Editing John Steinbeck (section)

==Early life==

Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in [[Salinas, California]].<ref name="jsbae">{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/people/john-steinbeck-9493358|title=John Steinbeck Biography|date=February 6, 2018|work=[[Biography.com]] website|publisher=[[A&E Television Networks]]|access-date=February 26, 2018|archive-date=April 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406150841/https://www.biography.com/people/john-steinbeck-9493358|url-status=live}}</ref> He was of German, English, and Irish descent.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://irishamerica.com/2007/06/okie-faces-irish-eyes-john-steinbeck-route-66/ |title=Okie Faces & Irish Eyes: John Steinbeck & Route 66 |publisher=Irish America |date= June 2007|access-date=October 23, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121121232922/http://irishamerica.com/2007/06/okie-faces-irish-eyes-john-steinbeck-route-66/ |archive-date=November 21, 2012 }}</ref> Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck (1828–1913), Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, was a founder of [[Mount Hope, Jaffa|Mount Hope]], a short-lived farming colony in Palestine that disbanded after Arab attackers killed his brother and raped his brother's wife and mother-in-law.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yaron |first=Perry |date=2004 |title=John Steinbeck's Roots in Nineteenth-Century Palestine |journal=Steinbeck Studies |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=46–72 [47–48, 59–63] |doi=10.1353/stn.2004.0018 |issn=1551-6903 |doi-access=free}}</ref> He arrived in the United States in 1858, shortening the family name to Steinbeck. The family farm in [[Heiligenhaus]], [[Mettmann (district)|Mettmann]], Germany, is still named "Großsteinbeck".

His father, John Ernst Steinbeck (1862–1935), served as [[Monterey County]] treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton (1867–1934), a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion for reading and writing.<ref name="NSC">{{cite web|url=http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html |title=John Steinbeck Biography |access-date=April 14, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305004150/http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html |archive-date=March 5, 2010 }}. National Steinbeck Centre</ref> The Steinbecks were members of the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]],<ref>Alec Gilmore. [http://www.gilco.org.uk/papers/john_steinbecks_view_of_god.html John Steinbeck's View of God] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304095734/http://www.gilco.org.uk/papers/john_steinbecks_view_of_god.html |date=March 4, 2016 }}. gilco.org.uk</ref> although Steinbeck later became [[Agnosticism|agnostic]].<ref name="Jackson J. Benson 1984 https://archive.org/details/trueadventuresof00bens/page/248 248">{{cite book|title=The true adventures of John Steinbeck, writer: a biography|year=1984|publisher=Viking Press|isbn=978-0-670-16685-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/trueadventuresof00bens/page/248 248]|author=Jackson J. Benson|quote=Ricketts did not convert his friend to a religious point of view—Steinbeck remained an agnostic and, essentially, a materialist—but Ricketts's religious acceptance did tend to work on his friend, ...|url=https://archive.org/details/trueadventuresof00bens/page/248}}</ref> Steinbeck lived in a small rural valley (no more than a frontier settlement) set in fertile soil, about 25 miles from the [[Pacific Coast]].  Both valley and coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction.<ref>{{cite book|title=Of Mice and Men|year=1993|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-017739-8|page=0|author=John Steinbeck|url=https://archive.org/details/ofmicemenpenguin00john|url-access=registration}}</ref> He spent his summers working on nearby ranches including the [[Posts, California|Post Ranch]] in [[Big Sur]].<ref name=latimes>{{cite news |title=Billy Post dies at 88; Big Sur's resident authority |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-billy-post2-2009aug02-story.html |access-date=February 14, 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=August 2, 2009 |archive-date=February 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214193930/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-billy-post2-2009aug02-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He later labored with migrant workers on [[Spreckels, California|Spreckels]] sugar beet farms. There he learned of the harsher aspects of the migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which supplied him with material expressed in ''[[Of Mice and Men]]''. He explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.<ref name="Biography">Introduction to John Steinbeck, ''The Long Valley'', pp. 9–10, John Timmerman, Penguin Publishing, 1995</ref> While working at Spreckels Sugar Company, he sometimes worked in their laboratory, which gave him time to write. He had considerable mechanical aptitude and fondness for repairing things he owned.<ref name="Benson">Jackson J. Benson, ''The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer'' New York: The Viking Press, 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-14-014417-8}}, pp. 147, 915a, 915b, 133</ref>

[[File:SteinbeckHouse.jpg|thumb|The [[John Steinbeck House (Salinas, California)|Steinbeck House]] at 132 Central Avenue, [[Salinas, California]], the [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] home where Steinbeck spent his childhood]]
Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919 and went on to study English literature at [[Stanford University]] near [[Palo Alto]], leaving without a degree in 1925. He traveled to New York City where he took odd jobs while trying to write. When he failed to publish his work, he returned to California and worked in 1928 as a tour guide and caretaker<ref name="Benson"/> at [[Lake Tahoe]], where he met Carol Henning, his first wife.<ref name="NSC"/><ref name="Benson" /><ref>Introduction to 'The Grapes of Wrath' Penguin edition (1192) by Robert DeMott</ref> They married in January 1930 in Los Angeles, where, with friends, he attempted to make money by manufacturing plaster [[mannequins]].<ref name="Benson"/>

When their money ran out six months later due to a slow market, Steinbeck and Carol moved back to [[Pacific Grove, California]], to a cottage owned by his father, on the [[Monterey Peninsula]] a few blocks outside the [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] city limits. The elder Steinbecks gave John free housing, paper for his manuscripts, and from 1928, loans that allowed him to write without looking for work. During the [[Great Depression]], Steinbeck bought a small boat, and later claimed that he was able to live on the fish and crabs that he gathered from the sea, and fresh vegetables from his garden and local farms. When those sources failed, Steinbeck and his wife accepted welfare, and on rare occasions, stole bacon from the local produce market.<ref name="Benson"/> Whatever food they had, they shared with their friends.<ref name="Benson"/> Carol became the model for Mary Talbot in Steinbeck's novel [[Cannery Row (novel)|''Cannery Row'']].<ref name="Benson"/>

In 1930, Steinbeck met the marine biologist [[Ed Ricketts]], who became a close friend and mentor to Steinbeck during the following decade, teaching him a great deal about philosophy and biology.<ref name="Benson"/> Ricketts, usually very quiet, yet likable, with an inner self-sufficiency and an encyclopedic knowledge of diverse subjects, became a focus of Steinbeck's attention. Ricketts had taken a college class from [[Warder Clyde Allee]], a biologist and ecological theorist, who would go on to write a classic early textbook on [[ecology]]. Ricketts became a proponent of ecological thinking, in which man was only one part of a [[great chain of being]], caught in a web of life too large for him to control or understand.<ref name="Benson"/> Meanwhile, Ricketts operated a biological lab on the coast of Monterey, selling biological samples of small animals, fish, rays, starfish, turtles, and other marine forms to schools and colleges.

Between 1930 and 1936, Steinbeck and Ricketts became close friends. Steinbeck's wife began working at the lab as secretary-bookkeeper.<ref name="Benson"/> Steinbeck helped on an informal basis.<ref>Jackson J. Benson, ''The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer'' New York: The Viking Press, 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-14-014417-8}}, p. 196</ref> They formed a common bond based on their love of music and art, and John learned biology and Ricketts's ecological philosophy.<ref>Jackson J. Benson, ''The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer'' New York: The Viking Press, 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-14-014417-8}}, p. 197</ref> When Steinbeck became emotionally upset, Ricketts sometimes played music for him.<ref>Jackson J. Benson, ''The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer'' New York: The Viking Press, 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-14-014417-8}}, p. 199</ref>