[Rarebooks] FS: First Edition of Upton Sinclair's THE JUNGLE with SIGNED Quotation

[Charles Agvent]

SINCLAIR, Upton. THE JUNGLE. New York: Jungle Publishing Company, 
(1906). First Edition. Bound in full black morocco leather by Root & Son 
with five raised bands, gilt lettering and dentelles, top edge gilt. 
First state with the "Sustainer's Edition" label mounted on a front 
blank. Sinclair's powerful exposure of the Chicago meat-packing 
industry, 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." 
This copy INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on a front blank to Thomas 
W. Lawson and with a quote in the author's hand from his earlier book 
JOURNAL OF ARTHUR STIRLING: "'Oh thou black jungle of a world!/There 
savage beasts through forest midnight roam,/Seeking in sorrow for each 
other's joy.'" Lawson was a wealthy stock speculator and author of both 
fiction and nonfiction books concerning the stock market. Although he 
once paid a florist thirty thousand dollars for a single carnation for 
his wife, his fortunes declined after writing an expose of the market 
and he died a relatively poor man. Fine with an outstanding 
presentation. (#014363)        $5,000

https://www.charlesagvent.com/pages/books/014363/upton-sinclair/the-jungle

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