Author Guide · Muckraking Fiction
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In 1904 Upton Sinclair, then 26, spent seven weeks in the Chicago stockyards, talking to meatpacking workers, priests, police and social workers. The novel he wrote from it, The Jungle, was turned down by several publishers, came out with Doubleday in 1906, sold 25,000 copies in its first six weeks, and within months helped push the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act through Congress. He went on to publish more than 90 books: novels about coal, oil, Henry Ford and the Sacco and Vanzetti case, exposés of the press and the churches, and an eleven-novel series that won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1943. In between he ran for office again and again, and in 1934 won the Democratic nomination for governor of California. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1904–1962 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Upton Sinclair wrote more than 90 books. The best known are The Jungle (1906), about Chicago’s meatpacking district, Oil! (1927), the source for the film There Will Be Blood, and Dragon’s Teeth (1942), which won the Pulitzer Prize. Start with The Jungle: it is the book that changed American food law, and every later book uses its method.
Where to Start with Upton Sinclair
If you want the book that changed the law
→ The Jungle (1906) — the 1906 novel about the Chicago stockyards.
If you want the novel behind There Will Be Blood
→ Oil! (1927) — oil, money and a father and son in Southern California.
If you want his prize-winning fiction
→ Dragon’s Teeth (1942) — the rise of the Nazis seen by an American in Germany.
If you want his attack on the press
→ The Brass Check (1919) — his 1919 exposé of American newspapers.
13 Upton Sinclair Books, in Order
Manassas
A Civil War novel, published two years before The Jungle, when none of his books had yet sold well; Manassas is the Southern name for the first major battle of the war. Sinclair reissued it in 1959 as Theirs Be the Guilt.
The Jungle
Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant, comes to Chicago with his family and finds work in the meatpacking plants around the Union Stock Yards. Injury, debt and the loss of their house, his wife and his son break the family apart, until Jurgis finds his way to socialism. The novel was serialised in the socialist paper Appeal to Reason in 1905; readers fixed on its scenes of tainted meat, and Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in June 1906.
King Coal
Hal Warner, a rich young man, takes a job in a company-owned coal camp under the name “Joe Smith” to see conditions for himself. After a mine explosion he sides with the miners in a strike. Sinclair based it on the Colorado coal strikes of 1913–1914, which he had visited; a sequel, The Coal War, appeared only after his death.
The Brass Check
An exposé of American journalism and the limits of its “free press”: “American Journalism is a class institution, serving the rich and spurning the poor.” Sinclair called it “the most important and most dangerous book I have ever written.”
Oil!
“Dad” Ross, a self-made oil millionaire in Southern California, and his son Bunny, whose sympathy for the oil workers and socialists sets him against his father. It was written against the background of the Teapot Dome scandal and loosely based on the oilman Edward L. Doheny. Boston banned it over a sex scene, and the publisher printed a “fig-leaf edition” with nine pages blacked out. Paul Thomas Anderson drew on its first 150 pages for There Will Be Blood (2007).
Boston
Cornelia Thornwell, a 60-year-old Boston aristocrat, leaves her family after her husband’s death, takes factory work in Plymouth and befriends Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Through her the novel follows the Sacco and Vanzetti case from the arrests to the executions in 1927, mixing real people with fictional ones. It was serialised in The Bookman and published in two volumes.
Mental Radio
Sinclair’s account of testing his wife, Mary Craig Sinclair, for telepathy: she tried to reproduce 290 drawings, and he counted 65 successes, 155 partial successes and 70 failures. The experiments were not run under controlled conditions. The German edition carried a preface by Albert Einstein.
The Wet Parade
Two families ruined by drink: Maggie May Chilcote of Louisiana, whose father drinks himself to death, and Kip Tarleton of New York, who becomes a Prohibition agent. The novel ends with Maggie May arguing that Prohibition has not failed because it has never really been tried. MGM filmed it in 1932, directed by Victor Fleming, with Walter Huston and Myrna Loy.
