John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck, (1902-68). US novelist and writer. Born in Salinas, California, Steinbeck studied marine biology at Stanford. He subsequently worked as a journalist and in various menial jobs before publishing his first novel, Cup of Gold, in 1929. His work made little impact until Tortilla Flat (11935), a tale of poor farm workers in California, became a bestseller. Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) dealt with similar subject matter but introduced a new note of social criticism. Combining an accessible style with seriousness of purpose, these novels pleased the critics as well as the public; both were successfully filmed. Later novels, such as Cannery Row (1945) and East of Eden (1952), were less well received. Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962.
