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Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American author who wrote nearly 100 books and other works across a number of genres. Sinclair's work was well-known and popular in the first half of the twentieth century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943. In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, ''The Jungle'', which exposed conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. In 1919, he published ''The Brass Check'', a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after publication of ''The Brass Check'', the first code of ethics for journalists was created.〔.〕 ''Time'' magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence."〔.〕 He is remembered for writing the famous line: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon him not understanding it." He attacked J.P.Morgan, whom many regarded as a hero for ending the Panic of 1907, saying that he had engineered the crisis in order to acquire a bank. Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party. He was also the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California during the Great Depression, but was defeated in the 1934 elections. ==Early life and education== Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Upton Beall Sinclair and Priscilla Harden. His father was a liquor salesman whose alcoholism shadowed his son's childhood. Priscilla Harden Sinclair was a strict Episcopalian who disliked alcohol, tea, and coffee. As a child, Sinclair slept either on sofas or cross-ways on his parents' bed. When his father was out for the night, he would sleep alone in the bed with his mother. 〔 Harris, Leon. (1975) “Upton Sinclair: American Rebel.” Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕Sinclair did not get along with her when he became older because of her strict rules and refusal to allow him independence. Sinclair later told his son, David, that around Sinclair's 16th year, he decided not to have anything to do with his mother, staying away from her for 35 years because an argument would start if they met.〔.〕 His mother's family was highly affluent: her parents were very prosperous in Baltimore, and her sister married a millionaire. Sinclair had wealthy maternal grandparents with whom he often stayed. This gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived during the late nineteenth century. Living in two social settings affected him and greatly influenced his books. Upton Beall Sinclair, Sr. was from a highly respected family in the South, but due to the Civil War and disruptions of the labor system during the Reconstruction era, as well as an extended agricultural depression, the family's wealth evaporated, and the family was financially ruined. As he was growing up, Upton's family moved frequently as his father was not successful in his career. He became close with Reverend William Wilmerding Moir. Moir specialized in sexual abstinence and taught his beliefs to Sinclair. He was taught to "avoid the subject of sex." Sinclair was to report to Moir monthly regarding his abstinence. Despite their close relationship, Sinclair identified as agnostic.〔 Harris, Leon. (1975). "Upton Sinclair: American Rebel." Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕 Sinclair, Jr. developed a love for reading at age five years. He read every book his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world. He did not start school until he was ten years old. He was deficient in math and worked hard to catch up quickly because of his embarrassment.〔 Harris, Leon. (1975). "Upton Sinclair: American Rebel." Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕 In 1888, the Sinclair family moved to Queens, New York, where his father sold shoes. Sinclair, Jr. entered the City College of New York five days before his 14th birthday,〔.〕 on September 15, 1892. 〔 Harris, Leon. (1975) "Upton Sinclair: American Rebel." Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕 He wrote jokes, dime novels, and magazine articles in boys' weekly and pulp magazines to pay for his tuition. He was able to move his parents to an apartment when he was seventeen years old with that income. 〔 Harris, Leon. (1975). "Upton Sinlclair: American Rebel." Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕 He graduated in June 1897 and studied for a time at Columbia University.〔.〕 His major was Law, but he was more interested in writing, and he learned several languages including Spanish, German and French. He paid the one-time enrollment fee to be able to learn a variety of different things. He would sign up for a class and then later drop it. 〔 Yoder, Jon A. (1975) "Upton Sinclair." Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York. 〕He again supported himself through college by writing boys' adventure stories and jokes. He also sold ideas to cartoonists. 〔 Harris, Leon. (1975). "Upton Sinlclair: American Rebel." Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕 Using stenographers, he wrote up to 8,000 words of pulp fiction per day. His only complaint about his educational experience was that it failed to educate him about socialism. 〔 Yoder, Jon. (1975). "Upton Sinclair." Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., New York. 〕After leaving Columbia, he wrote four books in the next four years; they were commercially unsuccessful though critically well-received: ''King Midas'' (1901), ''Prince Hagen'' (1902), ''The Journal of Arthur Stirling'' (1903), and a Civil War novel titled ''Manassas'' (1904). ==Career== Upton Sinclair imagined himself a poet and dedicated his time to writing poetry initially. 〔 Harris, Leon. (1975.) "Upton Sinclair: American Rebel." Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York. 〕 In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise, working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants to research his novel, ''The Jungle'' (1906), a political exposé that addressed conditions in the plants as well as the lives of poor immigrants. When it was published two years later, it became a bestseller. With the income from ''The Jungle'', Sinclair founded the utopian Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, New Jersey. He ran as a Socialist candidate for Congress. The colony burned down under suspicious circumstances within a year. In the spring of 1905, Sinclair issued a call for the formation of a new organization, a group to be called the Intercollegiate Socialist Society.〔Harry W. Laidler, "Ten Years of ISS Progress," ''The Intercollegiate Socialist,'' vol. 4, no. 1 (Oct.-Nov. 1915), pg. 16.〕 The Sinclairs moved to California in the 1920s and lived there for nearly four decades. During his years with his second wife, Mary Craig, Sinclair wrote or produced several films. Recruited by Charlie Chaplin, Sinclair and Mary Craig produced Eisenstein's ''¡Qué viva México!'' in 1930–32.〔.〕 Late in life Sinclair, with his third wife Mary Willis, moved to Buckeye, Arizona. They returned East to Bound Brook, New Jersey. Sinclair died there in a nursing home on November 25, 1968, a year after his wife.〔.〕 He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., next to Willis. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Upton Sinclair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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