Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hell | 1923 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 2 | Marie Antoinette | 1939 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 3 | Enemy Had It Too | 1950 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 4 | The Machine | 2004 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 5 | The Naturewoman | 2014 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
Upton Sinclair wrote plays throughout his career, though they never brought him the fame of his novels. His earliest published play, Hell (1923), is a verse drama set in the afterlife where a dead capitalist encounters revolutionaries, politicians, and religious leaders. Sinclair self-published the play in Pasadena and described it as both a stage drama and a “photo-play” suitable for film adaptation. Marie Antoinette (1939) took a historical approach, dramatizing the French queen’s life during the Revolution. The remaining plays, including The Machine, The Naturewoman, and Enemy Had It Too, each put social or political conflicts on stage in direct, sometimes blunt terms.
Sinclair saw drama as another tool for public persuasion, alongside novels, journalism, and political campaigning. His plays were never as widely read or performed as the works of his contemporaries like Eugene O’Neill, but they add to the picture of a writer who tried every form he could think of to reach as many people as possible. These standalone dramatic works, written across several decades, reflect the same concerns found in his fiction: labor exploitation, political corruption, war, and the gap between rich and poor.