[Rarebooks] FS: "I aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

[Charles Agvent]

SINCLAIR, Upton. THE JUNGLE. Baltimore: Limited Editions Club, 1965. 
First Illustrated Edition. Tall octavo (7" x 10-7/8") bound 
appropriately in embossed quarter pigskin and butcher paper sides; 384 
pages. The First Illustrated Edition of this modern classic with a new 
preface by the author. With 12 full-color wash-and-ink drawings, 8 
full-page and 4 two-page spreads, and 33 two-color line drawings by 
Fletcher Martin. SIGNED by both the artist and the author on the 
colophon page. Of a total of 1500 copies, this copy is not numbered but 
in place of the number is written in ink "G. M. Copy." Of course one 
thinks immediately of the club's founder, George Macy, but he died in 
1956 and this title was published in 1965. The colophon also lacks the 
presentation blindstamp that usually accompanies lettered copies. An 
affordable way to acquire a signed copy of this important book, now 
somewhat uncommon in this condition. Monthly Letter laid in. The leather 
on the spine is a little dry and darkened with light rubbing to the 
tips. Very Good in a Near Fine slipcase.

Sinclair's powerful exposure of the Chicago meat-packing industry is 
still a staple on the menus of many high school reading lists. His 
account of the social and human abuses of the yards, where packers used 
"everything about the hog except the squeal," led to major reforms in 
the industry and, along with UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, is one of the few 
American novels to have a lasting impact on the way we live our lives. 
Indeed, when this book was published Jack London said, "What Uncle Tom's 
Cabin did for black slaves, The Jungle has a large chance to do for the 
white slaves of today." President Theodore Roosevelt was so shocked by 
what he read that he made sure a clean meat act, the Pure Food and Drug 
Bill, was signed into law, popularizing at the time the rather obscure 
term "muckraker." Later in life, Sinclair said of his masterpiece: "I 
aimed at the public's heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach." 
(#016147) $350.00

http://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/016147.html

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