Upton Sinclair Jr. (1878-1968) was an American journalist and novelist who wrote nearly one hundred books. Among his famous writings are his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle, which exposed the brutal conditions faced by immigrant workers in early twentieth-century America. It garnered public attention, however, for portraying the brutal, unsanitary conditions of the meat packing industry in the United States. Speaking about The Jungle, Sinclair famously stated, 'I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.' Bill Savage is associate professor of instruction in the English Department at Northwestern University, where he teaches the course The Chicago Way: Urban Spaces and American Values. He researches and writes about how Americans construct identity in a dynamic interplay between groups and individuals in a variety of city spaces and places, from parks and beaches to factory floors and saloons. He has coedited two critical editions of works by Chicago writer Nelson Algren, the fiftieth anniversary critical edition of The Man with the Golden Arm, and the annotated Chicago: City on the Make.