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''Boston'' is a novel by Upton Sinclair. It is a "documentary novel" that combines the facts of the case with journalistic depictions of actual participants and fictional characters and events. Sinclair indicted the American system of justice by setting his characters in the context of the prosecution and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. ==Research and writing== Sinclair worked from a passionate conviction that the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti constituted "the most shocking crime that has been committed in American history since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln" and a belief that "It will empoison our public life for a generation."〔Harris, 244〕 He interviewed Bartolomeo Vanzetti twice and conducted research following the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1927. For his central character he used as his model a California acquaintance who recounted stories of her earlier life amid Boston's aristocracy. As part of his research he attended the funeral of a Boston industrialist. He recognized that some of his readers might find that disrespectful and offered this defense: "if you are a novelist you think about 'copy' and not about anybody's feelings, even your own."〔Sinclair, ''Autobiography'', 240-1〕 To verify dialogue, he even contacted a journalist to verify his fidelity in transcribing a jailhouse conversation. As a result, he avoided repeating the oft-quoted description of Sacco and Vanzetti, falsely attributed to Vanzetti, as "a good shoemaker and a poor fish peddler."〔D'Attilio, 77, details how journalist Phil Strong explained in a letter to Upton Sinclair that he inserted those words into the transcript of his interview with Vanzetti in order to "inject that humility and simplicity that was in his () presence into my story artificially."〕 In hundreds of letters he sought to acquire and verify details, such as the timing and physical setting of prison visits. He asked other correspondents to review parts of the manuscript for errors.〔Harris, 244-5〕 Another bit of his research has attracted periodic interest and political criticism.〔Harris, 246; and Bloodworth, 115-6. The controversy erupted again in 2005-6. For the charges see ''Los Angeles Times'': (Jean O. Pasco, "Sinclair Letter Turns Out to Be Another Expose," December 24, 2005 ), accessed July 6, 2010. For the rebuttal see Greg Mitchell "Sliming a Famous Muckraker: The Untold Story," in ''Editor & Publisher'', January 30, 2006, available online as History News Network: ("Roundup: Talking About History" ), accessed July 6, 2010〕 He interviewed Fred Moore, who served as defense attorney for the murder trial. Moore offered his opinion that Sacco was probably guilty of the payroll robbery, while Vanzetti might have known of plans for the robbery but not participated. Opponents of Sinclair's politics contend that his failure to adapt Moore's judgment in the novel constitutes a betrayal of his documentary claims. Sinclair, on the other hand, did not consider Moore's estimation determinative and Moore never claimed that either defendant had ever confessed his guilt to him.〔Neville, 55, 152〕 Much like the principal characters in the novel, Sinclair claimed no certain knowledge, only his instinct: "I did not know and could only guess."〔Sinclair, ''Autobiography'', 242〕〔Sinclair described his conversation with Moore in 1953. Richard Newby, ed., ''Kill Now, Talk Forever'' (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books Library, 2001), 507-8, quoting Upton Sinclair, "The Fishpeddler and the Shoemaker," in ''Institute of Social Studies Bulletin'', II (1953)〕 Later research has documented that Moore told Sinclair that the two were guilty and that he had contrived their alibis. Following the novel's publication, Sinclair wrote in a private letter that this had presented him with "the most difficult ethical problem of my life", but he had not altered the presentation he had planned for his novel.〔(Upton Sinclair's 1929 letter to John Beardsley ) Upton Sinclair〕 In sum,he wrote: "Some of the things I told displeased the fanatical believers; but having portrayed the aristocrats as they were, I had to do the same thing for the anarchists."〔 He expanded on the situation in a letter:〔Harris, 246〕 :All these matters are terribly complicated....my problem was the hardest I have ever faced in my life.... It is my belief that if I had taken an entirely naive attitude toward the Sacco-Vanzetti defense, and represented the defense as all white and prosecution as all black, I would have done very little good to the case, because too many people know the truth, and it is bound to come out sooner or later. The only thing I would accomplish would be to destroy entirely my own reputation as a trustworthy writer. I have never hesitated about my own reputation where it was in a good cause. But I really could not see any sense in making myself foolish to no purpose. A detailed analysis of Sinclair's "investigative method" cites a number of questionable assertions, but concludes that in ''Boston'' "one discovers a fidelity to the factual record which is seldom met with in historical novels."〔Joughin and Morgan, 445-54, quotes 445, 454〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boston (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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