I, Candidate for Governor
His account of the 1934 campaign for governor of California, which he fought as the Democratic nominee on the EPIC (End Poverty in California) platform and lost to Frank Merriam by about 879,000 votes to 1,138,000. It is the source of his line about why the state’s big newspapers ignored his proposals: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
The Flivver King
Henry Ford’s rise told alongside three generations of the Shutt family, starting with Abner Shutt, a boy on Bagley Street in Detroit whose neighbour is building a horseless wagon. Abner stays loyal to Ford; his son Tom organises for the union. The United Automobile Workers published the first edition in 1937, in 200,000 copies for its members.
World’s End
The first of eleven Lanny Budd novels. Lanny, son of an American arms dealer from the family firm Budd Gunmakers, grows up on the French Riviera; the book takes him from 1913 through the First World War to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where he works for an adviser to President Wilson and resigns in protest.
Dragon’s Teeth
The third Lanny Budd novel covers 1929 to 1934 and the Nazi takeover of Germany. Lanny’s half-sister is married into a wealthy Jewish family that the Nazis arrest and rob; Lanny bargains for their release and is himself imprisoned, and the book ends in the Blood Purge of June–July 1934. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943.
The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair
Published six years before his death, a retelling of his life from a Baltimore childhood through The Jungle, his political campaigns and the Lanny Budd years.
In What Order to Read Upton Sinclair
Most of Sinclair’s books stand alone, each aimed at one industry or institution, so you can read by subject: meat in The Jungle, coal in King Coal, the press in The Brass Check, oil in Oil!, cars in The Flivver King.
The exception is the Lanny Budd series, eleven novels from World’s End (1940) to The Return of Lanny Budd (1953), which follow one man through world politics from 1913 into the Cold War and are best read in order. Dragon’s Teeth is the third.
A reading path
1. The Jungle (1906)
2. Oil! (1927)
3. The Brass Check (1919)
4. World’s End (1940)
5. Dragon’s Teeth (1942)
Everything Else Upton Sinclair Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 20 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
The rest of the Lanny Budd series
9
9 books · 1941–1953
- 1941Between Two WorldsLanny Budd 2
- 1943Wide Is the GateLanny Budd 4
- 1944Presidential AgentLanny Budd 5
- 1945Dragon HarvestLanny Budd 6
- 1946A World to WinLanny Budd 7
- 1947Presidential MissionLanny Budd 8
- 1948One Clear CallLanny Budd 9
- 1949O Shepherd, Speak!Lanny Budd 10
- 1953The Return of Lanny BuddLanny Budd 11
Other novels
7
7 books · 1903–1976
- 1903The Journal of Arthur Stirlingan early novel in diary form
- 1908The MetropolisNew York high society
- 1911Love’s Pilgrimagea novel drawn from his first marriage
- 1919Jimmie Higginsa socialist worker in the First World War
- 1920100%the story of a patriot
- 1936The Gnomobilea children’s book, filmed by Disney as The Gnome-Mobile (1967)
- 1976The Coal Warthe sequel to King Coal, published after his death
Other non-fiction
4
4 books · 1918–1956
- 1918The Profits of Religionon organised religion and money
- 1923The Goose-Stepon American universities
- 1925Mammonarton art and money
- 1956The Cup of Furyon alcohol and writers he knew
The years · 1878–1968
Quick facts about Upton Sinclair
- Known for
- Upton Sinclair is known as the muckraking novelist whose exposé of Chicago’s meatpacking plants helped bring in America’s first federal food-safety laws in 1906.
- 1878
- Born in Baltimore, Maryland
- 1906
- The Jungle
- 1927
- Oil!
- 1943
- Pulitzer Prize for Dragon’s Teeth
- 1968
- Dies in Bound Brook, New Jersey
- Born
- 20 September 1878, Baltimore, Maryland
- Died
- 25 November 1968, Bound Brook, New Jersey, aged 90
- Education
- City College of New York (1897); studied law at Columbia without taking a degree
- Politics
- Socialist Party member 1902–1934; Democratic nominee for governor of California, 1934
- Honours
- Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (1943), for Dragon’s Teeth
- Married
- Three times: Meta Fuller (1900), Mary Craig Kimbrough (1913), Mary Elizabeth Willis (1961)
The red mark is 1906: The Jungle, the novel that led to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.
