Upton Sinclair

American novelist and socialist activist whose The Jungle exposed the conditions of Chicago's meatpacking industry — accidentally producing the Pure Food and Drug Act while failing to achieve his intended socialist goals.

The Jungle: intended as an exposé of worker exploitation in Chicago's meatpacking industry — the public focused instead on the food safety revelations (meat adulteration, sanitary conditions). Led to the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). 'I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.'