Educated at Stanford University, Steinbeck left without a degree and moved to New York City, where he aspired to become a writer. When he was unsuccessful, he returned to California in 1928 and worked as a guide and at a fish hatchery, continuing to acquire everyday experience that would contribute to his later writing. He married Carol Henning in 1930 and they settled in a house provided by his father. Although Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, appeared in 1929, his first true success came with Tortilla Flat in 1935, later as a film in 1942. He then embarked on a trilogy of novels which were set among the depression years and the working class; perhaps the best being Grapes of Wrath in 1939, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. During the Second World War, Steinbeck served as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune and also worked for the OSS. He experienced battle first-hand and was wounded by shrapnel. He returned to the US in 1944 and produced Lifeboat for Alfred Hitchcock. Over the next decade, Steinbeck produced a number of iconic works, most of which were made into films, including Cannery Row (1945) and East of Eden (1952). In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and in 1964 received the U. S. Medal of Freedom. Although many of Steinbeck's works were banned during his lifetime, today his works are required reading in most schools of higher education. His other works include The Red Pony (1933), In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), The Moon is Down (1942), The Wayward Bus (1947), Burning Bright (1950), the screenplay of Viva Zapata! (1952), Once There Was a War (1958), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) and Travels With Charley (1962). |