How Upton Sinclair Writes: Fiction as Evidence
Sinclair researched like a reporter. For The Jungle he spent seven weeks in Chicago interviewing stockyard workers, priests, police, politicians and social workers; for King Coal he went to the Colorado coalfields during the strikes of 1913–1914. The novels are built from that material, and many of their scenes can be traced to real events.
He usually puts a sympathetic outsider at the centre — an immigrant, a rich man’s son, a Boston widow, an arms dealer’s son — and walks that character through an industry or a case until the reader has seen how it works. In Boston he called the result a documentary novel, mixing real names with invented ones. The argument is never hidden: most of his books end in a turn towards socialism or reform, and critics have faulted that bias as often as they have praised the reporting.
His own verdict on The Jungle shows the limit of the method: readers took away the tainted meat rather than the workers he meant them to notice. For novelists who took on the same subjects, see Authors like John Steinbeck.
Frequently asked questions about Upton Sinclair’s books
How many books has Upton Sinclair written?
More than 90; Wikipedia puts his total at nearly 100 books and other works. Thirteen are the key books on this page, from Manassas (1904) to his Autobiography (1962); the rest, including nine further Lanny Budd novels, are listed under “Everything else”.
What are Upton Sinclair’s books in order?
The key books are Manassas (1904), The Jungle (1906), King Coal (1917), The Brass Check (1919), Oil! (1927), Boston (1928), Mental Radio (1930), The Wet Parade (1931), I, Candidate for Governor (1935), The Flivver King (1937), World’s End (1940), Dragon’s Teeth (1942) and The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair (1962).
Where should I start with Upton Sinclair?
The Jungle (1906). It is his most famous book, and it shows the method he used for the rest of his career. If you want a story with more plot, try Oil! next.
What is Upton Sinclair’s most famous book?
The Jungle (1906), about Lithuanian immigrant workers in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. It sold 25,000 copies in its first six weeks and helped lead to the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act later that year.
Did The Jungle change the law?
Yes. After reading it, President Theodore Roosevelt sent two investigators, Charles P. Neill and James Bronson Reynolds, to Chicago; their report supported much of the novel. Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in June 1906. Sinclair said afterwards: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
Which Upton Sinclair book won the Pulitzer Prize?
Dragon’s Teeth (1942), the third Lanny Budd novel, about the Nazi rise to power. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943.
Is There Will Be Blood based on an Upton Sinclair book?
Loosely. Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 film drew on the first 150 pages of Oil! (1927), but it centres on the father, where the novel follows the son. Other adaptations include a lost silent film of The Jungle (1914), MGM’s The Wet Parade (1932) and Disney’s The Gnome-Mobile (1967).
In what order should I read the Lanny Budd novels?
In publication order: World’s End (1940), Between Two Worlds (1941), Dragon’s Teeth (1942), Wide Is the Gate (1943), Presidential Agent (1944), Dragon Harvest (1945), A World to Win (1946), Presidential Mission (1947), One Clear Call (1948), O Shepherd, Speak! (1949) and The Return of Lanny Budd (1953).
Did Upton Sinclair run for governor of California?
Yes. He ran as the Socialist candidate in 1926 and 1930, then in 1934 won the Democratic nomination on the EPIC (End Poverty in California) platform. He lost to Frank Merriam, with about 879,000 votes to 1,138,000, and wrote about it in I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked (1935).
What is the controversy about Boston and Sacco and Vanzetti?
In 2005 the Los Angeles Times reported on a private letter in which Sinclair wrote that Fred Moore, the defence lawyer for Sacco and Vanzetti, had told him the two men were guilty and that he had framed their alibis. Sinclair did not change his novel Boston (1928). In a 1929 letter he called it “the most difficult ethical problem of my life” and said he could not know the truth, but opposed executing the men.
Footnotes
- Upton Sinclair — Wikipedia
- The Jungle — Wikipedia
- 7 things you may not know about The Jungle — History.com
- Oil! — Wikipedia
- Boston (novel) — Wikipedia
- New Sinclair letter discovered on Sacco and Vanzetti — History News Network
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”
— Upton Sinclair, in Cosmopolitan (October 1906), on the reception of The Jungle
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