Editing John Steinbeck (section)

==Political views==
[[File:JohnSteinbeck.JPG|thumb|John Steinbeck, with his 19-year-old son John (left), visits his friend, [[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Lyndon B. Johnson]], in the Oval Office, May 16, 1966. John Jr. is shortly to leave for active duty in Vietnam.]]
Steinbeck's contacts with [[leftist]] authors, journalists, and [[trade union|labor union]] figures may have influenced his writing.  He joined the [[League of American Writers]], a Communist organization, in 1935.<ref>{{cite news |author=Dave Stancliff |title=Remembering John Steinbeck, a great American writer |url=http://www.times-standard.com/letters/ci_22658148/remembering-john-steinbeck-great-american-writer |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140629134544/http://www.times-standard.com/letters/ci_22658148/remembering-john-steinbeck-great-american-writer |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 29, 2014 |newspaper=[[Times-Standard]] |date=February 24, 2013 |access-date=June 28, 2014 }}</ref> Steinbeck was mentored by radical writers [[Lincoln Steffens]] and his wife [[Ella Winter]]. Through [[Francis Whitaker]], a member of the [[Communist Party USA]]'s [[John Reed Club]] for writers, Steinbeck met with strike organizers from the [[United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America|Cannery and Agricultural Workers' Industrial Union]].<ref>[http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/jun02/steinbeck.htm Steinbeck and radicalism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040204193303/http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/jun02/steinbeck.htm |date=February 4, 2004 }} New Criterion. Retrieved 2007.</ref> In 1939, he signed a letter with some other writers in support of the [[Winter War|Soviet invasion of Finland]] and the Soviet-established [[Finnish Democratic Republic|puppet government]].<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Terijoen hallitus sai outoa tukea |language= fi |trans-title= The Terijoki Government received odd support |newspaper= [[Helsingin Sanomat]] |date=November 29, 2009 }}</ref>

Documents released by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] in 2012 indicate that Steinbeck offered his services to the Agency in 1952, while planning a European tour, and the Director of Central Intelligence, [[Walter Bedell Smith]], was eager to take him up on the offer.<ref>Brian Kannard, ''Steinbeck: Citizen Spy'', Grave Distractions, 2013 {{ISBN|978-0-9890293-9-1}}, pp. 15–17.  The correspondence is also available at {{cite web |url=http://www.steinbeckcitizenspy.com/steinebeck-1952-letter.php |title=Steinbeck Documents and Excerpt |access-date=October 1, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301224244/http://www.steinbeckcitizenspy.com/steinebeck-1952-letter.php |archive-date=March 1, 2014}}</ref>  What work, if any, Steinbeck may have performed for the CIA during the Cold War is unknown. Documents released by the [[Security Service of Ukraine]] following the [[Revolution of Dignity]] in 2014 indicate that the Soviet KGB suspected him of being an American agent when he visited locations within the USSR, including [[Kyiv]], in 1947. Consequently, they watched Steinbeck closely and solicited information about him from their informers.{{Citation needed|reason=No source provided|date=September 2023}}

Steinbeck was a close associate of [[playwright]] [[Arthur Miller]]. In June 1957, Steinbeck took a personal and professional risk by supporting him when Miller refused to name names in the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] trials.<ref name="Bio3" /> Steinbeck called the period one of the "strangest and most frightening times a government and people have ever faced".<ref name="Bio3">Jackson J. Benson, ''John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography'', Penguin, 1990 {{ISBN|978-0-14-014417-8}}</ref>

