Talk:John Steinbeck

Me, as the reader, I would like to hear about John's children especially John IV because I have a research paper that is due and the specific fact I picked to write on was Johns' sons addiction to drugs. It would be very beneficial for your programmer to put this kind of information on your sight, this update will get your site better known out in the world wide web. That's just my understanding, but believe me it's only opinion. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 167.7.251.168 (talk • contribs) 19:07, 26 March 2004 (UTC)

Rampant Vandalism

Someone is adding irrelevant and chat-room like text to the page.168.169.90.135 13:59, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

User "Dewbe lover" vandalized the side with private pictures--Kmhkmh 16:45, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Somebody wrote stuff about Steinbeck being married to "Ryan Seacrest", "Derek Jeter (ex husnabd of A-Rod)". This is ridiculous. Somebody ban those people. The librarians at my school found this, and I was trying to get on to fix it. A nod to whoever got there first. T.z0n3 18:19, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Steinbeck Writing

Does anyone know why Steinbeck wrote stories about poverty stricked people? It has always made me wonder, and I hope I could find this out.

                           ~Kat~

P.S How did he die? Was it just old age? I mean, he wasn't exactly old when he died. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.188.16.31 (talk • contribs) 14:10, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

He died of heart disease. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.125.160.100 (talk • contribs) 21:50, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

My educated guess is that Steinbeck probably had a heartattack because of guilt and karma.

It seems that he wrote about poverty because the ideas for the novel/film Grapes of Wrath were "coincidentally" similiar to those of a woman writer who actually lived through the Dust Bowl migration and had written about her first hand experience and was seeking a publishing deal for her work from Random House. "Coincidentally, a year later Steinbeck came out with what is reputed as "his best work." So, whose best work is it really? You be the judge.

Steinbeck obviously had no firsthand experience. The woman seeking a Random House deal wrote newpaper articles for large newspapers and worked for the government farm assistance program because it was a cause dear to her heart. She had firsthand experience having literally lived in a dirt hole in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl as a child being so terribly poor. She knew some of the same publishers and government officials as he did and she later married a filmmaker. She was very upset when Random House denied her a publishing deal for her book about the same subject as Steinbeck's Grapes book. His book came out a year after she started making her notes on the subject while working for the government program. How coincidental is that? She went homeless for awhile living in Lafayette Park before she got a writing job in radio. The woman who belonged to a circle of writer friends also went to the Soviet Union a year before Steinbeck did.

Intellectual property theft is nothing more than oppression of womankind. Steal from women and give the credit and profits to men instead. It's the classic way women are denied credit and profit. It's a tenet of patriarchy and capitalism. You can read the article in the LA Times (today) January 8, 2006 about writer Sonora Babb whose work about the Dust Bowl was just released only last year. They made sure she realized no satisfaction or profits from it. The men milked all the life out of that idea. How nice to give her credit one year before her death at age 98. Truly generous. Make sure any college papers discuss this "timely coincidence" and the connections of those in the highest levels of media publishing and government. Make sure you give me credit for orginating the idea and making the connection before you run with it as your own revalation. They know they were ruled by Queens of England, do you think they are going to give us a thing? Even what is rightfully ours? I'm currently pursuing a lawsuit against a top TV show whose writer stole my work and is claiming it as his own. He's a self-admitted self-loather who was living in poverty, obese and stated he was too old to continue writing. While I had every belief in my work and in myself. His interviews to the media are lies upon lies. Hopefully, I won't end up like Sonora Babb.

LBJ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.200.116.10 (talk • contribs) 01:11, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Is there any hard evidence to suggest that Grapes of Wrath was stolen by Steinbeck? If so, it should be added to the article.12.17.189.77 18:18, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Considering that this person is clearly very upset about something unrelated to Steinbeck and seems to have a problem with men in general, I doubt it. They also didn't cite a source. Atropos 05:56, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

As far as I'm concerned this is just conspiracy theory. It's not as if the Grapes of Wrath is a gigantic (hardly a minimal) breakaway from his previous work. Devin

According to Steinbeck's America and Americans - and Selected Nonfiction, Steinbeck did report (for various newspapers), about the conditions in work camps, many of the themes/concepts that appeared in these articles later appeared in his novels, including Grapes of Wrath.ShaiM 03:36, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Introduction

I think the introduction needs to be reworked. It's too scattered. Suggestions, anyone? --Todeswalzer 15:57, August 2, 2005 (UTC)

Why don't you propose something here? --Guinnog 19:30, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Pascal Covici

Interesting that this is the biographical collaboration of the week--I just wrote an article about his longtime editor and publisher. The article, now however, seems hard to navigate. Do you think we could squeeze in a link while mentioning his move to Viking? Tfine80 04:01, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

link to cannery row

the link on this page to 'cannery row' links to a page about the town/community that also mentions the novel, it does not link to a page about the novel itself - this should be fixed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.91.198.6 (talk • contribs) 21:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Since the Cannery Row article has referred to the location since it was created in 2002, I updated the links about the novel to point to the surprisingly absent Cannery Row (novel). — RandallJones 00:19, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Christhealthy?

