John SteinbeckBY: Simon Tran, Sarah Stanley, Molly

Spiller, Rachel Fleener

Biographical Info

• Born: February 27th, 1902 at Salinas, California

• Father: John Steinbeck Sr.• Mother: Olive Hamilton

Steinbeck• Grandfather: Johann

Adolf GroBteinbeck (later changed to Steinbeck)

More Biographical Info

• Graduated from Salinas High School- 1919

• Attended Stanford University until 1925 when he dropped out

• Moved to New York City to start a writing career

• Died December 20, 1968

John Steinbeck in his latter years

Novels by John Steinbeck• Tortilla Flat (1935; film, 1942)• In Dubious Battle (1936)• Of Mice And Men (1937; films, 1939,

1999)• The Red Pony (1937; film, 1949)• The Grapes Of Wrath (1939,Pulitzer

Prize; film, 1940)• The Moon Is Down (1942; film, 1943)

• Cannery Row (1945; film, 1982)• The Pearl (1947; film, 1948)• The Wayward Bus (1947; film, 1957)• Burning Bright (1950)• East of Eden (1952; film, 1955)• The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)• Travels with Charley (1962)

Major Themes and Motifs in John Steinbeck’s stories

-references California’s beauty-agriculture and farming-lack of wealth-death-traveling together

• His place in [U.S.] literature is secure. And it lives on in the works of innumerable writers who learned from him how to present the forgotten man unforgettably.”

-Charles Poore a writer for the new york times

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. John Steinbeck

• I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature. John Steinbeck

• I know three things will never be believed - the true, theprobable, and the logical.

John Steinbeck