John Steinbeck Novelist
- Gender: Male
- Citizenship: United States
- Born: Feb 27, 1902
- Died: Dec 20, 1968
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American author of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, the multi-generation epic East of Eden, and the novellas Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony. The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath, widely attributed to be part of the American literary canon, is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece. In the first 75 years since it was published, it sold 14 million copies.
The winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, he has been called "a giant of American letters". His works are widely read abroad and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature. His leftist political tendencies and the relatively provincial setting of his works has made him a very polarizing writer, both in the United States and in international literary circles. Until recently, the mandated teaching of his works in the British educational system has been controversial.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in southern and central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region.
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
fear & power
A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.
marriage
Many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.
time
It has always been my private conviction that any man who puts his intelligence up against a fish and loses had it coming.
intelligence
A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.
sadness
The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.
business
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.
best
It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
experience, morning & wisdom
Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.
courage