JOHN STEINBECK BIOGRAPHY
Early Years: Childhood through college years: 1902-1925
John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California, the third child of Olive Hamilton, former school teacher, and John Ernst Steinbeck, Monterey County treasurer. The Victorian house in which Steinbeck grew up still stands in Salinas today.
In early adolescence, John Steinbeck showed a strong interest in writing. During high school, Steinbeck would work late into the night in his attic room in Salinas: “I used to sit in that little room upstairs,” Steinbeck remembers decades later, “and write little stories and little pieces and send them out to magazines under a false name and I never put a return address on them…I wonder what I was thinking of? I was scared to death to get a rejection slip, but more, to get an acceptance.” (Valjean, 43). Steinbeck wrote for his high school newsletter and admitted his strong interest in writing to his friends, seriously identifying as a writer in college.
Steinbeck enrolled at Stanford University in 1919 in order to sharpen his writing skills, majoring in English. Though he attended college off and on for five years, he left Stanford in 1925 without receiving a degree. Steinbeck made acquaintances that would greatly influence his writing and outlook. In the summer of 1923, Steinbeck enrolled in a biology course at the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove and there became familiar with the ideas of William Emerson Ritter, and found himself especially enamored with Ritter’s concept of the super-organism. (Astro, 44) This newfound interest in science and organismal conception in particular is most evident in Sea of Cortez, Steinbeck’s later collaboration with the marine biologist Ed Ricketts, but his interest in group behavior and “survivability” is also apparent in several of his novels and short stories.Early Career: Cup of Gold (1929) through The Red Pony (1933-34)
After leaving Stanford in 1925, Steinbeck worked a series of jobs while continuing to write. He briefly lived in New York, unsuccessfully attempting to support himself through writing. “I had a thin, lonely, hungry time of it [in New York],” he writes in 1935. “And I remember too well the cockroaches under my wash basin and the impossibility of getting a job. I was scared thoroughly. And I can’t forget the scare.” (Steinbeck 9). Impoverished and malnourished, Steinbeck returned to California and finished his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), a critically and commercially unsuccessful tale based on the life of the privateer Henry Morgan.
While working for Tahoe City fish hatchery in California shortly after finishing Cup of Gold, Steinbeck met Carol Henning, who he married on January 14, 1930. After a few months in Los Angeles, the couple moved to a cottage owned by Steinbeck’s father in Pacific Grove, California on the Monterey Peninsula bordering the city of Monterey. “Financially we are in a mess, but ‘spiritually’ we ride the clouds,” Steinbeck writes of the early years in Pacific Grove. “Nothing matters.” (Steinbeck 29)After the critical, commercial, and personal disappointment of his first novel, Steinbeck continued to write feverishly. His single-minded obsession with writing, which he termed “monomania,” seems to have abated little from his days at Stanford. He wrote a friend: “We take our efforts to write with great seriousness, hammering away for two years on a novel and such things…We have taken the ordinary number of beatings and I don’t think there is much strength in either of us, and still we go on butting our heads against the English Novel and nursing our bruises as though they were the wounds of honorable war.” (Steinbeck 15) The novel to which Steinbeck refers in this letter is To a God Unknown,
eventually published in 1933, after four years of writing and revision.The early 1930s brought Steinbeck slow successes, as literary agents McIntosh and Otis became interested in To a God Unknown in 1931. In March, 1932, Cape and Smith, later rebranded Jonathan Cape and Robert Ballou, Inc., accepted Steinbeck’s manuscript of Pastures of Heaven, a loosely connected collection of short stories set in the Salinas Valley. With the collection’s publication in 1932, Steinbeck’s writing career began in earnest.
Steinbeck's next few books, To A God Unknown(1933), and The Red Pony stories, written in 1933 and 1934, demonstrate the writer's growing talent for depicting the region of his birth. The stories inPastures of Heaven are all set in an around the Salinas Valley, while the setting for To A God Unknown was inspired by the San Antonio Valley, near King City, where Steinbeck spent some time as a teenager. The Red Pony, set on a ranch outside Salinas, incorporates events and imagery that Steinbeck witnessed as a boy. In these early works Steinbeck demonstrates his fascination and familiarity with the culture and geography of the Salinas Valley, and develops the clear, sweeping style that characterizes his best fiction.
