John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902 of German and Irish ancestry. His father, John Steinbeck, Sr., served as the County Treasurer while his mother, Olive (Hamilton) Steinbeck, a former school teacher, fostered Steinbeck's love of reading and the written word. During summers he worked as a hired hand on nearby ranches, nourishing his impression of the California countryside and its people.
After graduating from Salinas High School in 1919, Steinbeck attended Stanford University. Originally an English major, he pursued a program of independent study and his attendance was sporadic. During this time he worked periodically at various jobs and left Stanford permanently in 1925 to pursue his writing career in New York. However, he was unsuccessful in getting any of his writing published and finally returned to California.
His first novel, Cup of Gold was published in 1929, but attracted little attention. His two subsequent novels, The Pastures of Heaven and To a God Unknown, were also poorly received by the literary world.
Steinbeck married his first wife, Carol Henning in 1930. They lived inPacific Grove where much of the material for Tortilla Flat and Cannery Rowwas gathered. Tortilla Flat (1935) marked the turning point in Steinbeck's literary career. It received the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal for best novel by a California author. Steinbeck continued writing, relying upon extensive research and his personal observation of the human condition for his stories. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) won the Pulitzer Prize.
During World War II, Steinbeck was a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune. Some of his dispatches were later collected and made into Once There Was a War.
John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 "...for his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and a keen social perception."
Throughout his life John Steinbeck remained a private person who shunned publicity. He died December 20, 1968, in New York City and is survived by his third wife, Elaine (Scott) Steinbeck and one son. His ashes were placed in the Garden of Memories Cemetery in Salinas.
"Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species...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 passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."
- John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
SourceThis information was obtained from the web site maintained by the National Steinbeck Center.
John Steinbeck: A Brief Chronology
1902 On February 27, John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. He was the third of four children and the only son of John Ernst II and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck. He spent his childhood and adolescence in the Salinas Valley, later called "the salad bowl of the nation."
1915-19 Attended Salinas High School
1919-25 Attended classes at Stanford University, leaving without taking a degree. During these years, Steinbeck dropped out for several months and was employed intermittently as a sales clerk, farm laborer, ranch hand, and factory worker.
1925 November, traveled by freighter from Los Angeles to New York City; worked as a construction laborer and, briefly, for the New York American.
1926-28 Lived in Lake Tahoe, California and worked as a caretaker for a summer home.
1929 August, publication of first novel, Cup of Gold, by McBride (New York).
1930 January 14, marries Carol Henning. October, meets Edward F. Ricketts, marine biologist, philosopher, longtime friend.
1932 October, novel, The Pastures of Heaven, published by Brewer, Warren, and Putnam (New York).
1933 September, novel, To A God Unknown published by Ballou (New York).
1934 Gathers information on farm labor unions. Interviews labor organizer in Seaside.
1935 May 28, first popular success, novel Tortilla Flat about Monterey's paisanos. Published by Covici-Friede (New York); beginning of lifelong friendship with editor Pascal Covici.
1936 October, novel, In Dubious Battle, about striking workers. Published by Covici-Friede.
1937 February 6, play-novelette, Of Mice and Men published by Covici-Friede; Summer, first trip to Europe and Russia; September, The Red Pony, three connected stories, published by Covici-Friede; November 23, New York opening of the play Of Mice and Men (207 performances).
1938 April, Their Blood Is Strong, a nonfiction account of the migrant labor problem in California, published by the Simon J. Lubin Society (San Francisco); May, receives the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the play Of Mice and Men; September, short story collection, The LongValley, incorporating The Red Pony (1937), published by Viking (New York), where Pascal Covici became an editor after the bankruptcy of his own firm.
1939 April, The Grapes of Wrath, his greatest critical success, published by Viking, provoking both great popular acclaim and violent political condemnation for its depiction of Oklahoma migrants and California growers, as well as for its alleged "vulgar" language and socialist bias.
1940 January, films of Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath released; March 11 - April 20, marine expedition in the Gulf of California with Ricketts; Spring, receives the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath; Summer, documentary film about living conditions in rural Mexico, The Forgotten Village.
1941 Spring, separated from Carol; fall, moves to New York City with singer Gwyndolyn Conger; December 5, Sea of Cortez, written with Edward Ricketts, published by Viking.
1942 March, sued for divorce by Carol; March 6, novel, The Moon Is Down published by Viking; April 8, New York opening of the play The Moon Is Down; May, film of Tortilla Flat released; November 27, Bombs Away published by Viking.
1943 March, film of The Moon Is Down released; March 29, marries Gwyn Conger in New Orleans; June-October, in Europe and North Africa as war correspondent for New York Herald Tribune.
1944 August 2, birth of first son, Thom.
1945 January 2, publication of novel Cannery Row, by Viking.
1946 June 12, birth of second son, John IV.
1947 February, novel, The Wayward Bus, published by Viking; August-September, tour of Russia with photographer Robert Capa, for the New York Herald Tribune; November, novella The Pearl published by Viking.
1948 April, A Russian Journal, an account of his 1947 tour of Russia, published by Viking; May, Ed Ricketts killed in automobile accident; August, divorced by Gwyn; December, elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1950 October, novella, Burning Bright, published by Viking; October 18, New York City opening of the play Burning Bright; December 28, marries third wife, Elaine Anderson Scott.
