Editing John Steinbeck (section)

==Career==

===Writing===
Steinbeck's first novel, ''[[Cup of Gold]]'', published in 1929, is loosely based on the life and death of [[privateer]] [[Henry Morgan]]. It centers on Morgan's assault and sacking of [[Panamá Viejo]], sometimes referred to as the "Cup of Gold", and on the women, brighter than the sun, who were said to be found there.<ref name="Bio"/> In 1930, Steinbeck wrote a werewolf murder mystery, ''Murder at Full Moon'', that has never been published because Steinbeck considered it unworthy of publication.<ref>{{cite magazine| url=https://stanfordmag.org/contents/beast-of-eden/| periodical=Stanford Magazine| title=Beast of Eden| date=July 27, 2021| first1=Sam| last1=Scott| access-date=August 4, 2021| archive-date=August 4, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804003835/https://stanfordmag.org/contents/beast-of-eden/| url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1930 and 1933, Steinbeck produced three shorter works. ''[[The Pastures of Heaven]]'', published in 1932, consists of twelve interconnected stories about a valley near Monterey, which was discovered by a Spanish [[corporal]] while chasing runaway [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] slaves. In 1933 Steinbeck published ''[[The Red Pony]]'', a 100-page, four-chapter story weaving in memories of Steinbeck's childhood.<ref name="Bio"/> ''[[To a God Unknown]]'', named after a [[Vedic]] hymn,<ref name="Benson"/> follows the life of a [[Homestead Act|homesteader]] and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works.

Before his novel ''[[Tortilla Flat]]'' (1935), Steinbeck was an obscure writer "with little success".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meyer |first=Michael |title=The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing |publisher=[[St. Martin's Press|St. Martin/Bedford]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-312-47200-9 |edition=8th |location=Boston |pages=744–745}}</ref> Although he had not achieved the status of a well-known writer, he never doubted that he would achieve greatness.<ref name="Benson" />

Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with ''Tortilla Flat'', a novel set in post-war Monterey, California, that won the California [[Commonwealth Club of California|Commonwealth Club]]'s gold medal.<ref name="Bio" /> It portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after [[World War I]], just before U.S. [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition]]. They are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest and reject nearly all the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life devoted to wine, lust, camaraderie and petty theft. In presenting the 1962 Nobel Prize to Steinbeck, the Swedish Academy cited "spicy and comic tales about a gang of ''paisanos'', asocial individuals who, in their wild revels, are almost caricatures of [[Round Table|King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table]]. It has been said that in the United States this book came as a welcome antidote to the gloom of the then prevailing depression."<ref name="nobel" /> ''Tortilla Flat'' was adapted as a [[Tortilla Flat (film)|1942 film of the same name]], starring [[Spencer Tracy]], [[Hedy Lamarr]] and [[John Garfield]], a friend of Steinbeck.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Railsback |first1=Brian E. |last2=Meyer |first2=Michael J. |title=A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-29669-7 |page=387 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NikZBtGvy_gC&pg=PA387 |language=en}}</ref> With some of the proceeds, he built a summer ranch-home in [[Los Gatos]].{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}

Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and [[Dust Bowl]] fiction, set among common people during the [[Great Depression]]. These included ''[[In Dubious Battle]]'', ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' and ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]''. He also wrote an article series called ''[[The Harvest Gypsies]]'' for the ''San Francisco News'' about the plight of the migrant worker.

''Of Mice and Men'' was a [[drama]] about the dreams of two migrant agricultural laborers in California. Steinbeck, on vacations to Mexico, witnessed sold-out theater troupes with often poor and illiterate workers consisting of the audience. As such, Steinbeck chose to write ''Of Mice and Men'' with a stage play in mind. It was critically acclaimed<ref name="Bio"/> and Steinbeck's 1962 Nobel Prize citation called it a "little masterpiece".<ref name=nobel/>
Its stage production was a hit, starring [[Wallace Ford]] as George and [[Broderick Crawford]] as George's companion, the mentally childlike, but physically powerful itinerant farmhand Lennie. Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling director [[George S. Kaufman]] that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect" and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Steinbeck wrote two more stage plays (''[[The Moon Is Down]]'' and ''[[Burning Bright]]'').

