John SteinbeckAn Introduction to a life

of Writing

Redmond English 9

Early Life

John Ernst Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California.

The house in Salinas, California is where John Steinbeck lived until he was 17 years old.

Steinbeck spent his Summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrants on the huge Spreckels ranch.

Family Background

Steinbeck's grandfather changed the family name from Grossteinbeck to Steinbeck when he immigrated to the United States.

His father, John Steinbeck, Sr., served as the Monterey County Treasurer.

His mother, Olive (Hamilton) Steinbeck, a former school teacher, fostered Steinbeck's love of reading and writing.

He was of German American and Irish American descent.

Salinas

Salinas was a small Californian town with fertile land.

During this time, Steinbeck became aware of the harsher aspects of the migrant life in the region and of the darker side of human nature which led him to write his first book Of Mice of Men.

In Salinas Valley the fields farms and forests help set the setting of some of his short stories.

Schooling

Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919.

He then attended Stanford University intermittently until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree.

He seems to have wasted money and time after leaving Stanford University without a degree. Ultimately, a degree could have helped him throughout life.

His Pursuit of Writing

He traveled to New York City and held various temporary jobs while pursuing his dream as a writer.

He was unable to get any of his work published and returned to California where for a time he was resort handyman in Lake Tahoe.

It seems that John Steinbeck was very dedicated to writing because he took his life on a whole different route by traveling from New York to Lake Tahoe.

His first novel, Cup of Gold was published in 1929.

Cup of Gold

It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of the city of Panama, sometimes referred to as the 'Cup of Gold', and the woman fairer than the sun reputed to be found there.

In the 1670s Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went.

The Cup of Gold is based on the pirate Henry Morgan.

Tortilla Flat

Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with the novel Tortilla Flat, which won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal.

The tortilla flat portrays the adventures of a young group of classless and usually homeless men in Monterey, set in the era after World War I.

The book, was made into a film of the same name in 1942, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, and John Garfield.

The story is about two traveling ranch workers, George and Lennie, trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm.

Of Mice and Men is a novel about the dreams of a pair of migrant laborers working the California soil.

Of Mice and Men was rapidly adapted into a 1939 Hollywood film.

Of Mice and Men is a tragedy that was written in the form of a play in 1937.

It was made into a movie three times, in 1939 starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr., and Betty Field, in 1982 starring Randy Quaid, Robert Blake and Ted Neeley, and in 1992 starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.

Of Mice and Men

1940 -1950

Steinbeck divorced his first wife, Carol Henning, in 1943.

He married Gwyn Conger that same year, a union which produced Steinbeck's only children, Thomas Myles John Steinbeck IV (Catbird), in 1946.

Two years later, Steinbeck married Elaine Scott, the ex-wife of actor Zachary Scott.

John Steinbeck and Gwyn Conger divorced in 1948.

Steinbeck and Elaine Scott would remain married until his death in 1968.

During the Second World War

During the Second World War, Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.

Steinbeck saw action in accompanying some of the commando raids of Douglas Fairbanks.

During the war, he continued to work in film, writing Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), and the film A Medal for Benny (1945), about paisanos from Tortilla Flat going to war.

The Pearl

After the war, he wrote The Pearl (1947).

The novel is an imaginative telling of a newspaper article which Steinbeck had heard in La Paz.

The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the disastrous effects of stepping out of the established system.

The Main Character, Kino, is an honest, dignified, poor fisherman and pearl diver who works to support his family and with a great deal of pride and stubbornness.

Out of a stroke of luck, he finds "The Pearl of the World".

1950’s and the 1960’s

Following his divorce from Gwyndolyn Conger his close friend Ed Ricketts died a sudden, tragic death.

Steinbeck wrote one of his most popular novels, East of Eden (1952).

This book, which he wrote to give his sons some idea of their heritage, was the book he repeatedly wrote of as his best, and his life's work.

Death

On December 20, 1968 John Steinbeck died in Manhattan, New York.

His death is listed as heart disease or heart attack.

An autopsy showed nearly complete occlusion of Steinbeck's main coronary arteries.

In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated and an urn containing his ashes were interred at his family gravesite.

Accomplishments

In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his “realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” Privately, he felt he did not deserve the honor.

In 1967, at the behest of Newsday magazine, Steinbeck went to Vietnam to report on the war there. Thinking of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture, he was considered a Hawk for his position on that war.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that John Steinbeck will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame on December 5, 2007 at The California Museum for History.

Hope You Enjoyed this informational PowerPoint on John Steinbeck!

I hope you took good notes because it could help you understand the

background of the novel Of Mice of Men.

Don’t worry… your notes will also be good for the upcoming…

In your Journal on a separate piece of paper please write: STEINBECK

Yes all you note takers you may use your notes and only your own notes.

The next 10 questions are going to be true or false questions worth 1 point each. On your paper write out the

whole word True or False.

1. John Stienbeck was grew up in the small coastal town of Salinas.

2. John Steinbeck lived in a house in San Jose until he was 17.

3. John Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919.

4. Steinbeck went to Stanford and got a bachelors degree.

5.Tortilla Flat was Steinbeck’s first book.

6. In 1939, Of Mice and Men was turned into a Hollywood film.

7. Carol Henning was John Steinbeck’s first wife.

8.Of Mice and Men is about 2 struggling workers in Russia who travel from labor union to labor union.

9. John Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.

10. Steinbeck died on December 20, 1968 in Pittsburg, Philadelphia.

1. When was John Steinbeck born?

2. Where did John Steinbeck live until he was 17?

3. Who changed the family name from Grossteinbeck to Steinbeck when they migrated to the United States?

On your paper number 1-7 and answer the questions correct and complete to receive

the full 7 points.

4. What is the setting for some of John Steinbeck’s stories?

5. Who were the main characters in Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men?

6. Where did Steinbeck pass away?

7. Who is Gwyn Conger?