John Steinbeck is one of my two favorite authors, I suppose. (The other, in no particular order, is Ernest Hemingway.) Steinbeck won both the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes, which is not bad.
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The Portable John Steinbeck
I'm a big fan of The Penguin / Viking Portable Library If you're an avid reader, you'll appreciate the value of these thick, yet inexpensive volumes.
The Portable Steinbeck (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)
Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 07/12/2009)
This is a great introduction to Steinbeck, containing "all" of his shorter works and excerpts from his considerably more massive tomes.
Table of Contents
- The Portable John Steinbeck
- The Steinbeck Centennial Collection
- Steinbeck's Style
- Cup of Gold
- The Early 1930's
- The Harvest Gypsies
- The California Novels
- The Influence of Ed Ricketts
- New Amazon
- Little Skinny Books
- Short Stories
- Medium-Sized Books
- More Steinbeck
- New Amazon
- Big Fat Books
- Nonfiction
- Plays
- Journals
- Amazon Book Search: "Steinbeck"
- The Whole Ed Cata-Blog
The Steinbeck Centennial Collection
If you find that you're a big Steinbeck fan, and want to add some books to your library, this "Centennial Collection" is a very nice boxed set, available at a deeper-than-usual discount.
Steinbeck's Style
A lot of beginning writers, noticing that they've encountered new words in their reading, seem to equate creative writing with an ostentatious display of their extensive vocabulary. There are times when an unfamiliar term is so apt that it demands to be used, but it is usually far more effective to use common words that are generally understood.
Steinbeck epitomized this principle, relying on his stories, characters, and descriptions to convey meaning rather than flowery language and elaborate plot twists. He drew his readers into the worlds he created with scarcely the realization that they were temporarily suspending disbelief.
If you examined the vocabulary and word-frequency of Steinbeck's works, you would find little indication that the author had gone beyond the fourth grade -- yet his books are perennial bestsellers and have recieved nearly universal critical acclaim.
Although they are by no means "children's books" Steinbeck's writings are an excellent choice for teen and young adult readers as well as adults.
Cup of Gold
A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History
As its longer title indicates, Steinbeck's Cup of Gold is a work of historical fiction. It's a worthy first novel, but one can almost imagine an editor counseling the young Steinbeck to "write about what you know." Whether or not that is the case, Steinbeck returned to his beloved Salinas County, Califoria for his succeeding works with considerable success.
Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Early 1930's
Steinbeck followed Cup of Gold with a collection of twelve interrelated short stories The Pastures of Heaven and the short , looselyintegrated The Red Pony -- which is described either as a four-chapter novel or a collection fo four short stories --drawing upon his boyhood experiences working summers on Salinas County ranches.
Later in 1933 To a God Unknown<,/i> was published, a mystical tale about our connection to the land which is often overlooked.
Steinbeck's first real critical acclaim accompanied the release of Tortilla Flat, which woon the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal. The book would later become a movie Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, and John Garfield.
The Pastures of Heaven (Twentieth-Century Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Red Pony (Steinbeck "Essentials")
Amazon Price: $14.82 (as of 07/12/2009)
To a God Unknown (Penguin Modern Classics)
Amazon Price: $23.06 (as of 07/12/2009)
Tortilla Flat (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.40 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Harvest Gypsies
Many readers are unaware that Steinbeck pursued parallel careers in fiction and journalism, even though some of his better known works are non-fiction. His stories are often so believable that really is hard to separate fact from fantasy.
The Harvest Gypsies, is a series of seven articles written for the San Francisco News.in 1936. The work could well be seen a background for the controversial The Grapes of Wrath to come some three years later.
Much of this material is included in America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction, but the commentary by Charles Wollenberg, and photographs by Dorothea Lange and others make this a worthwhile acquisition.
The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/12/2009)
The California Novels
During the latter half of the 1930's, Steinbeck wrote his "California Novels" series chronicling the dust bowl and the Great Depression.
In Dubious Battle (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 07/12/2009)
Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
Amazon Price: $10.78 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.19 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Influence of Ed Ricketts
In 1940, Steinbeck took a cruise with his good friend marine biologist and philosopher Ed Ricketts jointly publishing the record of that trip as Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research in 1941, and republished in an abridged form as The Log from the "Sea of Cortez" in 1951.
Ricketts became the model for several of Steinbeck's most memorable characters, including "Doc" in Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, Doc Burton in In Dubious Battle, Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath, and Doctor Winter in The Moon is Down.
Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research
The original travelogue and natural history from which the later The Log from the "Sea of Cortez" was derived.
Amazon Price: $16.50 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Log from the "Sea of Cortez" (Penguin Modern Classics)
This is simply the narrative portions of the more detailed Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, but it is much more popular, since the story is really the part most people are interested in.
Amazon Price: $21.41 (as of 07/12/2009)
Little Skinny Books
The Pearl (Centennial Edition)
Amazon Price: $9.41 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Moon Is Down
Amazon Price: $10.19 (as of 07/12/2009)
Cannery Row (Twentieth-Century Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.98 (as of 07/12/2009)
Tortilla Flat (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.40 (as of 07/12/2009)
Short Stories
The Red Pony (Steinbeck "Essentials")
Although published as a book in 1933, The Red Pony is really a collection of four interrelated short stories, which are also included in The Long Valley below.
Amazon Price: $14.82 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Long Valley (Penguin Modern Classics)
Amazon Price: $18.12 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Pastures of Heaven (Twentieth-Century Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
Medium-Sized Books
Cup of Gold: A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Reference to History (Penguin Classics)
Steinbeck's first novel
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
Sweet Thursday (Penguin Classics)
A contiuation of Cannery Row.
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
More Steinbeck
Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition)
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Wayward Bus (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
To a God Unknown (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.25 (as of 07/12/2009)
The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (Penguin Modern Classics)
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 07/12/2009)
Big Fat Books
East of Eden
Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009)
The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition)
Amazon Price: $11.05 (as of 07/12/2009)
Nonfiction
The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/12/2009)
Once There Was a War (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $11.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
A Russian Journal
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 07/12/2009)
America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 07/12/2009)
Plays
Of Mice and Men (Play) (DPS Acting Edition)
Amazon Price: $7.50 (as of 07/12/2009)
Zapata
Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 07/12/2009)
Burning Bright: A Play in Story Form (Penguin Classics)
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 07/12/2009)
Journals
If you're interested in the process of writing, Steinbeck provides a rare glimpse into the task.
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The Whole Ed Cata-Blog
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