Oil! A Novel by Upton Sinclair

New York: Washington Square Press, 1927. Eighth Printing. Dark red cloth-wrapped boards with yellow stamping ; 563 pages; 18 cm A very good copy with some age-tanning to leaves and minor shelfwear; 1928 and 1995 prior owner signatures on front endpapers; bumping to corners and head and foot of spine; binding sound and pages clean. Hardcover.

"Oil! is a novel by Upton Sinclair, first published in 1926–27 and told as a third-person narrative, with only the opening pages written in the first person. The book was written in the context of the Harding administration's Teapot Dome Scandal and takes place in Southern California. It is a social and political satire skewering the human foibles of all its characters. The main character is James Arnold Ross Jr., nicknamed Bunny, son of an oil tycoon. Bunny's sympathetic feelings toward oilfield workers and socialists provoke arguments with his father throughout the story. The beginning of the novel served as a loose inspiration for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood" - Wikipedia. This book was banned in Boston for a motel sex scene and became a bestseller thanks to the scandal. // social satire, American literature, oil, political fiction