UPTON SINCLAIR was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 20, 1878, and died near Bound Brook, New Jersey, on September 20, 1968. His novel The Jungle (1906) led to the clean up of nation's meat supply industry, and to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration; another, The Brass Check, paved the way for the Newspaper Guild; Boston influenced America's perception of the Saccho-Vanzetti case; OIL! opened America's eyes to avaricious corporate oil swindlers; Dragon's Teeth brought him the Pulitzer Prize for Literature; and his eleven-volume Lanny Budd series became an internationally popular history of the world from 1911 to 1950. Sinclair was a true Renaissance man and a fearless crusader for social justice.
One of the greatest novelists in the world, the Zola of America. -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle One of the sharpest observers of our time. -Albert Einstein When people ask me what has happened in my long lifetime, I do not refer them to the newspaper files and to the authorities, but to your novels. -George Bernard Shaw (to Sinclair)