John Steinbeck

His Pursuit of Writing

He traveled to New York City and held various temporary jobs while pursuing his dream as a writer.

He was unable to get any of his work published and returned to California, his home town, where for a time he was resort handyman in Lake Tahoe.

It seems that John Steinbeck was very dedicated to writing because he took his life on a whole different route by traveling from New York to Lake Tahoe.

His first novel, Cup of Gold was published in 1929.

Cup of Gold

It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of the city of Panama, sometimes referred to as the 'Cup of Gold', and the woman fairer than the sun reputed to be found there.

In the 1670s Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went.

The Cup of Gold is based on the pirate Henry Morgan.

Pastures of Heaven

The Pastures of Heaven was published in 1932.

This consisted of twelve interconnected stories about a valley in Monterey California.

In The Pastures of Heaven Steinbeck shares background information on how Monterey California was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway American Indian slaves.

Tortilla Flat

Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with the novel Tortilla Flat, which won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal.

The Tortilla Flat portrays the adventures of a young group of classless and usually homeless men in Monterey, set in the era after World War I.

The book, was made into a film of the same name in 1942, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, and John Garfield.

The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm.

Of Mice and Men is a novel about the dreams of a pair of migrant laborers working the California soil.

Rapidly adapted into a 1939 Hollywood film.

A tragedy that was written in the form of a play in 1937.

It was made into a movie three times, in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., and Betty Field, in 1982 starring Randy Quaid, Robert Blake and Ted Neeley, and in 1992 starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.

Of Mice and Men

Grapes Of Wrath

Steinbeck followed this wave of success with The Grapes of Wrath (1939), based on newspaper articles he had written in San Francisco.

The success of The Grapes of Wrath, however, was not free of controversy.

The novel would be considered by many to be his finest work.

It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, even as it was made into a notable film directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the part.

During the Second World War

During the Second World War, Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.

Steinbeck saw action in accompanying some of the commando raids of Douglas Fairbanks.

During the war, he continued to work in film, writing Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), and the film A Medal for Benny (1945), about paisanos from Tortilla Flat going to war.

The Pearl

After the war, he wrote The Pearl (1947).

The novel is an imaginative telling of a newspaper article which Steinbeck had heard in La Paz.

The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the disastrous effects of stepping out of the established system.

The Main Character, Kino, is an honest, dignified, poor fisherman and pearl diver who works to support his family and with a great deal of pride and stubbornness.

Out of a stroke of luck, he finds "The Pearl of the World".

Tour of the Soviet Union

In 1948 Steinbeck again toured the Soviet Union, together with renowned photographer Robert Capa.

When he was reporting about hi tour he reported about the life of simple Soviet peasants and workers.

Steinbeck also tried to generate more understanding toward people living in the Soviet Union in a time when anti-Communism.

Steinbeck wrote a large report about his experiences in A Russian Journal, which was illustrated with Capa's photos.

1950’s and the 1960’s

Steinbeck wrote one of his most popular novels East of Eden in 1952.

This book, which he wrote to give his sons some idea of their heritage, was the book he repeatedly wrote of as his best, and his life's work.

Accomplishments

In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” Privately, he felt he did not deserve the honor.

In 1967, at the behest of Newsday magazine, Steinbeck went to Vietnam to report on the war there. Thinking of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture, he was considered a Hawk for his position on that war.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that John Steinbeck will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame on December 5, 2007 at The California Museum for History.