THE TEXT/TECH PAPERS

Upton Sinclair — Hell

September 20, 1878, Baltimore, Maryland–November 25, 1968, Bound Brook, New Jersey

Upton Sinclair is remembered for The Jungle, but he began his serious career wanting to be a poet and never abandoned the belief that literature should intervene in public life. After settling in Southern California, he became an author-publisher, political organizer, civil-liberties advocate, film experimenter, and relentless critic of the region’s newspapers, churches, schools, studios, and open-shop establishment. Hell: A Verse Drama and Photo-Play brings those roles together. Its blank verse, vaudeville argument, projected film, and revolutionary stage action transform Dante’s inferno into a modern system of corporate management and mass communication. This volume restores Hell with independently located poems written from labor struggle, imprisonment, war, and radical solidarity, as well as Sinclair’s introduction to Ruth Le Prade’s Debs and the Poets. Together they recover a neglected Sinclair: poet, verse dramatist, and curator of an international literature of protest.

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Catalogue
Reform, Labor & Radical Print
Associations
Antiwar and Anti-Imperialist WritingCalifornia UtopiasLaw and Civil LibertiesLeft, Labor, and SocialismLong Poems and Documentary SequencesModernismScreenwritingSelf-Published CaliforniaTheater and PerformanceVerse Drama
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Bibliography

Sinclair, Upton. King Midas: A Romance. Funk & Wagnalls, 1901. First published as Springtime and Harvest.

———. Prince Hagen: A Phantasy. 1903.

———. The Journal of Arthur Stirling (The Valley of the Shadow). D. Appleton, 1903.

———. Manassas: A Novel of the War. Macmillan, 1904.

———. The Jungle. Doubleday, Page, 1906.

———. The Industrial Republic: A Study of the America of Ten Years Hence. Doubleday, Page, 1907.

———. The Metropolis. Moffat, Yard, 1908.

———. The Moneychangers. B. W. Dodge, 1908.

———. The Fasting Cure. Mitchell Kennerley, 1911.

———. Love’s Pilgrimage. Mitchell Kennerley, 1911.

———. Plays of Protest. Mitchell Kennerley, 1912.

———. The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. Edited by Upton Sinclair. John C. Winston, 1915.

———. King Coal: A Novel. Macmillan, 1917.

———. The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation. Upton Sinclair, 1918.

———. Jimmie Higgins. Upton Sinclair, 1919.

———. The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism. Upton Sinclair, 1919.

———. The Book of Life. Upton Sinclair, 1921.

Introduction to Ruth Le Prade, Debs and the Poets. Upton Sinclair, 1920.

———. The Goose-Step: A Study of American Education. Upton Sinclair, 1923.

———. Hell: A Verse Drama and Photo-Play. Upton Sinclair, 1923.

———. The Millennium: A Comedy of the Year 2000. 1924.

———. The Goslings: A Study of the American Schools. Upton Sinclair, 1924.

———. Singing Jailbirds: A Drama in Four Acts. 1924.

———. Mammonart: An Essay in Economic Interpretation. Upton Sinclair, 1925.

———. Money Writes!: A Study of American Literature. Albert & Charles Boni, 1927.

———. Oil! Albert & Charles Boni, 1927.

———. Boston. Albert & Charles Boni, 1928.

———. Mental Radio. Upton Sinclair, 1930.

———. The Wet Parade. Farrar & Rinehart, 1931.

———. American Outpost: A Book of Reminiscences. Farrar & Rinehart, 1932.

———. I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty: A True Story of the Future. End Poverty League, 1933.

———. The EPIC Plan for California. Farrar & Rinehart, 1934.

———. I, Candidate for Governor—and How I Got Licked. Upton Sinclair, 1935.

———. Co-op: A Novel of Living Together. Upton Sinclair, 1936.

———. The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America. Upton Sinclair, 1937.

———. World’s End. Viking, 1940.

———. Between Two Worlds. Viking, 1941.

