Steibeck biography
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John Steinbeck
American writer (1902–1968)
"Steinbeck" redirects here. For other people with this surname, see Steinbeck (surname).
John Ernst Steinbeck (STYNE-bek; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception".[2] He has been called "a giant of American letters."[3][4]
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multigeneration epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939)[5] is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of th
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John Steinbeck
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Arts
(1902 – 1968)
Achievements
Biography current as of induction in 2007
John Steinbeck’s writing, deeply rooted in the Salinas Valley of his youth, earned him worldwide recognition. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 for “his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and a keen social perception.”
Born in Salinas, California, Steinbeck was the only boy among four children. His mother, a former lärare, nourished his love of reading and the written word. During summers he worked on nearby ranches, and there developed an appreciation for the California countryside and its hardworking people.
Steinbeck attended Stanford, but in 1925 he left the university to launch a writing career. Cup of Gold, his first novel, was published in 1929. His next three novels, all set in California, earned him increasing acclaim, but it was not until The Grapes of Wrath (1939) that
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John Steinbeck, American Writer
John Steinbeck was born in the farming town of Salinas, California on 27 February 1902. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, was not a terribly successful man; at one time or another he was the manager of a Sperry flour plant, the owner of a feed and grain store, the treasurer of Monterey County. His mother, the strong-willed Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, was a former teacher. As a child growing up in the fertile Salinas Valley —called the "Salad Bowl of the Nation" — Steinbeck formed a deep appreciation of his environment, not only the rich fields and hills surrounding Salinas, but also the nearby Pacific coast where his family spent summer weekends. "I remember my childhood names for grasses and secret flowers," he wrote in the opening chapter of East of Eden. "I remember where a toad may live and what time the birds awaken in the summer-and what trees and seasons smelled like."
The observant, shy but often mischievous only son had, for the most pa