John Steinbeck: A Biography

Greatness is thin coat of paint. My hero John Steinbeck was a great writer, a man with a noble heart. His writing shows sympathy and understanding of the poor, the rejects of society. But, as is made clear in John Steinbeck, a Biography, a writer is more than an artist. He has a life outside art, and here is where Steinbeck fell down. He was one dysfunctional man. He created a national awareness for the plight of poor, but couldn't recognize the difficult loneliness of two of his wives and his two sons. To them he was cold, arrogant, and self-centered. They didn't enjoy him, but rather endured him! I always wonder about root causes in such situations. Jay Parini, the author of John Steinbeck, a Biography, sees a weak dad and domineering, puritanical mother as the seeds that created the social monster, but this mom and dad supported John Steinbeck until he was 27 even though he chose an unconventional road to walk. They wanted him to finish college, live sober and restrained. He chose to drop our, drink excessively, and brag about sexual conquests. Parini says Steinbeck could never please his parents. Perhaps, but perhaps that is because his root problem wasn't parents, but booze. No parent is going to "accept" behavior that destroys their child. They will accept the child, love the child, but that rot in corner they simply endure. I have a feeling that is what happened in the Steinbeck home. Booze warped the man but not the artist. He had talent enough to rise above the destructive power of alcohol when in front of the typewriter, but not in the kitchen, the living room, and the backyard where he fell on his face. Just as I reject Parini's parental based explanation of John Steinbeck's dysfunction as way too simple, I am sure others will see my undiagnosed alcoholism as equally naïve and one-dimensional. Steinbeck was a man of contradictions. He was convinced of his talent, but full of self doubt. He prided himself on toughness, and yet he let critics impact on him in powerful ways. He distained the establishment, and embraced it. Steinbeck is still my favorite writer, but now I now see him in a more complete way. I ache for the life he lived, because it could have been much more satisfying on a personal level.

The work of few contemporary literary figures has endured as has the writing of John Steinbeck. "The Grapes Of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men" have been reinterpreted, reassessed and even now are being reintroduced to our country's consciousness via stage, movies and television. The Joad family and George and Lenny have become icons, fictional giants of biblical and mythological stature, there to jab sharp elbows into America's social conscience. Aware of his talent and determined to write, whether as a journalist or penning travelogues, Steinbeck, nonetheless, remained achingly in need of reassurance. After attaining the ranks of bestsellerdom, he was courted by Hollywood and Broadway. He won Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes; some claimed he was undeserving of the latter. At times beset by rigid principles which Parini suggests were the legacy of a strong mother and distant father, Steinbeck's vision may have been influenced by his friendships with mythologist Joseph Campbell and marine biologist Ed Ricketts. A complex figure, Steinbeck is thoughtfully assessed by Parini through numerous interviews, published and unpublished letters, diaries and manuscripts. The author gives editorial credit to Carol Steinbeck, the writer's firt wife. Steinbeck, the man, was larger than life, and so is this perceptive appraisal. - Gail Cooke

On February 27, 1902 John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. Now we stand at the centenary crossing, marking the one hundredth birthday of a Nobel Prize-winning novelist who, in the manner of few great creative artists, embodied the fundamental spirit of America's determination to overcome adversity. An ironic note from the career of Steinbeck, someone who wrote with such feeling about common folk overcoming adversity, particularly during the Great Depression,was that some of the most characteristic lines summing up the credo expressed in his writing came not from him but from Twentieth Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who started his film career as a screenwriter. At the close of the great John Ford film based on Steinbeck's greatest novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," Zanuck, wanting the movie to end on an upbeat note, wrote the final scene in which Jane Darwell in her Oscar-winning performance summed up her feelings. Darwell delivered a testimonial about the survivalist nature of the common folk, with their ability to bounce back in the face of hardship.Steinbeck is examined by Parini as an author always in touch with his roots. He was a classic example of the adage that a person should write about what one knows best. Doing so often got Steinbeck in trouble, as when residents of Monterey reportedly walked across the street rather than speak to him after he wrote "Cannery Row." Steinbeck later set off a tempest in his hometown of Salinas with the publication of "East of Eden." Citizens who had lived in Salinas for years recognized themselves as characters in the book. Steinbeck remembered the uproar years later when, not long before his death in 1968, he learned that the Salinas library would be named after him. "I wouldn't have been surprised if they had named the local house of ill repute after me," the author quipped, "but I never expected to have the library named after me."The young Steinbeck tended to be shy and withdrawn. A neighbor became a close friend and helped draw him out, Max Wagner, who later became a film actor and remained friends with Steinbeck during the rest of their lives. Max's brother Jack became a writer and collaborated with Steinbeck later on film projects. The two writers shared a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination for their work in the 1945 film "A Medal for Benny." Steinbeck and Max Wagner each left Salinas to attend Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto. They both left after one year, restless creative spirits who hated confinement.Parini reveals the painful experience of writing for Steinbeck, who endured numerous ailments from the early days of his career. The biographer reveals the "earthy" propensity of Steinbeck's subject matter, including such an early work as "Tortilla Flat," which revealed the lives of impoverished Mexicans living in shacks in Monterey. Later his close friendship with local Monterey marine biologist, Dr. Edward F. Ricketts, was revealed. The man known as "Doc" t

