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John Steinbeck

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For other members of the family, see Steinbeck (disambiguation).
Harry Gulliver
OccupationNovelist, Short story writer, War Correspondent
Notable worksThe Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men[1]
Notable awardsNobel Prize in Literature
1962

Twitch sennet[2][3] (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, and the novella Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. In all, he wrote twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories. In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Biography

132 Central Avenue, Salinas, where Steinbeck lived until he was 17

John Ernst Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German and Irish descent. Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck (i.e., Grosssteinbeck), Steinbeck's grandfather, had shortened the family name from Großsteinbeck to Steinbeck when he migrated to the United States. The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Germany, is still today named "Großsteinbeck".

His father, John Steinbeck Sr., served as Monterey County Treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, a former school teacher, fostered Steinbeck's love of reading and writing.[4] Steinbeck lived in a small rural town that was essentially a rough-and-tumble frontier place, set amid some of the world's most fertile land.[5] He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrants on the huge Spreckels ranch. He became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature – material exploited in such works as Of Mice and Men.[5] He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields and farms. [5]

In 1919, Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University intermittently until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree. He traveled to New York City and did odd jobs while pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. When he failed to get his work published, he returned to California and worked as a handyman at Lake Tahoe.[4][6]

For many years, Steinbeck lived in a cottage in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula that was owned by his father, who supplied him with paper for his manuscripts.[7] In 1940, Steinbeck went on a voyage around the Gulf of California with his friend Ed Ricketts, collecting biological specimens. The Log from the Sea of Cortez describes his experiences on this trip.

In 1943, after thirteen years of marriage, Steinbeck divorced Carol Henning and married Gwyndolyn "Gwyn" Conger, with whom he had two children - Thomas ("Thom") Myles Steinbeck in 1944 and John Steinbeck IV (nicknamed "Catbird"), in 1946 (John IV died in 1991). Steinbeck and his second wife were divorced in 1948. Within a week of her divorce being finalized in December, 1950, Steinbeck married stage-manager Elaine (Anderson) Scott (1914-2003), the ex-wife of actor Zachary Scott, a marriage which lasted until his death in 1968.[8]

In 1948, Steinbeck toured the Soviet Union with renowned photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Batumi and Stalingrad. His book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, was illustrated with Capa's photos. That year, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Steinbeck's gravestone at Salinas cemetery

In 1966, Steinbeck traveled to Tel Aviv to visit the site of Mount Hope, a farm community established in Palestine by his grandfather, Friedrich Grosssteinbeck, who was murdered by Arab marauders on January 11, 1858. [9]

John Steinbeck died in New York City on December 20, 1968 of heart disease or heart attack. An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of the main coronary arteries.[8]

In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated and an urn containing his ashes was interred at his family gravesite at Garden of Memories Memorial Park in Salinas. His ashes were placed with those of the Hamiltons (grandparents). His third wife, Elaine, was buried with him in 2004.[10] He had earlier written to his doctor that he felt deeply "in his bones" that he would not survive his physical death, and that the biological end of his life was the final end to it.[10]

Literary career

Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, published in 1929, is based on the life and death of privateer Henry Morgan. It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of the city of Panama, sometimes referred to as the 'Cup of Gold', and on the woman, fairer than the sun, who was said to be found there.[8]

After Cup of Gold, between 1931 and 1933 Steinbeck produced three shorter works. The Pastures of Heaven, published in 1932, comprised twelve interconnected stories about a valley near Monterey, that was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway American Indian slaves. In 1933 Steinbeck published The Red Pony, a 100-page, four-chapter story weaving in memories of Steinbeck's childhood.[8] To a God Unknown follows the life of a homesteader and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works.

Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with the novel Tortilla Flat (1935), which won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal.[8] The book portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after World War I, just before U.S. prohibition. The characters, who are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest, reject nearly all the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life centered around wine, lust, camaraderie and petty theft. The book was made into the 1942 film Tortilla Flat, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield, a friend of Steinbeck's.

Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression. These included In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. Of Mice and Men, about the dreams of a pair of migrant laborers working the California soil, was critically acclaimed.[8]

The stage adaptation of Of Mice and Men was a hit, starring Broderick Crawford as the mentally child-like but physically powerful itinerant farmhand "Lennie," and Wallace Ford as Lennie's companion, "George." However, Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling Kaufman that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect" and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Steinbeck would write two more stage plays (The Moon Is Down and Burning Bright).

