John Steinbeck's Life And Work

Life and Work of : John Steinbeck

The winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American author of twenty-seven books . He has been called "a giant of American letters". Many of his works are considered classics of Western literature and are widely read abroad. Steinbeck has produced an outstanding work ـــ including novels, short stories, essays, screenplays, journals, and newspaper and magazine articles ــــ that evokes life in the 20th century with compassion and lyrical precision. Most of Steinbeck's work is set in southern and central California, particularly in the California Coast Ranges region and the Salinas Valley . His works frequently explored

He was never to leave his fondness for words and a passion for language that he early developed . He read much about Robert Louis Stevenson, Alexandre Dumas, père, the Bible, Sir Walter Scott, and especially Le Morte d’Arthur (1485), by Sir Thomas Malory. Through his reading he was able to make his own view. He was independent minded and during his study in the high school, he determined to be a writer. Furthermore, he took what interested him and cared little for other courses that he thought would help him in his writing. Steinbeck attended Stanford University but he later he left it without a degree. Then he worked as a reporter for New York City newspaper, as soon as he returned to Salinas, where he took odd jobs, including that of a watchman for a house in High Sierra. During that time, he wrote his first novel, the swashbuckling adventure Cup of Gold (1929). The book did not do well. But its portrayal of the pirate Henry Morgan revealed Steinbeck’s affinity for tales of morality and consequence, even though his later work would reject determinism. In that year he married Carol Henning, and he met Edward F. Ricketts, who was to have a notable effect upon the ideas and content of his further work. John Steinbeck is one of America's most talented writers who used his creative skills to "advance a specific political and social ideology" (Meltzer 14). During the Great Depression era , Steinbeck's own experiences lead him to write about suffering of the poor and the plight of displaced migrant workers . This made Steinbeck to deepen his belief that the American social contract was designed to prevent extreme disadvantages from accruing to any particular group, resulted in his greatest