engaged in financial speculation, although his wealth-generating schemes often benefited his pet causes–and he lobbied as tirelessly for professional recognition and awards as he did for government reform. As the tenor of his work would suggest, Sinclair was supremely human.
In Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Anthony Arthur offers an engrossing and enlightening account of Sinclair’s life and the country he helped to transform. Taking readers from the Reconstruction South to the rise of American power to the pinnacle of Hollywood culture to the Civil Rights era, this is historical biography at its entertaining and thought-provoking finest.
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
December 18, 2007 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307431653
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307431653
- File size: 3759 KB
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Accessibility
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 13, 2006
A hundred years ago, 27-year-old Upton Sinclair became an overnight sensation with the publication of his novel The Jungle,
an indictment of the meatpacking industry that would usher in legislation like the Pure Food and Drug Act. The social reformer went on to shock his friends by leaving the American Socialist Party and winning the 1934 Democratic nomination for governor of California, although he lost the election. And at 65, despite a string of failed novels, the resilient author won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Dragon's Teeth
, the second in an 11-book series of historical novels featuring the hero Lanny Budd. Particularly interesting are the portrayals of Sinclair's friendships with luminaries like President Theodore Roosevelt, Sinclair Lewis and Albert Einstein; his ambitious experiments in communal living; and his shattering divorce from his first wife and estrangement from his son. Also noteworthy are his unsuccessful campaign for the Nobel Prize and his problematic business dealings with Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein. Arthur (Warring with Words: Famous Literary Feuds in America
) draws a well-researched, balanced and fascinating portrait of a self-centered feminist who didn't understand women, a muckraker whose naïveté left him constantly vulnerable to human treachery, and a complex, bestselling celebrity who was often dismissed as a propagandist by the literary establishment. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW
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April 15, 2006
This spring marks the centennial of the publication of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", an anniversary being noted with the publication of two new biographies of the prolific journalist, novelist, socialist, and politician. Both Mattson (contemporary history, Ohio Univ., Athens) and Arthur (literature, California State Univ., Northridge) make excellent use of previous scholarship and primary sources to examine the life of this muckraker and Pulitzer Prize -winning author, who became an icon of the Progressive Era. Yet they provide readers with two distinct perspectives on the man's life and times. Mattson seamlessly weaves the social, cultural, economic, and political events into his engaging biography, which expands on Floyd Dell's 1927 biography, "Upton Sinclair: A Study in Social Protest", as well as the autobiography Sinclair published in 1962. Arthur's book, on the other hand, focuses primarily on how Sinclair used political and personal events to develop his literary projects; Sinclair's writings, along with his political activism, were driven by the Progressive Era's ideals of improving life for ordinary Americans. Arthur's well-written book uses Sinclair's writing to provide a detailed and enlightening chronicle of his life. Both books enrich our knowledge of the life and times of Upton Sinclair and will do much to spur renewed interest in his literary works. Mattson's book is suitable for both academic and public libraries, while Arthur's book would be particularly welcome in academic collections." -Diane Fulkerson, Univ. of West Georgia, Carrollton"Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Starred review from June 1, 2006
Upton Sinclair (1898-1968) wrote nearly 90 books, but the only title most readers can name is " The Jungle." Published a century ago, this indelible expose of the grotesquely cruel and unsanitary practices of Chicago's slaughterhouses made Sinclair famous, although the budding socialist intended to evoke sympathy for exploited workers, not instigate meatpacking reform. Near misses are an ongoing theme in Arthur's enlightening, frequently stinging biography as he describes Sinclair first as a bookish boy marked by his father's alcoholism, then as a "romantic idealist" with a fierce work ethic. Arthur organizes a vast amount of information into a fast-flowing, witty, and incisive narrative as he sets the political and artistic context for each of Sinclair's bold ventures and cogently explains why so many of Sinclair's ambitious books failed: he wrote too much too quickly, overburdened fiction with propaganda, and lacked "psychological sensitivity." Tireless and mercurial, Sinclair went after the oil industry, the press, and religion; self-published books commercial houses balked at; and ran for governor of California. Arthur does right by his demanding subject, deepening our understanding of Sinclair as impassioned, "eccentric and difficult," altruistic, and, in spite of his muckraking, curiously innocent.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)
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