Editing John Steinbeck (section)

===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>