| | '''John Steinbeck''' (b.1902 in Salinas, California - d.1968 in [[NYC]]) was an [[American]] author known for describing human suffering, particularly among migrant workers. He was masculine in his style, and a supporter of the [[Vietnam War]] who admired some of the military weaponry. Steinbeck's writings generally reflect, with one notable exception, a higher respect for prostitutes (of whom there were many in his novels) than socially accepted women. He wrote 16 novels, 6 non-fiction books, and 5 compilations of short stories. | | '''John Steinbeck''' (b.1902 in Salinas, California - d.1968 in [[NYC]]) was an [[American]] author known for describing human suffering, particularly among migrant workers. He was masculine in his style, and a supporter of the [[Vietnam War]] who admired some of the military weaponry. Steinbeck's writings generally reflect, with one notable exception, a higher respect for prostitutes (of whom there were many in his novels) than socially accepted women. He wrote 16 novels, 6 non-fiction books, and 5 compilations of short stories. |
| − | Steinbeck's writing was inspired by the scenic beauty of his working-class home town of Salinas, located in the Salinas Valley and dubbed the "Salad Bowl of the Nation." Steinbeck's novels contained characters inspired by real persons, such as Cathy (the evil woman in ''East of Eden''), who was supposedly based on his reportedly unfaithful second wife Gwyndolyn Conger, and four characters in Steinbeck's books were based entirely on his friend Ed Ricketts, whose death from being hit by a train in nearly Monterey in 1948 was devastating both to Steinbeck and his future written work.<ref>https://prabook.com/web/john.steinbeck/721128</ref> | + | Steinbeck's writing was inspired by the scenic beauty of his working-class home town of Salinas, located in the Salinas Valley and dubbed the "Salad Bowl of the Nation." Steinbeck's novels contained characters inspired by real persons, such as Cathy (the evil woman in ''East of Eden''), who was supposedly based on his reportedly unfaithful second wife Gwyndolyn Conger, and four characters in Steinbeck's books were based entirely on his friend Ed Ricketts, whose death from being hit by a train in nearly Monterey in 1948 was devastating both to Steinbeck and his subsequent written work.<ref>https://prabook.com/web/john.steinbeck/721128</ref> |
| | Steinbeck attended [[Stanford University]] without graduating. He wrote the [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novel about a migrant family entitled ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1939), which was the best-selling book of that year with sales of 430,000 by February 1940. He also wrote fifteen other novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories. In 1962 Steinbeck received the [[Nobel Prize]] for Literature. On the personal side, he forced his first wife to have an [[abortion]] against her desire to keep the baby; the abortion was botched to her severe harm.<ref>https://thebridgehead.ca/2020/01/10/how-the-curse-of-abortion-has-haunted-americas-literary-greats/</ref> They divorced in 1943, and soon afterwards Steinbeck married Gwedolyn “Gwyn” Conger, a 20-year-old jazz singer 17 years younger than Steinbeck, and they had two children. In 1948 they divorced, and in 1950 Steinbeck married his third wife, Elaine Scott.<ref>https://sits.sjsu.edu/context/influencers/</ref> | | Steinbeck attended [[Stanford University]] without graduating. He wrote the [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novel about a migrant family entitled ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1939), which was the best-selling book of that year with sales of 430,000 by February 1940. He also wrote fifteen other novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories. In 1962 Steinbeck received the [[Nobel Prize]] for Literature. On the personal side, he forced his first wife to have an [[abortion]] against her desire to keep the baby; the abortion was botched to her severe harm.<ref>https://thebridgehead.ca/2020/01/10/how-the-curse-of-abortion-has-haunted-americas-literary-greats/</ref> They divorced in 1943, and soon afterwards Steinbeck married Gwedolyn “Gwyn” Conger, a 20-year-old jazz singer 17 years younger than Steinbeck, and they had two children. In 1948 they divorced, and in 1950 Steinbeck married his third wife, Elaine Scott.<ref>https://sits.sjsu.edu/context/influencers/</ref> |