The California Novels: Tortilla Flat(1935) through The Grapes of Wrath(1939)
In 1935, Steinbeck enjoyed his first critical and commercial success with Tortilla Flat, chronicling the adventures of a group of friends modeled after stories Steinbeck had heard of the paisanos in Monterey. In 1942, the short novel was adapted as a film under the same name starring Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr.
Steinbeck's next few works, In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and The Grapes of Wrath (1939), similarly set in California, deal with issues of agricultural labor rights and the rising influx of migrant workers in California. In Dubious Battle centers on activists for “the Party” who plan to organize a massive strike among fruit-pickers.
Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck's first experiment with a form he developed, the play-novelette, tells the story of a pair of migrant workers in California.The novella was highly successful, and Steinbeck's 1962 Nobel Prize citation referred to the work as a “little masterpiece.” George F. Kaufman's 1937 Broadway stage production, starring Broderick Crawford and Wallace Ford, also became a major hit.
Steinbeck's next novel, The Grapes of Wrath, was based on personal observations of the lives of migrant agricultural workers in California. In the fall of 1936, he published a series of newspaper articles in San Francisco, under the title “The Harvest Gypsies.” Inspired and disturbed by what he had witnessed in California in preparation for The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck writes to Elizabeth Otis in 1938: “I must go over into the interior valleys. There are about five thousand families starving to death over there... The states and counties will give them nothing because they are outsiders. But the crops of any part of this state could not be harvested without these outsiders. I'm pretty mad about it... Funny how mean and little books become in the face of such tragedies.” (Steinbeck 158).
The New York Times listed The Grapes of Wrath as the best-selling book of 1939, and by February 1940, 430,000 copies had been printed. That same month, the novel won The National Book Award, and later that year it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. While wildly successful, The Grapes of Wrath also proved to be Steinbeck's most controversial novel to date: Steinbeck's sympathy for the plight of migrant workers led to a backlash against him, especially in his home region of the Salinas Valley. The Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from schools and libraries in 1939. The ban lasted until 1941.
Perhaps as a response to the fury over The Grapes of Wrath and to retreat from his growing fame, in 1940 Steinbeck joined his friend Ed Ricketts on a voyage to the Gulf of California to collect marine specimens. Throughout the 1930s, Ricketts, who
collected marine specimens for a living and sold them through his laboratory, Pacific Biological, was a major influence on
Steinbeck's writing and thinking. According to Steinbeck's testimony in “About Ed Ricketts,” published as a foreword to the Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) the two met in a dentist's office and immediately struck up a friendship based on mutual admiration for each other. Steinbeck and Ricketts would remain close until the latter's death in 1948.
Though Carol, Steinbeck's wife at the time, accompanied her husband, Ricketts, and their skeleton crew on the expedition to the Gulf of California, the Steinbeck's marriage was beginning to disintegrate. Carol and John eventually divorced in 1943, and later the same month Steinbeck married Gwedolyn “Gwyn” Conger, with whom he would have his only children, Thomas and John Steinbeck Jr.
War Years: 1943-1945
Shortly after marrying Gwyn Conger, Steinbeck was hired by the New York Herald Tribune to report on the war in Europe. He went first to England, then North Africa, and then accompanied the commando raids of Douglas Fairbanks Jr.'s Beach Jumpers programs in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Italy. Steinbeck threw himself into the war effort, and his letters to Gwyn during this period reflect his patriotism as well as his unique perspective: “I see these thousands of soldiers here and they are going through the same thing. There's a kind of walk they have in London, an apathetic shuffle. They're looking for something. They'll say it's a girl—any girl, but it isn't that at all.” (Steinbeck 264).
Steinbeck's war correspondence was later edited and published under the title Once There Was a War. Many years later, writing to a friend, Steinbeck reflects on the work: “There are many things in them I didn't know I was writing—among others a hatred for war. Hell, I thought I was building the war up.” (Steinbeck 264) Returning to New York in late 1943, Steinbeck continued to help the war effort, writing the screenplay Lifeboat for Alfred Hitchcock in 1944. (However, since substantial changes were made to his script, Steinbeck unsuccessfully petitioned to have his name removed from Hitchcock’s film).