In 1963, Steinbeck visited the [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic]] at the behest of [[John F. Kennedy|President John F. Kennedy]]. During his visit he sat for a rare portrait by painter [[Martiros Saryan]] and visited [[Geghard Monastery]]. He also met with Armenian poet [[Hovhannes Shiraz]] in [[Yerevan]]. Steinbeck's letter of thanks for Shiraz's hospitality is now displayed at the Shiraz house museum in Gyumri.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.groong.com/orig/rb-20061205.html| title = The Fragrance of the Roses Lingers On ... Hovhannes Shiraz| last = Bedevian| first = Ruth| date = December 5, 2006| website = Armenian News Network / Groong| publisher = | access-date = | quote = Among all the memorabilia, a letter from American writer, John Steinbeck, who was awarded both a Pulitzer Prize for his `Grapes of Wrath' (1939) and a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, caught my attention. I immediately asked to photograph it which was generously allowed. It was dated May 9, 1964 in which Steinbeck thanked Shiraz for his hospitality when he visited him in Yerevan.| archive-date = April 1, 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230401230632/http://groong.com/orig/rb-20061205.html| url-status = live}}</ref> Footage of this visit filmed by Rafael Aramyan was sold in 2013 by his granddaughter.<ref name="SFGate">{{cite web |last1=Coe |first1=Alexis |title=Recent Acquisitions: John Steinbeck's Cold War Armenian Legacy |url=https://archives.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2013/01/18/recent-acquisitions-john-steinbecks-cold-war-armenian-legacy |website=SF Weekly |access-date=May 2, 2021 |archive-date=May 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502152941/https://archives.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2013/01/18/recent-acquisitions-john-steinbecks-cold-war-armenian-legacy |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1967, when he was sent to Vietnam to report on [[Vietnam War|the war]], his sympathetic portrayal of the [[United States Army]] led the ''[[New York Post]]'' to denounce him for betraying his leftist past. Steinbeck's biographer, [[Jay Parini]], says Steinbeck's friendship with [[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Lyndon B. Johnson]]<ref>{{cite news |author=Jeanette Rumsby |title=Steinbeck's Influences |url=http://sits.sjsu.edu/context/influencers/ |journal=Steinbeck in the Schools |publisher=[[San Jose State University]] |date=2016 |access-date=January 12, 2019 |archive-date=January 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113062859/http://sits.sjsu.edu/context/influencers/ |url-status=live }}</ref> influenced his views on Vietnam.<ref name="Bio">Jay Parini, ''John Steinbeck: A Biography'', Holt Publishing, 1996</ref> Steinbeck may also have been concerned about the safety of his son serving in Vietnam.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gladstein |first1=Mimi R. |last2=Meredith |first2=James H. |title=John Steinbeck and the Tragedy of the Vietnam War |journal=Steinbeck Review |date=March 2011 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=39–56 |doi=10.1111/j.1754-6087.2011.01137.x |s2cid=109014468 }}</ref> Steinbeck opposed the anti-war movement in the United States, denouncing the "fallout, drop-out, cop-out insurgency of our children and young people, the rush to stimulant as well as hypnotic drugs, the rise of narrow, ugly, and vengeful cults of all kinds, the mistrust and revolt against all authority – this in a time of plenty such as has never been known."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perlstein |first=Rick |url=http://archive.org/details/nixonlandriseofp0000perl |title=Nixonland : the rise of a president and the fracturing of America |date=2008 |publisher=New York : Scribner |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-7432-4302-5 |pages=62}}</ref>

Along with [[Albert Einstein]], Steinbeck was one of the sponsors of the [[Peoples' World Convention]] (PWC), also known as Peoples' World Constituent Assembly (PWCA), which took place in 1950–51 at Palais Electoral, [[Geneva]], Switzerland.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Einstein |first1=Albert |url=http://archive.org/details/einsteinonpeace00eins |title=Einstein on peace |last2=Nathan |first2=Otto |last3=Norden |first3=Heinz |date=1968 |publisher=New York, Schocken Books |others=Internet Archive |pages=539, 670, 676}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=[Carta] 1950 oct. 12, Genève, [Suiza] [a] Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile [manuscrito] Gerry Kraus. |url=http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/623/w3-article-137193.html |access-date=October 19, 2023 |website=BND: Archivo del Escritor |archive-date=October 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231028194759/http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/bnd/623/w3-article-137193.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Government harassment===
Steinbeck complained publicly about government harassment.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.biographyonline.net/writers/john-steinbeck.html |title=John Steinbeck biography |website=biographyonline.net |access-date=January 12, 2019 |archive-date=July 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220713214809/https://www.biographyonline.net/writers/john-steinbeck.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Thomas Steinbeck, the author's eldest son, said that [[J. Edgar Hoover]], the director of the [[FBI]] at the time, could find no basis for prosecuting Steinbeck and therefore used his power to encourage the [[U.S. Internal Revenue Service]] to audit Steinbeck's taxes every single year of his life, just to annoy him. According to Thomas, a true artist is one who "without a thought for self, stands up against the stones of condemnation, and speaks for those who are given no real voice in the halls of justice, or the halls of government. By doing so, these people will naturally become the enemies of the political status quo."<ref>{{cite web |work=[[Huffington Post]] |date=September 27, 2010 |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-steinbeck/michael-moore-steinbeck-award_b_738727.html |title=John Steinbeck, Michael Moore, and the Burgeoning Role of Planetary Patriotism |last=Steinbeck |first=Thomas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930050328/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-steinbeck/michael-moore-steinbeck-award_b_738727.html |archive-date=September 30, 2010 }}</ref>

In a 1942 letter to United States Attorney General [[Francis Biddle]], John Steinbeck wrote: "Do you suppose you could ask Edgar's boys to stop stepping on my heels? They think I am an enemy alien. It is getting tiresome."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/steinbeck1.html |title=John Steinbeck And The FBI's Wrath |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051022031947/http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/steinbeck1.html |archive-date=October 22, 2005 |url-status=live |website=The Smoking Gun |access-date=July 3, 2021}}</ref> The FBI denied that Steinbeck was under investigation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Charles |date=2014 |title=Steinbeck as Anti-Fascist |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24589397 |journal=American Studies |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=49–71 |jstor=24589397 |issn=0026-3079}}</ref>