JOHN STEINBACK

FAMILY

• Father - John Ernist Steinbeck
• Mother - Olive Hamilton
• 3 sisters - Mary, Elizabeth, and Esther Steinbeck
• 3 wives - Carol Henning, Gwyndolyn Conger, Elaine Anderson Steinbeck
• 2 sons - Thomas Steinbeck and John Steinbeck IV

EARLY YEARS

• Born March 27th, 1902 in Salinas, CA
• Became a writer at 14
• 1919 enrolled at Stanford, then dropped out
• Worked as a manual laborer

EARLY CAREER

• Tried to be a freelance writer
• Briefly moved to NY. Found job as a newspaper reporter
• Went back to CA. Job as a caretaker. During this he wrote his 1st novel, Cup of Gold (1929)
• Wasn't until Tortilla Flat(1935) when he achieved real success

CONTINUE...

• Wrote a collection of short stories
• The Grapes of Wrath(1939) was considered his finest and most ambitious novel.
• Eventually this book earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1940

LATER LIFE

• Served as a war correspondent during WWII
• Traveled to Mexico with Edward Ricketts which resulted in his book Sea of Cortez
• Wrote many more books
• Died of heart disease on December 20th, 1968

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• 1929- Cup of Gold-1st novel published
• 1935- Tortilla Flat
• 1936- Dubious Battle
• 1937- Of Mice and Men
• 1938- The Long Vally
• 1939- The Grapes of Wrath
• 1941- The Moon is Down
• 1952- East of Eden
• 1966- America and Americans

CONTINUE...

• 1940- Pulizer Prize & National Book Award
• 1944- Oscar Nomination for Lifeboat
• 1962- Nobel Prize
• 27 total books
• 1964- Received the United States Medal of Freedom, the Annual Paperback, & the Press Medal of Freedom.