John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck (b.1902 in Salinas, California - d.1968 in NYC) was an American author. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), along with fifteen other novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories. In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He forced his first wife to have an abortion, against her desire to keep the baby, which was then botched to her severe harm.

Steinbeck grew up in and spent most of his writing career in California. Some of his works have been made into movies, including Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), Of Mice and Men (1939) and East of Eden (1952) (which was turned into a successful movie). Steinbeck was successful as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.

Steinbeck's books were highly controversial and have been the subject of many attempts at censorship, both by the left and the right. Of Mice and Men is number six on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently censored books, 1990-2000. The Grapes of Wrath is also a frequent target of censors.

John Steinbeck died in New York City on December 20, 1968, of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He was 66, and had been a lifelong smoker. An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of the main coronary arteries.

Legacy

The National Steinbeck Center to continue Steinbeck's legacy is located in the center of Salinas, California, where Steinbeck was born. It is situated 17 miles east by car of Monterey and 60 miles south by car of San Jose.

Partial Bibliography

• Cup of Gold (1929)
• The Pastures of Heaven (1932)
• The Red Pony (1933)
• To a God Unknown (1933)
• Tortilla Flat (1935)
• The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath (1936)
• In Dubious Battle (1936)
• Of Mice and Men (1937)
• The Long Valley (1938)
• The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
• Forgotten Village (1941)
• Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941)
• The Moon Is Down (1942)
• Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team (1942)
• Cannery Row (1945)
• The Wayward Bus (1947)
• The Pearl (1947)
• A Russian Journal (1948)
• Burning Bright (1950)
• The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
• East of Eden (1952)
• Sweet Thursday (1954)
• The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957)
• Once There Was A War (1958)
• The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
• Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
• America and Americans (1966)

Posthumous publishings include:

• Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)
• Viva Zapata! (1975)
• The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)
• Workings Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989)

References

• http://www.steinbeck.org/MainFrame.html - John Steinbeck Center
• http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html - Biography
• http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-bio.html - Nobel Prize Laureates