An immensely readable biography.
Lively, unsparing look at the turn-of-the-century muckraker, social critic and novelist who changed the way America did business.
Upton Sinclair lived a long, full life (1878–1968), and what it lacked in razzle-dazzle he amply made up in usefulness to the humanitarian cause. The only child of respectable Southerners, Sinclair moved among unsavory New York City boardinghouses as a child, while his salesman father was increasingly incapacitated by bouts of alcoholism. Cramming his school years into a short period, he was seized early on with a “burning sense of mission” and embarked on various zealous tracks that eventually led to his career as a self-described propagandist of socialism. Already married with a young baby (his wife’s eventual adultery provoked the scandal of his life), Sinclair wrote several forgettable novels before discovering his strength as a preacher of the conflict between idealism and materialism in America. He set off to Chicago, determined to write something popular and join the muckraking journalists like Lincoln Steffens (The Shame of the Cities, 1904) who were his heroes. Casting about for his story, Sinclair wandered into the back of the meat-packing yards and witnessed a Lithuanian wedding party that became the opening scene of The Jungle, his scathing indictment of the commercial slaughterhouses. Later, moving to California, he devoted himself to socialist causes in religion, education and the unions, and ran for governor in the mid-1930s. When he won the Pulitzer Prize for Dragon’s Teeth in 1942, a friend declared triumphantly, “The world is catching up with you.” Arthur (Literature/California State Univ.; Literary Feuds, 2002, etc.) organizes his biography into chapters reflecting Sinclair’s various crusading “selves”—e.g., The Warrior, The Pilgrim of Love, etc.—and uses a deft, light touch.
An immensely readable biography.Pub Date: June 13, 2006
ISBN: 1-4000-6151-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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