When'Of Mice and Men' opened on Broadway Steinbeck was in a migrant labor camp with families from Oklahoma. more than his path to success, it was necessity. "Even if I knew nothing would emerge from this book I would still write it," he told his publisher when he was writing East of Eden decades later. Single- minded dedication was his from the 1920s to the end of his life. One California job took him to an altitude of 7,000 feet in the Sierras when he was winter caretaker of a house at Lake Tahoe. Alone in this hideaway, Steinbeck wrote Cup of Gold, "A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Ref- erence to History." This curious book has an air of quaintness now. Steinbeck designed it using a structure based on Dvorak's Symphony from the New World. The author lost his ideal job when a pine tree fell through the roof of the house, but Steinbeck and manuscript emerged unscathed. The book was pub- lished in 1929, sold about 1,500 copies, and dropped from sight. Today the pirate romance seems an appropriate end to the make-believe 1920s, but a careful reader hears prophecies when Merlin, an aged poet, speaks to Henry Morgan: "You want the moon to drink from as a golden cup; and so, it is very likely that you will become a great man - if only you remain a little child. All the world's greats have been little boys who wanted the moon; running and climbing, they sometimes caught a firefly." Steinbeck never stopped running, never stopped climbing, and he caught many fireflies. He persisted against the odds with his father's help. "My father wanted me to be myself," he wrote. "He admired anyone who laid down his line and fol- lowed it undeflected to the end. I think this was because he abandoned his star in litte duties... I think he liked the complete ruthlessness of my design to be a writer. As Depression clamped frozen jaws on a frightened nation, Steinbeck worked in a small house at Pacific Grove. His father provided the house and a modest stipend so the writing could continue. In 1930 Steinbeck married Carol Henning, first of his three wives. They lived in the rent-free cottage and subsisted mainly on fish from the sea. His manuscripts went out hope- fully and came back rejected. "I couldn't even afford postage," he recalled. 'My agents, McIntish and Otis, paid it, although they couldn't sell my work." Steinbeck had a long memory for loyalty. He kept Elizabeth Otis as his agent more than forty years. Across America, just getting by was an 48 AIR CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE APRIL 1980 achievement. Steinbeck managed. "Given the sea and the gardens, we did pretty well with a minimum of theft ... Farmers couldn't sell their products and gave them away." Steinbeck learned survival and the meaning of poverty. He used these lessons in his books. He began concentrating on the country he knew best. His second and third novels, The Pastures of Heauen (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), are set in the California area now often called Steinbeck Country. Steinbeck's best writing inhabits a specific California world, framed by Los Angeles south, San Francisco north, and stretching from the Pacific to the Sierra Nevadas. His heartland is even smaller. This is the area from the Monterey coast inland to the small towns, farms, and ranches of the Valley. Several novels and stories are at home here. In 1933 Steinbeck's California was host to parts one and two of an American classic, The Red Pony, published in the North American Review. The complete story (1938) of Jody Tiflin and his family was my first meeting with Steinbeck. It's a good place to start. Other Steinbeck books had stronger impact but simply re- inforced the impression of truth, strength, beauty, and compassion made by The Red Pony, especially part four, "The Leader of the People." Jody's grandfather remembered his young when the westering impulse was strong. "We carried life out here and set it down the way those ants carry eggs," he said. "The westering was as big as God ... then we came down to the sea, and it was done ... There's a line of old men along the shore hating the ocean because it stopped them." Jody's grandfather feared that 'Westering has died out of the peo- ple. Westering isn't a hunger any more. It's all done." Jody wanted to believe it wasn't done, and it wasn't in the writings of Steinbeck. He prodded, puzzled over, and expanded the westering theme in many books. Three of Steinbeck's finest California novels were published from 1935 to 1937 as the results of an intensely creative period: Tortilla Flat (1935) In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937). Each book is radically different from the others in content and treatment. This was typically the case with Steinbeck. Variety might not always be the spice of life, but it was the spice of Steinbeck. "When his cur- tain goes up, he always puts on a