''Of Mice and Men'' was also adapted as a [[Of Mice and Men (1939 film)|1939 Hollywood film]], with [[Lon Chaney Jr.]] as Lennie (he had filled the role in the Los Angeles stage production) and [[Burgess Meredith]] as George.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031742/ |title=Of Mice and Men (1939) |publisher=Internet Movie Database |date=January 12, 1940 |access-date=October 10, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030200117/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031742/ |archive-date=October 30, 2007 }}</ref> Meredith and Steinbeck became close friends for the next two decades.<ref name="Benson"/> Another film based on the novella was made in 1992 starring [[Gary Sinise]] as George and [[John Malkovich]] as Lennie.

Steinbeck followed this wave of success with ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939), based on newspaper articles about migrant agricultural workers that he had written in San Francisco. In August 1936, the San Francisco News asked Steinbeck to personally interview multiple families in the impoverished [[Hooverville]]s of the [[San Joaquin Valley]]. As Steinbeck visited the slums that hugged the highways across the Central Valley, he was harrowed by what he saw. He talked with multiple families and vowed to make a book depicting their struggles. It is commonly considered his greatest work. According to ''The New York Times'', it was the best-selling book of 1939 and 430,000 copies had been printed by February 1940. In that month, it won the [[List of National Book Award winners#1935 to 1941|National Book Award]], favorite fiction book of 1939, voted by members of the [[American Booksellers Association]].<ref name=nyt1940>"1939 Book Awards Given by Critics: Elgin Groseclose's 'Ararat' is Picked as Work Which Failed to Get Due Recognition", ''The New York Times'', February 14, 1940, p. 25. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851–2007).</ref> Later that year, it won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]]<ref name=pulitzer>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Novel "Novel"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821041438/http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Novel |date=August 21, 2008 }} (Winners 1917–1947). The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved January 28, 2012.</ref> and was adapted as a film directed by [[John Ford]], starring [[Henry Fonda]] as Tom Joad; Fonda was nominated for the best actor Academy Award. ''Grapes'' was controversial. Steinbeck's [[New Deal]] political views, negative portrayal of aspects of capitalism, and sympathy for the plight of workers, led to a backlash against the author for displaying communist views, especially in his hometown of Salinas.<ref>Keith Windschuttle (June 2, 2002). {{cite web|url=http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/jun02/steinbeck.htm |title=Steinbeck's myth of the Okies |access-date=August 10, 2005 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040204193303/http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/jun02/steinbeck.htm |archive-date=February 4, 2004 }}. ''The New Criterion''.</ref>  Steinbeck received so many threats that he purchased a handgun for his own safety. Claiming the book both was obscene and misrepresented conditions in the county, the [[Kern County]] [[Board of Supervisors]] [[banned books|banned the book]] from the county's publicly funded schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.<ref name=ban>{{cite web|url=http://home.pacific.net.au/~greg.hub/banned.html |title=Steinbecks works banned |access-date=June 4, 2006 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005171237/http://home.pacific.net.au/~greg.hub/banned.html |archive-date=October 5, 2006 }}. pacific.net.au</ref>

Of the controversy, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the [[Okie]]s hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might<!-- OK here: don't correct it --> of this damned thing. It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy."<ref name="Steiner2007">{{cite book|last=Steiner|first=Bernd|title=A Survey on John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQu2H_GYwSgC&pg=PA6|access-date=February 26, 2018|date=November 2007|publisher=GRIN Verlag|isbn=978-3-638-84459-8|page=6|archive-date=July 5, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705160355/https://books.google.com/books?id=FQu2H_GYwSgC&pg=PA6|url-status=live}}</ref>

