James Baquet

    The California-born novelist John Steinbeck (1902-1968) set most of his works in his native state, examining various social strata, but especially the working class.

    Altogether, he wrote 27 books: 16 novels or novellas (short novels); six non-fiction works, including “Travels With Charley” about a trip across America with his dog; and five books of collected short stories.

    His masterpiece “The Grapes of Wrath” won the Pulitzer prize in 1939, at the end of America’s Great Depression. It was the story of one family, the Joads, who were displaced by the drought that occurred in the center of the country. This phenomenon was called the “Dust Bowl” and affected tens of thousands of families. People like the Joads left Oklahoma for California, where things weren’t much better. There they were called “Okies,” a term meant to indicate they were of low social class, and they were badly treated by many of the farm owners and others in California. This book is often considered a candidate for the “Great America Novel,” a single book that captures the essence of the American spirit.

    An earlier book, “Of Mice and Men,” was set in the same place and period, telling the story of two friends, hobos named George and Lenny. (A “hobo” was a traveling worker, as opposed to a “tramp,” who only worked occasionally, and a “bum,” who never worked at all.)

    One of his most playful novels was “Cannery Row,” about a group of characters on a street in Monterey, California. One of the main characters of the novel, “Doc,” was based on Steinbeck’s friend Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist. Steinbeck had been on several collecting trips with Ricketts, one of which was the basis for Steinbeck’s book “The Log From the Sea of Cortez” (1951).

    Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. Many felt the award was undeserved, and that Steinbeck wasn’t that great. Because of this, and the poor reception of his last novel, “The Winter of Our Discontent” (1961), Steinbeck wrote no more fiction in the last six years of his life.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. moved out of the usual place, homeless

    2. basic nature

    3. not earned

    4. literature based on something real, not a story

    5. anger

    6. unhappiness, discomfort

    7. levels

    8. worldwide period of low economic activity, originating in the United States, from 1929 to the late 1930s

    9. long period of dry weather that affects farming