Upton Sinclair Biography

Upton Sinclair was an American author and social reformer known for his influential political writings that exposed various social injustices in the country. As the son of an alcoholic father, he had a difficult childhood ridden with poverty. His family was also known to frequently move from city to city as his father did not have a proper job. However, he had rich maternal grandparents with whom he lived for extended periods of time. This early childhood experience exposed him to the extreme inequalities that existed between the rich and the poor and, thus, shaped him into a socialist. He was a bright boy with a voracious appetite for reading and would eagerly read anything he could get his hands on. He also began writing jokes and stories as a teenager, and paid his college tuition fees by selling his articles. He was studying law at Columbia University but realized that his actual interest was in writing. A dedicated writer, he spent weeks in disguise to research for a political novel. He had a deep interest in politics but could not find success as a politician. Leaving aside his political dreams he focused on his writing. He wrote a series of novels based on a character named Lanny Budd, and won the Pulitzer Prize for the third book of the series ‘Dragon’s Teeth’.