Steinbeck, John Ernst

(1902-1968)

   Writer John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. He enrolled at Stanford University in 1919 but studied only erratically and left without graduating in 1925. After failing to establish himself as a freelance writer in New York City, Steinbeck took a number of casual jobs and concentrated on writing. His first novel, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929. It was in the 1930s that Steinbeck emerged as a major literary figure with his novels of social commentary, including To a God Unknown (1933), Tortilla Flat (1935), In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the classic that helped define the Great Depression years, Grapes of Wrath (1939). A best seller, The Grapes of Wrath charted the experience of the Joad family, displaced tenant farmers from Oklahoma who made the migration westward to California in hopes of finding a better life. It incorporated documentary passages with fictional narrative and captured the suffering of thousands of similar “Okies.” Although criticized by farmers’ and growers’ associations and some migrant groups, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The film of the same name, starring Henry Fonda, was also a huge success that year. Seventeen of Steinbeck’s books were made into films, and he also had some success as a screenwriter. His screenplay for Lifeboat (1944) won an Academy Award in 1945.

   In 1942, Steinbeck published a fictional account of European resistance to the Nazis in The Moon Is Down, but he struggled to match his earlier success. After a period as a war correspondent, he produced the humorous Cannery Row (1945) and a string of much less significant works. With East of Eden (1952), a modern tale of Cain and Abel, Steinbeck once again recaptured his previous form, and in 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. However, stung by critical reviews of his The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), he abandoned fiction and concentrated on journalism and more famously a travelogue, Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962). His last published work, America and Americans (1966), reflected his disillusionment with the hypocrisy, greed, and racial division he witnessed in the country. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson.