Writing
Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929. In 1930, Steinbeck wrote a werewolf murder mystery, Murder at Full Moon, that has never been published because Steinbeck considered it unworthy of publication. The Pastures of Heaven was published in 1932, and consisted of twelve interconnected stories set in Corral de Tierra which was discovered by a Spanish corporal who was chasing runaway Indian slaves. To a God Unknown was published in 1933.
Steinbeck achieved his first critical success when Tortilla Flat was published in 1935. Before Tortilla Flat was published, Steinbeck was an obscure writer "with little success." The novel was set in post-war Monterey, California and won the California Commonwealth Club's gold medal. In the New York Times, the book was described as "a sunny, warmhearted , amoral and slightly scandalous chronicle." The novel portrays the adventures of a group of young men living in Monterey after World War I, just before U.S. prohibition. They are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest and reject many social mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life devoted to wine, lust, camaraderie and petty theft. Tortilla Flat was adapted as a 1942 film of the same name, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield, a friend of Steinbeck. With some of the proceeds, he built a summer ranch-home in Los Gatos, California.
Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression. These included In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. He also wrote an article series called The Harvest Gypsies for the San Francisco News about the plight of the migrant worker.
Of Mice and Men was a novella about the dreams of two migrant agricultural laborers in California. It was published in 1937 to critical acclaim. Steinbeck's 1962 Nobel Prize citation called it a "little masterpiece." Steinbeck, on vacations to Mexico, witnessed sold-out theater troupes performing for poor and illiterate workers, and wrote Of Mice and Men with a stage play in mind.
The stage production was a hit , starring Wallace Ford as George and Broderick Crawford as George's companion, the mentally childlike, but physically powerful itinerant farmhand Lennie. Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling director George S. Kaufman that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect" and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Steinbeck wrote two more stage plays (The Moon Is Down and Burning Bright).
Of Mice and Men was also adapted as a 1939 Hollywood film, with Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie and Burgess Meredith as George. Chaney had also filled the role in the Los Angeles stage production. Meredith and Steinbeck became close friends for the next two decades. Another film based on the novella was made in 1992 starring Gary Sinise as George and John Malkovich as Lennie.
In August 1936, the San Francisco News asked Steinbeck to personally interview multiple families in the impoverished Hoovervilles of the San Joaquin Valley. As Steinbeck visited the slums that hugged the highways across the Central Valley, he was harrowed by what he saw. In 1939, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath based on his observations and experiences. The novel is commonly considered to be his greatest work. According to The New York Times, it was the best-selling book of 1939, and 430,000 copies had been printed by February 1940. In that month, it won the National Book Award, favorite fiction book of 1939, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association. Later that year, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted as a film directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad; Fonda was nominated for the best actor Academy Award.
Grapes of Wrath reflects Steinbeck's New Deal political views, negative portrayal of aspects of capitalism, and sympathy for the plight of workers, which led to backlash against him, especially in his hometown of Salinas. Steinbeck received so many threats that he purchased a handgun for his safety. Claiming the book was obscene and misrepresented the county, the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's public schools and libraries in August 1939. This ban lasted until January 1941.
Of the controversy, Steinbeck wrote, "The vilification of me out here from the large landowners and bankers is pretty bad. The latest is a rumor started by them that the Okies hate me and have threatened to kill me for lying about them. I'm frightened at the rolling might of this damned thing. It is completely out of hand; I mean a kind of hysteria about the book is growing that is not healthy."
The then first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a fan of Of Mice and Men, defended Steinbeck's work in her nationally syndicated newspaper column, "My Day." She described the novel as "an unforgettable experience in reading... [it] both repels and attracts you. The horrors of the picture, so well drawn, make you dread sometimes to begin the next chapter, and yet you cannot lay the book down or even skip a page." After visiting California labor camps in 1940, she was asked if she believed the novel was exaggerated. Roosevelt responded, "I have never believed that The Grapes of Wrath was exaggerated."