Of Mice and Men was rapidly adapted into a 1939 Hollywood film, in which Lon Chaney, Jr. (who had portrayed the role in the Los Angeles production of the play) was cast as Lennie and Burgess Meredith as "George."[11] Steinbeck followed this wave of success with The Grapes of Wrath (1939), based on newspaper articles he had written in San Francisco. The novel would be considered by many to be his finest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, even as it was made into a notable film directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who was nominated for an Academy Award for the part.

The success of The Grapes of Wrath was not free of controversy, as Steinbeck's liberal political views, portrayal of the negative side of capitalism, and mythical reinterpretation of the historical events of the Dust Bowl migrations led to backlash against the author, especially close to home.[12] In fact, claiming the book was both obscene and misrepresented conditions in the county, the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.[13]

Of the controversy, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the Okies hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might of this damned thing. It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy."

The film versions of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men (by two different movie studios) were in production simultaneously, allowing Steinbeck to spend a full day on the set of The Grapes of Wrath and the next day on the set of Of Mice and Men.

Ed Ricketts

File:EdRicketsLab.jpg
Ed Ricketts' lab at 800 Cannery Row
Ed Ricketts

In the 1930s and 1940s, Ed Ricketts strongly influenced Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast to collect biological specimens which Ricketts sold for a living and give Steinbeck time off from his writing.[10] His book about the journey did not sell well.[10]

Ricketts was Steinbeck's model for the character of "Doc" in Cannery Row (1945) and Sweet Thursday (1954), as well as characters in In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Ecological themes recur in Steinbeck's novels of the period.[14]

Steinbeck's close relations with Ricketts ended when Steinbeck moved away from Salinas and split with his wife Carol.[10] Ricketts' biographer Eric Enno Tamm notes that, except for East of Eden (1952), Steinbeck's writing declined after Ricketts' untimely death in 1948.[15]

World War II

During World War II, Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and worked with the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the CIA).[16] It was at that time he became friends with Will Lang Jr. of Time/Life magazine. During the war, Steinbeck accompanied the commando raids of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s Beach Jumpers program, which launched small-unit diversion operations against German-held islands in the Mediterranean. Some of his writings from this period were incorporated in the documentary Once There Was A War (1958). During the war, he wrote Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), and the film A Medal for Benny (1945), about paisanos from Tortilla Flat going to war. He later requested that his name be removed from the credits of Lifeboat because he believed the final version of the film had racist undertones.

His novel The Moon is Down (1942), about the Socrates-inspired spirit of resistance in a Nazi-occupied village in northern Europe, was made into a film almost immediately. It was presumed that the unnamed country of the novel was Norway, and in 1945 Steinbeck received the Haakon VII Medal of freedom for his literary contributions to the Norwegian resistance movement.

After the war, he wrote The Pearl (1947), already knowing it would be filmed. The story first appeared in the December 1945 issue of Woman's Home Companion magazine as "The Pearl of the World." It was illustrated by John Alan Maxwell. The novel is an imaginative telling of a story which Steinbeck had heard in La Paz, as related in The Log From the Sea of Cortez, which he described in Chapter 11 as being "so much like a parable that it almost can't be".[citation needed] Steinbeck traveled to Mexico for the filming; on this trip he would be inspired by the story of Emiliano Zapata, and subsequently wrote a film script (Viva Zapata!) directed by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn.

After his divorce from Gwyndolyn Conger and the death of Ed Ricketts (when his car was hit by a train), Steinbeck wrote East of Eden (1952), which he considered his best work.

In 1952, Steinbeck appeared as the on-screen narrator of 20th Century Fox's film, O. Henry's Full House. Although Steinbeck later admitted he was uncomfortable before the camera, he provided interesting introductions to several filmed adaptations of short stories by the legendary writer O. Henry. About the same time, Steinbeck recorded readings of several of his short stories for Columbia Records; despite some stiffness, the recordings provide a record of Steinbeck's deep, resonant voice.

Rocinante, camper truck in which Steinbeck traveled across the United States in 1960

Following the success of Viva Zapata!, Steinbeck collaborated with Kazan on East of Eden, James Dean's film debut.