different kind of show," wro'te Edmund Wilson. This was deliberate, though he was criti- cized for lacking a fixed philosophy and point of view. His great contemporaries, including Thomas Wolfe, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald, earned reputations for consistency of voice and purpose that was soothing to critics. Steinbeck refused to repeat himself even to make critics com- fortable. Tortilla Flat was an exuberant, picar- esque tale of the Monterey paisanos in- cluding Danny, Pilon, Big Joe Portagee, and their friends. This bawdy masterpiece was patterned after the stories of King Ar- thur and his Knights of the Round Table which fascinated Steinbeck from child- hood. Some publishers rejected it as too frivolous and light-hearted for a time of Depression gloom. These rejections were beneficial. They led Steinbeck to Pascal Covici who accepted Tortilla Flat, then became Steinbeck's editor and close friend for life. Tortilla Flat proved an antidote to gloom. It helped people smile and forget hard times. The book earned Steinbeck his first significant royalties and national recognition. The money financed a trip to Mexico, later a favorite Steinbeck hunt- ing ground for stories, characters, and legends. Steinbeck could have followed Tortilla Flat with a series of comedies. It was a vein waiting to be mined for ready gold, and Steinbeck had the skills to become a master funny man. But that was not for him. "Myths form early," he wrote, "and I want no tag of humorist pinned on me, nor any other kind." California in the mid-1930s was a labor battleground as migrant workers strug- gled with farm owners. In Dubious Battle offers a somber account of a strike by fruit pickers. French author Andre Gide con- sidered it an important achievement and wrote of "the great anguish which, from one part to the next, breathes through this beautiful and cruel book." Gide noted that "the main character is the crowd... one cannot take sides for or against the flood of demands any more than the author has done." The book features Mac and Jim, labor organizers for an unnamed party that is obviously Communist. Steinbeck main- tains a calm, detached attitude. His sym- pathies are with the fruit pickers, ex- ploited both by party workers and owners. Doc Burton serves as the author's voice when he questions that a worthy / B... , OCR Text: When'Of Mice and Men' opened on Broadway Steinbeck was in a migrant labor camp with families from Oklahoma. more than his path to success, it was necessity. "Even if I knew nothing would emerge from this book I would still write it," he told his publisher when he was writing East of Eden decades later. Single- minded dedication was his from the 1920s to the end of his life. One California job took him to an altitude of 7,000 feet in the Sierras when he was winter caretaker of a house at Lake Tahoe. Alone in this hideaway, Steinbeck wrote Cup of Gold, "A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with Occasional Ref- erence to History." This curious book has an air of quaintness now. Steinbeck designed it using a structure based on Dvorak's Symphony from the New World. The author lost his ideal job when a pine tree fell through the roof of the house, but Steinbeck and manuscript emerged unscathed. The book was pub- lished in 1929, sold about 1,500 copies, and dropped from sight. Today the pirate romance seems an appropriate end to the make-believe 1920s, but a careful reader hears prophecies when Merlin, an aged poet, speaks to Henry Morgan: "You want the moon to drink from as a golden cup; and so, it is very likely that you will become a great man - if only you remain a little child. All the world's greats have been little boys who wanted the moon; running and climbing, they sometimes caught a firefly." Steinbeck never stopped running, never stopped climbing, and he caught many fireflies. He persisted against the odds with his father's help. "My father wanted me to be myself," he wrote. "He admired anyone who laid down his line and fol- lowed it undeflected to the end. I think this was because he abandoned his star in litte duties... I think he liked the complete ruthlessness of my design to be a writer. As Depression clamped frozen jaws on a frightened nation, Steinbeck worked in a small house at Pacific Grove. His father provided the house and a modest stipend so the writing could continue. In 1930 Steinbeck married Carol Henning, first of his three wives. They lived in the rent-free cottage and subsisted mainly on fish from the sea. His manuscripts went out hope- fully and came back rejected. "I couldn't even afford postage," he recalled. 