John Steinbeck

About John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author whose works depicted the economic and social struggles of working class people during the twentieth century. Born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, Steinbeck drew inspiration from his native region for many of his settings and themes. He attended Stanford University intermittently before leaving without a degree to pursue writing full time. Steinbeck gained widespread critical acclaim with his 1937 novella Of Mice and Men, followed by his landmark novel, The Grapes of Wrath, in 1939. The latter work portrayed the plight of Dust Bowl migrants and earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940. Over a career spanning several decades, he published sixteen novels, alongside non-fiction, short stories, and screenplays, including East of Eden. In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his realistic and imaginative writings. He died in New York City on December 20, 1968.

Based on publicly available information.