Research Guides: American Literature: The Modernist Period: Steinbeck

Research & Reference

John Steinbeck: Credo Reference
A Credo Reference landing page on John Steinbeck. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
Steinbeck Archives: Steinbeck Center
Finding Aids which contextualize the collections of the Steinbeck Archives and National Steinbeck Center collection.

John Steinbeck: A Concise Biography

This program from the Famous Authors series offers an overview of John Steinbeck's life and work, beginning with his upbringing in Salinas, California, and the fields surrounding the area. The film discusses the vegetable crops in California and the great need for labor which caused the influx of migrant workers during the depression of the 1930s. Steinbeck witnessed the working of this land throughout his life and the connection between man and nature conveyed in his novels like Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath came from these observations. He spent some time at Stanford, but resented academic culture and left with few friends and no degree, but a commitment to his writing. He struggled for a while and took on manual labor jobs, but eventually found success with his novels and in Hollywood with Tortilla Flat and lasting through his career. (36 minutes)

Source: Films on Demand

Author's Works & Perspectives

The Grapes of Wrath

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized--and sometimes outraged--millions of readers. First published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads--driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck's powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics. This Centennial edition, specially designed to commemorate one hundred years of Steinbeck, features french flaps and deckle-edged pages. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

John Steinbeck: Novels and Stories 1932-1937

The Library of America presents for the first time in one volume Steinbeck's early writings, which expressed his abiding concerns for community, social justice, and the elemental connection between nature and human society. In prose that blends the vernacular and the incantatory, the local and the mythic, these five works chart Steinbeck's evolution into one of the greatest and most enduring popular of American novelists. The Pastures of Heaven(1932), a collection of interrelated stories, delineates the troubled inner lives and sometimes disastrous fates of families living in a seemingly tranquil California valley. The surface realism of Steinbeck's first mature work is enriched by hints of uncanny forces at work beneath. "Deep down it's mine, right to the center of the world," says Salinas Valley farmer Joseph Wayne about his land in John Steinbeck'sTo a God Unknown(1933). A sense of primeval magic dominates the novel as the farmer reverts to pagan nature worship and begins a tortuous journey toward catastrophe and ultimate understanding. Steinbeck's sympathetic depiction of the raffishpaisonsofTortilla Flat(1935), a ramshackle district above Monterey, first won him popular attention. The Flat's tenderhearted, resourceful, mildly corrupt, over-optimistic characters are a triumph of life-affirming humor. In Dubious Battle(1936) plunges into the political struggle of the 1930s and paints a vigorous fresco of a migrant fruit-pickers' strike. Anticipating the collective portraiture ofThe Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck poignantly traces the surges and shifts of group behavior. WithOf Mice and Men(1937), Steinbeck secured his status as one of the most influential American writers. Lennie and George, itinerant farmhands held together in the face of deprivation only by the frailest of dreams, have long since passed into American mythology. This novel, which Steinbeck called "such a simple little thing," is now recognized as a masterpiece of concentrated emotional power. LIBRARY OF AMERICAis an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

East of Eden

Based on John Steinbeck's novel and directed by award-winning director Elia Kazan. The emotionally charged film tells the story of lonely youth Cal, who vies for the affection of his hardened father and favored brother, Aron.

The Pearl

"There it lay, the great pearl, perfect as the moon." One of Steinbeck's most taught works, The Pearl is the story of the Mexican diver Kino, whose discovery of a magnificent pearl from the Gulf beds means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife Juana cannot temper his obsession or stem the events leading to tragedy. This classic novella from Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck examines the fallacy of the American dream, and illustrates the fall from innocence experienced by people who believe that wealth erases all problems. This Centennial edition, specially designed to commemorate one hundred years of Steinbeck, features french flaps and deckle-edged pages. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Tortilla Flat

"Steinbeck is an artists; and he tells the stories of these lovable thieves and adulterers with a gentle and poetic purity of heart and of prose." --New York Herald Tribune Adopting the structure and themes of the Arthurian legend, John Steinbeck created a "Camelot" on a shabby hillside above the town of Monterey, California, and peopled it with a colorful band of knights. At the center of the tale is Danny, whose house, like Arthur's castle, becomes a gathering place for men looking for adventure, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging--men who fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil and civil rectitude. As Nobel Prize winner Steinbeck chronicles their deeds--their multiple lovers, their wonderful brawls, their Rabelaisian wine-drinking--he spins a tale as compelling and ultimately as touched by sorrow as the famous legends of the Round Table, which inspired him. This edition features an introduction by Thomas Fensch. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The American Dream in John Steinbeck's of Mice and Men

Before breaking out as a novelist, John Steinbeck supported himself as a ranch-hand and farm laborer in California, where he witnessed the poverty and conditions that workers toiled under in the fields. Drawing inspiration from his experiences, Steinbeck went on to pen Of Mice and Men, a tale of two field workers determined to survive the brutal conditions of their lot in hopes of owning their own farm. Since its publication, Of Mice and Men has become a critical text in the American canon of fiction for its ability to critically examine the American dream and American reality. This book offers an in-depth examination of the John Steinbeck's interpretation of the American Dream, as well as contemporary perspectives on this issue. Discussions include the dangerous and addictive side of seeking personal wealth, immigration and the American Dream, and whether what constitutes the American Dream has changed over time.

Understanding the Grapes of Wrath

When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, it had an explosive effect on the public, calling attention to the problems of migrant farm workers during the Great Depression. This casebook provides a rich source of primary materials on the period and the plight of the migrant farm worker that brings to life the problems Steinbeck immortalized in the novel. Included are interviews with eyewitnesses to the Dust Bowl, firsthand accounts and investigative reports of the causes and effects of the Great Depression, letters to Eleanor Roosevelt and Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, diaries and autobiographies of migrant farm workers in the 1930s, newspaper articles and editorials of the period, congressional testimony, a Wobbly song, affidavits by union activists, and other unique materials, many of which have never before appeared in print. All these materials can be used in literature, American history, and interdisciplinary classes to enrich the study of this novel and its times. Following a literary analysis of the novel, six chapters present primary documents on the following topics related to the novel: the financial causes and results of the Great Depression; the history of farming in the early twentieth century and the growth of agribusiness in California; working and living conditions of migrant farm workers in 1930s California; attempts to unionize farm workers and major strikes of the period; lawlessness among law enforcement officers in dealing with union members; the legacy of the 1930s--Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, and working and living conditions of farm workers long after the publication of the novel. Each chapter is followed by study questions, topics for research papers and class discussion, and suggestions of further reading.