Upton Sinclair
Pasadena California
March 15, 1926.
Dear Friend:
I do not think that since the world began there has ever been a people so lied to as the American people to-day. There are 110,000,000 of us, and at least 105,000,000 are completely befuddled by a campaign of deception, backed by the whole power of American big business, the newspapers, the magazines, the movies, the radio, the vast machinery of government, and the two major political parties. I am supposed to be working on a novel, “Oil,” to the writing of which I had hoped to give the next year; but I couldn’t stand it, so I took a couple of months off, to pay a debt which an honest American owes to his ancestors—to help break the power of the organized knaves who are looting our country in broad daylight.
I have written a little book, “Letters to Judd.” It is running serially in the “American Appeal,” where some of you may be reading it. Judd is an old carpenter who has worked for us off and on, a typical, old-fashioned American; I have taken him as the type of person I want to reach, and have written him a series of nineteen letters, telling those elementary facts which our ruling classes are trying so desperately to keep hidden from us all. This is the first time I have covered our political and social problems fully, since “The Industrial Republic,” which was published 19 years ago, and has been out of print more than half that time. My mail is full of letters asking for something of the sort, so here you have it.
The book tells why there is poverty in the richest country in the world. It proves that in America for the past thirty-five years the rich have been growing richer and the poor poorer, and it shows exactly what the rich have done to bring this condition about, and exactly what the poor will have to do to change it. It explains unemployment and hard times, the money system, inflation, stock watering and manipulation, the tariff and the trusts. It studies the world situation, explaining the wars we have had, and showing how the present system is preparing new ones. It discusses Russia and the revolution—in short, everything the average man or woman needs to know about affairs at home and abroad, and all in plain, everyday language. It is a 100% American book, intended for 100% American readers, and it is written and published as an act of love for our country.
A few times past we have had great crises, and it has been found possible to reach the people by a pamphlet. Paine’s “The Crisis,” and Helper’s “The Impending Crisis,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “Progress and Poverty,” “Looking Backward”—these books have helped to make our history. I am making a try at this kind of thing; I mean, I have put aside everything else, and done my best to make a good job, to get the facts, and make them fool-proof, as well as knave-proof, and to present them in such a way that anyone can understand them. Thirty years’ study of our problems has gone into the book, also thirty years of learning how to write. Having faith in our people, I have borrowed money, and gone ahead to make the plates and print twelve thousand copies; now I am appealing to you to do the rest of the job—to see that the “Letters to Judd” reach the millions of “Judds” who need them.
The book will be in two editions: first two thousand cloth bound, price $1, to enable my friends to pay the cost of the undertaking; and second, ten thousand copies, paper bound, a neatly printed wire-stitched pamphlet, to be sold at meetings, and passed about among workingmen and women; this is the form for which I hope to get a million or two circulation, and I have put the price so low that nobody will suspect me of making money—15 cents a copy, or ten copies for a dollar. This 15 cent price for a single paper copy is a price for meetings and book-stores—I cannot mail the book for that, because, including postage, wrapping, and overhead, it costs about 15 cents to handle an order in my office. What I ask you to do is to order at least 10 paper copies to give to your friends, and in addition a cloth copy for your library. I will take a gamble and say: place a $2 order, for one cloth and 10 paper copies, and when you have read the book, if you don’t find it worth distributing, you may send back the whole lot, and I’ll send back your money. I ask for a prompt response, as I want to advertise the book, and haven’t the money. Both editions will be ready for shipment by the time your order gets back to me.
Our reprint of “The Moneychangers” has been ready for a couple of months, and if you haven’t seen it, here is a reminder. This novel, first published in 1908, tells the story of the panic of 1907, how and why it was brought about by the elder J. P. Morgan. I do not recommend it as a great work of literature; reading it over, I found many crudities, some of which I remedied. But I will guarantee it a lively story, full of facts about Wall Street which the American people do not yet understand.