Upton Sinclair against the literary market: the reception of the treatises ‘The brass check’, ‘Mammonart’ and ‘Money writes!’ in the American press, 1920s

The paper analyzes the critical response to Upton Sinclair’s The Brass Check (1920), Mammonart (1925) and Money Writes! (1927) in the American periodicals of the 1920s. The three treatises were conceived by the author as a well-planned attack on the literary market of America, the capitalist press, publishing industry, modern American writers and historical figures known to be on the payroll of tycoons. The reaction of the periodicals is particularly interesting, because it represents the immediate response of the literary world to Sinclair’s accusations of corruption, bias and servility to ‘Mammon’. This article raises the problem of complicated relationship between the writer and the literary market, especially if the writer is swimming against the current and sets an ambitious goal to clear the market of dirty commerce and to assert the value of decency, partnership and highest ideals. As for the methodology, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept is central for the research, which allows us to regard Upton Sinclair and his opponents (the press, critics and editors) as agents in the literary field occupying a certain position, being interconnected by structural relations and competing not only for the financial but for the symbolic capital as well - i. e. for the authority in the literary field and the right to set out their own standards. The article shows different tactics of the ‘information war’, which depend on the initial position of the agents: the capitalist press boycotted Sinclair refusing to publish his articles and strove to destroy his reputation by well-aimed criticism; Sinclair published his books and pamphlets by himself and relied on socialists in America and abroad that could give him support. Despite the fact that Sinclair’s war against corruption in journalism and literature was actually lost, these treatises caused a sharp debate on this problem in the American society.