John Steinbeck
(1902–1968)

Reflecting the influence of the Naturalists, John Steinbeck generally portrayed working-class characters that were manipulated by forces beyond their understanding or control. Although many of his characters suffered tragic fates, they almost always managed to retain a sense of dignity throughout their struggles.

Steinbeck was born in Salina, California, the son of a county official and a schoolteacher. The people and the landscape of the area in northern California where he grew up eventually inspired many of the characters and settings of his literary works. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Stanford University. He left before graduating, however, and spent the next five years drifting across the country, reading, writing, and working at odd jobs.

Steinbeck had little success as a writer until 1935 when he published Tortilla Flat, his third novel. Two years later he earned widespread recognition and critical acclaim with the publication of Of Mice and Men. This novel, which portrays two drifters whose dream of owning their own farm ends in tragedy, became a best seller and was made into a Broadway play and a motion picture. Steinbeck then went on to write what is generally regarded as his finest novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), the accurate and emotional story of the Okies, Oklahoma farmers dispossessed of their land and forced to become migrant farmers in California. The novel won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and established Steinbeck as one of the most highly regarded writers of his day.

Steinbeck produced several more successful works during his later years, including Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), East of Eden (1951), and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961). In 1963, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In nearly all of his works Steinbeck creates vivid portraits of the landscape and demonstrates how people are shaped and manipulated by their environments. At the same time, his works reflect his belief in the need for social justice and his hope that people can learn from the suffering of others.

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