John Ernst Steinbeck (1902–68) was an American novelist. He was a leading exponent of the proletarian novel and the foremost spokesperson for the victims of the Great Depression. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1962.
Born in Salinas, California, Steinbeck studied marine biology at Stanford University. He then worked as an agricultural laborer and a semi-skilled technician while writing steadily.
Tortilla Flat (1935,) Steinbeck’s first famous novel, is a realistic portrait of the itinerant peasants of California. It foreshadows the solidarity that characterizes his major work, The Grapes of Wrath (1939.) This study summed up the bitterness of the Great Depression decade and aroused widespread sympathy for the plight of migratory farm-workers. Steinbeck’s journalistic grasp of significant detail and his pictorial essence make this book a powerful plea for consideration of human values and universal justice. It led to much-needed reform and won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize.
Steinbeck’s other works include In Dubious Battle (1935,) Of Mice and Men (1937,) The Moon is Down (1942,) The Pearl (1947,) Burning Bright (1950,) East of Eden (1952) and Winter of Our Discontent (1961,) as well as the light-hearted and humorous Cannery Row (1945) and The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957.)
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The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.
—John Steinbeck
Topics: War
How can we live without our lives? How will we know its us without our past?
—John Steinbeck
It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.
—John Steinbeck
And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.
—John Steinbeck
Topics: Individuality
I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.
—John Steinbeck
Topics: Dogs
The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgmentsocial, political, or ethicalcan raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.
—John Steinbeck
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