Part of Series
Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning saga continues as Lanny Budd faces the horrors of Nazi Germany and steps into the fire of the Spanish Civil War Lanny Budd’s dedication to social justice and political action has placed a serious strain on his marriage to his heiress wife, Irma, but as he moves through the 1930s, the international art dealer is unable to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Europe. As the Nazi Party solidifies its power in Germany, Lanny recognizes a golden opportunity to make a difference when his arms dealer father strikes a business agreement with Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command. Robbie Budd’s alliance with the Luftwaffe commander and Lanny’s art world reputation enable the younger Budd to move easily among the Nazi high command and gather valuable information he can transmit back to those who are dedicated to the destruction of Nazism and Fascism. It is a dangerous—albeit necessary—game that Lanny is playing, and it will carry him from Germany to Spain on a life-and-death mission on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. The fourth installment of an eleven-book series, Wide Is the Gate continues Upton Sinclair’s literary journey through the tumult of the twentieth century. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of the author’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.
Author
Upton Beall Sinclair, Jr. was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906). To gather information for the novel, Sinclair spent seven weeks undercover working in the meat packing plants of Chicago. These direct experiences exposed the horrific conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Jungle has remained continuously in print since its initial publication. In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the “free press” in the United States. Four years after the initial publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created. Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence." In 1943, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Sinclair also ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Socialist, and was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of California in 1934, though his highly progressive campaign was defeated.
