John Steinbeck

What is the nature of John Steinbeck’s medieval interest, especially in Tortilla Flat?

What is the basis of the friendship of George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men?

What distinguishes the social criticism of The Grapes of Wrath from Marxist-inspired social criticism of the 1930’s?

Are the Joads of The Grapes of Wrath typical migrant laborers?

What factors led critics to downgrade Steinbeck’s fiction after The Grapes of Wrath?

What conclusions about the United States does Steinbeck reach as a result of the journey described in Travels with Charley: In Search of America?

Besides two volumes of short fiction, John Steinbeck produced numerous novels, among which is his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). He also authored several screenplays and three dramas, two of which were based on his novels, Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Moon Is Down (1942). Among his nonfiction are several travel books and a collection of war sketches. His last work was a translation of Sir Thomas Malory’s Arthurian stories. A volume of letters was published posthumously.

John Steinbeck assumes an important place in American literature chiefly for his powerful and deft portrayal of the common people—the migrant worker, the ranch hand, and the laborer—whose capacity for survival surpassed the attempts of economic and corporate forces to defeat them. His novels, especially, render the human condition with sensitivity and lyrical grace. His work often shows a versatility unrivaled among his contemporaries. The comic, the tragic, the whimsical, and the naturalistic all merge in such a way as to make Steinbeck one of the United States’ most popular writers, one whose art form is particularly suited to the cinema. Many of his books have been turned into successful films. Though much of Steinbeck’s best work was written in the 1930’s, he is not only a propagandist of the Great Depression era but also a writer who is deeply concerned with the dignity of human beings. A human being as an individual may pass away, but the human being as a group, humankind as a species, is immortal. As Ma Joad remarked in the final pages of The Grapes of Wrath: “We’re the people. We go on.”

In addition to his seventeen novels, John Steinbeck published a story collection, The Long Valley (1938), and a few other uncollected or separately printed stories. His modern English translations of Sir Thomas Malory’s Arthurian tales were published posthumously in 1976. Three plays he adapted from his novels were published as well as performed on Broadway: Of Mice and Men (pr. 1937), The Moon Is Down (pr. 1942), and Burning Bright (pr. 1951). Three of the six film treatments or screenplays he wrote have been published: The Forgotten Village (1941), A Medal for Benny (1945), and Viva Zapata! (1952). The other three—Lifeboat (1944), The Pearl (1945), and The Red Pony (1949)—also were produced as films, the latter two adapted from his own novels. His nonfiction is voluminous, and much of it remains uncollected. The more important nonfiction books include Sea of Cortez (1941, with Edward F. Ricketts), Bombs Away (1942), A Russian Journal (1948, with Robert Capa), Once There Was a War (1958), Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962), America and Americans (1966), Journal of a Novel (1969), and Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (1975; Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, editors).

From the publication of his first best seller, Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck was a popular and widely respected American writer. His three earlier novels were virtually ignored, but the five books of fiction published between 1935 and 1939 made him the most important literary spokesperson for the Depression decade. In Dubious Battle, The Red Pony, and Of Mice and Men established him as a serious writer, and his masterwork, The Grapes of Wrath, confirmed him as a major talent. During these years, his popular and critical success rivaled that of any of his contemporaries.

Although his immense popularity, public recognition, and the impressive sales of his...