AMERICAN CRITICAL ARCHIVES 8

John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews

 The American Critical Archives
GENERAL EDITOR: M. Thomas Inge, Randolph-Macon College

1. Emerson and Thoreau: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Joel

Myerson
2. Edith Wharton: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by James W.
Tuttleton, Kristin O. Lauer, and Margaret P. Murray
3. Ellen Glasgow: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Dorothy M. Scura
4. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by John L.
Idol, Jr., and Buford Jones
5. William Faulkner: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by M. Thomas
Inge
6. Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Brian Higgins
and Hershel Parker
7. Henry James: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Kevin J. Hayes
8. John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Joseph R.
McElrath, Jr., Jesse S. Crisler, and Susan Shillinglaw
9. Walt Whitman: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Kenneth M. Price
 John Steinbeck
The Contemporary Reviews

Edited by
Joseph R. McElrath, Jr.
Florida State University

Jesse S. Crisler
Brigham Young University

Susan Shillinglaw
San Jose State University

CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

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Cambridge University Press 1996

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1996

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A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

John Steinbeck: the contemporary reviews / edited by Joseph R.
McElrath, Jr., Jesse S. Crisler, and Susan Shillinglaw.
p. cm.(American critical archives; 8)
Includes index.
ISBN0-521-41038-X(hc)
1. Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968Criticism and interpretation.
2. American fiction20th centuryBook reviews. I. McElrath,
Joseph R. II. Crisler, Jesse S. III. Shillinglaw, Susan.
IV. Series.
PS3537.T3234Z7155 1996
823'.912dc20 95-13434
CIP

ISBN 978-0-521-41038-0 hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-11409-7 paperback

Frontispiece portrait courtesy of The Steinbeck Research Center, San Jose State University.
 Contents
Series Editor's Preface vii
Introduction ix
Cup of Gold (1929) 1
The Pastures of Heaven (1932) 11
To a God Unknown (1933) 21
Tortilla Flat (1935) 29
In Dubious Battle (1936) 49
Of Mice and Men (the novel, 1937) 71
The Red Pony (1937) 95
Of Mice and Men (the play, 1937) 107
The Long Valley (1938) 131
The Grapes of Wrath (1939) 151
The Forgotten Village (1941) 193
Sea of Cortez (1941) 201
The Moon Is Down (the novel, 1942) 215
The Moon Is Down (the play, 1942) 239
Bombs Away (1942) 257
Cannery Row (1945) 269
The Wayward Bus (1947) 291
The Pearl (1947) 313
A Russian Journal (1948) 327
Burning Bright (the novel, 1950) 341
Burning Bright (the play, 1950) 355
The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) 369
East of Eden (1952) 381
Sweet Thursday (1954) 405
The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957) 427
Once There Was a War (1958) 441
The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) 451
Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962) 479
America and Americans (1966) 497
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969) 507
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976) 523
Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath
1938-1941 (1989) 543
Index 555
Series Editor's Preface
The American Critical Archives series documents a part of a writer's career
that is usually difficult to examine, that is, the immediate response to each
work as it was made public on the part of reviewers in contemporary news-
papers and journals. Although it would not be feasible to reprint every re-
view, each volume in the series reprints a selection of reviews designed to
provide the reader with a proportionate sense of the critical response,
whether it was positive, negative, or mixed. Checklists of other known re-
views are also included to complete the documentary record and allow access
for those who wish to do further reading and research.
The editor of each volume has provided an introduction that surveys the
career of the author in the context of the contemporary critical response. Ide-
ally, the introduction will inform the reader in brief of what is to be learned
by a reading of the full volume. The reader then can go as deeply as necessary
in terms of the kind of information desiredbe it about a single work, a pe-
riod in the author's life, or the author's entire career. The intent is to provide
quick and easy access to the material for students, scholars, librarians, and
general readers.
When completed, the American Critical Archives should constitute a com-
prehensive history of critical practice in America, and in some cases Great
Britain, as the writers' careers were in progress. The volumes open a window
on the patterns and forces that have shaped the history of American writing
and the reputations of the writers. These are primary documents in the liter-
ary and cultural life of the nation.

