INDEX

Roman numerals refer to chapters, Arabic numerals to pages. Names of colleges and universities are in italics.

Proposition to Reprint

The Early Books of Upton Sinclair

All the books written by me from 1901 to 1911 are now out of print and unobtainable. These include:

“Manassas,” which Jack London called “The best Civil War book I have read.”

“Samuel the Seeker,” which Frederik van Eeden, the Dutch poet and novelist, considered my best novel.

“The Metropolis,” a novel portraying “Four Hundred” of New York, which caused a sensation in its day.

“The Moneychangers,” a novel dealing with[with] the causes of the panic of 1907.

“The Journal of Arthur Stirling,” which is my favorite among my early books.

“Jimmie Higgins,” a novel of the war, published in 1918, and already out of print.

It is my wish to reprint these six books in a uniform edition, both cloth-bound and paper-bound. The price will be 60 cents a copy paper and $1.20 a copy cloth. In order to obtain the necessary capital for this publication I wish to hear from those who will agree to take the six volumes, in sets put up in a box. The price will be $2.50 per set paper-bound and $5.00 per set cloth-bound. You need not send the money; all I want is to know how many of my readers will take these books when they are published. If a sufficient number of guarantees are received the books will be issued in the summer of 1923. The very low price in sets is intended only for advance orders, and will not be repeated.

UPTON SINCLAIR,

Pasadena, California.

Who Owns the Press, and Why?

When you read your daily paper, are you reading facts or propaganda? And whose propaganda?

Who furnishes the raw material for your thoughts about life? Is it honest material?

No man can ask more important questions than these; and here for the first time the questions are answered in a book.

THE BRASS CHECK

A Study of American Journalism

By UPTON SINCLAIR

Read the record of this book to August, 1920: Published in February, 1920; first edition, 23,000 paper-bound copies, sold in two weeks. Second edition, 21,000 paper-bound, sold before it could be put to press. Third edition, 15,000, and fourth edition, 12,000, sold. Fifth edition, 15,000, in press. Paper for sixth edition, 110,000, just shipped from the mill. The third and fourth editions are printed on “number one news”; the sixth will be printed on a carload of lightweight brown wrapping paper—all we could get in a hurry.

The first cloth edition, 16,500 copies, all sold; a carload of paper for the second edition, 40,000 copies, has just reached our printer—and so we dare to advertise!

Ninety thousand copies of a book sold in six months—and published by the author, with no advertising, and only a few scattered reviews! What this means is that the American people want to know the truth about their newspapers. They have found the truth in “The Brass Check” and they are calling for it by telegraph. Put these books on your counter, and you will see, as one doctor wrote us—“they melt away like the snow.”

From the pastor of the Community Church, New York:

“I am writing to thank you for sending me a copy of your new book, ‘The Brass Check.’ Although it arrived only a few days ago, I have already read it through, every word, and have loaned it to one of my colleagues for reading. The book is tremendous. I have never read a more strongly consistent argument or one so formidably buttressed by facts. You have proved your case to the handle. I again take satisfaction in saluting you not only as a great novelist, but as the ablest pamphleteer in America today. I am already passing around the word in my church and taking orders for the book.”—John Haynes Holmes.

440 pages. Single copy, paper, 6Oc postpaid; three copies, $1.50; ten copies, $4.50. Single copy, cloth, $1.20 postpaid; three copies, $3.00; ten copies, $9.00

Address: UPTON SINCLAIR, Pasadena, Cal.

They Call Me Carpenter

By UPTON SINCLAIR

Would you like to meet Jesus? Would you care to walk down Broadway with him in the year 1922? What would he order for dinner in a lobster palace? What would he do in a beauty parlor? What would he make of a permanent wave? What would he say to Mary Magna, million dollar queen of the movies? And how would he greet the pillars of St. Bartholomew’s Church? How would he behave at strike headquarters? What would he say at a mass meeting of the “reds”? And what would the American Legion do to him?