The then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, already a fan of Steinbeck's work from ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'', defended Steinbeck's work in her nationally syndicated newspaper column, "My Day". She wrote: "Now I must tell you that I have just finished a book which is an unforgettable experience in reading. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, both repels and attracts you. The horrors of the picture, so well drawn, make you dread sometimes to begin the next chapter, and yet you cannot lay the book down or even skip a page."<ref>{{Cite web |title=My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 28, 1939 |url=https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydocedits.cfm?_y=1939&_f=md055304 |access-date=February 16, 2024 |website=www2.gwu.edu |archive-date=February 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216211145/https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydocedits.cfm?_y=1939&_f=md055304 |url-status=live }}</ref> After visiting California labor camps in 1940, a reporter asked her if she believed that ''The Grapes of Wrath'' was exaggerated. Roosevelt responded, "I have never believed that The Grapes of Wrath was exaggerated".<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=April 15, 1940 |title=THE PRESIDENCY: First Lady's Week |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,789721,00.html |access-date=February 16, 2024 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X |archive-date=February 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216211142/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,789721,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Ed Ricketts===
In the 1930s and 1940s, [[Ed Ricketts]] strongly influenced Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast to give himself time off from his writing<ref name="Journey" /> and to collect biological specimens, which Ricketts sold for a living. Their coauthored book, ''Sea of Cortez'' (December 1941), about a collecting expedition to the [[Gulf of California]] in 1940, which was part travelogue and part natural history, published just as the U.S. entered World War II, never found an audience and did not sell well.<ref name="Journey">{{Cite book|title=A Journey into Steinbeck's California|author=Susan Shillinglaw|publisher=Roaring Forties Press|year=2006}}</ref> However, in 1951, Steinbeck republished the narrative portion of the book as ''[[The Log from the Sea of Cortez]]'', under his name only (though Ricketts had written some of it). This work remains in print today.<ref>[http://www.seaofcortez.org/ A website devoted to Sea of Cortez literature, with information on Steinbeck's expedition.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090720104329/http://www.seaofcortez.org/ |date=July 20, 2009 }} Retrieved July 6, 2009.</ref>

Although Carol accompanied Steinbeck on the trip, their marriage was beginning to suffer, and ended a year later, in 1941, even as Steinbeck worked on the manuscript for the book.<ref name="Benson"/> In 1942, after his divorce from Carol he married Gwyndolyn "Gwyn" Conger.<ref name="NewCentury">{{cite book|last=Fensch|first=Thomas|title=Steinbeck and Covici|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXE_v1etBjMC&pg=PA33|series=New Century exceptional lives|year=2002|publisher=New Century Books|isbn=978-0-930751-35-7|page=33}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Ricketts was Steinbeck's model for the character of "Doc" in ''[[Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row]]'' (1945) and ''[[Sweet Thursday]]'' (1954), "Friend Ed" in ''[[Burning Bright]]'', and characters in ''[[In Dubious Battle]]'' (1936) and ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (1939). Ecological themes recur in Steinbeck's novels of the period.<ref name=bruce>Bruce Robison, "Mavericks on Cannery Row," ''[[American Scientist]]'', vol. 92, no. 6 (November–December 2004), p. 1: a review of Eric Enno Tamm, [http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/mavericks-on-cannery-row ''Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090604181032/http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/mavericks-on-cannery-row |date=June 4, 2009 }}, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2004.</ref>

Steinbeck's close relations with Ricketts ended in 1941 when Steinbeck moved away from Pacific Grove and divorced his wife Carol.<ref name="Journey"/> Ricketts's biographer Eric Enno Tamm opined that, except for ''[[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]]'' (1952), Steinbeck's writing declined after Ricketts's untimely death in 1948.<ref name=bruce/>

===World War II===
{{more citations needed|section|date=February 2018}}
Steinbeck's novel ''[[The Moon Is Down]]'' (1942), about the [[Socrates]]-inspired spirit of resistance in an occupied village in [[Northern Europe]], was made into a film almost immediately. It was presumed that the unnamed country of the novel was Norway and [[Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany|the occupiers]] the Germans. In 1945, Steinbeck received the [[King Haakon VII Freedom Cross]] for his literary contributions to the [[Norwegian resistance movement]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sumnerandstillman.com/pages/books/13190/john-steinbeck/the-moon-is-down|title=THE MOON IS DOWN by John Steinbeck on Sumner & Stillman|website=Sumner & Stillman|access-date=January 13, 2019|archive-date=January 13, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113062931/https://www.sumnerandstillman.com/pages/books/13190/john-steinbeck/the-moon-is-down|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1943, Steinbeck served as a World War II [[war correspondent]] for the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' and worked with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (predecessor of the CIA).<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Introduction |title=The Moon Is Down |publisher=Penguin |year=1995 |first=Donald V. |last=Coers}}</ref> It was at that time he became friends with [[Will Lang Jr.]] of ''Time''/''Life'' magazine. During the war, Steinbeck accompanied the commando raids of [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]]'s [[Beach Jumpers]] program, which launched small-unit diversion operations against German-held islands in the [[Mediterranean]]. At one point, he accompanied Fairbanks on an invasion of an island off the coast of Italy and used a [[Thompson submachine gun]] to help capture Italian and German prisoners. Some of his writings from this period were incorporated in the documentary ''[[Once There Was a War]]'' (1958).

