PITTSBURG, Kans. — One of the most important books in American literary history has direct ties to Girard and Pittsburg, Kansas. It was one of the most influential and shocking books in American history.

A Girard-based Socialist newspaper called “The Appeal To Reason” hired a then-unknown writer named Upton Sinclair. Sinclair was tasked with infiltrating the Chicago meat-packing industry and write about what he saw. At first, the newspaper only printed sections of Sinclair’s work before it was eventually published in its entirety in book form. It lead to sweeping labor law reform.

“There were changes in the food industry. Teddy Roosevelt was the President, he was incensed when he first saw what was in the book and he really didn’t think it was real, it was true, and he quickly found out that it was and there were changes made in the food preparation and meat industry,” said Steven Cox, University Archives.

But the story didn’t end there. Workers were cleaning out a house in Girard several decades ago when they discovered hundreds of pages of what turned out to be Sinclair’s own handwriting. They turned over the papers to then-University Archivist Gene Degruson.

“He compiled from the various newspapers that we have in our collection – the serialized version of it, put it all together then started really comparing it to the book and realized there was stuff left out of the book. And so he publicized a few years after that the sort, or the suppressed or lost edition of ‘The Jungle,'” said Cox.

Degruson appeared on the NBC Today Show back in 1989 to promote the unabridged version.

Sinclair said about his book, “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach.”