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Published byHolly Golden Modified over 9 years ago
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JOHN STEINBECK “I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.” -Steinbeck
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EARLY LIFE Born February 27, 1902 in Salinas, CA. Salinas is the heart of the agricultural industry here in California. California’s agricultural land is the setting for most of Steinbeck’s literature. His father was a county controller and his mother was a teacher. At 14, he decided to become a writer and would lock himself into his room writing short stories.
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COLLEGE YEARS Steinbeck attended Stanford in Northern California to study Marine Biology. Unfortunately, he did not graduate moved to NYC to begin his career as a writer and reporter He was fired from his reporting job and found little success as a writer. He moved back to California
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EARLY WORKS OF LITERATURE In Lake Tahoe he worked as a caretaker, along with many other jobs. Here he wrote his first novel Cup of Gold, about a Jamaican pirate in 1929.
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LOVE Not soon after he met and married his first wife, Carol who helped support him financially as he struggled to begin his career as a writer. Steinbeck was quite the lover, he was married three times in all.
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Accomplishments Tortilla Flats: 1 st successful novel about life in Monterey, California. Published in 1935 Of Mice and Men: other successes included a more serious tone. Published in 1937
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Accomplishments: The Grapes of Wrath 1939, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, the story of an Oklahoma family who moved to California and struggled to survive during The Great Depression. Earned the Pulitzer Prize, one of the highest honors an author can achieve. Banned from 1939-1941 in Kern County Board of Supervisors
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MIDDLE YEARS During World War II, Steinbeck worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. Traveled to Mexico with a friend, who was a marine biologist, to collect sea life. He based these experiences for his writing of Sea of Cortez. Sea of Cortez, describes sea life in the Gulf of California.
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WHY THE CONTROVERSY? Steinbeck was an advocate for the underprivileged. His writing reflected certain struggles and inequalities of America that did not sit well with many Americans. His popularity in America lacked. Very popular in Europe.
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LATER WORKS OF LITERATURE Last 25 years of his life he wrote many great novels such as Cannery Row in 1945. East of Eden, 1952 and Travels with Charlie, 1962 1962: Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (highest honors that a writer can achieve)
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DEATH 1968: Steinbeck died of heart disease in New York City on December 20 at the age of 66.
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Additional Resources www.steinbeck.org (learn more biography here) www.steinbeck.org Steinbeck Museum located in Salinas, CA. www.nobelprize.org (The offical website of the Nobel Prize) www.nobelprize.org
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