Upton Sinclair, author of the 1905 novel The Jungle which exposed the horrors of the meat-packing industry, was inspired by his friendship with Mother Jones, namesake of the magazine founded in 1976. Born in 1837, Mary Harris Jones was jailed for organizing workers and spurred tens of thousands to join labor unions. Her famous war cry was, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.” Read about an Italian immigrant women who works in a Chicago meat-packing plant in the early 1900s in the novel Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