Travels with Charley (subtitle: In Search of America) is a travelogue of his 1960 road trip with his poodle Charley. Steinbeck bemoans his lost youth and roots, while dispensing both criticism and praise for America. According to Steinbeck's son Thom, Steinbeck went on the trip because he knew he was dying and wanted to see the country one last time. [17]

Steinbeck's last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), examines moral decline in America. The protagonist Ethan grows discontented with his own moral decline and that of those around him.[18] The book is very different in tone from Steinbeck's amoral and ecological stance in earlier works like Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row. It was not a critical success. Many reviewers recognized the importance of the novel but were disappointed that it was not another Grapes of Wrath.[18]

Nobel Prize

Steinbeck (center), with 19 year-old son John (left), visits President Johnson in the Oval Office, May 16, 1966, a few weeks after John has completed Army bootcamp and will leave for Vietnam.

In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” Privately, he felt he did not deserve the honor.[citation needed] In his acceptance speech, he said:

the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.

— Steinbeck Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech[19]
File:SteinbeckStamp.JPG

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In September 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson.[20]

In 1967, at the behest of Newsday magazine, Steinbeck went to Vietnam to report on the war there. Thinking of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture, he was considered a hawk for his position on that war. His sons both served in Vietnam prior to his death, and Steinbeck visited one son in the battlefield (at one point being allowed to man a machine-gun watch position at night at a firebase, while his son and other members of his platoon slept). [21]

After Steinbeck's death, his incomplete novel based on the King Arthur legends, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, was finally published in 1976.

On Feb. 27, 1979, on what would have been his 77th birthday, he was honored by being placed on a U.S. postage stamp.

Legacy

National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California

The day after Steinbeck's death in New York City, reviewer Charles Poore wrote in the New York Times: "John Steinbeck's first great book was his last great book. But Good Lord, what a book that was and is: The Grapes of Wrath." Poore noted a "preachiness" in Steinbeck's work, "as if half his literary inheritance came from the best of Mark Twain— and the other half from the worst of Cotton Mather." But he asserted that "Steinbeck didn't need the Nobel Prize— the Nobel judges needed him."

Many of Steinbeck's works are on required reading lists in American high schools. In the United Kingdom, Of Mice and Men is one of the key texts used by the examining body AQA for its English Literature GCSE. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in public high schools.[22]

At the same time, The Grapes of Wrath has been banned by school boards: In August 1939, Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries.[23] It was burned in Salinas on two different occasions.[24][25] In 2003, a school board in Mississippi banned it on the grounds of profanity.[26] According to the American Library Association Steinbeck was one of the ten most frequently banned authors from 1990 to 2004, with Of Mice and Men ranking sixth out of 100 such books in the United States.[27][28]

Literary influences

Steinbeck grew up in California's Salinas Valley, a culturally diverse place with a rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place.[5][8] Salinas, Monterey and parts of the San Joaquin Valley were the setting for many of his stories. The area is now sometimes referred to as "Steinbeck Country".[10] Most of his early work dealt with subjects familiar to him from his formative years. An exception was his first novel, Cup of Gold, which concerns the pirate Henry Morgan, whose adventures had captured Steinbeck's imagination as a child.

In his subsequent novels, Steinbeck found a more authentic voice by drawing upon direct memories of his life in California. Later he used real American historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter. Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

His later work reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology. One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he took in 1960 to rediscover America.

Steinbeck's boyhood home, a turreted Victorian building in downtown Salinas, has been preserved and restored by the Valley Guild, a nonprofit organization. Fixed menu lunches are served Monday through Saturday, and the house is open for tours during the summer on Sunday afternoons.[29]

Cannery Row in Monterey

The National Steinbeck Center, two blocks away at One Main Street is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to a single author. Dana Gioia (chair of the National Endowment for the Arts) told an audience at the Center, "This is really the best modern literary shrine in the country, and I've seen them all." Its Steinbeckiana includes Rocinante, the camper truck in which Steinbeck made the cross-country trip described in "Travels with Charley."

His father's cottage on Eleventh Street in Pacific Grove, where Steinbeck wrote some of his earliest books, also survives.[10]

In Monterey, Ed Ricketts' laboratory survives (though it is not yet open to the public) and at the corner which Steinbeck describes in Cannery Row, also the store which once belonged to Lee Chong, and the adjacent vacant lot frequented by the hobos of Cannery Row. The sardine cannery next to Doc's lab closed down long ago and is now the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The town has commemorated Steinbeck's work with an avenue of flags depicting characters from Cannery Row and historical plaques.[10]

Commemoration

In 1979, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Steinbeck, starting the Postal Service’s Literary Arts series honoring American writers.[30]

On December 5, 2007 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Steinbeck into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.[31] His son, author Thomas Steinbeck, accepted the award on his behalf.

