John Steinbeck.    1902-1968

                      From " Tortilla flat" to" The Grapes of wrath."

    

  When John Steinbeck died in 1968, he was one of America's most popular novelist. His works had a profound effect on the American people. Today, he is still a popular and powerful author in America as well as a worldwide literary figure.

  John Ernst Steinbeck was born in 1902 in the Salinas Valley. He was the third of four children and the only boy. His family was a close, middle class unit living in a small community. The Salinas Valley would later prove to be the location of many of his books and short stories. Both of his parents believed in exposing their children to culture and they often travelled to San Francisco to attend the theatre. They also had a wide variety of novels and literature available in the home. At the age of nine, Steinbeck received a copy of Malory's Morte d'Arthur which proved to be one of the biggest influences in his literary career. He attended Stanford University where he majored in English, but never received a degree. He married three times, the last being to Elaine Scott in 1950 which lasted until his death. He fathered two boys. He died in 1968 in New York where he had lived from time to time since 1944. His ashes were buried in Salinas, California.

  "Tortilla Flat 1935"   Set in the slums of Monterey California, this short novel was his first success, depicting the class of (paisano) Spanish/Mexican cultural identity with traditional European capitalist culture in twentieth century California .It shows the seemingly inevitable obliteration of older values by the American capitalist system.

 

    "Of Mice and Men  1937" Set in California. In 1937 America was still suffering the grim aftermath of the depression and the itinerant workers ,who form the basis of the novel, were very much within the consciousness of a nation separated by wealth, yet driven by the idea of the American dream. This novel, however, is essentially a tale of men and women struggling against

a cold, uncaring and faceless destiny yet never losing hope even  as their dreams are shattered.

 

    "The Grapes of Wrath  1939" This novel depicts the migration of a dispossessed family* (Okies) from the Oklahoma dust bowl to California and their subsequent exploitation by a ruthless system of agricultural economics .  A deeply moving story, heartbreaking ; but throughout shines the strength of

the human spirit, capturing a significant event in the history of America.

 

 * ("The Okies" This was a name for the poor white farmers forced from their land in the great plains by a combination of bad weather and human greed. They sought a new life in California.)