Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair was an American writer born in Baltimore on 20 September 1878 and died on 25 November 1968. He wrote novels, essays and political works, and he became one of the best known voices of the muckraking tradition, which used fiction and journalism to expose abuses in business and public life. A committed socialist, he also ran for public office in California and took part in many political campaigns. His most famous novel, The Jungle, drew attention to the harsh lives of immigrant workers in the Chicago meatpacking industry and helped fuel public demand for food safety reform. Over a very long career he produced a great many books on labour, industry, religion, war and corruption, as well as a long series of novels about the twentieth century. Readers still turn to him for his urgent storytelling and his belief that literature could change society.