Political views

Steinbeck's contacts with leftist authors, journalists, and labor union figures may have influenced his writing. Steinbeck was mentored by radical writers Lincoln Steffens and his wife Ella Winter. Through Francis Whitaker, a member of the United States Communist Party’s John Reed Club for writers, Steinbeck met with strike organizers from the Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union.[32]

Steinbeck complained publicly about government harassment. In a 1942 letter to United States Attorney General Francis Biddle, he wrote: "Do you suppose you could ask Edgar's boys to stop stepping on my heels? They think I am an enemy alien. It is getting tiresome."[33] The FBI denied that Steinbeck was under investigation.

Steinbeck was screened by Army Intelligence Corps which found him unsuitable for an officer's commission. In later years, the left claimed he was not sufficiently committed to socialism. In 1955, his portrayal of the American left was criticized in the Daily Worker.[34]

In 1967, when he was sent to Vietnam to report on the war, his sympathetic portrayal of the United States Army led the New York Post to denounce him for betraying his liberal past. Steinbeck's biographer, Jay Parini, says Steinbeck's friendship with President Lyndon B. Johnson influenced his views on Vietnam.[8] Steinbeck may also have been concerned about the safety of his son serving in Vietnam.

Steinbeck was a close associate of playwright Arthur Miller. In June 1959, Steinbeck took a personal and professional risk by standing up for him when Miller refused to name names in the House Un-American Activities Committee trials.[24] Steinbeck called the period one of the "strangest and most frightening times a government and people have ever faced."[24]

Movies

Major Works

Of Mice and Men

Main article: Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men is a tragedy that was written in the form of a play in 1937. The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm/ranch. It encompasses themes of racism, loneliness, prejudice against the mentally ill, and the struggle for personal independence. Along with Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and The Pearl, Of Mice and Men is one of Steinbeck's best known works. It was made into a movie three times, in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., and Betty Field, in 1982 starring Randy Quaid, Robert Blake and Ted Neeley, and in 1992 starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.

The Grapes of Wrath

Main article: The Grapes of Wrath

The Grapes of Wrath was written in 1939 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. The book is set in the Great Depression and describes a family of sharecroppers, the Joads, who were driven from their land due to the dust storms of the Dust Bowl. The title is a reference to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The book was made into a film in 1940 starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.

East of Eden

Main article: East of Eden

Steinbeck deals with the nature of good and evil in this Salinas Valley saga. The story follows two families: the Hamiltons - based on Steinbeck's own maternal ancestry - and the Trasks, reprising stories about the Biblical Adam and his progeny. The book was published in 1952.

Travels With Charley

Main article: Travels With Charley: In Search of America

In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top - (named Rocinante after Don Quijotes 'noble steed') rare for that day - and drove across the United States with his faithful 'blue' poodle, Charley. In this sometimes comical, sometimes melancholic book, Steinbeck describes what he sees from Maine to Montana to California, and from there to Texas and Louisiana and back to his home in Long Island. The restored camper truck is on exhibit in the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.

Works

Posthumous:

