first edition Original decorated cloth
1906 · New York
by SINCLAIR, UPTON
New York: Doubleday, 1906. First. Original decorated cloth. Fine. IMPORTANT FIRST EDITION ASSOCIATION COPY OWNED BY THE PIONEER OF MUCKRACKING JOURNALISM, S.S. (Samuel Sidney) MC CLURE. "There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white - it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption.
There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it.
It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one - there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit."
The Jungle itself is one of the most iconic works to come out of the Progressive Era in America. Sinclair spent weeks in the meatpacking plants of Chicago, then fictionalized his findings, hoping to create sympathy for the horrific working conditions of immigrants. Instead, the book’s main impact was to raise awareness of the additives and impurities in processed meats. His vivid descriptions led to outrage, and eventually federal laws to regulate the industry.
Sinclair ironically commented at the time, 'I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.' By far the most enduring work of the so-called muckrackers, it is well-established as a modern classic.
With bookplate of S.S. McClure, the pioneer of muckracking who changed American journalism forever. McClure published many literary luminaries of the day, including Upton Sinclair, Arthur Conan Doyle, Willa Cather, Jack London, Ida Tarbell, and Robert Louis Stevenson. They wrote for McClure’s Magazine, where — breaking with traditional journalism — he gave them time to research their subject in depth. Without McClure, investigative journalism as we know it wouldn’t exist, and neither would The Jungle, which was built on the journalistic principles established by McClure.
First edition, first issue, with unbroken “1” on the copyright page. Note: This Doubleday issue was published simultaneously with the Jungle Publishing issue.
New York: Doubleday, 1906. Octavo, original pictorial cloth; custom box. A little bit of edgewear to cloth and a tiny bit of rubbing, slightly affecting image of factory. Overall, cloth exceptionally bright and clean. (Inventory #: 2959)
There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it.
It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one - there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit."
The Jungle itself is one of the most iconic works to come out of the Progressive Era in America. Sinclair spent weeks in the meatpacking plants of Chicago, then fictionalized his findings, hoping to create sympathy for the horrific working conditions of immigrants. Instead, the book’s main impact was to raise awareness of the additives and impurities in processed meats. His vivid descriptions led to outrage, and eventually federal laws to regulate the industry.
Sinclair ironically commented at the time, 'I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.' By far the most enduring work of the so-called muckrackers, it is well-established as a modern classic.
With bookplate of S.S. McClure, the pioneer of muckracking who changed American journalism forever. McClure published many literary luminaries of the day, including Upton Sinclair, Arthur Conan Doyle, Willa Cather, Jack London, Ida Tarbell, and Robert Louis Stevenson. They wrote for McClure’s Magazine, where — breaking with traditional journalism — he gave them time to research their subject in depth. Without McClure, investigative journalism as we know it wouldn’t exist, and neither would The Jungle, which was built on the journalistic principles established by McClure.
First edition, first issue, with unbroken “1” on the copyright page. Note: This Doubleday issue was published simultaneously with the Jungle Publishing issue.
New York: Doubleday, 1906. Octavo, original pictorial cloth; custom box. A little bit of edgewear to cloth and a tiny bit of rubbing, slightly affecting image of factory. Overall, cloth exceptionally bright and clean. (Inventory #: 2959)
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