Editing John Steinbeck (section)

===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>