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Sinclair
1917
A mine owner's son goes undercover in his own family's coal camp.
King Coal
Upton Sinclair · 1917
Sinclair followed The Jungle with another undercover premise, this time set in the Colorado coal fields he researched around the violent 1913-14 strikes that led to the Ludlow Massacre. Hal Warner, the wealthy son of a coal family, takes a false name and a miner's job to see what his own class is shielded from — company housing, company stores, and a law enforcement apparatus that answers to the company, not the miners. Sinclair's own Postscript, included at the end, tells readers exactly which details are drawn from real testimony, making this a rare case of a novelist showing his sources.
120 chapters · 121,417 words · ~9.2 hr read
Contents
Book One — The Domain of King Coal
Hal Warner arrives at the Pine Creek mine under the name Joe Smith, and learns the shape of the company town he has entered.
- 1Chapter 1~7 min
- 2Chapter 2~5 min
- 3Chapter 3~3 min
- 4Chapter 4~6 min
- 5Chapter 5~4 min
- 6Chapter 6~4 min
- 7Chapter 7~6 min
- 8Chapter 8~2 min
- 9Chapter 9~5 min
- 10Chapter 10~5 min
- 11Chapter 11~3 min
- 12Chapter 12~5 min
- 13Chapter 13~5 min
- 14Chapter 14~4 min
- 15Chapter 15~3 min
- 16Chapter 16~4 min
- 17Chapter 17~6 min
- 18Chapter 18~4 min
- 19Chapter 19~3 min
- 20Chapter 20~5 min
- 21Chapter 21~5 min
- 22Chapter 22~4 min
- 23Chapter 23~3 min
- 24Chapter 24~5 min
- 25Chapter 25~3 min
- 26Chapter 26~4 min
- 27Chapter 27~3 min
- 28Chapter 28~4 min
- 29Chapter 29~4 min
Book Two — The Serfs of King Coal
Life underground and in the camp — the men, their families, and the daily hazards and small tyrannies of company control.
- 30Chapter 1~4 min
- 31Chapter 2~7 min
- 32Chapter 3~4 min
- 33Chapter 4~5 min
- 34Chapter 5~6 min
- 35Chapter 6~3 min
- 36Chapter 7~5 min
- 37Chapter 8~7 min
- 38Chapter 9~4 min
- 39Chapter 10~5 min
- 40Chapter 11~4 min
- 41Chapter 12~4 min
- 42Chapter 13~3 min
- 43Chapter 14~2 min
- 44Chapter 15~5 min
- 45Chapter 16~5 min
- 46Chapter 17~4 min
- 47Chapter 18~5 min
- 48Chapter 19~3 min
- 49Chapter 20~5 min
- 50Chapter 21~3 min
- 51Chapter 22~3 min
- 52Chapter 23~6 min
- 53Chapter 24~5 min
- 54Chapter 25~6 min
- 55Chapter 26~4 min
- 56Chapter 27~4 min
- 57Chapter 28~5 min
- 58Chapter 29~3 min
- 59Chapter 30~7 min
- 60Chapter 31~3 min
- 61Chapter 32~4 min
- 62Chapter 33~5 min
- 63Chapter 34~6 min
Book Three — The Henchmen of King Coal
The company's enforcers and the machinery of control confront the miners' first moves toward organizing.
- 64Chapter 1~5 min
- 65Chapter 2~4 min
- 66Chapter 3~6 min
- 67Chapter 4~5 min
- 68Chapter 5~4 min
- 69Chapter 6~6 min
- 70Chapter 7~4 min
- 71Chapter 8~3 min
- 72Chapter 9~4 min
- 73Chapter 10~4 min
- 74Chapter 11~3 min
- 75Chapter 12~6 min
- 76Chapter 13~5 min
- 77Chapter 14~4 min
- 78Chapter 15~5 min
- 79Chapter 16~6 min
- 80Chapter 17~4 min
- 81Chapter 18~3 min
- 82Chapter 19~3 min
- 83Chapter 20~3 min
- 84Chapter 21~5 min
- 85Chapter 22~5 min
- 86Chapter 23~4 min
- 87Chapter 24~4 min
- 88Chapter 25~5 min
Book Four — The Will of King Coal
The conflict comes to a head, and the novel closes with Sinclair's own Postscript on the real events behind the story.
- 89Chapter 1~7 min
- 90Chapter 2~4 min
- 91Chapter 3~5 min
- 92Chapter 4~6 min
- 93Chapter 5~4 min
- 94Chapter 6~3 min
- 95Chapter 7~5 min
- 96Chapter 8~3 min
- 97Chapter 9~3 min
- 98Chapter 10~8 min
- 99Chapter 11~4 min
- 100Chapter 12~3 min
- 101Chapter 13~3 min
- 102Chapter 14~6 min
- 103Chapter 15~9 min
- 104Chapter 16~3 min
- 105Chapter 17~4 min
- 106Chapter 18~3 min
- 107Chapter 19~4 min
- 108Chapter 20~5 min
- 109Chapter 21~4 min
- 110Chapter 22~3 min
- 111Chapter 23~4 min
- 112Chapter 24~7 min
- 113Chapter 25~4 min
- 114Chapter 26~5 min
- 115Chapter 27~5 min
- 116Chapter 28~6 min
- 117Chapter 29~4 min
- 118Chapter 30~4 min
- 119Chapter 31~6 min
- 120Postscript~18 min