Mount Vernon Literary Tour: Upton Sinclair

Be Here Stories

The Mount Vernon Literary Tour is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A site-by-site walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.https://bnha.visit.zone/ Located 417 North Charles Street Transcript: On this site stood the boardinghouse where Upton Sinclair (b. 1878, d. 1968) was born, son of a faded Southern belle and an unstable alcoholic father. The family occupied a series of shabby rooming houses until leaving Baltimore ten years later, though Sinclair sometimes stayed with his wealthy grandparents. His childhood experience of poverty and class differences led him to become a devoted socialist. As a writer and politician, he joined with other “muckrakers” to expose the corruptions of American capitalism in the early 20th century. In 1906, Sinclair’s novel "The Jungle" laid bare atrocious conditions in the meat-packing industry. The book caused a sensation, with the public especially horrified by its vivid description of contamination in the meat supply. The furor helped spark the creation of the FDA, which regulates the food industry to this day—making "The Jungle" one of the most influential novels in American history.