WRITER

John Steinbeck

1902 - 1968

Photo of John Steinbeck

Icon of person John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck ( STYNE-bek; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters." During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of John Steinbeck has received more than 9,278,362 page views. His biography is available in 105 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 103 in 2019). John Steinbeck is the 182nd most popular writer (up from 186th in 2019), the 158th most popular biography from United States (up from 160th in 2019) and the 14th most popular American Writer.

John Steinbeck is most famous for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Memorability Metrics

  • 9.3M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 73.11

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 105

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.93

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 6.03

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Of Mice and Men
Labor Trilogy, psychological fiction, Male friendship
The second book in John Steinbeck’s labor trilogy, Of Mice and Men is a touching tale of two migrant laborers in search of work and eventual liberation from their social circumstances. Fiercely devoted to one another, George and Lennie plan to save up to finance their dream of someday owning a small piece of land. The pair seems unstoppable until tragedy strikes and their hopes come crashing down, forcing George to make a difficult decision regarding the welfare of his best friend. The novel is set on a ranch in Soledad, CA. Author Frank Bergon recalls reading Of Mice and Men for the first time as a teenager living in the San Joaquin Valley and remembers how he saw “as if in a jolt of light the ordinary surroundings of [his] life become worthy of literature.” Steinbeck works to propagate the notion that meaningful stories emerge from the marginalized; that even those on the fringes of society can make deserving contributions to the literary canon. Source: http://www.steinbeck.org/about-john/his-works/ ---------- Also contained in: - [Cannery Row / Of Mice and Men](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23172W/Cannery_Row_Of_Mice_and_Men) - [The Grapes of Wrath / The Moon is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and Men][1] - [The Short Novels of John Steinbeck](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23185W/The_Short_Novels_of_John_Steinbeck) - [Steinbeck](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23183W/Steinbeck) - [Steinbeck Pocket Book](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16051131W/The_Steinbeck_Pocket_Book) [1]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23165W/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_The_Moon_is_Down_Cannery_Row_East_of_Eden_Of_Mice_and_Men
The Red Pony
Horses, Horse, Open Library Staff Picks
The Grapes of Wrath
Labor camps, Depressions, Labor camps in literature
Steinbeck’s classic novel of the Great Depression is as vivid now as ever. The story focuses on a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, farmers who work another man’s land for a share of the crops. Driven from their home by drought and poverty they take to the road in a battered old truck and make their way to California to look for work. When they arrive they find hundreds of others like them being forced to work for breadline wages. they begin working as fruit pickers, strike-breakers replacing the people who have been trying to establish a union but their consciences force them to leave. ---------- Also contained in: - [The Grapes of Wrath / The Moon is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and Men][1] [1]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23165W/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_The_Moon_is_Down_Cannery_Row_East_of_Eden_Of_Mice_and_Men
Cannery Row
Community life, Fiction, Open Library Staff Picks
Cannery Row is a novel by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1945. It is set during the Great Depression in Monterey, California, on a street lined with sardine canneries that is known as Cannery Row. The story revolves around the people living there. Steinbeck revisited these characters and this milieu nine years later in his novel Sweet Thursday. ---------- Also contained in: - [The Grapes of Wrath / The Moon is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and Men][1] [1]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23165W/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_The_Moon_is_Down_Cannery_Row_East_of_Eden_Of_Mice_and_Men
East of Eden
migrant labor, historical fiction, domestic fiction
Steinbeck considered East of Eden to be his masterpiece. In his journal, Journal of a Novel (often read as a companion to the novel) he notes that “this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write Set primarily in the Salinas Valley in the early twentieth century, the novel traces three generations of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – as they grapple with the ever-present forces of good and evil. From this plot emerged some of Steinbeck’s most fascinating characters – many of whom are modeled after people in his own life. Part allegory, part autobiography, and part epic, East of Eden was an ambitious project from the start – a gift to Steinbeck’s sons that was meant to teach them about identity, grief, and what it means to be human. Tinged with biblical echoes of the fall of Adam and Eve and the rivalry of Cain and Abel, this sprawling saga has captivated audiences everywhere for generations. It is through the popularization of East of Eden that the Salinas Valley was truly transformed into “the valley of the world”; a place where everyone is able to find a piece of themselves in the golden, rolling hills. ([source][1]) ---------- Contains: - [East of Eden 1/2][2] - [East of Eden 2/2][3] ---------- Also contained in: - [East of Eden / The Wayward Bus][4] - [The Grapes of Wrath / The Moon is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and Men][5] - [Novels 1942-1952](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15334093W/Novels_1942-1952) - [Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Spring 1953 Selections](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15158232W) [1]: http://www.steinbeck.org/about-john/his-works/ [2]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17811975W/East_of_Eden_1_2 [3]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL18023025W/East_of_Eden_2_2 [4]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15138391W/East_of_Eden_The_Wayward_Bus [5]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL23165W/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_The_Moon_is_Down_Cannery_Row_East_of_Eden_Of_Mice_and_Men
The Pearl
Open Library Staff Picks, Avaricia, Buceadores de perlas

Among WRITERS

Among writers, John Steinbeck ranks 182 out of 7,302Before him are Luigi Pirandello, Svetlana Alexievich, J. D. Salinger, Osamu Dazai, André Breton, and Nizami Ganjavi. After him are Aldous Huxley, Constantine VII, Tove Jansson, Dale Carnegie, Murasaki Shikibu, and Stanisław Lem.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1902, John Steinbeck ranks 9Before him are Charles Lindbergh, Georgy Malenkov, Paul Dirac, Leni Riefenstahl, Erik Erikson, and Carl Rogers. After him are Isaac Bashevis Singer, Halldór Laxness, Talcott Parsons, Eugene Wigner, Fernand Braudel, and Saud of Saudi Arabia. Among people deceased in 1968, John Steinbeck ranks 8Before him are Helen Keller, Marcel Duchamp, Martin Luther King Jr., Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn, and Padre Pio. After him are Lev Landau, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Robert F. Kennedy, Trygve Lie, Max Brod, and George Gamow.

Others Born in 1902

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Others Deceased in 1968

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In United States

Among people born in United States, John Steinbeck ranks 158 out of 20,380Before him are John Adams (1735), Tom Selleck (1945), Francis Ford Coppola (1939), J. D. Salinger (1919), James Monroe (1758), and John Wayne (1907). After him are Denzel Washington (1954), Frank Lloyd Wright (1867), Herbert Hoover (1874), Dale Carnegie (1888), Jackson Pollock (1912), and Olympias (-375).

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, John Steinbeck ranks 14Before him are Jack London (1876), Toni Morrison (1931), Stephen King (1947), Dr. Seuss (1904), William Faulkner (1897), and J. D. Salinger (1919). After him are Dale Carnegie (1888), Ray Bradbury (1920), Herman Melville (1819), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803), Arthur Miller (1915), and Walt Whitman (1819).