{"title":"John Steinbeck","description":"John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California, in 1902, grew up in a fertile agricultural valley, about twenty-five miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the coast would serve as settings for some of his best fiction. In 1919 he went to Stanford University, where he intermittently enrolled in literature and writing courses until he left in 1925 without taking a degree. During the next five years he supported himself as a laborer and journalist in New York City, all the time working on his first novel, Cup of Gold (1929).After marriage and a move to Pacific Grove, he published two California books, The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933), and worked on short stories later collected in The Long Valley (1938). Popular success and financial security came only with Tortilla Flat (1935), stories about Monterey's paisanos. A ceaseless experimenter throughout his career, Steinbeck changed courses regularly. Three powerful novels of the late 1930s focused on the California laboring class: In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), and the book considered by many his finest, The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The Grapes of Wrath won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1939.Early in the 1940s, Steinbeck became a filmmaker with The Forgotten Village (1941) and a serious student of marine biology with Sea of Cortez (1941). He devoted his services to the war, writing Bombs Away (1942) and the controversial play-novelette The Moon is Down (1942). Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1948), another experimental drama, Burning Bright (1950), and The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) preceded publication of the monumental East of Eden (1952), an ambitious saga of the Salinas Valley and his own family's history.The last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag Harbor with his third wife, with whom he traveled widely. Later books include Sweet Thursday (1954), The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957), Once There Was a War (1958), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962), America and Americans (1966), and the posthumously published Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969), Viva Zapata! (1975), The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976), and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989).Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, and, in 1964, he was presented with the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Steinbeck died in New York in 1968. Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures.","products":[{"product_id":"of-mice-and-men-paperback","title":"Of Mice and Men - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA Penguin Classic \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Over seventy-five years since its first publication, Steinbeck's tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America's most widely read and taught novels. An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for their American Dream. They hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eOf Mice and Men \u003c\/i\u003erepresents an experiment in form, which Steinbeck described as \"a kind of playable novel, written in a novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands.\" A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films. This edition features an introduction by Susan Shillinglaw, one of today's leading Steinbeck scholars. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101579481311,"sku":"9780140186420","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/N29kcTlua3Z2ZThJd25kR2RUTEdZdz09.webp?v=1781071761"},{"product_id":"the-pearl-paperback","title":"The Pearl - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"There it lay, the great pearl, perfect as the moon.\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Penguin Classic \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e One of Steinbeck's most taught works, \u003ci\u003eThe Pearl\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of the Mexican diver Kino, whose discovery of a magnificent pearl from the Gulf beds means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dream blinds him to the greed and suspicions the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors, and even his loving wife Juana cannot temper his obsession or stem the events leading to tragedy. This classic novella from Nobel Prize-winner John Steinbeck examines the fallacy of the American dream, and illustrates the fall from innocence experienced by people who believe that wealth erases all problems. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Linda Wagner-Martin and original illustrations by Mexican artist Jos  Clemente Orozco. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101580202207,"sku":"9780140187380","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/cUQ3dkhSckJhc1BPZytoMTdKY25hZz09.webp?v=1781071762"},{"product_id":"of-mice-and-men-paperback-1","title":"Of Mice and Men - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression, in a deluxe centennial edition\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Over seventy-five years since its first publication, Steinbeck's tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America's most widely read and taught novels. An unlikely pair, George and Lennie, two migrant workers in California during the Great Depression, grasp for their American Dream. They hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations, nor predict the consequences of Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things George taught him. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eOf Mice and Men \u003c\/i\u003erepresents an experiment in form, which Steinbeck described as \"a kind of playable novel, written in a novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands.\" A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films. This Centennial edition, specially designed to commemorate one hundred years of Steinbeck, features french flaps and deckle-edged pages. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101635514591,"sku":"9780142000670","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/bVF4ZkFQN2xaaitUN3VHOVB4b05xUT09.webp?v=1781071868"},{"product_id":"east-of-eden-paperback","title":"East of Eden - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America's most enduring authors, in a deluxe Centennial edition\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called \u003ci\u003eEast of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e \"the first book,\" and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, \u003ci\u003eEast of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e is a work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. Adapted for the 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan introducing James Dean, and read by thousands as the book that brought Oprah's Book Club back, East of Eden has remained vitally present in American culture for over half a century. This Centennial edition, specially designed to commemorate one hundred years of Steinbeck, features french flaps and deckle-edged pages. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translato","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101636071647,"sku":"9780142004234","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/VVJWN0tFb3NQcTU3SWZ0VW8wdzJYdz09.webp?v=1781071869"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/john-steinbeck.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}