Biographies 4-7

Sinclair, Upton Beall (1878-1968), American writer and social and economic reformer, born in Baltimore, Maryland, and educated at the College of the City of New York and Columbia University. Although he was unsuccessful as a Socialist Party candidate for political office, his vigorous criticism of abuses in American economic and social life helped lay the groundwork for a number of reforms. In the 1920s he helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sinclair is the most famous of the Muckrakers, a group of writers who were relentless critics of the nation’s political, social and economic evils early in the 20th century (1900 – 1914). The author of 90 books, Sinclair became well known after the publication of his novel The Jungle (1906), which exposed the unsanitary and miserable working conditions in the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, and led to an investigation by the federal government and the subsequent passage of pure food laws. The novel tells a story of an immigrant family, the Redcuses, who come to America with dreams of a better life. But they only experience a series of horrors and tragedies. Jack London described the novel as “the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of wage-slavery”.

Sinclair wrote other social and political novels and studies advocating prohibition and criticizing the newspaper industry. His novels were always a form of propaganda. As works of literature, they seem to be lesser achievements. His well-known series of 11 novels concerned with Lanny Budd, a wealthy American secret agent who participates in important international events, includes World's End (1940) and Dragon's Teeth (1942), which dealt with Germany under the Nazis and won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize in fiction. He also wrote The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair (1962).

Norris, Frank (1870-1902), is an outstanding writer of the naturalist school. His characters are often unable to control their own lives. They are moved around by “passions” or by “fate”. The whole world, according to Norris, is a battlefield between uncontrollable forces. The Octopus (1901) is a novel about the battle between Californian farmers and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The farmers are defeated by the inevitable “economic” forces. In The Pit (1903) Norris uses wheat again as the symbol of life. Many of the techniques Norris used for description (for instance, his repetitions and powerful language) seem closer to such romantic writers as Hawthorne.

Bellamy, Edward (1850-1898), American essayist and journalist, born in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, and educated at Union College. He worked briefly for the New York Evening Post and later joined the Springfield Union as editor and book reviewer. In 1880 he founded the Springfield Daily News, but he thereafter turned from journalism to literature. In 1888 Bellamy published his most important work, Looking Backward, 2000-1887, a depiction of an ideal socialistic society in the year 2000. This best-selling novel inspired the formation of many socialistic clubs; in order to expound his views, Bellamy founded the journal New Nation in 1891. The most famous American “utopian” novel, the book has a purpose of criticizing capitalist America of the 1880s. A man goes to sleep and wakes up in the year 2000. He finds an entirely new society which is much better than his own. Today, the book seems a little bit too optimistic. Bellamy was sure that society’s problems could be solved on by a higher level of industrialization. Today, many people are not so sure.