From the “Survey”:

“Upton Sinclair has a reputation for rushing in where angels fear to tread. He has done it again and, artist that he is, has mastered the most difficult theme with ease and sureness. That the figure of Jesus is woven into a novel which is glorious fun, in itself will shock many people. But the graphic arts have long been given the liberty of treating His life in a contemporary setting—why not the novelist?

“Heywood Broun and other critics notwithstanding, it must be stated that Sinclair has treated the figure of Christ with a reverence far more sincere than that of writings in which His presence is shrouded in pseudo-mystic inanity. By an artistry borrowed from the technique of modern expressionist fiction, he has combined downright realism with an extravagant imaginativeness in which the appearance of Christ is no more improper than it is in the actual dreams of hundreds of thousands of devout Christians.

“Like all of Sinclair’s writings, this book is, of course, a Socialist tract; but here—in a spirit which entirely destroys Mr. Broun’s charge that he has made Christ the spokesman of one class—he is unmerciful in his exposure of the sins of the poor as well as of the rich, and directs at the comrades in radical movements a sermon which every churchman will gladly endorse.

“It is not necessary to recommend a book that will find its way into thousands of homes. Incidentally one wonders how a story so colloquially American—Mr. Broun considers this bad taste—can possibly be translated into the Hungarian, the Chinese and the dozen or so other languages in which Sinclair’s books are devoured by the common people of the world.”

Price, $1.75 cloth, postpaid.

Order from

UPTON SINCLAIR,

Pasadena, California

A book which has been absolutely boycotted by the literary reviews of America.

THE PROFITS OF RELIGION

By Upton Sinclair

A study of Supernaturalism as a Source of Income and a Shield to Privilege; the first examination in any language of institutionalized religion from the economic point of view. “Has the labour as well as the merit of breaking virgin soil,” writes Joseph McCabe. The book has had practically no advertising and only two or three reviews in radical publications; yet forty thousand copies have been sold in the first year.

From the Rev. John Haynes Holmes: “I must confess that it has fairly made me writhe to read these pages, not because they are untrue or unfair, but on the contrary, because I know them to be the real facts. I love the church as I love my home, and therefore it is no pleasant experience to be made to face such a story as this which you have told. It had to be done, however, and I am glad you have done it, for my interest in the church, after all, is more or less incidental, whereas my interest in religion is a fundamental thing.... Let me repeat again that I feel that you have done us all a service in the writing of this book. Our churches today, like those of ancient Palestine, are the abode of Pharisees and scribes. It is as spiritual and helpful a thing now as it was in Jesus’ day for that fact to be revealed.”

From Luther Burbank: “No one has ever told ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’ more faithfully than Upton Sinclair in ‘The Profits of Religion.’”

From Louis Untermeyer: “Let me add my quavering alto to the chorus of applause of ‘The Profits of Religion.’ It is something more than a book—it is a Work!”

315 pages. Single copy, 60c postpaid; three copies, $1.50; ten copies, $4.50; By freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 40c per copy; 100 copies at 38c; 500 copies at 36c; 1,000 copies at 35c. Single copy, cloth, $1.20 postpaid; three copies, $3.00; ten copies, $9.00. By freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 80c per copy; 100 copies at 76c; 500 copies at 72c; 1,000 copies at 70c.

A New Novel by Upton Sinclair

100%

THE STORY OF A PATRIOT

Would you like to go behind the scenes and see the “invisible government” of your country saving you from the Bolsheviks and the Reds? Would you like to meet the secret agents and provocateurs of “Big Business,” to know what they look like, how they talk and what they are doing to make the world safe for democracy? Several of these gentlemen have been haunting the home of Upton Sinclair during the past three years and he has had the idea of turning the tables and investigating the investigators. He has put one of them, Peter Gudge by name, into a book, together with Peter’s ladyloves, and his wife, and his boss and a whole group of his fellow-agents and their employers.

