As Presidential Agent 103, Lanny Budd witnesses the collapse of the Nazis, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the Nuremberg Trials in this tenth novel in the Pulitzer Prize-winning saga.
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. An astonishing mix of adventure, romance, and political intrigue, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of the author's vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.
Author Biography:
Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Oregon, on September 20, 1878, and was moved to New York City in 1888. Although his own family were extremely poor, he spent periods of time living with his wealthy grandparents. An intelligent boy, he did well at school, and at age fourteen, he entered New York City College. Soon afterwards, he had his first story published in a national magazine. Over the next few years Sinclair funded his college education by writing stories for newspapers and magazines. By age seventeen, Sinclair was earning enough money to enable him to move into his own apartment while supplying his parents with a regular income. Sinclair's first novel, Springtime and Harvest, was published in 1901. He followed this with The Journal of Arthur Stirling, Prince Hagen, Manassas, and A Captain of Industry, but they all sold poorly. In the early 1900s Sinclair became an active socialist, eventually joining with Jack London, Clarence Darrow, and Florence Kelley to form the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. In 1904, the editor of the socialist journal Appeal to Reason commissioned Sinclair to write a novel about immigrant workers in the Chicago meat-packing houses. The owner of the journal provided Sinclair with a $500 advance, and after seven weeks' research, Sinclair wrote The Jungle. Serialized in 1905, the book helped to increase the journal's circulation to 175,000. However, Sinclair had his novel rejected by six publishers. Sinclair decided to publish the book himself, and after advertising his intentions in Appeal to Reason, he got orders for 972 copies. When he told Doubleday of these orders, it decided to publish the book. The Jungle was an immediate success, eventually selling over 150,000 copies all over the world. Sinclair's next few novels--The Overman, The Metropolis, The Moneychangers, Love's Pilgrimage, and Sylvia--were commercially unsuccessful. In 1914, Sinclair moved to Croton-on-Hudson, a small town close to New York City where there was a substantial community of radicals. He pleased his socialist friends with his anthology of social protest, The Cry for Justice. Sinclair continued to write political novels, including King Coal, which is based on an industrial dispute, and Boston. He also wrote books about religion (The Profits of Religion), newspapers (The Brass Check), and education (The Goose-Step and The Goslings). In 1940, World's End launched Sinclair's eleven-volume series on American government. His novel Dragon's Teeth, on the rise of Nazism, won him the Pulitzer Prize. By the time Sinclair died in November 1968, he had published more than ninety books.
