Upton Sinclair

Had Upton Sinclair not written a single book after The Jungle, he would still be famous. But Sinclair was a mere twenty-five years old when he wrote The Jungle, and over the next sixty-five years he wrote nearly eighty more books and won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He was also a filmmaker, labor activist, women’s rights advocate, and health pioneer on a grand scale. This new biography of Sinclair underscores his place in the American story as a social, political, and cultural force, a man who more than any other disrupted and documented his era in the name of social justice.Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual shows us Sinclair engaged in one cause after another, some surprisingly relevant today—the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, the depredations of the oil industry, the wrongful imprisonment of the Wobblies, and the perils of unchecked capitalism and concentrated media. Throughout, Lauren Coodley provides a new perspective for looking at Sinclair’s prodigiously productive life by uncovering a consistent streak of feminism, both in Sinclair’s relationships with women—wives, friends, and activists—and in his interest in issues of housework and childcare, temperance and diet. This biography will forever alter our picture of this complicated, unconventional, often controversial man whose whole life was dedicated to helping people understand how society was run, by whom, and for whom.  

"Thoroughly engaging."—Kirkus, "Coodley's biography should renew interest in the works of this passionate writer."—Publishers Weekly, "An invaluable look at Sinclair's full life and influential work."—Carl Hays, Booklist, "Coodley's book is a welcome resource both for general readers eager to learn more about Sinclair's life after The Jungle and for historians eager for new perspectives on an iconic (and iconoclastic) activist."—Justin Nordstrom, Journal of American History, "This new biography goes beyond the usual focus on Sinclair's literary prowess to examine the extent of his entire life and his influence on California and American civil and social rights, and fills in gaps narrower focuses have created in the past."—James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review

Lauren Coodley is a historian specializing in gender, labor, and locale. She is the editor of The Land of Orange Groves and Jails: Upton Sinclair’s California and the author of a trilogy of books about Napa history, as well as California: A Multicultural Documentary History.