By Mark Harvis, MHM Vice President
President Lyndon Johnson greets Upton Sinclair in 1967 at the signing of a meat bill. Photo is in the public domain. I must admit I’m not an Upton Sinclair expert. Hardly. But I am familiar with "The Jungle,” which was published in 1905 and 1906. Sinclair intended his novel to expose the dire circumstances in which industrial laborers found themselves. Instead, the novel’s graphic description of unsafe and unsanitary conditions in the meat packing industry caused Congress to take action. It passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, both in 1906. People were outraged and disgusted by what they read, leading to lasting changes to the food industry.
Upton Sinclair House 2008 by Doncram – under Creative Commons License https://commons. wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4627690 So, what does that have to do with Monrovia? Well, take a drive to 464 N. Myrtle Avenue. There you will find a neo-Mediterranean home built in 1923 that Sinclair purchased in 1942. (Don’t disturb the residents; it is a private home.) The current owners have maintained it in remarkable, original and immaculate condition.
The National Register of Historic Places 1971 nomination form explains that Sinclair lived “austerely amid Spartan surroundings”:
The National Register of Historic Places 1971 nomination form explains that Sinclair lived “austerely amid Spartan surroundings”:
“Sinclair made no structural changes to the house. The double garage which Sinclair converted into a study stands to the rear of the house, next to the shelf-lined concrete block vault that he built for his papers. Wrote Sinclair of this arrangements: ‘I lived and worked in that Monrovia office over a period of some fifteen years, and I managed to fill all the storerooms with boxes of papers .... I had over eight hundred foreign translations of my books, . . . over a quarter of a million letters, . . . [and] practically all the original manuscripts of my eighty books, and also of the pamphlets and circulars . . . stored in grocery cartons.’ Some years before Sinclair's death, this collection was sold to the University of Indiana.”
The nomination form tells us that Sinclair’s “goal was not great literature so much as the advancement of certain ideas propounded creatively and powerfully in his novels, the best-known of which is perhaps The Jungle. Ultimately, he became one of the most influential American novelists in the area of social justice.”
Sinclair enjoyed his life in Monrovia. Sinclair observed that in Monrovia he found a "perfect peace to write in,...a garden path to walk up and down on while I planned the next paragraph, and a good public library from which I could get what history books I needed."
The Monrovia Public Library has numerous books either by or about Upton Sinclair available for your checkout. You can also borrow Sinclair e-books via the Libby and Palace Apps.
Sinclair enjoyed his life in Monrovia. Sinclair observed that in Monrovia he found a "perfect peace to write in,...a garden path to walk up and down on while I planned the next paragraph, and a good public library from which I could get what history books I needed."
The Monrovia Public Library has numerous books either by or about Upton Sinclair available for your checkout. You can also borrow Sinclair e-books via the Libby and Palace Apps.
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