M. THOMAS INGE

Vll
 Introduction
John Steinbeck did not particularly like book critics, "these curious sucker
fish who live with joyous vicariousness on other men's work and discipline
with dreary words the thing which feeds them."1 It is hardly surprising. Each
book published in his lifetime was attacked by prestigious reviewers, and for
a highly sensitive man the criticism bit deeply. "Once I read and wept over
reviews," he wrote in 1954; "then one time I put the criticisms all together
and I found that they canceled each other out and left me nonexistent."2
That complaint points to the central feature of this collection of reviews.
With the publication of each book, Steinbeck was both roundly attacked and
as widely lauded. Reading the reviews in American, English, and Canadian
magazines and newspapers, one is struck by the consistency of dissent; even
books considered his weakestBurning Bright and The Wayward Busre-
ceived plaudits from important reviewers. There was never a consensus on a
Steinbeck text.
Still, a common and persistent misconception about Steinbeck's work is
that critics panned the post-Grapes fiction. That assumption became com-
monplace in the 1960s. Writing in the Saturday Review in 1969 about the
posthumously published journal of a Novel, Lawrence William Jones posited
this view of Steinbeck's career: "Steinbeck's post-war reception was one of
nearly unrelieved and often misdirected hostility. Of the eight fictional works
published during this period, only The Pearl was even fleetingly praised, and
it has inevitably suffered from constant comparison with Hemingway's The
Old Man and the Sea." The only specific truth articulated in that statement is
that Steinbeck was with some regularity compared to Hemingway, as when,
in 1952, they published within weeks of one another The Old Man and the
Sea and East of Edenboth late and, to some minds, stunning novels. It is
also true that many felt critical disdain toward Steinbeck for supposedly com-
promising his talent. For them, his later work was frivolous, artificial, pon-
derous, or trite, whereas the work of the 1930s resonated with a clarity and
force absent in the later books. But false and misleading is the suggestion that
Steinbeck's postwar reception was one of nearly unrelieved hostility. What
the reviews in this volume teach us, first, is that the "great" social novels of
the 1930s produced no such positive consensus during that decade, and, sec-
ond, that each subsequent text was met with broadly divergent opinions.
Some, in fact, called East of Eden, Cannery Row, and even Travels with]
Charley the writer's greatest. The word "delightful" repeatedly described The
Short Reign of Pippin IV. For Norman Cousins, Burning Bright was
Steinbeck's "most mature" book because it "tries to emancipate men from
the tyranny of the personal self. It tries to develop an aspect of man's nature,
too often hidden, which hungers truly for larger understanding and mutuality
in life." Hemingway, in contrast, seemed "too close to the ego and not close
enough to the human heart." In short, John Steinbeck, who resolutely re-
sisted pigeonholes and declared each new work an experiment, as frequently
puzzled as amazed his critics with his virtuosity.
The consistently mixed reviews can be explained, in part, by the Steinbeck
legend. By 1940, his stature was unassailable and each new book an event.
Certainly he lacked Hemingway's charisma and Faulkner's celebrated obfus-
cation, but Steinbeck was, like them, a writer with whom one had to con-
tend. This said, however, he never quite seemed to make the mark. Expecta-
tions were high; disappointments, inevitable. Critics were dealing with an
enormously popular and salable author, one whose public reception seemed
to some unwarranted. The demand for The Moon Is Down in 1942, for ex-
ample, was exceptional: A week before its formal publication, Viking had
sold 70,000 copies; one month afterward, approximately 500,000 copies had
been purchased, according to the Life reviewer. Beginning with Of Mice and
Men, five books were Book-of-the-Month Club selections. The Winter of Our
Discontent was a Literary Guild choice as well; it was the first time that both
clubs had offered the same book as a selection for their members. A 1962 re-
view of Travels with Charley by Van Allen Bradley noted, "A few years ago a
United Nations survey placed John Steinbeck in third place, as I recall it,
among those living writers whose books are most widely translated and dis-
tributed through the world." Perhaps critics felt an unconscious need to prick
the balloon, to note the ways in which Steinbeck was not quite of the first
rank. It appears that this tendency, exacerbated by acknowledged discomfort
on the part of the eastern literary establishment with this unpredictable
westerner, played a major role in shaping Steinbeck's complex reception as it
developed through roughly four phases.