Steinbeck returned from the war with a number of wounds from [[Shrapnel (fragment)|shrapnel]] and some psychological trauma. He treated himself, as ever, by writing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 28, 2013 |title=Once There Was a War |url=https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/churchill-bulletin/bulletin-067-jan-2014/once-there-was-a-war/ |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=International Churchill Society |archive-date=January 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117165130/https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/churchill-bulletin/bulletin-067-jan-2014/once-there-was-a-war/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He wrote [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s movie, ''[[Lifeboat (1944 film)|Lifeboat]]'' (1944), and with screenwriter [[Jack Wagner (screenwriter)|Jack Wagner]], ''[[A Medal for Benny]]'' (1945), about [[Compadre|paisanos]] from ''[[Tortilla Flat]]'' going to war. He later requested that his name be removed from the credits of ''Lifeboat,'' because he believed the final version of the film had racist undertones. In 1944, bruised, battered, and homesick, Steinbeck wrote ''[[Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row]]'' (1945), a love letter to the city of Monterey. In 1958, Ocean View Avenue in [[Monterey]], the setting of the book, was renamed Cannery Row in his honor.

[[File:John Steinbeck plaque 20180916 151050.jpg|thumb|left|John Steinbeck plaque in Sag Harbor, N.Y. (20180916 151050)]]
After the war, he wrote ''[[The Pearl (novel)|The Pearl]]'' (1947), knowing it would be filmed eventually. Steinbeck's relationship with Hollywood had solidified to the point where his books were being [[Greenlight|green-lit]] as movies as they released. The story first appeared in the December 1945 issue of ''[[Woman's Home Companion]]'' magazine as "The Pearl of the World". It was illustrated by [[John Alan Maxwell]]. The novel is an imaginative telling of a story which Steinbeck had heard in La Paz in 1940, as related in ''The Log From the Sea of Cortez'', which he described in Chapter 11 as being "so much like a parable that it almost can't be".<!--the citation is The Log From the Sea of Cortez, see chapter 11--> Steinbeck traveled to [[Cuernavaca]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1945 – Mrs. Stanford Steinbeck, Gwyndolyn, Thom and John Steinbeck |work=California Faces: Selections from The Bancroft Library Portrait Collection |publisher=UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library |via=Calisphere |access-date=January 13, 2019 |url=https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf6q2nb5mz/ |archive-date=January 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190112150225/https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf6q2nb5mz/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Mexico for the filming with Wagner who helped with the script;<!--<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ch.ucpress.edu/content/63/4/327 |title= |website=ch.ucpress.edu |access-date=January 11, 2019}}{{SemiBareRefNeedsTitle|date=May 2022}}</ref>--> on this trip he would be inspired by the story of [[Emiliano Zapata]], and subsequently wrote a film script (''[[Viva Zapata!]]'') directed by [[Elia Kazan]] and starring [[Marlon Brando]] and [[Anthony Quinn]].

In 1947, Steinbeck made his first trip to the [[Soviet Union]] with photographer [[Robert Capa]]. They visited [[Moscow]], [[Kyiv]], [[Tbilisi]], [[Batumi]] and [[Stalingrad]], some of the first Americans to visit many parts of the USSR since the [[communist revolution]]. Steinbeck's 1948 book about their experiences, ''[[A Russian Journal]]'', was illustrated with Capa's photos. In 1948, the year the book was published, Steinbeck was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]].

===New York===
Over the course of 276 days in 1952, Steinbeck wrote the first draft of ''[[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]],'' a book he considered his ultimate test as a writer. He wrote a daily letter to his editor while writing the book. Through them, Steinbeck explored himself, his creative process, his love for writing, and his family life, for he had just married his third wife, Elaine Scott, the year prior. Steinbeck, according to Elaine Scott, considered ''East of Eden'' his ''magnum opus'', his greatest novel. As the book was released, he wrote to John Beskow, a Swedish artist and a confidant of his: "I have put all the things I have wanted to write all my life. This is 'the book'... having done this, I can do anything I want".<ref name="Benson" /> Also in 1952, John Steinbeck appeared as the on-screen narrator of [[20th Century Fox]]'s film, ''[[O. Henry's Full House]]''. Although Steinbeck later admitted he was uncomfortable before the camera, he provided interesting introductions to several filmed adaptations of short stories by the legendary writer [[O. Henry]]. About the same time, Steinbeck recorded readings of several of his short stories for [[Columbia Records]];  the recordings provide a record of Steinbeck's deep, resonant voice.