'My agents, McIntish and Otis, paid it, although they couldn't sell my work." Steinbeck had a long memory for loyalty. He kept Elizabeth Otis as his agent more than forty years. Across America, just getting by was an 48 AIR CALIFORNIA MAGAZINE APRIL 1980 achievement. Steinbeck managed. "Given the sea and the gardens, we did pretty well with a minimum of theft ... Farmers couldn't sell their products and gave them away." Steinbeck learned survival and the meaning of poverty. He used these lessons in his books. He began concentrating on the country he knew best. His second and third novels, The Pastures of Heauen (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), are set in the California area now often called Steinbeck Country. Steinbeck's best writing inhabits a specific California world, framed by Los Angeles south, San Francisco north, and stretching from the Pacific to the Sierra Nevadas. His heartland is even smaller. This is the area from the Monterey coast inland to the small towns, farms, and ranches of the Valley. Several novels and stories are at home here. In 1933 Steinbeck's California was host to parts one and two of an American classic, The Red Pony, published in the North American Review. The complete story (1938) of Jody Tiflin and his family was my first meeting with Steinbeck. It's a good place to start. Other Steinbeck books had stronger impact but simply re- inforced the impression of truth, strength, beauty, and compassion made by The Red Pony, especially part four, "The Leader of the People." Jody's grandfather remembered his young when the westering impulse was strong. "We carried life out here and set it down the way those ants carry eggs," he said. "The westering was as big as God ... then we came down to the sea, and it was done ... There's a line of old men along the shore hating the ocean because it stopped them." Jody's grandfather feared that 'Westering has died out of the peo- ple. Westering isn't a hunger any more. It's all done." Jody wanted to believe it wasn't done, and it wasn't in the writings of Steinbeck. He prodded, puzzled over, and expanded the westering theme in many books. Three of Steinbeck's finest California novels were published from 1935 to 1937 as the results of an intensely creative period: Tortilla Flat (1935) In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937). Each book is radically different from the others in content and treatment. This was typically the case with Steinbeck. Variety might not always be the spice of life, but it was the spice of Steinbeck. "When his cur- tain goes up, he always puts on a different kind of show," wro'te Edmund Wilson. This was deliberate, though he was criti- cized for lacking a fixed philosophy and point of view. His great contemporaries, including Thomas Wolfe, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald, earned reputations for consistency of voice and purpose that was soothing to critics. Steinbeck refused to repeat himself even to make critics com- fortable. Tortilla Flat was an exuberant, picar- esque tale of the Monterey paisanos in- cluding Danny, Pilon, Big Joe Portagee, and their friends. This bawdy masterpiece was patterned after the stories of King Ar- thur and his Knights of the Round Table which fascinated Steinbeck from child- hood. Some publishers rejected it as too frivolous and light-hearted for a time of Depression gloom. These rejections were beneficial. They led Steinbeck to Pascal Covici who accepted Tortilla Flat, then became Steinbeck's editor and close friend for life. Tortilla Flat proved an antidote to gloom. It helped people smile and forget hard times. The book earned Steinbeck his first significant royalties and national recognition. The money financed a trip to Mexico, later a favorite Steinbeck hunt- ing ground for stories, characters, and legends. Steinbeck could have followed Tortilla Flat with a series of comedies. It was a vein waiting to be mined for ready gold, and Steinbeck had the skills to become a master funny man. But that was not for him. "Myths form early," he wrote, "and I want no tag of humorist pinned on me, nor any other kind." California in the mid-1930s was a labor battleground as migrant workers strug- gled with farm owners. In Dubious Battle offers a somber account of a strike by fruit pickers. French author Andre Gide con- sidered it an important achievement and wrote of "the great anguish which, from one part to the next, breathes through this beautiful and cruel book." Gide noted that "the main character is the crowd... one cannot take sides for or against the flood of demands any more than the author has done." The book features Mac and Jim, labor organizers for an unnamed party that is obviously Communist. Steinbeck main- tains a calm, detached attitude. His sym- pathies are with the fruit pickers, ex- ploited both by party workers and owners. Doc Burton serves as the author's voice when he questions that a worthy / B... , Heritage Society of Pacific Grove,Historical Collections,Names of People about town,S through T File names,Steinbeck,STEINBECK_017.pdf,STEINBECK_017.pdf 1 Page 1, Tags: STEINBECK_017.PDF, STEINBECK_017.pdf 1 Page 1