Lanny Budd series by Upton Sinclair (#01-10)
Requirements: ePUB Reader, 5.5 MB; 5.5 MB Retail
Overview: Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, activist, and politician whose novel The Jungle (1906) led to the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Born into an impoverished family in Baltimore, Maryland, Sinclair entered City College of New York five days before his fourteenth birthday. He wrote dime novels and articles for pulp magazines to pay for his tuition, and continued his writing career as a graduate student at Columbia University. To research The Jungle, he spent seven weeks working undercover in Chicago’s meatpacking plants. The book received great critical and commercial success, and Sinclair used the proceeds to start a utopian community in New Jersey. In 1915, he moved to California, where he founded the state’s ACLU chapter and became an influential political figure, running for governor as the Democratic nominee in 1934. Sinclair wrote close to one hundred books during his lifetime, including Oil! (1927), the inspiration for the 2007 movie There Will Be Blood; Boston (1928), a documentary novel revolving around the Sacco and Vanzetti case; The Brass Check, a muckraking exposé of American journalism, and the eleven novels in Pulitzer Prize—winning Lanny Budd series.
Genre: Fiction > Contemporary, Historical
The Lanny Budd series: Between 1940 and 1953, Sinclair wrote a series of 11 novels featuring a central character named Lanny Budd. The son of an American arms manufacturer, Budd is portrayed as holding in the confidence of world leaders, and not simply witnessing events but often propelling them. As a sophisticated socialite, who mingles easily with people from all cultures and socioeconomic classes, Budd has been characterized as the antithesis of the stereotyped "Ugly American".
Sinclair placed Budd within the important political events in the United States and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The novels were bestsellers upon publication and were published in translation, appearing in twenty-one countries. The third book in the series, Dragon’s Teeth (1942), won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943. Out of print and nearly forgotten for years, ebook editions of the Lanny Budd series were published in 2016. Includes:
World’s End, 1940: A sophisticated American teenager comes of age during World War I in the first volume of the Pulitzer Prize–winning series of historical novels from the author of The Jungle
The son of an American arms dealer and his mistress, Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first thirteen years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious—but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end.
When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him; his language skills and talent for decoding messages are in high demand. At his father’s side, he meets many important political and military figures, learns about the myriad causes of the conflict, and closely follows the First World War’s progress. When the bloody hostilities eventually conclude, Lanny joins the Paris Peace Conference as the assistant to a geographer asked by President Woodrow Wilson to redraw the map of Europe.
World’s End is the magnificent opening chapter of a monumental series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life. A thrilling mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of Upton Sinclair’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller
Between Two Worlds, 1941: From the rise of Fascism in Europe to the stock market crash on Wall Street, the second installment of this Pulitzer Prize–winning series of historical novels captures the drama, intrigue, and excitement of the Roaring Twenties
The First World War brought an abrupt end to Lanny Budd’s idyllic youth. Now, in the wake of the Treaty of Versailles, he barely recognizes the beloved Europe of his boyhood.
At the start of his career as an international art dealer, Lanny travels to Italy and witnesses the brutal charisma of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Meanwhile, in Germany, the failed Beer Hall Putsch led by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party strikes an ominous note foreshadowing the devastation to come. After two star-crossed love affairs, Lanny marries a wealthy heiress and chooses the United States with its booming economy as their home. But neither he nor those he loves can predict the financial disaster that will bring a decade of prosperity to an abrupt close.
Dragon’s Teeth, 1942: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize: Lanny Budd faces the unstoppable tide of Nazi terror in the third installment of Upton Sinclair’s monumental saga of twentieth-century world history
In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, Lanny Budd’s financial acumen and his marriage into great wealth enable him to continue the lifestyle he has always enjoyed. But the devastation the collapse has wrought on ordinary citizens has only strengthened Lanny’s socialist ideals—much to the chagrin of his heiress wife, Irma, a confirmed capitalist.
In Germany to visit relatives, Lanny encounters a disturbing atmosphere of hatred and jingoism. His concern over the growing popularity of the Nazi Party escalates when he meets Adolf Hitler, the group’s fanatical leader, and the members of his inner circle. But Lanny’s gravest fear is the threat a national socialist government poses to the German Jewish family of Hansi, the musician husband of Lanny’s sister, Bess—a threat that will impel the international art dealer to risk his wealth, his future, even his life in a courageous attempt to rescue his loved ones from a terrible fate.
Winner of the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Dragon’s Teeth brilliantly captures the nightmarish march toward the Second World War.
Wide Is the Gate, 1943: Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning saga continues as Lanny Budd faces the horrors of Nazi Germany and steps into the fire of the Spanish Civil War
Lanny Budd’s dedication to social justice and political action has placed a serious strain on his marriage to his heiress wife, Irma, but as he moves through the 1930s, the international art dealer is unable to turn a blind eye to what is happening in Europe. As the Nazi Party solidifies its power in Germany, Lanny recognizes a golden opportunity to make a difference when his arms dealer father strikes a business agreement with Hermann Göring, Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command.
Robbie Budd’s alliance with the Luftwaffe commander and Lanny’s art world reputation enable the younger Budd to move easily among the Nazi high command and gather valuable information he can transmit back to those who are dedicated to the destruction of Nazism and Fascism. It is a dangerous—albeit necessary—game that Lanny is playing, and it will carry him from Germany to Spain on a life-and-death mission on the eve of the Spanish Civil War.
The fourth installment of an eleven-book series, Wide Is the Gate continues Upton Sinclair’s literary journey through the tumult of the twentieth century.