Notes

  1. ^ The Nobel Prize in Literature 1962: Presentation Speech by Anders Österling, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, NobelPrize.org, retrieved 2008-04-21 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |influences= ignored (help)
  2. ^ French, Warren G. (1975). John Steinbeck. Twayne Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 0805706933.
  3. ^ St. Pierre, Brian (1983). John Steinbeck, the California years. Chronicle Books. p. 11. ISBN 0877012814.
  4. ^ a b National Steinbeck Centre, Biography Page, 2007 Cite error: The named reference "NSC" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c d Introduction to John Steinbeck, The Long Valley, pages 9 - 10, John Timmerman, Penguin Publishing, 1995
  6. ^ Introduction to 'The Grapes of Wrath' Penguin edition (1192) by Rober DeMott
  7. ^ Jackson J. Benson, John Steinbeck, writer (New York: The Viking Press, 1984), pgs. 147, 651)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h John Steinbeck: A Biography, Jay Parini, Holt Publishing, 1996
  9. ^ The mountain of despair
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Susan Shillinglaw (2006), A Journey into Steinbeck's California, Roaring Forties Press
  11. ^ "Of Mice and Men (1939)". The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  12. ^ Steibeck backlash of his portrayal of the depression, New Criterion, Accessed 2007
  13. ^ Steinbecks works banned, Accessed 2007
  14. ^ Bruce Robison, "Mavericks on Cannery Row," American Scientist, vol. 92, no. 6 (November–December 2004, p. 1: a review of Eric Enno Tamm, Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2004.
  15. ^ Bruce Robison, "Mavericks on Cannery Row," American Scientist, vol. 92, no. 6 (November–December 2004, p. 1.
  16. ^ Introduction to The Moon is Down (Penguin) published 1995, by Donald V. Coers
  17. ^ Steinbeck knew he was dying," September 13, 2006. Audio interview with Thom Steinbeck
  18. ^ a b The students companion to John Steinbeck, page 24, Cynthia Burkhead, Greenwood Press, 2002
  19. ^ Steinbeck Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
  20. ^ John Steinbeck, Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Medal of Freedom Recipients, Accessed 2007
  21. ^ See Steinbeck, A Life in Letters.
  22. ^ Books taught in Schools, Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature. Accessed 2007
  23. ^ Steinbeck Book Ban, Accessed 2007
  24. ^ a b c John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography, Jackson J. Benson , Penguin, 1990
  25. ^ The Grapes of Wrath Burnt in Salinas, National Steinbeck Centre, Accessed 2007
  26. ^ Steinbecks work banned in Mississippi 2003, American Library Association, Accessed 2007
  27. ^ Steinbeck 10 most most banned list, American Library Association, Accessed 2007
  28. ^ 100 Most Frequently banned books in the U.S., American Library Association, Accessed 2007
  29. ^ John Steinbeck's Home and Birthplace, Information Point, Accessed 2007
  30. ^ "Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Gets 'Stamp of Approval'". United States Postal Service. 2008-02-21. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
  31. ^ Steinbeck inducted into California Hall of Fame, California Museum, Accessed 2007
  32. ^ Steinbeck and radicalism New Criterion, Accessed 2007
  33. ^ Steinbeck Political Beliefs, Smoking Gun Part 1, Accessed 2007
  34. ^ Steinbeck Political Beliefs, Smoking Gun Part 2, Accessed 2007

References

  • DeMott, Robert and Steinbeck, Elaine A., eds. John Steinbeck, Novels and Stories 1932-1937 (Library of America, 1994) ISBN 978-1-88301101-7
  • DeMott, Robert and Steinbeck, Elaine A., eds. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1936-1941 (Library of America, 1996) ISBN 978-1-88301115-4
  • DeMott, Robert, ed. John Steinbeck, Novels 1942-1952 (Library of America, 2002) ISBN 978-1-93108207-5
  • DeMott, Robert and Railsback, Brian, eds. John Steinbeck, Travels With Charlie and later novels, 1947-1962 (Library of America, 2007) ISBN 978-1-59853-004-9
  • Benson, Jackson J., ed. The Short Novels Of John Steinbeck: Critical Essays with a Checklist to Steinbeck Criticism. Durham: Duke UP, 1990. PS3537 .T3234 Z8666
  • Davis, Robert C. The Grapes of Wrath: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982. PS3537 .T3234 G734
  • French, Warren. John Steinbeck's Fiction Revisited. NY: Twayne, 1994.
  • Hughes, R. S. John Steinbeck: A Study of the Short Fiction. R.S. Hughes. Boston : Twayne, 1989. PS3537 .T3234 Z7147
  • Meyer, Michael J. The Hayashi Steinbeck Bibliography, 1982-1996. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 1998.
  • Benson, Jackson J. Looking for Steinbeck's Ghost. Reno: U of Nevada P, 2002.
  • Ditsky, John. John Steinbeck and the Critics. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2000.
  • Heavilin, Barbara A. John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: A Reference Guide. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
  • Li, Luchen. ed. John Steinbeck: A Documentary Volume. Detroit: Gale, 2005.
  • Parini, Jay,. John Steinbeck: A Biography, , Holt Publishing, 1996.
  • Robison, Bruce, "Mavericks on Cannery Row," American Scientist, vol. 92, no. 6 (November–December 2004, p. 1: a review of Eric Enno Tamm, Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2004.
  • Tamm, Eric Enno (2005) Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 9781560256892.
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