In 1904, Warren gave Sinclair a $500 advance (the equivalent of about $14,000 in today’s dollars) to pen a similar novel about the problem of “wage slavery” in industrialized cities. Warren, admired Sinclair’s fourth novel, Manassas, a historical epic set in the Civil War that was written as a salute to the abolitionist movement. One year later, Sinclair established himself as a regular contributor to Appeal to Reason, America’s leading socialist newspaper. His politics veered leftward with age, and by 1903, he had become a socialist. Sinclair’s first novel-a romance titled Springtime and Harvest-was released in 1901. While enrolled at the City College of New York, the future Pulitzer Prize-winner supported himself by writing jokes and short stories for assorted newspapers. Upton Sinclair, who was born in 1878, began his literary career as a teenager. The Jungle was commissioned by a socialist newspaper editor. Grab a barf bag and join us as we take a fresh look at Sinclair’s gut-wrenching magnum opus. The book certainly did both of those things-but for reasons that its author didn’t quite expect. Upton Sinclair conceived The Jungle as a political game-changer, a book that would get people talking and instigate major reforms.
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