John Steinbeck

Steinbeck was born the third of four children in a working, middle-class family. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, Sr., worked as the Monterey County treasurer, and his mother, Olive Hamilton, was a school teacher. Steinbeck grew up in a small settlement town deep in the Salinas Valley and worked side-by-side with migrant laborers, gaining insight and empathy into their difficult existence. After graduating high school in 1919, Steinbeck studied English Literature at Stanford University. He remained in attendance there until 1925, at which time he left without completing his degree. While spending time traveling and writing, Steinbeck met his first wife, Carol Henning, and the couple returned to California following the publication of his first novel, Cup of Gold, in 1929. Steinbeck and Henning moved into a home outside of Monterey County owned by Steinbeck’s father, who continued to support the couple financially so that Steinbeck could focus on his writing. During this time, Steinbeck wrote some of his most famous works, including Of Mice and Men in 1937 and The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. In 1940, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. By 1943, Steinbeck and Henning divorced, and he quickly married his second wife, Gwyn Conger. Conger and Steinbeck had two sons, John and Thomas, between 1944 and 1946, but were divorced by 1948. Steinbeck married his third and final wife, Elaine Scott, in 1950. He served as a war correspondent during World War II and Vietnam, where he was wounded both physically and mentally. In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature under controversial circumstances; some critics considered Steinbeck’s work lacking the talent implied by the prestigious award. He died in 1968 of congestive heart failure having never written another word of fiction. Steinbeck remains one of North America’s most celebrated writers, with his works required reading in many high schools and universities.