The hero of this book is a red-blooded, 100% American, a “he-man” and no mollycoddle. He begins with the Mooney case, and goes through half a dozen big cases of which you have heard. His story is a fact-story of America from 1916 to 1920, and will make a bigger sensation than “The Jungle.” Albert Rhys Williams, author of “Lenin” and “In the Claws of the German Eagle,” read the MS. and wrote:

“This is the first novel of yours that I have read through with real interest. It is your most timely work, and is bound to make a sensation. I venture that you will have even more trouble than you had with ‘The Brass Check’—in getting the books printed fast enough.”

Single copy, 60c postpaid; three copies, $1.50; ten copies, $4.50. By freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 40c per copy; 100 copies at 38c; 500 copies at 36c; 1,000 copies at 35c. Single copy, cloth, $1.20 postpaid; three copies, $3.00; ten copies, $9.00. By freight or express, collect, twenty-five copies at 80c per copy; 100 copies at 76c; 500 copies at 72c; 1,000 copies at 70c.

UPTON SINCLAIR — Pasadena, California

JIMMIE HIGGINS

“Jimmie Higgins” is the fellow who does the hard work in the job of waking up the workers. Jimmie hates war—all war—and fights against it with heart and soul. But war comes, and Jimmie is drawn into it, whether he will or no. He has many adventures—strikes, jails, munitions explosions, draft-boards, army-camps, submarines and battles. “Jimmie Higgins Goes to War” at last, and when he does he holds back the German army and wins the battle of “Chatty Terry.” But then they send him into Russia to fight the Bolsheviki, and there “Jimmie Higgins Votes for Democracy.”

A picture of the American working-class movement during four years of world-war; all wings of the movement, all the various tendencies and clashing impulses are portrayed. Cloth, $1.20 postpaid.

From “The Candidate”: I have just finished reading the first installment of “Jimmie Higgins” and I am delighted with it. It is the beginning of a great story, a story that will be translated into many languages and be read by eager and interested millions all over the world. I feel that your art will lend itself readily to “Jimmie Higgins,” and that you will be at your best in placing this dear little comrade where he belongs in the Socialist movement. The opening story of your chapter proves that you know him intimately. So do I and I love him with all my heart, even as you do. He has done more for me than I shall ever be able to do for him. Almost anyone can be “The Candidate,” and almost anyone will do for a speaker, but it takes the rarest of qualities to produce a “Jimmie Higgins.” You are painting a superb portrait of our “Jimmie” and I congratulate you.

Eugene V. Debs.

From Mrs. Jack London: Jimmie Higgins is immense. He is real, and so are the other characters. I’m sure you rather fancy Comrade Dr. Service! The beginning of the narrative is delicious with an irresistible loving humor; and as a change comes over it and the Big Medicine begins to work, one realizes by the light of 1918, what you have undertaken to accomplish. The sure touch of your genius is here, Upton Sinclair, and I wish Jack London might read and enjoy.

Charmian London.

From a Socialist Artist: Jimmie Higgins’ start is a master portrayal of that character. I have been out so long on these lecture tours that I can appreciate the picture. I am waiting to see how the story develops. It starts better than “King Coal.”

Ryan Walker.

Price, cloth, $1.20 postpaid.

UPTON SINCLAIR, Pasadena, California

Concerning

The Jungle

Not since Byron awoke one morning to find himself famous has there been such an example of world-wide celebrity won in a day by a book as has come to Upton Sinclair.—New York Evening World.

It is a book that does for modern industrial slavery what “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” did for black slavery. But the work is done far better and more accurately in “The Jungle” than in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”—Arthur Brisbane in the New York Evening Journal.

I never expected to read a serial. I am reading “The Jungle,” and I should be afraid to trust myself to tell how it affects me. It is a great work. I have a feeling that you yourself will be dazed some day by the excitement about it. It is impossible that such a power should not be felt. It is so simple, so true, so tragic and so human. It is so eloquent, and yet so exact. I must restrain myself or you may misunderstand.—David Graham Phillips.

In this fearful story the horrors of industrial slavery are as vividly drawn as if by lightning. It marks an epoch in revolutionary literature.—Eugene V. Debs.

