John Steinbeck Biography

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr., was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California to John Ernst and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck. He loved to read, particularly Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. He studied for five years at Stanford University, but he left without a degree in 1925. That same year, he moved to New York City where he began to work for the New York American newspaper. However, he was a poor reporter because he would get too emotionally involved with the stories he was writing. He left that job and he began writing stories. Although he had already published several books, Tortilla Flat (1935), which was later made into a movie, was his first significant recognition.

Steinbeck was married three times and had two sons. He was married to Carol Henning between 1930 and 1942. He was married to his second wife, Gwyndolyn Conger, between 1943 and 1948, with whom he had two sons, Thomas (born 1944) and John (born 1946). He was married to his third wife Elaine Anderson Scott from 1950 until his death.

Steinbeck’s works deal mostly with the social and economic issues of rural America, causing him to be scorned by critics as being “superficial and excessively moralistic” (Bloom, 10). Arguably his best-known works are East of Eden, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception" (Nobel Foundation) in 1962. Steinbeck died of heart failure in New York City on December 20, 1968. John Steinbeck remains one of the “most popular and respected American Authors of the century.” (Bloom, 10)

Sources:
Bloom, Harold. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Broomall: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. Print

“John Steinbeck.” Nobel Foundation. 22 February 2008. Web. 5 May. 2010.

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