Editing John Steinbeck (section)

===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>