Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

BOOK REVIEWS - John C. Chalberg: Lehel Vadon: Upton Sinclair in Hungary. Eger, Hungary: College Press, 1993. 125 pp

that Hungarian literary journals would have "little appreciation" for Upton Sinclair. Such journals in both Hungary and the United States were correct to dismiss much of Sinclair's early work as second-rate at best and utter trash at worst. But The Jungle was another matter entirely. Here was a gripping story that also happened to be a piece of propaganda (as opposed to too much of Sinclair's work which was propaganda first, last, and always). Therefore, it is not surprising that within a year of its appearance in American bookstores this novel was translated into Hungarian and published in Hungary. Still, the motivations of the original Hungarian translator, Károlyné Baross, were neither overtly literary nor directly concerned with industrial exploitation. Instead, she hoped that the availability of The Jungle in Hungary would make Hungarians think at least twice before deciding to immigrate to a country which featured diseased food and poisonous working conditions. But Professor Vadon is quick to point out that The Jungle was read and appreciated by "literate working class readers," who regarded Sinclair as "their own writer," and who did not hesitate to declare him the "socialist writer" that he remained. And no doubt Sinclair would have been pleased, proud as he was of his dual commitment to a craft (writing) and a cause (socialism). Which was primary for Upton Sinclair? That is impossible to say, because his two careers were so thoroughly intertwined. What can be said is that the young Sinclair was first a writer. And far from being a writer of socialist novels or socialist tracts he was a writer of jokes and pulp fiction. In sum, he wrote for that most capitalistic of reasons: to earn a living. Money was not a plentiful commodity in a household composed of an impoverished mother and her precocious son, Sinclair's alcoholic father having abandoned his small family for a life of drinking and dissipation. Young Upton did have a possible escape: He could have become a permanent foster son to his mother's wealthy sister. But loyalty to his mother led him to reject any such overture. Instead, he 168