Editing John Steinbeck (section)

===World War II===
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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]].