Steinbeck's war correspondence was later edited and published under the title Once There Was a War. Many years later, writing to a friend, Steinbeck reflects on the work: “There are many things in them I didn't know I was writing—among others a hatred for war. Hell, I thought I was building the war up.” (Steinbeck 264) Returning to New York in late 1943, Steinbeck continued to help the war effort, writing the screenplay Lifeboat for Alfred Hitchcock in 1944. (However, since substantial changes were made to his script, Steinbeck unsuccessfully petitioned to have his name removed from Hitchcock’s film).Post-World War II Career: 1945-1951
“I have been working madly at a book and Gwyn has been working calmly at a baby,” Steinbeck writes to a friend in 1944, “and it looks as though it might be a photo finish.” The book to which Steinbeck refers in Cannery Row, published 1945, and the baby is Thomas, Steinbeck's first child.
With Cannery Row , Steinbeck returned to his old subject of Monterey to describe the adventures of characters that live and work on Ocean View Avenue. While working on the novel, Steinbeck writes to his longtime friend Carlton Sheffield, “You'll find a lot of old things in it... Maybe we were sounder then. Certainly we were thinking more universally.” (Steinbeck 273). Though unpopular at first among the high-minded residents on Monterey, the novel became so famous that Ocean View Avenue in Monterey was renamed Cannery Row in 1958.
After the end of the war, Steinbeck published The Pearl , an elaboration on a story he had heard in La Paz during his trip with Ed Ricketts to the Gulf of California. While traveling to Mexico to help with the film adaptation of the novel, Steinbeck became inspired by the story of Emiliano Zapata, and subsequently wrote a screenplay based on his life. Viva Zapata was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn in 1952.
With Cannery Row , Steinbeck returned to his old subject of Monterey to describe the adventures of characters that live and work on Ocean View Avenue. While working on the novel, Steinbeck writes to his longtime friend Carlton Sheffield, “You'll find a lot of old things in it... Maybe we were sounder then. Certainly we were thinking more universally.” (Steinbeck 273). Though unpopular at first among the high-minded residents on Monterey, the novel became so famous that Ocean View Avenue in Monterey was renamed Cannery Row in 1958.After the end of the war, Steinbeck published The Pearl , an elaboration on a story he had heard in La Paz during his trip with Ed Ricketts to the Gulf of California. While traveling to Mexico to help with the film adaptation of the novel, Steinbeck became inspired by the story of Emiliano Zapata, and subsequently wrote a screenplay based on his life. Viva Zapata was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn in 1952.While living with Gwyn in New York, Steinbeck received devastating news from California. Ed Ricketts had been hit by a train while attempting to cross the tracks in Monterey. Steinbeck hurried west, but he was too late. Ricketts died from injuries sustained from the accident on May 11, 1948.
Ricketts's death devastated Steinbeck since the two men had shared a close working relationship as well as personal friendship. “We worked and thought together very closely for a number of years so that I grew to depend on his knowledge and on his patience in research,” Steinbeck writes in “About Ed Ricketts.” “And then I went away to another part of the country but it didn't make any difference. Once a week or once a month would come a fine long letter so much in the style of his speech that I could hear his voice over the neat page full of small elite type... It wasn't Ed who died but a large and important part of oneself.” (Steinbeck 315-316) Shortly before Ricketts's death, Steinbeck and Ricketts had planned another collecting expedition together, this time to British Columbia. The resulting book was to be calledThe Outer Shores and would have focused on marine life near Alaska.
Immediately after returning to New York after Ricketts's funeral, Steinbeck faced another blow. After nearly six years of marriage, Gwyn Steinbeck asked for a divorce. The divorce, combined with the shock of Ricketts's death, sent Steinbeck into a long depression. He returned to the cabin in Pacific Grove and threw himself into his work.
Late career:
In 1949, the actress Ann Sothern visited Steinbeck in Pacific Grove over Memorial Day weekend. She brought along a friend, Elaine Scott, who would become Steinbeck's third and final wife. Less than a week after Elaine's divorce from the actor Zachary Scott became final, the couple married on December 28, 1950, and moved into 206 East 72nd Street in New York City, Steinbeck's home for the next 13 years.
