John Steinbeck Biography

In 1925 he went to New York, where he tried for a few years to establish himself as a free-lance writer, but he failed and returned to California. After publishing some novels and short stories, Steinbeck first became widely known with "Tortilla Flat" (1935), a series of humorous stories about "Monterey paisanos". Steinbeck's novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labour, but there is also a streak of worship of the soil in his books, which does not always agree with his matter-of-fact sociological approach. After the rough and earthy humour of "Tortilla Fla"t, he moved on to more serious fiction, often aggressive in its social criticism, to "In Dubious Battle "(1936), which deals with the strikes of the migratory fruit pickers on California plantations. This was followed by" Of Mice and Men" (1937), the story of the imbecile giant Lennie, and a series of admirable short stories collected in the volume "The Long Valley" (1938). In 1939 he published what is considered his best work, "The Grapes of Wrath", the story of Oklahoma tenant farmers who, unable to earn a living from the land, moved to California where they became migratory workers. Among his later works should be mentioned "East of Eden" (1952), "The Winter of Our Discontent" (1961), and "Travels with Charle"y (1962), a travelogue in which Steinbeck wrote about his impressions during a three-month tour in a truck that led him through forty American states. He died in New York City in 1968. Bibliography: Cup of Gold 1929 The Pastures of Heaven 1932 The Red Pony 1933 To a God Unknown 1933 Tortilla Flat 1935 In Dubious Battle 1936 Of Mice and Men 1937 The Long Valley 1938 The Grapes of Wrath 1939 The Forgotten Village 1941 Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research 1941 The Moon Is Down 1942 Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team 1942 Cannery Row 1945 The Wayward Bus 1947 The Pearl 1947 A Russian Journal 1948 Burning Bright 1950 The Log from the Sea of Cortez 1951 East of Eden 1952 Sweet Thursday 1954 The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication 1957 Once There Was A War 1958 The Winter of Our Discontent 1961 Travels with Charley: In Search of America 1962 America and Americans 1966 Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters 1969 Viva Zapata! 1975 Steinbeck: A Life in Letters 1975 The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights 1976 Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath 1989 Steinbeck in Vietnam: Dispatches from the War 2012