Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, starkly and vividly describes the mass westward immigration of tens of thousands of displaced American Midwestern migrant workers, and the symbolically representative Joad family in particular. Steinbeck's editor Pascal Covici states: "John Ernst Steinbeck was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas California" (p. xxxvii). After graduating from Salinas High School, he attended Stanford University, but did not obtain a degree there. Determined by then to become a writer, Steinbeck moved to New York City, where he worked in construction to support himself while he honed his craft, and then as a reporter for the American. In 1926, he returned to California, where he worked at various odd jobs to support his writing. His first book, Cup of Gold, was published in 1929, and his second, The Pastures of Heaven, in 1932. Steinbeck's better-known works Tortilla Flat and In Dubious...
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