———. Dragon’s Teeth. Viking, 1942.

———. Wide Is the Gate. Viking, 1943.

———. Presidential Agent. Viking, 1944.

———. Dragon Harvest. Viking, 1945.

———. A World to Win. Viking, 1946.

———. A Presidential Mission. Viking, 1947.

———. One Clear Call. Viking, 1948.

———. O Shepherd, Speak! Viking, 1949.

———. The Return of Lanny Budd. Viking, 1953.

———. The Cup of Fury. Channel Press, 1956.

———. My Lifetime in Letters. University of Missouri Press, 1960.

———. The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962.

———. The Coal War. Introduction by John Graham. Colorado Associated University Press, 1976.

Works About the Author

ACLU of Southern California. “It All Began With an Arrest in 1923.” Account of Sinclair’s arrest while reading the First Amendment at Liberty Hill and the formation of the Southern California affiliate.

Ahouse, John. Upton Sinclair: A Descriptive Annotated Bibliography. Mercer & Aitchison, 1994.

Arthur, Anthony. Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair. Random House, 2006.

Bloodworth, William A., Jr. Upton Sinclair. Twayne, 1977.

California State University, Dominguez Hills. John Ahouse Upton Sinclair Collection. Bibliographical research files, books, and Sinclair-related archival material.

Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium, University of Washington. “Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California Campaign.” Essays and digitized primary sources, including EPIC News, pamphlets, cartoons, press coverage, voting data, and film.

Dell, Floyd. Upton Sinclair: A Study in Social Protest. George H. Doran, 1927.

Gottesman, Ronald. Upton Sinclair: An Annotated Checklist. Kent State University Press, 1973.

Harris, Leon. Upton Sinclair: American Rebel. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975.

Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. Upton Sinclair Collection. Finding aid to manuscripts, correspondence, business papers, photographs, and printed material.

John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester. “Edward Allatt Upton Sinclair Book Collection.” First editions, translations, criticism, letters, recordings, ephemera, and EPIC News.

Library of Congress. “Books That Shaped America, 1900–1950: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle.” Context for the novel’s influence on federal food and meat-inspection legislation.

Lilly Library, Indiana University. “Upton Sinclair.” Collection portal for the principal Sinclair archive, related collections, books, and the ¡Que viva México! photographs.

———. Sinclair mss., 1814–1968. Finding aid to 117 boxes of correspondence, writings, poems, speeches, stage and screen material, and personal papers.

———. Que Viva Mexico mss.. Finding aid to more than 1,500 photographs and production records from the Eisenstein film project financed by Sinclair.

———. “Upton Sinclair–Related Manuscript Collections.” Guide to additional collections documenting his family, publishing, politics, socialism, film work, and correspondents.

Mattson, Kevin. Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century. Wiley, 2006.

Mitchell, Greg. The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics. Random House, 1992.

Mookerjee, R. N. Art for Social Justice: The Major Novels of Upton Sinclair. Scarecrow Press, 1988.

National Park Service. Upton Sinclair House, National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form. Architectural and biographical documentation of Sinclair’s Monrovia residence and archive.

New York Public Library, Berg Collection. Upton Sinclair Collection of Papers, 1906–1962. Finding aid to manuscripts, correspondence, and a portrait.

Project Gutenberg. “Books by Upton Sinclair.” Free searchable texts of Sinclair’s fiction, investigations, plays, memoir, and anthology work.

———. The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair. Full searchable text of Sinclair’s 1962 autobiography.

Scott, Ivan. Upton Sinclair: The Forgotten Socialist. Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.

The Pulitzer Prizes. “Upton Sinclair: 1943 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Novel.” Official award record for Dragon’s Teeth.

Van Wienen, Mark W. American Socialist Triptych: The Literary-Political Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Upton Sinclair, and W. E. B. Du Bois. University of Michigan Press, 2012.

Yoder, Jon A. Upton Sinclair. Frederick Ungar, 1975.