John Steinbeck :: Essays Papers

John Steinbeck John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas California, shortly after the end of the Civil War. His mother was a school teacher in the public school system in Salinas. Steinbeck grew up in the fertile California where he found the materials for most of his novels, and short stories. Steinbeck demonstrated a great imagination, which was kindled by writing at a in truth early age partly due to his mother, the schoolteacher, whom read to him at a very early at the many great works of literature.During his teen years, Steinbeck played various sports in high school, worked numerous part time, dead end jobs, and wondered most the fertile valley. The lessons, and observations he made temporary hookup wandering provided much of the material for his later works. Steinbeck entered Stanford University in 1920, and even though he attended the school until 1925, he never graduated. Lacking the desire to acquire a formal degree from the Stanford Universit y, Steinbeck wandered to New York to pursue a writing career. While working on his writing, and while receiving an endless supply of rejection slips, Steinbeck worked odd jobs. The New York American report was where Steinbeck held a job, writing various articles, for some time in the beginning the newspaper went bankrupt. The failure of the newspaper and endless supply of rejection letter forced Steinbeck to return to California, broken but still hopeful. Steinbecks first novel, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929, two months before the horrific stock market crash, causing the novel to nearly unnoticed with barely fifteen hundred copies selling. 1930 was a very important year for Steinbeck in two areas. First he married Carol Henning and the newlyweds settled in Pacific Grove, which he often wrote of. There, Steinbeck met Ed Ricketts whose friendship strongly influenced Steinbecks works.During the extensive Depression of the nineteen thirties Steinbeck knew many people who w ere considered to be the cross section of society, and shared many of the problems of the times with them. His father like many men, helped is family by dint of the depression with a small house and twenty-five dollars a week. Throughout the depression era Steinbeck wrote of people struggling to make ends meet around the California, Mexico region. unrivaled of Steinbeck works, Tortilla Flat, marked a turning point in Steinbecks literary career.