Mr. Heinemann isn’t a man to bungle;

He’s published a book which is called “The Jungle.”

It’s written by Upton Sinclair, who

Appears to have heard a thing or two

About Chicago and what men do

Who live in that city—a loathsome crew.

It’s there that the stockyards reek with blood,

And the poor man dies, as he lives, in mud;

The Trusts are wealthy beyond compare,

And the bosses are all triumphant there,

And everything rushes without a skid

To be plunged in a hell which has lost its lid.

For a country where things like that are done

There’s just one remedy, only one,

A latter-day Upton Sinclairism

Which the rest of us know as Socialism.

Here’s luck to the book! It will make you cower,

For it’s written with wonderful, thrilling power.

It grips your throat with a grip Titanic,

And scatters shams with a force volcanic.

Go buy the book, for I judge you need it,

And when you have bought it, read it, read it.

—Punch (London).

OTHER BOOKS BY

UPTON SINCLAIR.

KING COAL: a Novel of the Colorado coal country. Cloth, $1.20 postpaid.

“Clear, convincing, complete.”—Lincoln Steffens.

“I wish that every word of it could be burned deep into the heart of every American.”—Adolph Germer.

THE CRY FOR JUSTICE: an Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest, with an Introduction by Jack London, who calls it “this humanist Holy-book.” Thirty-two illustrations, 891 pages. Price $1.50 cloth; $1.00 paper.

“It should rank with the very noblest works of all time. You could scarcely have improved on its contents—it is remarkable in variety and scope. Buoyant, but never blatant, powerful and passionate, it has the spirit of a challenge and a battle cry.”—Louis Untermeyer.

“You have marvelously covered the whole ground. The result is a book that radicals of every shade have long been waiting for. You have made one that every student of the world’s thought—economic, philosophic, artistic—has to have.”—Reginald Wright Kauffman.

SYLVIA: a Novel of the Far South. Price $1.20 postpaid.

SYLVIA’S MARRIAGE: a sequel. Price $1.20 postpaid.

DAMAGED GOODS: a Novel made from the play by Brieux. Cloth, $1.20; paper, 60 cents postpaid.

PLAYS OF PROTEST: four dramas. Price $1.20 postpaid.

The above prices postpaid.

UPTON SINCLAIR—Pasadena, California

Transcriber’s Note

The index entry for ‘Open Forum’ incorrectly referenced an invalid Roman numeral ‘LCIII’ rather than ‘XCIII’. This has been corrected.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.

[3.19]a jolly Irish gentle[tle]manRemoved.
[27.15]when I was a little boy[./,]Replaced.
[48.32]the trustees included Tammany [T/H]allReplaced.
[56.16]of the university’s money[,/.]Replaced.
[57.26]to bring suit aga[ni/in]st the universityTransposed.
[73.43]one of Massachusett[’s/s’] most distinguished jurists.Transposed.
[100.8]but this recomm[ne/en]dation was held upTransposed.
[133.24]the wives of his wea[l]thiest regentsInserted.
[157.2]they app[e]aredInserted.
[178.17]who have not incurred his disple[sa/as]ureTransposed.
[180.41]B. W. Huebsch, New York[,/.]Replaced.
[303.22]John Hopkins what they likeAdded.
[306.19]said this John Hopkins manAdded.
[363.32]will always be “openings[,]” desirable friendshipsInserted.
[392.31]was an undergradu[a]teInserted.
[394.27]and their a[l]pha-apple-piesInserted.
[398.18]Said N[ei/ie]tzscheTransposed.
[399.25]by a peculiar circumstanceRemoved.
[413.12]from Princeton UniverityInserted.
[420.11]so I take i[s/t] as fair to assumeReplaced.
[421.20]for five paragraphs i[s/t] proceedsReplaced.
[424.21]since to do so[ so] wouldRemoved.
[461.42]to make their will effective[.]Added.
[472.40]these politics, these newspaperAdded.
[486.29]Schneiderman[n], 447Removed.
[ad.1]dealing wit[t]h the causesRemoved.