Following the success of ''[[Viva Zapata!|Viva Zapata]]!'', Steinbeck collaborated with Kazan on the 1955 film ''[[East of Eden (film)|East of Eden]]'', [[James Dean]]'s movie debut. [[Jack Moffitt (screenwriter)|Jack Moffitt]] of ''The Hollywood Reporter'', in a review that appeared after the March 1955 premiere, wrote "Beautifully acted, and superbly directed by Elia Kazan, it is bound to be one of the year’s important contributions to screen literature."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moffitt |first=Jack |date=March 9, 2023 |title='East of Eden': THR's 1955 Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/east-of-eden-movie-james-dean-review-1955-1235346849/ |access-date=February 16, 2024 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US |archive-date=July 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702010300/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/east-of-eden-movie-james-dean-review-1955-1235346849/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

From March to October 1959, Steinbeck and his third wife Elaine rented a cottage in the hamlet of Discove, [[Redlynch, Somerset|Redlynch]], near [[Bruton]] in [[Somerset]], England, while Steinbeck researched his retelling of the [[Arthurian legend]] of [[King Arthur]] and the [[Knights of the Round Table]]. [[Glastonbury Tor]] was visible from the cottage, and Steinbeck also visited the nearby [[Hillforts in Britain|hillfort]] of [[Cadbury Castle, Somerset|Cadbury Castle]], the supposed site of King Arthur's court of [[Camelot]]. The unfinished manuscript was published after his death in 1976, as ''[[The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights]]''. Steinbeck grew up enthralled by the stories of King Arthur, and the Steinbecks recounted the time spent in Somerset as the happiest of their life together.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/jul/19/john-steinbeck-somerset |title=Meeting John Steinbeck in Somerset |last=Irvine |first=Lindesay |work=The Guardian |date=July 19, 2011 |access-date=July 3, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.brutonmuseum.org.uk/john-steinbeck-1902-68/ |title=John Steinbeck 1902–68 |date=October 16, 2017 |publisher=Bruton Museum |access-date=July 3, 2021 |archive-date=June 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200654/https://www.brutonmuseum.org.uk/john-steinbeck-1902-68/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:TravelswithCharlieVehicle.jpg|thumb|[[Rocinante]], camper truck in which Steinbeck traveled across the United States in 1960]]
''[[Travels with Charley: In Search of America]]'' is a travelogue of his 1960 [[road trip]] with his [[poodle]] Charley. Steinbeck bemoans his lost youth and roots, while dispensing both criticism and praise for the United States. According to Steinbeck's son Thom, Steinbeck made the journey because he knew he was dying and wanted to see the country one last time.<ref>[http://www.commonties.com/blog/2006/09/13/steinbeck-knew-he-was-dying/ Steinbeck knew he was dying] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20070927223449/http://www.commonties.com/blog/2006/09/13/steinbeck-knew-he-was-dying/ |date=September 27, 2007 }}," September 13, 2006. Audio interview with Thom Steinbeck</ref>

Steinbeck's last novel, ''[[The Winter of Our Discontent]]'' (1961), examines [[moral decline]] in the United States. The protagonist Ethan grows discontented with his own moral decline and that of those around him.<ref name="Student" /> The book has a very different tone from Steinbeck's amoral and ecological stance in earlier works such as ''Tortilla Flat'' and ''Cannery Row''. It was not a critical success. Many reviewers recognized the importance of the novel but were disappointed that it was not another ''Grapes of Wrath''.<ref name="Student">Cynthia Burkhead, ''The students companion to John Steinbeck'', Greenwood Press, 2002, p. 24 {{ISBN|978-0-313-31457-5}}</ref>
In the Nobel Prize presentation speech the next year, however, the Swedish Academy cited it most favorably: "Here he attained the same standard which he set in The Grapes of Wrath. Again he holds his position as an independent expounder of the truth with an unbiased instinct for what is genuinely American, be it good or bad."<ref name=nobel/>

Apparently taken aback by the critical reception of this novel, and the critical outcry when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962,<ref name=floodjan2013/> Steinbeck published no more fiction in the remaining six years before his death.

