Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Off for West Point | 1903 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 2 | A Cadet’s Honor | 1903 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 3 | On Guard | 1903 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 4 | A West Point Treasure | 1903 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
| 5 | The West Point Rivals | 1903 | Upton Sinclair | Buy |
The West Point series consists of five boys’ adventure novels that Upton Sinclair published in 1903 under the pseudonym Lieutenant Frederick Garrison, USA. The books follow Mark Mallory, a new cadet at the United States Military Academy, as he faces hostile upperclassmen, uncovers hidden plots, and proves himself through bravery and quick thinking. The titles tell the story in sequence: Off for West Point introduces Mallory’s arrival, A Cadet’s Honor and On Guard follow his early struggles, A West Point Treasure adds a mystery plot, and The West Point Rivals brings the series to a close.
Sinclair was in his mid-twenties when he wrote these books, grinding out pulp fiction at enormous speed to earn a living while studying at Columbia University. He reportedly wrote up to eight thousand words a day during this period. The West Point novels, along with his Annapolis books about naval cadet Clif Faraday, were pure commercial writing with no hint of the social criticism that would define his later career. They remain a footnote in Sinclair’s bibliography, but they show how he first learned to produce readable prose quickly, a skill that would later help him write nearly a hundred books over six decades.