John Steinbeck Books In Order

Publication Order of Cannery Row Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

About John Steinbeck:

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer and widely known for receiving the-Pulitzer Prize for his winning novels: the novella of Mice and Men in the year 1937, followed by The Grapes of Wrath in 1939, and East of Eden that was published in 1952. He had a total of 27 books that includes five collection of short stories, six non fiction books, and sixteen novels. He later on was the recipient of the-Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

John Steinbeck’s Background

He was born in Salinas California on February 27, 1902. He was a descent of Irish, English and German. Their original family name, GroBsteinbeck, was shortened to Steinbeck by his grandfather when he moved to the USA. Their family owns a farm in Germany called “GroBsteinbeck”

John’s father, John Ernst Steinbeck, worked as a treasurer at Monterey County. His mother, Olive Hamilton, was employed a a school teacher. His mother was the one who shared the passion of writing and reading to John. They lived in a not so big rural town. As they settled there, John became-aware of the harsher-aspects of being a migrant and also the dark side of human-nature. This became a supplement for him in expressing his thought through writing as seen in some of his books. He spent his time exploring his surroundings, venturing and wandering in the forest, fields and farms as well.

He graduated high school in 1919 at Salinas High School. He then went to Palo Alto to study at Stanford University where he studied for 5 years until 1925; he left without having a degree on anything. He travelled along to New York where he took some part time jobs while he was trying to write stories of his own. He was back to San Francisco California and was employed again as a caretaker of a fish-hatchery in Tahoe City in 1928. He also worked as a tour-guide. He failed to publish his work that’s why he decided to return to California.

He met his first wife, Carol Henning, at Tahoe City. They were married in the year 1930 and lived in a house that is a property ofhis father at Pacific Grove. His elders gave him free rent and housing. They also supported him to focus more on his writing by giving him loans which allowed him to quit his warehousing job in California and providing him with papers for his manuscripts.

John Steinbeck died due to a congestive heart failure and heart disease at the City of New York December 20, 1968. He had been a smoker since he was young. An autopsy showed that his main coronary arteries where in complete occlusion. His body was kept at a gravesite owned by the Hamilton Family at Salinas along with his maternal grandparents and parents as well. Elaine, his 3rd wife was also buried there in the year 2004.

Influences on Writing

California’s Salinas Valley, where Steinbeck grew up, has a culturally-diverse-place with a rich-presence of immigrant and migratory history. The upcoming battles and upbringing made an impact to him by providing many of his-works a distinct-sense of place, a regionalist flavour. Most of the setting of his stories is in Monterey, Salinas, and some parts of the San Joaquin Valley, all of these areas are usually referred-to as Steinbeck Country.

He had also used direct-memories of his-life in California in his subsequent-novels. One of his inspiration was his childhood friends, Max Wagner, who later became an actor on films, on his novel The Red Pony. He also used history of American-historical conditions and some events in the first-half of 20th century, where he was a first-hand reporter. Struggling characters was always part of his work. Most of them examined more on the situation and condition of those migrant workers and working class during the Great-Depression and Dust Bowl.

He was also been able to work on a wide range of topics and area of interest were shown, including politics, religion, marine biology, history and even mythology. He even wrote a travel dialogue of a road-trip he took in 1960 in his quest to rediscover America.

He also had contacts with leftist-authors, journalist and labour union figures. It is believed that these people influenced his writing when he joined a communist-organization in 1935 called League-of-American-Writers.

There’s also a person who strongly influenced Steinbeck’s writing, Ed Ricketts. He was a companion of Steinbeck along their small trips to California coast while he was writing. They have a travelogue together but it didn’t sell well on their target audiences. Ricketts had been a model as a character in Steinbeck’s novel, Cannery Row, which was published in 1949 and in 3 other novels including: Burning Bright in the year (1936), The-Grapes-of-Wrath in the year (1939) and In Dubious Battle that was published in the year (1936). Most of Steinbeck’s writing this period has ecological themes. Their relationship ended when Steinbeck left Pacific Grove and later divorced his wife Carol.

Literary Works and Impact

His first work, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929. A historical fiction that is about the life-and-death of a privateer named Henry Morgan. The story’s main focus was on Morgan’s sacking and assault of the city of Panama, which is now referred to as the Cup of Gold and the woman-fairer-than-the-sun was reputed to be seen there. It was published by McBride & Co.

One of his popular novels was published in the year 1939 which is the The-Grapes-of-Wrath. It was based on newspaper-articles which talks about the migrant agricultural workers in California. It has been considered to be one of his greatest work of art and was abestselling book of 1939. It was awarded with the National-Book-Award as favourite fiction book of 1939. The book also won the-Pulitzer-Prize for Fiction. It was adapted to film later that year also. This book was controversial because Steinbeck’s political views, portrayal of negative aspects-of-capitalism, and his heart for plight workers let to his backlash. Some board of supervisors in Kern County Board banned-the-book from the country’s library and public school in 1939 which lasted until 1941.

Most of his works are required for reading-lists in American-high-schools. One of his works, Of-Mice-and-Men, is one the key-texts used for English Literature’s General Certificate of Secondary Education in United Kingdom.

2 Responses to “John Steinbeck”

1. Elmer Beckstein: 3 years ago

   Steinbeck knew what time it was always. He lived his life like there was no tomorrow. Check it out.

   Reply
2. dumbfuck: 5 years ago

   It’s Steinbeck baby!

   Reply