Editing John Steinbeck (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:John Steinbeck with Elaine Scott 1950.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|John and Elaine Steinbeck in 1950]]
Steinbeck and his first wife, Carol Henning, married in January 1930 in Los Angeles.<ref name="NSC"/> By 1940, their marriage was beginning to suffer, and it ended a year later.<ref name="Benson"/> In 1942, after his divorce from Carol, Steinbeck married Gwyndolyn "Gwyn" Conger.<ref name="NewCentury" /> With his second wife Steinbeck had two sons, [[Thomas Steinbeck|Thomas ("Thom") Myles Steinbeck]] (1944–2016) and [[John Steinbeck IV]] (1946–1991).

In May 1948, Steinbeck returned to California on an emergency trip to be with his friend Ed Ricketts, who had been seriously injured when a train struck his car. Ricketts died hours before Steinbeck arrived. Upon returning home, Steinbeck was confronted by Gwyn, who asked for a divorce, which became final in October. Steinbeck spent the year after Ricketts's death in deep depression.

In June 1949, Steinbeck met [[stage manager]] [[Elaine Anderson Steinbeck|Elaine Scott]] at a restaurant in [[Carmel, California]]. Steinbeck and Scott eventually began a relationship, and in December 1950 they married, within a week of Scott's finalizing her own divorce from actor [[Zachary Scott]]. This third marriage for Steinbeck lasted until his death in 1968.<ref name="Bio"/>

Steinbeck was an acquaintance of modernist poet [[Robinson Jeffers]], a Californian neighbor. In a letter to Elizabeth Otis, Steinbeck wrote: "Robinson Jeffers and his wife came in to call the other day. He looks a little older but that is all. And she is just the same."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Benson|first=Jackson J.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8806095|title=The true adventures of John Steinbeck, writer : a biography|date=1984|isbn=0-670-16685-5|location=New York|pages=557|oclc=8806095}}</ref>

In 1962, Steinbeck began acting as friend and mentor to the young writer and naturalist [[Jack Rudloe]], who was trying to establish his own biological supply company, now [[Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory]] in Florida. Their correspondence continued until Steinbeck's death.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Manning |first1=Thomas |last2=North |first2=Suzanne Matos |last3=Adler |first3=Brian |title=Hidden Treasure: The Steinbeck-Rudloe Letters |journal=Steinbeck Studies |date=2005 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=108–118 |id={{Project MUSE|212985}} |doi=10.1353/stn.2007.0014 |s2cid=146337768  | issn = 1551-6903}}</ref>

In February 1966, Steinbeck and his wife traveled to [[Israel]].<ref>He wrote: "The impact of the country is stunning. The energy of the people is incredible." (Jackson J. Benson (1984). The true adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer. New York: The Viking Press, 1984. ISBN 0-670-16685-5. p. 978) He met officials, e.g. [[Teddy Kollek]]. "At one of the receptions, he got talking about his grandfather's journey to the Holy Land". (Benson. p. 979)</ref> He visited in [[Tel Aviv]] the site of [[Mount Hope (Ottoman Empire)|Mount Hope]], a farm community established by his grandfather, whose brother, Friedrich Großsteinbeck, had been murdered by Arab marauders in 1858 during the [[Outrages at Jaffa]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Perry |first1=Yaron |title=John Steinbeck's Roots in Nineteenth-Century Palestine |journal=Steinbeck Studies |volume=15 |issue=1 |year=2004 |pages=46–72 |id={{Project MUSE|172416}} |doi=10.1353/stn.2004.0018 |s2cid=144101837 |doi-access=free }}</ref>