Collection ID: LMC 1965
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Collection context

Summary

Abstract:
The Sinclair mss. II, 1895-1961, consists of copies of correspondence of and other materials relating to novelist Upton Beall Sinclair, 1878-1968.
Extent:
1 Box (1 standard)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Item], Sinclair mss. II, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Background

Biographical / Historical:

Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, September 20, 1878, and grew up there and in New York City. He began his writing career as a teenager, producing pseudonymous boys' adventure stories for pulp magazine publishers, as well as writing jokes for humor magazines. Between 1900 and 1905 Sinclair published five novels, but it wasn't until The Jungle, published in 1906, that he became an internationally known author. The success of this novel, which deals with the appalling conditions in the meat packing plants in Chicago, not only made Sinclair a rich man but also provided the final impetus for passage of the pure food law of 1906. With the proceeds from the sale of the novel Sinclair set up a communal living experiment called Helicon Hall in New Jersey. A fire just one year later destroyed everything and left Sinclair and his young family impoverished once again.

Following a tumultuous separation and divorce, Sinclair married Mary Craig Kimbrough and in 1914 they took up permanent residence in Southern California. From 1917 through the early 1940s Sinclair himself published virtually all of his books and pamphlets although many of the major works were published simultaneously by New York houses. Although one of America's best known Socialists, Sinclair succeeded in winning the Democratic party nomination for governor of California in 1934 and ran on his "EPIC" (End Poverty in California) platform. He lost the election but many of the ideas he expressed during the campaign affected advisors and officials in Roosevelt's administrations and later found expression in national legislation. In 1940 Sinclair published the first of the best-selling Lanny Budd series, volume three of which, Dragon's Teeth, won the Pulitzer prize for literature in 1943. The eleven volumes were wide-ranging historical novels presenting the political history of the Western World from 1913-1950, and they were immensely popular. After the death of his third wife in December 1967, Sinclair moved to a nursing home in New Jersey to be near his son, David, and family. He died peacefully, November 25, 1968.

Scope and Content:

The Sinclair mss. II, 1895-1961, consists of copies of correspondence of and other materials relating to novelist Upton Beall Sinclair, 1878-1968, acquired as a result of a circularization of libraries listed as having Sinclair manuscripts in American Literary Manuscripts ... Compiled and Published Under the Auspices of the American Literature Group, Modern Language Association of America, by the Committee on Manuscript Holdings ... Austin, University of Texas Press, [c.1960], pp. 341-342.

Libraries from which copies were obtained include Allegheny College Library, Meadville, Pennsylvania; Pack Memorial Public Library, Asheville, North Carolina; Brooklyn Public Library; University of Chicago Library; Columbia University Library; Cornell University Library; St. John's Seminary Library, Camarillo, California; Haverford College Library, Haverford, Pennsylvania; Los Angeles Public Library; Middlebury College Library, Middlebury, Vermont; University of Missouri Library, Columbia, Missouri; Plainfield Public Library, Plainfield, New Jersey; University of Rochester Library, Rochester, New York; San Francisco Public Library; University of Southern California Library, Los Angeles, California; Southern Illinois University Library, Carbondale, Illinois; University of California at Los Angeles Library; University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia; Wellesley College Library, Wellesley, Massachusetts and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, New York; Colby College Library, Waterville, Maine; The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the Yale University Library; Wagner College Library, Staten Island, New York; and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.

The collection also contains one original letter from Upton Sinclair to an unidentified person, January 14, 1909, which was presented to the Lilly Library by the Swarthmore College Library in answer to a request for a copy.

Correspondents other than Sinclair represented in the collection include Waldo Ralph Browne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Brooks Fletcher, Alexander Gumberg, Algie Martin Simons, Mrs. Mary Craig (Kimbrough) Sinclair, Joseph Lincoln Steffens, Robert Leicester Wagner, Mrs. Marion Foster Wetherspoon.

In addition to letters, the collection contains a copy of Sinclair's "My friend George Sterling," a copy of "The profits of religion: offertory," and a copy of his "Scenario of Jimmie Higgins goes to war."

Acquisition information:
Gift: 1963-1964
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged chronologically.

Physical location:
Lilly - Stacks

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

This collection is open for research.

Many collections are housed offsite; retrieval requires advance notice. Please make an appointment a minimum of one week in advance of your visit.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

Photography and digitization may be restricted for some collections. Copyright restrictions may apply. Before publishing, researchers are responsible for securing permission from all applicable rights holders, then filling out the Permission to Publish form.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[Item], Sinclair mss. II, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
1200 East Seventh Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-5500, USA
CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
CONTACT:
(812) 855-2452
liblilly@indiana.edu