John Steinbeck

Literature / Writers Datebook: February 27

 

Brief biography of novelist and short-story writer John Steinbeck, famous for The Grapes of Wrath

 

American writer John Steinbeck is famous his compassionate treatment of his characters. Aside from his best known novel The Grapes of Wrath, also considered a classic book is Of Mice and Men. He was awarded Pulitzer Prize, 1940, and Nobel Prize for Literature, 1962.     

Early Life of John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. He attended Stanford University and studied marine biology, but he never got a degree. He wanted to be a writer and worked his way to New York seeking for literary fortune. Soon after, he returned, unsuccessful.

In 1928, he was 26, Steinbeck moved to San Francisco to be with his girlfriend, who he married two years later. Eventually, he settled in California and was married three times.   

Literary Life

Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, came out in 1929 when he was 27. It was not a great success, but at least the income from its sales allowed him to write. It was his fourth novel, Tortilla Flat, about Mexican-American farmhands that claimed him success. However, his most famous book is The Grapes of Wrath.   

The Grapes of Wrath is a portrait of poor Oklahoma farmers forced off their land and onto the road by drought, a frequent occurrence during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This novel, a strong voice of social protest, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. One of Steinbeck's best works, Of Mice and Men, is a tragic story that demonstrates simple human values. It explores the close bond between George, a physically strong but mentally impaired farmhand, and his friend and guardian Lennie. It is heartwarming. 

He also wrote some history books including The Sea of Cortez and Once There Was a War.  Steinbeck died at the age of 66, December 20, 1968.

Steinbeck Quotes:

“It’s all fine to say, “Time will heal everything, this too shall pass away. People will forget” - and things like that when you are not involved, but when you are there is no passage of time, people do not forget and you are in the middle of something that does not change.”

"Tell you what – I use to get the people jumpin' and talkin' in tongues an' glory shoutin' till they just fell down an' passed out… An' then – you know what I'd do? I'd take one of them girls out in the grass an' I'd lay with her… Come the nex' time, them an' me was full of the spirit, I'd do it again."  ~ J. Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath.    

On Writing: "A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn't telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome." 

Works by John Steinbeck

Cup of Gold, 1929

The Pastures of Heaven, 1932

Tortilla Flat, 1935

In Dubious Battle, 1936

Of Mice and Men, 1937

The Long Valley, 1938

The Grapes of Wrath, 1939

The Seas of Cortez, 1941, History

The Moon is Down, 1942

The Wayward Bus, 1942

Cannery Row, 1945

Burning Bright, 1950

East of Eden, 1952

Once There Was a War, 1958, History

The Winter of Our Discontent, 1961 

 

Resources:

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh: Chambers, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, 1994

The A-Z of Great Writers by Tom Payne, Carlton, 1997

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