ABSTRACT

While the basic ideological conflicts of Paterson undoubtedly provided a framework for major labor novels by Poole and Eastman, their influence on Upton Sinclairs work is no less apparent. In 1913, Sinclair had supported the Paterson cause, bought advertising space in the Paterson Pageant pro­ gram, attended the pageant and attested to its beauty. But just as the Pater­ son strike was ending in defeat for the workers, his attention was diverted by the beginning of a labor action involving coal miners in the Trinidad-Ludlow area of Colorado. The novels that grew out of Sinclairs experiences in both of these conflicts would resemble The Harbor1 and Venture in key ways but would in effect combine historical features of the Paterson and Ludlow strikes. From Paterson, Sinclair seems to have derived specific situations, inner conflicts and personality traits that structured the characterization of his protagonist. From Ludlow, Sinclair incorporated descriptions of the working class life he had witnessed in Colorado along with firsthand accounts of strike events gleaned from conversations with mineworkers. The combined influence of these nearly simultaneous labor actions in the textile and coal industries produced a fictional treatment of vital contact in which calculated mass violence against the working class played a crucial role.