Early in 1951, Steinbeck began work on a novel he had planned for years. Steinbeck intended what would become East of Eden to be the “big work” of his career. As he explains to Pascal Covici in the diary he wrote concurrently with the novel (later published as Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters) Steinbeck addressed East of Eden to his sons:
I am choosing to write this book to my sons. They are little boys now and they will never know what they came from through me, unless I tell them...I want them to know how it was, I want to tell them directly, and perhaps by speaking directly to them I shall speak directly to other people... And so I will tell them one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest story of all—the story of good and evil, of strength and weakness, of love and hate, of beauty and ugliness... I shall tell them this story against the background of the county I grew up in.
Early in 1951, Steinbeck began work on a novel he had planned for years. Steinbeck intended what would become East of Eden to be the “big work” of his career. As he explains to Pascal Covici in the diary he wrote concurrently with the novel (later published as Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters) Steinbeck addressed East of Eden to his sons:
I am choosing to write this book to my sons. They are little boys now and they will never know what they came from through me, unless I tell them...I want them to know how it was, I want to tell them directly, and perhaps by speaking directly to them I shall speak directly to other people... And so I will tell them one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest story of all—the story of good and evil, of strength and weakness, of love and hate, of beauty and ugliness... I shall tell them this story against the background of the county I grew up in.
Set primarily in the Salinas Valley, East of Eden is based roughly on Steinbeck's own family history, pairing the story of the Hamiltons, Steinbeck's maternal ancestors who settled in California with biblical allegory. The novel took nearly a year to complete, and was finally published in 1952. Shortly after, Elia Kazan directed the film version, which starred James Dean in his debut performance.The completion of East of Eden gave Steinbeck some leeway in the mid-fifties to concentrate on one of his life-long ambitions: writing a translation of Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur for twentieth century readers. To facilitate his research, Steinbeck spent ten months in Somerset, England with Elaine, gathering material and working on the translation. Although the work was never completed in Steinbeck's lifetime, he would continue researching the project for the next decade.
“In the Fall...I'm going to learn about my own country,” Steinbeck writes to a friend in 1960. On September 23, in his camper truck aptly named Rocinante, and with standard poodly Charley in tow, Steinbeck embarked on his quixotic journey across America, attempting to remain anonymous and meet as many people as he could in diners, bars, truck stops, and fishing holes along the way.
As he writes in the resulting book, Travels with Charley , published in 1962, Steinbeck's journey was inspired by his realization that he no longer knew his own country:I, an American writer, writing about America, was working from memory, and the memory at best is a faulty, warpy reservoir. I had not heard the speech of America, smelled the grass and trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, its color and quality of light. I knew the changes only from books and newspapers. But more than this, I had not felt the country for twenty-five years.
Travels with Charley chronicles this trip of roughly 10,000 miles across the outer border of the United States. The tone of the work marks a dramatic shift from Steinbeck’s immediately previous novels, and the travelogue came out to mixed reviews. However, in writing about America from a distinctly observational but highly sympathetic standpoint, Steinbeck returns to familiar ground.
The Winter of Our Discontent , Steinbeck’s last work published in his lifetime, came out to mixed reviews in 1961. Set in New England, the work examines moral decline in America, as protagonist Ethan Allen Hawley recognizes the disintegration of his own morality as well as the corruption of those around him.
The Winter of Our Discontent , Steinbeck’s last work published in his lifetime, came out to mixed reviews in 1961. Set in New England, the work examines moral decline in America, as protagonist Ethan Allen Hawley recognizes the disintegration of his own morality as well as the corruption of those around him.
In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and social perception,” as Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Anders Osterling commented in his presentation speech. In 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson, with whom the writer was personally acquainted.Perhaps due to his friendship with Johnson, or perhaps because both of his sons were serving overseas, Steinbeck was uncharacteristically supportive of the Vietnam War. (Parini, 565). In 1967, Steinbeck even traveled to Vietnam to report on the war for Newsday. He managed to visit his younger son on the battlefield, and was even allowed to man a machine-gun watch position while his son and other members of the platoon slept. (Steinbeck)
Throughout the mid-Sixties, Steinbeck’s health continued to decline. He suffered increasingly frequent episodes resembling mini-strokes, and eventually died at his home in New York City on December 20, 1968.
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