Editing The Pearl (novella) (section)

== Background ==
Steinbeck began writing the story as a movie script<ref name="no098.com">{{cite book|last=Hayashi|first=Tetsumaro|title=A New Study Guide to Steinbeck's Major Works With Critical Explications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAsbQuhnz6kC&pg=PA174|access-date=30 January 2013|year=1993|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810826113|pages=174–}}</ref> in 1944 and first published it as a short story called "The Pearl of the World" in the ''[[Woman's Home Companion]]'' (December 1945).<ref name="RailsbackMeyer2006">{{cite book|last1=Railsback|first1=Brian E.|last2=Meyer|first2=Michael J.|title=A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NikZBtGvy_gC&pg=PA284|access-date=30 January 2013|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780313296697|pages=284–}}</ref> The original publication is also sometimes listed as "The Pearl of La Paz".<ref name="Benson1990">{{cite book|last=Benson|first=Jackson J.|title=The Short Novels of John Steinbeck: Critical Essays With a Checklist to Steinbeck Criticism|url=https://archive.org/details/shortnovelsofjoh00bens|url-access=registration|access-date=30 January 2013|year=1990|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=9780822309949|pages=[https://archive.org/details/shortnovelsofjoh00bens/page/143 143]–}}</ref> Steinbeck expanded the story to novella length and published it under the name ''The Pearl'' (1947), published by [[Viking Press]].<ref name="RailsbackMeyer2006" />

=== Setting ===
The book takes place in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. Unlike many of Steinbeck’s other works, it does not take place in the U.S state of California.