Sinclair's Influences
Before Upton Sinclair wrote the pivotal novel, The Jungle, he was influenced by numerous individuals who shared his passion for writing and his disgust with the corrupt ways of industry.
Adolphe Smith
"Of Sinclair's many valuable helpers in Chicago, Smith would be the most important. Smith was researching a series of articles the meatpacking industry had published the following year...Smith's opposition to the meatpacking industry was not that of a socialist but of a man with unusual expertise in slaughterhouse practices in England and on the Continent, where the efficient means of mass production used in Chicago were considered inhumane." (Trucks, like the one above, carried the canned meats of the Armour meatpacking plant. As shown on the truck, the products were said to be "quality".
-americanurbex.com) "Smith took Sinclair with him on at least one authorized tour of the P.D. Armour plant, explaining the differences of European and American methods of processing meat and sharing with him the evidence that would crowd the pages of his forthcoming articles. " -Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair by Anthony Arthur |
John (Jack) London
"One of the influences on Upton Sinclair's thinking was a book, People of the Abyss, by Jack London. London was a member of the Socialist party." -www.historyisaweapon.com Of Sinclair's novel, London had said, "Dear Comrades: . . . The book we have been waiting for these many years! It will open countless ears that have been deaf to Socialism. It will make thousands of converts to our cause. It depicts what our country really is, the home of oppression and injustice, a nightmare of misery, an inferno of suffering, a human hell, a jungle of wild beasts." -www.fee.org "...when American author Jack London visited in 1902 to research a non-fiction book published in 1903 as The People of the Abyss, the shock of the experience was never to leave him. His friend Upton Sinclair reported that "for years afterwards, the memories of this stunted and depraved population haunted him beyond all peace". And London himself declared: "No other book of mine took so much of my young heart and tears as that study of the economic degradation of the poor."
- www.guardian.co.uk |