I find no definition for the word 'christhealthy' in the section on 'Critical success'Johnor 10:08, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Death

The article does not discuss his death at all, could someone please add it? I've heard a (not very trustworthy) claim that he committed a suicide while someone else claimed that he died because of a heart attack. Thanks, Pasky 21:14, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Trivia

According to Patrick Robertson in The Guinness Book of Film Records, the film version of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was dubbed into Russian and broadcast on television in the Soviet Union, in an attempt by the Soviet government to convince Soviet citizens that the (impoverished) Joad family were typical Americans, and that the poverty conditions in the Dust Bowl were an accurate depiction of the U.S. economy. This plan backfired: most of the Soviet viewers envied the Joad family, who (by Soviet standards) were wealthy!

Um, source? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Enlight (talk • contribs) 09:14, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

1940's-1950's

It might just be me, but it seemed to me when I was reading this article that this section seems more like an outline of his career after The Grapes of Wrath and isn't given the attention seen in the rest of the article. Therefore, I put up a sectstub notice. Gershwinrb 09:53, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

1960's-1970's

I question the POV of this section. Make amends to his sons for what? This is an encyclopedia, not a political screed.--Buckboard 08:08, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree; this sentence requires an explanation, a source, and a POV (and grammar) clean-up; alternatively it should be removed. Ron g 18:42, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Article Cleanup

I tagged this for cleanup because it seems very sparce, especially considering that it is about one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. The article reads like a laundry list of factoids, rather than a biographical article. It's also incomplete, it doesn't even make mention of how he died. I don't know much about Steinbeck, so any help here would be appreciated. -- Fogelmatrix 16:45, 06 November 2006 (UTC)

Gay Marriage Advocate?

I removed this from the early life and works section: "John Steinbeck also was an advocate for gay marriage in the early 1900's. Many deny this alleged focus, but numerous cite that this was factual." because it was uncited and is poorly-written. Doonhamer 00:28, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Good work, I missed that in my last revert. --Guinnog 01:26, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Need images

Are there any good images out there that are either licensed or public? It would be great to have something more than a sculpture of his bust. − Twas Now 09:54, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Where did he live

I am a kid doing a report on John Steinbeck, and it would be nice to know where he lived after he moved to new york. I had to do tons of other research to discover that he went back to california in the mid 30s Wassuppeople 05:30, 1 March 2007 (UTC)AceWassuppeople 05:30, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Steinbeck was NOT a First-Generation American

The current article reads: "Steinbeck, who was born to John Ernst Steinbeck II (a first-generation American of German and Irish descent)..."

From where on earth did that statement come? John Ernst Steinbeck II was born to John Ernst Steinbeck, of FLORIDA, and Olive Hamilton, of SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA. John II most definitely was NOT a first-generation American. His grandfather, John Adolph Grossteinbeck, was a native of Germany. His paternal grandmother, Almira Ann Dickenson, had ancestors in Massacusetts back as far as the early 17th century. His maternal grandparents may have been Irish; they may have immigrated to Ontario, Canada, where Olive's older brother was born.

A simple search of census records or John II's death record will provide these same facts about his parents.

Watbull 10:25, 26 February 2007 (UTC)watbull

Since you've clearly researched this, you should just Be Bold and fix it. I've done so for you. --DrGaellon (talk | contribs) 16:09, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Pancakes

John Steinbeck ate pancakes. Why is this not in the article? 205.155.216.42 19:17, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Minor grammatical error

According to Thom Steinbeck, the older son of the author, the motivation for Travels with Charley was that Steinbeck knew he was dying and wanted to see his country one last time.

"older" should read "elder".

--Purple Aubergine 09:51, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Trivia Issues

May I bring up an idea to incorporate the trivia section into the article?

Some of it seems irrelevant to Steinbeck.

Dwnts 13:03, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

more things

i thinck you should add things like the red pony full name, full name of john steinbeck, what type of work is it, genere, the book language, the time and place, the date of publication, the publisher, narrator, the setting facing time and place

This things are all for the book´´The Red Pony´´

i would really apresiate if this could be putten in fastly

thanks a lot —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 200.106.204.143 (talk) 21:51, 11 April 2007 (UTC).

things

Could anybody link "stanford university" back to the stanford wiki?

Copying

I found the same sentances and words on another site. The person who wrote this oviously copied it.