Presidential Agent, 1944: On the eve of World War II, Lanny Budd reenters the deadly snake pit of Nazi Germany as a presidential spy
An American art expert raised in a world of European wealth and privilege, Lanny Budd is dedicated to his socialist ideals and to combatting the twin scourges of Nazism and Fascism. In 1937, a chance encounter in New York with Professor Charles Alston—his boss at the Paris Peace Conference and now one of President Roosevelt’s top advisors—provides Lanny with the opportunity to make a profound difference.
Appointed Presidential Agent 103, the international art dealer embarks on a secret assignment that takes him back into the Third Reich as the Allied powers prepare to cede Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in a futile attempt to avoid war. But Lanny’s motivations are not just political: The woman he loves has fallen into the brutal hands of the Gestapo, and Lanny will risk everything to save her.
Presidential Agent is the action-packed fifth installment of Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to dramatic life.
Dragon Harvest, 1945: Lanny Budd infiltrates the Nazi high command in the riveting sixth chapter of Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning series of historical novels
Dashing and well-connected, Lanny Budd has earned the trust of the Nazi high command. To Adolf Hitler and his inner circle, the American art dealer is a “true believer” committed to their Fascist cause. But Lanny is actually a secret agent serving as President Franklin Roosevelt’s eyes and ears in Germany.
When he learns of the Führer’s plans for conquest, Lanny’s dire warnings to Neville Chamberlain and other reluctant European leaders fall on deaf ears. The bitter seeds sown decades earlier with the Treaty of Versailles are now bearing fruit, and there will be no stopping the Nazi war machine as it rolls relentlessly on toward Paris.
Dragon Harvest captures the dramatic moment when world leaders realized that in trying to appease Hitler, they made a grave mistake.
A World to Win, 1946: Presidential secret agent Lanny Budd is targeted by allies and enemies alike as the deadly tide of war rolls across Europe
Europe, 1940. As war rages across the continent, America watches anxiously from the sidelines. And President Franklin Roosevelt has been keeping an even closer eye on developments in the Third Reich. At the president’s personal request, Lanny Budd gained the confidence of the Nazi high command and began transmitting valuable information back to the White House.
Espionage is a dangerous game, however, and Presidential Agent 103 soon finds himself a target of the French Resistance fighters he is attempting to assist. On a trip to London, Lanny avoids death during a Luftwaffe bombing raid and takes part in the capture of Rudolf Hess. He gets stranded in Asia and is forced to make his way across war-torn China after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor finally brings the United States into the global melee. But Lanny’s most important mission still lies before him: He must enter the lion’s den alone and unprotected once more to unearth the Nazi Party’s most deeply buried secret—the progress of Hitler’s scientists in the race to build the atom bomb.
A World to Win is the electrifying seventh chapter of the Pulitzer Prize–winning series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to vivid life.
Presidential Mission, 1947: With America at war, Lanny Budd risks life and limb from North Africa to Moscow on behalf of the Allied cause
Members of the German high command believe that American art expert Lanny Budd is sympathetic to their cause, but since 1938 he has been an undercover agent working for President Franklin Roosevelt. Now, in 1941, the United States has been pulled into the fray by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Lanny’s services are required more than ever.
In Algiers he must convince the French troops to stand with the Allies in advance of the Axis invasion. A meeting in Moscow, intended to sway Communist despot Joseph Stalin, precedes Hitler’s disastrous decision to invade Russia. Over the course of the next two years, Lanny faces death at virtually every turn as his important presidential missions carry him from the sands of the African desert to the bomb-blasted streets of Berlin.
Presidential Mission is the electrifying eighth chapter of Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning dramatization of twentieth-century world history.
One Clear Call, 1948: As D-Day approaches, presidential agent Lanny Budd is unmasked by Himmler’s Gestapo and must flee the Nazis’ retribution
In 1943, the once-unstoppable Nazi war machine is starting to falter. For a decade and a half, Lanny Budd’s cover as a fine-art dealer and Fascist sympathizer has held firm, earning him the confidence of Hermann Göring and other top officials, including Adolf Hitler himself. With the Allies preparing to retake Europe, Lanny must make certain that the location of the invasion remains hidden from the Nazi high command. But his mission is compromised and his life endangered when Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s feared Gestapo chief, uncovers Lanny’s true loyalties.
Now FDR’s most trusted spy must run for his life, escaping into the European countryside with Hitler’s executioners on his trail. His survival will require great courage, endurance, and ingenuity, but Lanny Budd is determined to live long enough to witness what he has waited so many years to see: the final collapse of the Third Reich.
O Shepherd, Speak!, 1949: From the collapse of the Third Reich to the destruction of Hiroshima to the Nuremberg Trials, Lanny Budd bears witness to the birth of a new world order
As a spy for President Franklin Roosevelt, Lanny Budd was able to infiltrate the inner circle of the Nazi high command and glean essential information on behalf of the Allied cause. Now, as the terrible global conflict approaches its long-awaited conclusion, the newly commissioned Captain Budd of the US Army is on hand to witness the final collapse of the Third Reich in the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge.
The nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brings World War II to an end, but not even the death of Franklin Roosevelt can release Lanny from his obligations as Presidential Agent 103. A devastated Europe needs to be rebuilt, and there is a necessary reckoning still to come in the heart of defeated Germany, where the fanatics who murdered countless millions will stand trial for their crimes.
O Shepherd, Speak! is the penultimate volume of Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize–winning dramatization of twentieth-century world history.
Download Instructions:
1-5: http://festyy.com/wZ6gGv
http://festyy.com/wZ6gGU
6-10: http://festyy.com/wZ6gGS
http://festyy.com/wZ6gGJ
