Outside Reading Blog #4

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He lived in a small farming town, which may have been where much of his inspiration for Of Mice and Men came from. In 1919, Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University, but he did not get a degree. He traveled to New York City and held odd jobs while pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. While trying to get his works published he worked as a tour guide and caretaker at a fish hatchery in Tahoe City. "Steinbeck grew up in California's Salinas Valley, a culturally diverse place with a rich migratory and immigrant history. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place"(Wikipedia). He spent much of the Great Depression in a cottage on the Monterey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California.
In 1940 Steinbeck traveled around the Gulf of California collecting biological specimens with his friend, Ed Ricketts, a biologist. It was here that Steinbeck collected much of the material for his novels "Tortilla Flats" and "Cannery Row". In 1948, Steinbeck toured the Soviet Union with photographer Robert Capa. They visited Moscow, Tvilisi, Kiev, Stalingrad and Batumi. His book about their experiences, A Russian Journal, was illustrated with Capa's photos. John Steinbeck died at the age of 66 in New York City on December 20, 1968 of heart disease and congestive heart failure. He had been a life-long smoker.

Because most of his stories take place in Salinas, Monterey and the San Joaquin Valley, they are sometimes referred to as Steinbeck country. He had very wide range of interests, such as marine biology, politics, religion, history and mythology, as he shows in many of his novels.

Steinbeck's description of Monterey in Cannery Row was very accurate many things still exist. Ed Ricketts' laboratory survives (though it is not yet open to the public), and at the corner is the store which once belonged to Lee Chong. The adjacent vacant lot is still frequented by the hobos of Cannery Row.