American Fables [Unpublished Book Length Manuscript]

Upton Sinclair, 1953. First Edition. Unknown. Very Good/No Jacket. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Believed to be the last of Upton Sinclair's unpublished book-length manuscripts in private hands, AMERICAN FABLES is a uniquely important piece of American literary history. Sinclair's body of work dealt with numerous issues and trends in American, life, society and politics during this era, but often as part of a larger, character-driven narrative. AMERICAN FABLES was his signal attempt to synthesize these key threads by combining sections of his work with that of other authors. The work takes the form of 30 'Fables', seventeen of which are Sinclair, thirteen by others including such prominent American authors (and friends) Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, Lincoln Steffens, and John Reed. Also included are contributions by Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr, the noted anarchist Prince Kropotkin, E. W. Scripps, Harry Price, Prynce Hopkins, and others. Sinclair's own seventeen 'Fables' are taken from or based on previously published works authored 1923-48, with new unpublished material composed in 1952. The thirteen 'Fables' of the other authors (Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, et al.), are mostly from between the wars, but range from 1899 (Kropotkin - a bit of an outlier) to 1951. This work has been much discussed for decades among Sinclair scholars. It has been described as Sinclair's attempt to create a politically-layered, fictionalized history of America between the wars told through key stories taken from his own work and that of others. From what Sinclair told Ron Gottesman, it was intended as a domestic 'prequel' of sorts to the Lanny Budd series. It was an outgrowth of several earlier drafts conceived of, it is said, as an American equivalent to the 'Arabian Nights' or 'One Thousand and One Nights'. Gottesman indicated that, after Sinclair worked through a number of drafts for the better part of a decade under a different title (see below), finishing and sending this 'final' draft to Sinclair's literary agent Bertha Klausner right around the time of the publication of THE RETURN OF LANNY BUDD in 1953, which was the culmination of the enormous series of eleven volumes begun with WORLD'S END in 1940. Sinclair had expected Viking to publish the work, or to easily find another publisher. But this was not to be, as Senator Joseph McCarthy's incendiary attacks against the Left created such a hostile environment, that it intimidated all potential publishers of this new work by the avowed Socialist and one-time Democratic nominee to be Governor of California. After that first flurry of submissions and what Sinclair described to Gottesman as somewhat panicked rejections, the work sat forgotten for years in the files of Sinclair's literary agent, Bertha Klausner, until it was returned to Sinclair in the 1960's. FORMAT: The work is 400 pages, typed on white watermarked paper (8.5 x 11 inches), with 350 of the 400 leaves bearing holograph additions, corrections, and excisions, mainly by Upton Sinclair, but some in the hand of his wife, author Mary Craig Sinclair, 1 page entirely in holograph. The vast majority of typed leaves are ribbon copies. Pagination is almost entirely supplied by hand (correcting the prior typed pagination). The COLLATION is [1-2], 17-54, [54a], 55-189, 190-1, 192, 193a-193b, 194-215, 261-17, 218-263, 263a, 264-267, 267a, 268-284, 285-99, 300-425. PROVENANCE: The estate of Upton Sinclair; by inheritance to his son David, by inheritance to David's wife Jean Sinclair. Ink stamp of Sinclair's literary agent Bertha Klausner on title/index leaf. Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. (1878-1968), pioneering muckraker, American novelist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of the influential novel THE JUNGLE, which created such public controversy about the meat packing industry that it is in large part credited with the passing of the Pure Food and Drug Act, and ultimately to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Outside his literary work, Sinclair was notable in many fields. He was in some ways a precursor to Bernie Sanders, an avowed Socialist who was the Democratic nominee for Governor of California in 1934, running on the EPIC platform (End Poverty in California). He and Mary Craig produced Sergei Eisenstein's landmark 'Que Viva Mexico' in 1930-32. He was a pioneer in such diverse fields as nutrition and health, cooperative living, investigative journalism, self-publishing, free speech and civil liberties, etc., etc. Sinclair's relationships with the authors of the other work included here were often of long-standing. As examples: Jack London had been President of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, with Upton Sinclair as his Vice President, and he and Sinclair were lifelong friends. In fact London's futuristic novel THE IRON HEEL (1908) was written in response to Sinclair's THE INDUSTRIAL REPUBLIC (1906), and provided the introduction to Sinclair's pioneering anthology of literature on social protest THE CRY FOR JUSTICE (1915). London also was one of the subjects of Sinclair's anti-alcohol book THE CUP OF FURY (1956). Sinclair Lewis served for two months as janitor of Upton Sinclair's abortive co-operative colony, Helicon Hall, in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, which Sinclair established win 1906 with profits from THE JUNGLE (it burned down in 1907). BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: For discussion of this item and its earlier unfinished incarnations from the prior decade, see Gottesman and Silet, 'The Literary Manuscripts of Upton Sinclair' #A26. See also G&S A26a-f, describing six earlier drafts (dating from the 1940's) of what became this work, under the working titles 'American Nights' Entertainments'.