===Nobel Prize===
{{Main|1962 Nobel Prize in Literature}}
[[File:John Steinbeck 1962.jpg|thumb|alt=|Steinbeck in Sweden during his trip to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962]]
In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his "realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception". The selection was heavily criticized, and described as "one of the Academy's biggest mistakes" in one Swedish newspaper.<ref name=floodjan2013>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/03/swedish-academy-controversy-steinbeck-nobel |title=Swedish Academy reopens controversy surrounding Steinbeck's Nobel prize |work=[[The Guardian]] |author=Alison Flood |date=January 3, 2013 |access-date=January 3, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713132223/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/03/swedish-academy-controversy-steinbeck-nobel |archive-date=July 13, 2013}}</ref> The reaction of American literary critics was also harsh. ''The New York Times'' asked why the Nobel committee gave the award to an author whose "limited talent is, in his best books, watered down by tenth-rate philosophising", noting that "[T]he international character of the award and the weight attached to it raise questions about the mechanics of selection and how close the Nobel committee is to the main currents of American writing. ... [W]e think it interesting that the laurel was not awarded to a writer ... whose significance, influence and sheer body of work had already made a more profound impression on the literature of our age".<ref name=floodjan2013/> Steinbeck, when asked on the day of the announcement if he deserved the Nobel, replied: "Frankly, no."<ref name="Benson" /><ref name=floodjan2013/> Biographer Jackson Benson notes, "[T]his honor was one of the few in the world that one could not buy nor gain by political maneuver. It was precisely because the committee made its judgment ... on its own criteria, rather than plugging into 'the main currents of American writing' as defined by the critical establishment, that the award had value."<ref name="Benson" /><ref name=floodjan2013/> In his acceptance speech later in the year in Stockholm, he said:

{{blockquote|the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.|Steinbeck Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech<ref>[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-speech.html Steinbeck Nobel Prize Banquet Speech] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109135307/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-speech.html |date=January 9, 2010 }}. Nobelprize.org (December 10, 1962). Retrieved August 26, 2011.</ref>}}

Fifty years later, in 2012, the Nobel Prize opened its archives and it was revealed that Steinbeck was a "compromise choice" among a shortlist consisting of Steinbeck, British authors [[Robert Graves]] and [[Lawrence Durrell]], French dramatist [[Jean Anouilh]] and Danish author [[Karen Blixen]].<ref name=floodjan2013/> The declassified documents showed that he was chosen as the best of a bad lot.<ref name=floodjan2013/> "There aren't any obvious candidates for the Nobel prize and the prize committee is in an unenviable situation," wrote committee member [[Henry Olsson]].<ref name=floodjan2013/> Although the committee believed Steinbeck's best work was behind him by 1962, committee member [[Anders Österling]] believed the release of his novel ''[[The Winter of Our Discontent]]'' showed that "after some signs of slowing down in recent years, [Steinbeck has] regained his position as a social truth-teller [and is an] authentic realist fully equal to his predecessors Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway."<ref name=floodjan2013/>

Although modest about his own talent as a writer, Steinbeck talked openly of his own admiration of certain writers. In 1953, he wrote that he considered cartoonist [[Al Capp]], creator of the satirical ''[[Li'l Abner]]'', "possibly the best writer in the world today".<ref>{{cite web |title=ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Biography: Al Capp 2 – A CAPPital Offense |url=http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/05/biography-al-capp-2-cappital-offense_08.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324000815/http://www.animationarchive.org/2008/05/biography-al-capp-2-cappital-offense_08.html |archive-date=March 24, 2009 |access-date=November 18, 2009}}. animationarchive.org (May 2008).</ref> At his own first Nobel Prize press conference he was asked his favorite authors and works and replied: "[[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]]'s short stories and nearly everything [[William Faulkner|Faulkner]] wrote."<ref name="Benson"/>

In September 1964, President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] awarded Steinbeck the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-presentation-the-1964-presidential-medal-freedom-awards|title=Remarks at the Presentation of the 1964 Presidential Medal of Freedom Awards. {{!}} The American Presidency Project|website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu|access-date=July 9, 2019|archive-date=June 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618052714/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=26496|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1967, at the behest of ''[[Newsday]]'' magazine, Steinbeck went to [[Vietnam]] to report on the war. He thought of the [[Vietnam War]] as a heroic venture and was considered a [[War Hawk|hawk]] for his position on the war. His sons served in Vietnam before his death, and Steinbeck visited one son in the battlefield.  At one point he was allowed to man a machine-gun watch position at night at a [[fire support base|firebase]] while his son and other members of his platoon slept.<ref>Steinbeck, ''A Life in Letters''.</ref>