Upton Sinclair, Jr.

Novelist, Author

1878 – 1968

 Credit »
60

Who was Upton Sinclair, Jr.?

Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr., was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle. It exposed conditions in the U.S. meat packing 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. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated rather soundly.

Famous Quotes:

  • It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!

We need you!

Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!

Born
Sep 20, 1878
Baltimore
Also known as
  • Upton Sinclair
  • Sinclair Upton
  • Upton Beall Sinclair Jr
  • Upton Beall Sinclair
  • Upton Macully Sinclair Jr.
Parents
Spouses
Children
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Education
  • Columbia University
  • City College of New York
Lived in
  • Baltimore
  • Englewood
  • California
Died
Nov 25, 1968
Bound Brook

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Upton Sinclair, Jr.." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/upton_sinclair>.

Discuss this Upton Sinclair, Jr. biography with the community:

0 Comments

    Browse Biographies.net