Upton Sinclair: The Lithuanian Jungle--Upon the Centenary of The Jungle (1905 and 1906) by Upton Sinclair (On the Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, ... Freedom, & Moral Imagination in the Baltics)

115 Pages·2006·2.43 MB·English

by  Giedrius Subacius

UPTON SINCLAIR:
THE LITHUANIAN JUNGLE
On the Boundary of Two Worlds:
Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination
in the Baltics
5
Editor
Leonidas Donskis, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, and
Director of the Political Science and Diplomacy School at Vytautas
Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
Editorial and Advisory Board
Timo Airaksinen, University of Helsinki, Finland
Egidijus Aleksandravicius, Lithuanian Emigration Institute;
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
Endre Bojtar, Central European University; Budapest, Hungary
Kristian Gerner, University of Uppsala, Sweden
John Hiden, University of Glasgow, UK
Mikko Lagerspetz, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Estonia
Andreas Lawaty, Nordost-Institut; Lüneburg, Germany
Olli Loukola, University of Helsinki, Finland
Alvydas Nikzentaitis, Lithuanian History Institute, Lithuania
Rein Raud, University of Helsinki, Finland, and Estonian Institute of
Humanities, Estonia
Alfred Erich Senn, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and
Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
David Smith, University of Glasgow, UK
Saulius Suziedelis, Millersville University, USA
Joachim Tauber, Nordost-Institut; Lüneburg, Germany
Tomas Venclova, Yale University, USA
UPTON SINCLAIR:
THE LITHUANIAN JUNGLE
Upon the Centenary of
The Jungle (1905 and 1906)
by Upton Sinclair
Giedrius Subačius
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
©Cover photo: Photograph from the private collection of
Elizabeth Kuszlejko; printed with her permission.
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 90-420-1879-8
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2006
Printed in the Netherlands
v

Acknowledgements

I am extremely grateful to Professor Clare Virginia Eby, who
was the Virgil in my Inferno, especially in the initial phases of my journey
through The Jungle.
My sincere gratitude goes to my dear amicus genealogist Robin
Neumann, who helped me to thoroughly research the census and church
records of Lithuanians in Chicago.
I am also very grateful to Professor Aleksas Girdenis for his help
with interpreting certain Lowland Lithuanian dialectal data.
Thanks go to the courteous staff members at the Chicago Histori-
cal Society, to the librarians at the University of Illinois at Chicago Spe-
cial Collections Department, to the owner of Balzekas Museum of Lithua-
nian Culture in Chicago, Stanley Balzekas Jr., and to the managing direc-
tor of the museum, Karilė Vaitkutė.
I render especial gratitude to Neringa Klumbytė, who aided me
with the manuscript materials from the Lilly Library at Indiana University
in Bloomington.
Professor Jurgis Anysas, Professor Patrick Chura, Dr. Paul F.
Gehl, and Professor Randy Richards read my manuscript—I am grateful
from the bottom of my heart for the valuable comments and corrections
they proposed.
I shall always feel profoundly grateful to those Lithuanians
whose forebears settled in the Back of the Yards neighborhood and who
shared their ideas and photographs to help make The Jungle’s topography
as precise as they could: Paul Binkis, Susan Binkis, Jean (Brazauskas)
Bush, Loretta Ezerski, Marlene (Trakselis) Feldhaus, Elizabeth Kuszlejko,
Albert Petrulis, Jeannette Swist, and Vilius Zalpys.
I also render my gratitude to the University of Chicago Press,
University of Indiana Archive, Sanborn Mapping Co. (Environmental
Data Resources, Inc.), and Algimantas Kezys, who all allowed me to
(re)publish their photographs and maps.
Last but not least my hearty gratitude goes to my friend Elizabeth
Novickas, and her sister Aida who inspired certain ideas discussed in this
book and who were so meticulous at editing its style and language.
Yet ultimately the responsibility for any possible errors or inac-
curacies lies with me alone.
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements v

Foreword xi

ONE. Sinclair’s Sources and His Choice of Lithuanian Characters 1

1. Sinclair’s Method of Gathering Material for His Novel 1
2. Immigrants in the Chicago Stockyards 3
3. Two Main Lithuanian Sources for The Jungle 6
3.1. The Lithuanian Wedding 6
3.2. Ernest Poole’s (Kaztauskis’s) Text 11
4. The Wedding, Kaztauskis’s Story, and Lithuanian 14

TWO. The Lithuanian Language 17

1. Sinclair’s Passion for Foreign Languages 17
2. Lithuanian Words and Phrases 20
2.1. Dialects 22
2.2. Orthography 24
2.2.1. <cz> and <sz> 24
2.2.2. <j> 25
2.2.3. <y> and <i> 25
2.2.4. <v> and <w> 25
2.2.5. <ai> and <ei> 26
2.2.6. Diacritical Marks 26
2.2.7. “Zine” 27
2.2.8. The Basis of Sinclair’s Lithuanian Orthography 29
2.3. Colloquial versus Literary Language 29
2.4. Errors 30
2.5. Editing 31
2.6. Numbers and Frequency 33
3. Surnames 36
3.1. Rudkos (→ 1906 Rudkus) 38
3.2. Grajczunas (→ 1906 Graiczunas) 41
3.3. Kuszlejka (→ 1906 Kuszleika) 43
3.4. Biarczynskas (→ 1906 Berczynskas) 45
3.5. Szadwilas (→ 1906 Szedvilas) 50
3.6. Valentynaicza (→ 1906 Valentinavyczia) 51
3.7. Jasaitis (→ 1906 Jasaityte) 52
3.8. Lukoszis (→ 1906 Lukoszaite) 53
3.9. Juknos (→ 1906 Jukniene) 53
3.10. The Remainder of the Lithuanian surnames 54
viii Giedrius Subačius

3.11. Sinclair’s Paradigm for the Name-Donor Selection 54
3.12. Jurgis 57

THREE. Specific Locations 59

1. Carey’s Dump 59
2. Back of the Yards 64
3. The Wedding Feast Saloon 67
4. The Church of the Wedding Ceremony 77

FOUR. Conclusion 83

Bibliography 91

Abbreviations 95

Index 97
“I joined in the singing—in Lithuanian, but it didn’t matter”
Upton Sinclair