Essays on John Steinbeck

February 27, 1902

December 20, 1968

Novelist, short story writer, war correspondent

• Of Mice and Men (1937)
• The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
• East of Eden (1952)

• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1940)
• Nobel Prize in Literature (1962)

• “All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal.”
• “I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found.”
• “My imagination will get me a passport to hell one day.”

February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968

John Steinbeck was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception." He has been called "a giant of American letters."

“Cannery Row”, “Cup of Gold”, “East of Eden”, “In Dubious Battle”, “Lifeboat”, “Of Mice and Men”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “The Moon is Down”, “The Pearl”, “The Red Pony”, “Tortilla Flat”, “Travels with Charley: In Search of America”, “Viva Zapata!”

Steinbeck's works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

John Steinbeck is best known for The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which summed up the bitterness of the Great Depression decade and aroused widespread sympathy for the plight of migratory farmworkers.

“All great and precious things are lonely.”
“I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.”
“I believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. I guess a loving woman is indestructible.”