Upton Sinclair

California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual

By: Lauren Coodley

Narrated by: Peter Lerman

Had Upton Sinclair not written a single book after The Jungle, he would still be famous. But Sinclair was a mere 25 years old when he wrote The Jungle, and over the next 65 years, he wrote nearly 80 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.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2013 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2022 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Thoroughly engaging." (Kirkus)

"Well-researched and well-written book." (Western Historical Quarterly)

"Breaks new ground." (Labor Studies Journal)

Good biography, learned a lot

With so little written about Sinclair's actual life or much of his work outside of The Jungle I was happy to find this. Peter Lerman did a very good narrating the audiobook. After listening to this, I only have more respect for Upton Sinclair. It's a shame how much his legacy and work has been obscured over many decades as much of what he's contributed in his writing and activism/political work is still visible today.