JOHN STEINBECK

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JOHN STEINBECK

• Born February 27, 1902
• in Salinas, CA

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STEINBECK HIS FAMILY

• Parents
• Dad County Treasurer
• Mom Teacher
• Siblings
• 3 sisters
• Wives
• 3 of em
• Children
• 2 sons

3
STEINBECK HIS EDUCATION

• High School
• Graduated Salinas H.S. 1919
• College
• Stanford University
• Attended 1919-1925
• Studied marine biology
• Left to become a writer

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STEINBECK HIS WRITING

• Autobiographical
• i.e. ranches, traveling, people
• California novels
• Characteristics
• Social novels
• economic problems of rural labor
• Real historical conditions and events
• i.e. Great Depressionmigrants, laborers

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STEINBECK HIS NOVELS

• 1929 Cup of Gold
• first novel
• not successful at all
• 1935 Tortilla Flat
• First commercial success
• 1936 Of Mice and Men
• 1938
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Just to name a fewhe wrote over 30 novels, short
  stories, and plays

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STEINBECK HIS AWARDS

• Pulitzer Prize Fiction Award The Grapes of Wrath
• 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature
• among MANY others

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STEINBECK HIS CRITICS

• Salinas on Strike!
• Discrimination
• Anger
• Jealousy
• Burning books
• Banning books
• Only when I am delivered in a pine box will I be
  considered safe by the town of Salinas.
• --John Steinbeck
• Apparently, time heals all woundsnow Salinas
  proudly celebrates Steinbeck as their native son.

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STEINBECK HIS DEATH

• December 20, 1968
• (hey, thats my birthday!)
• Buried in Salinas, CA

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RESOURCES

• National Steinbeck Center
• www.steinbeck.org
• John Steinbeck The California Novels
• www.wwu.edu/stephen/Steinbeck