John Steinbeck



John Steinbeck was a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning American author. He wrote twenty-seven books within his lifetime, and became influential in his writing style and views.

He was born in 1902 by the Salinas river in California out in the country, which effected many of the settings of his works. A simple man, he labored alongside the migrant workers that inspired him. After leaving Stanford University without a degree, he set off his career with Tortilla Flat, a novel set in post-World War I Monterey. His Dust Bowl novels set in California garnered critical success and became some of his most popular works, such as Of Mice and Men. The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, and became a controversial but influential work that ended up on the list of banned novels. It caused controversy with his liberal political views. The negative angle on capitalism and the representation of the Okies made trouble for him, but the book remained a success and is considered by many to be his best work.

Steinbeck is known for showing the poor as decent people and the underdogs, and putting his views into his work. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 before he died in 1968. John Steinbeck's works have become popular School Study Media and are still read today, traumatizing generations of American children for ever after.


 * Of Mice and Men
 * The Grapes of Wrath
 * Cannery Row
 * The Red Pony
 * East of Eden
 * In Dubious Battle
 * The Pearl
 * The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights


 * Author Tract
 * Author Existence Failure: Steinbeck died before finishing his modern English translation of Le Morte Darthur, leaving the book stopping after the story of Lancelot.
 * Death by Newbery Medal
 * Downer Ending: Reading Steinbeck is sort of like driving past a bad traffic accident. You know someone who probably didn't deserve to die has died, but you have to look.
 * It Got Worse
 * Kitchen Sink Drama
 * Literary Allusion Title
 * Scenery Porn: Steinbeck is to California what L. M. Montgomery is to Prince Edward Island.
 * School Study Media
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog