Collectible Book Store

(February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, he wrote Of Mice and Men (1937) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), both of which examine the lives of the working class and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and subsequent Great Depression.

Steinbeck often populated his stories with struggling characters, and his stories drew on real historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century. His body of work reflects his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and mythology.

Seventeen of his works, including Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films (some appeared multiple times, i.e. as remakes), and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.

 

Major Works

 

Of Mice and Men

For more details on this topic, see 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

For more details on this topic, see 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

For more details on this topic, see 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

For more details on this topic, see Travels With Charley: In Search of America.
In 1960, Steinbeck bought a pickup truck and had it modified with a custom-built camper top - rare for that day - and drove across the United States with his faithful 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, California.

 

 

• 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)
• The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1941)
• The Moon Is Down (1942)
• Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team (1942)
• Cannery Row (1945)
• The Pearl (1947)
• East of Eden (1952)
• The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957)