American author Upton Sinclair, 1878-1968, is best-known for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry. He wrote many books in multiople genres and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.

American poet Richard Willard Armour, 1906-1989, wrote more than 65 books over his lifetime. He also served as a professor at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate University. Armour met Sinclair (and Max Eastman) when he worked as a writer for The New Leader, a political newspaper. Armour and Sinclair developed a close friendship. They also co-authored Upton Sinclair on Changing America. Sinclair died in 1968 and Armour died in 1989.