1951 September, The Log from the Sea of Cortez, the narrative part of the Sea of Cortez (1941) including an original essay "About Ed Ricketts," published by Viking.
1952 March, film, Viva Zapata! released (screenplay published in Rome by Edizoni Filmcritica in 1953; first published in America, edited by Robert Morsberger, by Viking in 1975); September,novel East of Eden published by Viking.
1954 June, novel, Sweet Thursday, published by Viking (a sequel to Cannery Row).
1955 March, purchases a summer home in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York; November 3, New York City opening of Pipe Dream, a Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein III musical based on Sweet Thursday.
1957 April, novel, The Short Reign of Pippin IV, published by Viking; film of The Wayward Bus released.
1958 September, Once There Was a War, a collection of his 1943 wartime dispatches, publishedby Viking.
1959 February-October, travels in England and Wales, researching background for a modern English version of Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1485).
1960 September-November, tours United States with poodle, Charley.
1961 April, twelfth novel, The Winter of Our Discontent, published by Viking.
1962 July, Travels with Charley, the journal of his 1960 tour, published by Viking; October 25, Steinbeck is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1963 October-December, travels to Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Russia on United StatesInformation Agency cultural tour, with dramatist Edward Albee.
1964 September 14, presented with United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B.Johnson.
1966 October 12, America and Americans, reflections on contemporary America, published by Viking.
1968 December 20, dies of arteriosclerosis in New York.
1969 Publication of Journal of a Novel: The "East of Eden" Letters, journal kept duringcomposition of East of Eden published by Viking.
1975 Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (selected correspondence), edited by Elaine Steinbeck and RobertWallsten, published by Viking.
1976 Publication of The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (edited by Chase Horton), an unfinished translation of Morte d'Arthur.
1979 U.S. commemorative stamp issued on what would have been his seventy-seventh birthday
1984 The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer (biography), by Jackson J. Benson ispublished by Viking; pictured on half-ounce gold medal issued by the U.S. Government.
1989 Working Days: The Journal of "The Grapes of Wrath," edited by Robert DeMott (journal kept during writing of the novel in 1938, published on the novel's fiftieth anniversary).
1991 Frank Gallati's Steppenwolf Theater dramatization of The Grapes of Wrath wins New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play of the season.
1992 Gary Sinise directs and stars in (with John Malkovich), in another film version of Of Miceand Men; Nantucket conference on "Steinbeck and the Environment," co-sponsored by theSteinbeck Research Center and University of Massachusetts.
1994 Biography by Jay Parini, John Steinbeck: A Biography is published in England by Heinemann.
1995 A revised version of Parini's biography is published in the United States by Henry Holt andCompany in New York.
SourceThis information was obtained from the web site maintained by the San Jose State University Steinbeck Center.
1962 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
I thank the Swedish Academy for finding my work worthy of this highest honor. In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel Award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect or reverence--but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself.
It is customary for the recipient of this award to offer scholarly or personal comment on the nature and direction of literature. However, I think it would be well at this particular time to consider the high duties and responsibilities of the makers of literature.
Such is the prestige of the Nobel Award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to speak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practised it through the ages.
Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches--nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tin-horn mendicants of low-calorie despair.
Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilties have been decreed by our species.
Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. My great predecessor, William Faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal physical fear, so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about. Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being.
This is not new. The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.
Furthermore, 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 passionately believe in the perfectability of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.
The present universal fear has been the result of a forward surge in our knowledge and manipulation of certain dangerous factors in the physical world. It is true that other phases of understanding have not yet caught up with this great step, but there is no reason to presume that they cannot or will not draw abreast. Indeed, it is part of the writer's responsibility to make sure that they do. With humanity's long, proud history of standing firm against all of its natural enemies, sometimes in the face of almost certain defeat and extinction, we would be cowardly and stupid to leave the field on the eve of our greatest potential victory.
Understandably, I have been reading the life of Alfred Nobel; a solitary man, the books say, a thoughtful man. He perfected the release of explosive forces capable of creative good or of destructive evil, but lacking choice, ungoverned by conscience or judgement.
Nobel saw some of the cruel and bloody misuses of his inventions. He may have even forseen the end result of all his probing--access to ultimate violence, to final destruction. Some say that he became cynical, but I do not believe this. I think he strove to invent a control--a safety valve. I think he found it finally only in the human mind and the human spirit.
To me, his thinking is clearly indicated in the categories of these awards. They are offered for increased and continuing knowledge of man and of his world---for understanding and communication, which are the functions of literature. And they are offered for demonstrations of the capacity for peace--the culmination of all the others.
Less than fifty years after his death, the door of nature was unlocked and we were offered the dreadful burden of choice. We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God. Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the ife and death of the whole world of all living things.
The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectability is at hand.
Having taken God-like power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have. Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, saint John the Apostle may well be paraphased: In the end is the ord, and the word is man, and the word is with man.
(c)opyright by John Steinbeck, 1962.
SourceThis information was obtained from the web site maintained by the San Jose State University Steinbeck Center.
His Works
