John Ahouse-Upton Sinclair Collection, 1895-2014

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Summary

Creators:
Ahouse, John B.
Abstract:
This collection consists of 400 books, 12 linear feet of archival items and resource material about Upton Sinclair collected by bibliographer John Ahouse, author of Upton Sinclair, A Descriptive Annotated Bibliography. Included are Upton Sinclair books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, publications, circular letters, manuscripts, and a few personal letters. Also included are a wide variety of subject files, scholarly or popular articles about Sinclair, videos, recordings, and manuscripts for Sinclair biographies. Included are Upton Sinclair’s A Monthly Magazine, EPIC Newspapers and the Upton Sinclair Quarterly Newsletters.
Extent:
12 linear feet, 400 books
Language:
Collection material is primarily in English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of 400 books, 12 linear feet of archival items and resource material about Upton Sinclair collected by bibliographer John Ahouse. Included are Upton Sinclair books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, publications, circular letters, manuscripts, and a few personal letters. Also included are a wide variety of subject files, scholarly or popular articles about Sinclair, videos, recordings, and manuscripts for Sinclair biographies. Included are Upton Sinclair’s A Monthly Magazine, EPIC Newspapers and the Upton Sinclair Quarterly Newsletters.

The book collection contains close to 400 titles by, about or related to Upton Sinclair. The collection also contains a good number of entire magazine issues with Sinclair materials, but also tear sheets and photocopies of many articles. Manuscript/typescript of Sinclair’s Zillions of Dollars and Doctor Fist: A Drama in Three Acts are included.

Biographical / historical:

Upton Beall Sinclair (September 20, 1878-November 25, 1968) is best known for his “muckraking” novel, The Jungle, but he wrote close to 100 books in his lifetime and scores of articles in a variety of genres. These included novels, non-fiction journalism, poetry, plays and others. His topics ranged from the meat-packing industry to journalism, from telepathy to the Spanish Civil War. A famous socialist, Sinclair appeared in the news often and was part of protests against Rockefeller Mines in Colorado in 1913, the protest on Liberty Hill in San Pedro in 1923 that led to his arrest and the founding of the ACLU in Southern California, and his 1934 run for governor of California.

Born 1935 in New York City, John Ahouse attended Columbia University, with a major in German. The decade following was spent for the most part in Berlin, as a student, with the US military, and then as translator for a German pharmaceuticals firm. Masters degrees in linguistics (Univ. of Texas) and librarianship (Univ. of Southern California) brought him to California State University in Long Beach for a dozen years, where he served as archivist and developed his interest in Upton Sinclair. Subsequently, as co-head of Special Collections at Doheny Library (University of Southern California), he published his bibliography of Sinclair in 1993. Since retirement in 2005, Ahouse has been associated with the Wende Museum in Culver City, California. He has published not only on Sinclair but also on composer Hector Berlioz, novelist Hamlin Garland, and on the postwar division of Germany.

Acquisition information:
This collection was donated by John Ahouse to the Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) in 2013 and 2014.
Arrangement:

Arranged in 4 series:

  1. Series I. Publications
  2. Series II. Subject Files
  3. Series III. Circular Letters/Flyers
  4. Series IV. Books/Pamphlets

Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
University Library, 5th Flr (5039)
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747, US
Contact:
(310) 243-3895
archives@csudh.edu
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