In my opinion, the greatest American writer is John Steinbeck, and the great American novel is The Grapes of Wrath. So it was a delight to read this fluid, exhaustively researched and insightful biography of Steinbeck by Jay Parini. From Steinbeck's birth in northern California in 1902, to his death in 1968, the book details the influences and defining moments in Steinbeck's life. There is very little conjecture here. The book is objective, but the details are compelling and the writing is smooth. The complete cooperation of Steinbeck's third wife, Elaine, was, I think, a key the book's veracity as well as its insight. You'll be inspired by the young Steinbeck's complete faith in his writing ability. He sensed his destiny at a young age, and stubbornly pursued it. You'll be surprised at how a man with such a deep inner sense of his own gift for writing was, at the same time, so easily devastated by critics. You'll be amazed at Steinbeck's popularity and influence around the world. The world recognized Steinbeck's genius, while the literary pecking order in the United States threw stones. Why? - probably for two reasons. First, we love to throw stones at those who achieve popular and financial success. It's an American tradition. Second, woe be to the author whose writing can be understood by the masses. Steinbeck was an eloquent writer whose beautiful prose could be savored by everyone, and he wrote a superb story on top of it. The literary elitists prefer writing and a story that can only be understood by literary elitists. I have only one mild criticism of Mr. Parini's biography of Steinbeck. As I said, there is little conjecture, but he does seem to put a load of psychobabble guilt in the laps of Steinbeck's mother and father. The evidence seems to indicate otherwise. His mother's perfectionism wasn't all bad, and wouldn't any mother be concerned if her 30-year-old son was still living as a near-pauper? And his father may have been a passive man, but he supported his son financially through many, many lean years. The portrayal of John Ernst Steinbeck as a failure is too harsh a judgment. But that's only a minor criticism. This is truly a marvelous biography about the most talented and compassionate of American writers.

I first "discovered" John Steinbeck back in the mid 50's when I was a student at the Army Language School (now called the Defense Language Institute, I think) in Monterey, California. At that time, all but one of the canneries had been shut down, as the sardines had disappeared from Monterey Bay, and the conversion of Cannery Row to a tourist Mecca wasn't even a gleam in some promoter's eye. I was able to spend my weekends ferreting out the sites dear to Steinbeck while I was reading about them. I particularly concentrated on Monterey, Pacific Grove and Salinas.Through the years, I returned to Monterey Peninsula when I could and visited the Salinas Library, and later, as they opened, the various centers and museums dedicated to him. All in all, I thought that I was a real expert on Steinbeck. It took Parini's biography of Steinbeck to make me realize just how superficial my knowledge really was. Reading Parini's biography of Steinbeck, I began to learn about Steinbeck as a flesh and blood human being. I knew of course, that he had a well developed social conscience and that he had never received the critical acclaim that he desired. Parini, however, brought to life a talented, tortured, stubborn, difficult Steinbeck that I hadn't known. Nowhere are these aspects of Steinbeck's personality revealed better than in his struggles to write a new version of the Arthurian legend, or what he frequently referred to as "The Malory Project." Steinbeck had been fascinated with the Arthurian Legends since he had read, and understood, Malory's MORTE d'ARTHUR, at about the age of nine. It would seem that his life-long ambition was to write his own Arthurian saga.Parini shows Steinbeck with writer's block, searching for the "right atmosphere," the right paper, the right kind of pens and ink, the right anything to give him the inspiration he needed to fulfill his life's ambition. He even left his English retreat to travel to Italy in search of possible Malory sources. Nothing worked and, in the end, he had to give up the Malory Project. With the abandonment of his dream, his health began the decline that only ended with his death. (His partially completed manuscript and many of his notes about the project were published after his death as THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS by John Steinbeck.Parini's biography brings to life Steinbeck, the flawed man, and shows him with the courage to return to California's Central Valley after the publication of GRAPES OF WRATH made him persona non grata. It makes the reader feel the pain that Steinbeck felt when he suffered critical rejection. The reader lives through, with him, his marriages, his divorces, his weaknesses and his strenghths. I believe that this is the finest of the Steinbeck biographies.