John Steinbeck: A Literary Life

Abstract

The purpose of John Steinbeck: A Literary Life, as with all of the volumes in the Literary Lives series, is to offer a “fascinating” account of the life and career of its title author. The book is divided into twelve chapters, each focusing primarily on a text, or set of texts, within the chronological order of Steinbeck's career. Dedicated to Jackson J. Benson, the author of the definitive biography on Steinbeck, Linda Wagner-Martin's work aims to provide its audience with a casual introduction both to the personal life of John Steinbeck and also to the reception and criticism of the majority of his publications. The preface provides a condensed overview of Steinbeck's literary career, working backward from his Nobel Prize Award toward the end of his career to his early education and writing efforts.Chapter 1, “Steinbeck and the Short Story,” and chapter 2, “Tortilla Flat, the Book of Others,” cover the earliest publications in the Steinbeck canon and depict the struggles he faced early in his writing career as he sought to find his own voice, striving to appeal to the hearts as well as the minds of readers. The first half of Chapter 2 is dedicated to the summary and reception of Tortilla Flat. The second half shifts between the plot and structure of The Red Pony and Steinbeck's personal struggles as he dealt with his parents' increasing ill health and as his marriage fell apart. Chapter 3, “Journalism v. Fiction,” considers Steinbeck's works following the deaths of his parents. The central aim of this chapter is to show how Steinbeck's writing progressed into the journalistic style that would be central to his later work. This chapter opens with the success of several of the short stories from The Long Valley and then surveys In Dubious Battle, a novel that Wagner-Martin credits as Steinbeck's real foundation and entryway into journalism. The chapter ends with a discussion of the plot and reception of Of Mice and Men.Chapter 4, “The Grapes of Wrath,” begins with a discussion of the journalism Steinbeck wrote for various magazines and newspapers following the completion of Of Mice and Men. It centers on an increasingly tumultuous political climate in the United States. Halfway through the chapter Wagner-Martin turns to The Grapes of Wrath, beginning her discussion by stating the importance of the task Steinbeck set for himself and by highlighting his passion for telling the stories of the Joads and other migrants. The chapter continues with an evaluation of the novel's reception, including a discussion of the disastrous impact of both the writing process and the book's reception in accelerating the breakup of his first marriage. The chapter concludes with a brief mention of Steinbeck's divorce and subsequent foray into war correspondence.Chapter 5, “The Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research,” and Chapter 6, “World War II,” both establish Steinbeck's importance as a nonfiction writer. Chapter 5 focuses exclusively on the journey that would become The Sea of Cortez—a journey in which Wagner-Martin believes Steinbeck not only sought to maintain his sanity, but also to legitimatize his love of science. This chapter also includes an overview of the book's reception and Steinbeck's intentions for the narrative. Chapter 6 provides a vignette of how pressured Steinbeck felt to become involved in the Allied war effort—despite the FBI's creation of a file on the author accusing him of being a subversive. This chapter covers three of Steinbeck's World War II projects: the novella The Moon is Down; a profile of Army Air Corps pilots titled Bombs Away!; and his World War II dispatches as a correspondent, Once There Was a War. Only a few details from Steinbeck's personal life are included among the summary and analysis of these texts, including the finalization of his divorce from Carol and his subsequent marriage to Gwyn Conger. Leaving readers on edge, Wagner-Martin ends the chapter with a passing suggestion that Steinbeck was probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the war.Chapter 7, “Cannery Row and The Pearl,” serves to show Steinbeck's return to his more typical writing modes. The chapter opens by depicting his desire to shed himself of the war—much as he planned Sea of Cortez to shed himself of The Grapes of Wrath. Wagner-Martin explores the mixed, but mostly negative, reviews of Cannery Row and provides a satisfactory analysis of the text before moving on to discuss The Pearl. She considers some of Steinbeck's aims for this text, provides a brief analysis, and summarizes the plot. According to Wagner-Martin, the success of The Pearl in the 1940s served to “reintroduce Steinbeck to a post-war audience” (98). The next chapter, “The Ed Ricketts Narratives,” provides an overview of the pieces Steinbeck wrote with the intention of memorializing his dear friend. The chapter begins with the disintegration of his marriage to Gwyn and progresses to Ricketts's shocking accidental death. Chapter 8 discusses The Wayward Bus (that Steinbeck hoped would be his Don Quixote), Burning Bright, Sweet Thursday (a sequel to Cannery Row), and the essay “About Ed Ricketts.” While Wagner-Martin summarizes each of these texts and provides a short analysis, she focuses most of her attention on Steinbeck's personal life and the impact of Ricketts's death.Like Chapter 4, Chapter 9, “East of Eden and the 1950s,” mostly aims to provide insight into the conversation surrounding East of Eden, stressing the importance that Steinbeck placed on this novel. Following a summary and analysis of both the novel and the film adaptation, she examines Steinbeck's personal life following the book's success—from his travels with Elaine (his third and final wife), to the writing of The Short Reign of Pippin IV, and his increasing skill at the craft of the travel narrative. Chapter 10, “The Winter of Our Discontent,” begins abruptly with a brief account of Steinbeck's first heart attack, referring to a series of mini-strokes the writer suffered that required ten days in the hospital. The chapter is primarily a summary and analysis of The Winter of Our Discontent, but includes a discussion of the novel's reception and a thorough evaluation of John Timmerman's critical analysis of the text.The final two chapters summarize Steinbeck's long and illustrious career. Chapter 11, “Travels with Charley,” again focuses on Steinbeck's failing health and his understanding that his time on earth was growing shorter. The opening of the chapter considers the time and work Steinbeck devoted to his life's ambition to write a contemporary translation and modern interpretation of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. His work on this project leads into the journey Steinbeck made across the country with his dog, Charley, to rediscover America.The book's final chapter, titled “The Nobel Prize in Literature,” only briefly focuses on the award, his acceptance speech, and the subsequent recognition he received. It also addresses his dispatches from Vietnam and his failing health before concluding them. John Steinbeck: A Literary Life concludes with a quotation from a letter to Elizabeth Otis expressing Steinbeck's eagerness to return to work after the war.Each chapter of this book can be read separately, apart from the whole, making it a useful resource for readers interested in gleaning a basic understanding of the motivations behind Steinbeck's works and the steps taken to produce them. At times, this distinct separation of topics causes confusion, since events or texts are discussed again from chapter to chapter without connective tissue. Wagner-Martin's inaccurate labeling of Steinbeck's strokes as a heart attack and her passing remarks on personal matters raise questions regarding the research done on aspects of the author's personal life. Her heavy reliance in some chapters on the previous biographical work done by Benson and Shillinglaw raises an important question: “What is new here?” While the casual reader or student will find much useful information within these pages, dedicated Steinbeck scholars will find that the answer to that question is “Not much.”