I. Apprenticeship: 1929-1935
Reactions to Cup of Gold (1929), The Pastures of Heaven (1932), To a God
Unknown (1933), and Tortilla Flat (1935) constitute the first phase, and in
the distinctively different natures of these works lies one reason for the wide
variety of reactions to Steinbeck thereafter: Was one dealing with a writer of
adventure romances, a symbolic realist, a mythic and perhaps mystic fabulist,
or a devil-may-care humorist? By what standard should one evaluate him?
Like a Californian of the previous generation, Frank Norris, Steinbeck initi-
ated his career with an extraordinarily diverse series of fictions, although the
first commercially successful one, Tortilla Flat, established the popular image
of an offbeat, comic author defying the values associated with the Protestant
work ethic as he reveled in the amoral antics of the Mexican-American
underclass in Monterey.
Although the first three books received scant attention, their reviews show
a surprising consistency with subsequent assessments: They were mixed. Cup
of Gold is, in fact, a better book than William Faulkner's first, and the smat-
tering of notices given the novel acknowledged its drama, its "thoroughly
masculine" appeal, and its facility with characterization. Perceptive critics
identified protagonist Morgan as "always the child reaching for a dream," a
thematically significant image that long held the writer's interest. It was, ac-
cording to longtime friend and New York Herald Tribune critic Lewis
Gannett, who wrote a preface to the 1936 edition of Cup, the key to under-
standing Steinbeck's work. Also apparent was resistance to Steinbeck's
troublesome tendency to write "brutal" fiction"decidedly not for juvenile
perusal," as the St. Louis Star reviewer noted. Three strains of Steinbeck criti-
cism were already noticeable: Critics repeatedly focused on his restless dream-
ers, measured his relative success in casting believable characters, and de-
bated his frank language and bold choices of subject matter. Throughout a
publishing career of nearly four decades, the "coarseness" of several books
would both offend and be defended: His language became a focus of debate.
While most praised Steinbeck's fine ear, to some his prose seemed stark, his
language uncultivatedor downright crudeand his themes dark. "Mr.
Steinbeck knows how to write about and handle the gloomy substance of his
thoughts," wrote J. E. S. Arrowsmith of The Pastures of Heaven, Steinbeck's
reputed "fascination with the abnormal" became a frequent lament. But that
book, with To a God Unknown, received a majority of positive reviews ac-
knowledging the young writer's promise. This author, declared a discerning
Gerry Fitzgerald when reviewing Pastures, is a "romantic realist."
Until the publication of Tortilla Flat, the romantic realist's gloom may
have been warranted. A promising career as a novelist seemed well out of
reach. Determined to be a writer since age fourteen, Steinbeck had practiced
his craft doggedly in the intervening years, publishing three books and a
handful of short stories for an indifferent world. The stories he wrote from
1932 to 1934, however, gave clear evidence of his mature powers. These are
the years in which he composed "The Promise," "Chrysanthemums," and
"Flight"later collected in The Long Valleyas well as Tortilla Flat, a book
seven times rejected by New York publishers. But the world caught up with
Steinbeck in 1935. Tortilla Flat was a stunning success. "The trouble with a
book like this," wrote one of Steinbeck's most loyal supporters throughout
the 1930sfriend, novelist, and San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Joseph
Henry Jackson"is that you can't describe it. The best you can do is to indi-
cate itfaintly, in the sketch book manner.... I can't reflect the charm, the
humor, the pathos, the wit and wisdom and warm humanity which illuminate
every one of Mr. Steinbeck's pages.... Simple as it is, it has in it all the ele-
ments that go to make the best stories." Jackson here uses words that would
become leitmotifs in Steinbeck criticism. Many subsequent reviewers relished
these qualities in the author, compared him to both Dickens and Twain, and
embraced the "lovable characters" in the "lighthearted" books: Tortilla Flat,
Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, and The Short Reign of Pippin IV. Edmund
Wilson, four years after his much quoted discussion of Steinbeck's "subhu-
man" characters in The Boys in the Back Room (1941), would claim that
he'd never enjoyed Steinbeck more than when he read Cannery Row.
There were in 1935and would be with the publication of each comic
noveldissenting voices claiming that Steinbeck had romanticized drunken
bums, exploited his subjects, and celebrated "amoral" characters. The
sensitive author heeded those words, perhaps unfortunately, for he added
a disclaimer to a subsequent edition of Tortilla Flat: In a foreword to the
1937 Modern Library edition, he wrote that he would "never again subject
to the vulgar touch of the decent these good people of laughter and kindness,
of honest lusts and direct eyes, of courtesy beyond politeness."3 It was
the first of several public responses to his critics and reviewers who, he felt,
did not always comprehend his work. He had a point. Few knew quite what
to say about the dark ending of Tortilla Flat, and fewer still could get a
handle on the Arthurian parallels. Several wanted the book to include a
moral; indeed, in his own review Joseph Henry Jackson would take to task
the Nation's reviewer, Helen Neville, for demanding that Steinbeck write
more socially conscious fiction. But Steinbeck, like Wallace Stegner after
him, was fundamentally a westerner. His easy way with language and people,
his feel for the land and sea, his nonteleological acceptance of "what is," and
his fierce independence as an artist left some uncomfortable. His paisanos,
like his Cannery Row bums, are in essence westernersuntrammeled and vir-
tuous, raw and loyal. "The West. .. could use a little more confidence in
itself," wrote Stegner, "and one way to generate that is to breed up some
critics capable, by experience or intuition, of evaluating western literature in
the terms of western life. So far, I can't think of a nationally influential critic
who reads western writing in the spirit of those who wrote it, and judges
them according to their intentions."4 Both western writers felt abused by the
eastern critical establishment, which seemed to demand they publish to
its tastes. Throughout his career, whether writing about California or about
Russia, Steinbeck voiced in letters doubts that his intentions were clear,
as often they seemingly were not for critics stubbornly expecting what
Steinbeck as resolutely refused to deliver on order: socially conscious fiction.
But West Coast critics, particularly Joseph Henry Jackson, fell into the prac-
tice of defending Steinbeck against eastern misunderstanding; Wilbur
Needham of the Los Angeles Times consistently lauded the independent-
minded author who "always has his feet on the groundrooted in the
earth and the things of earth," as he wrote in his review of Of Mice and Men.
II. Steinbeck and the Working Man: 1936-1939
The smile of the Tortilla Flat humorist disappeared from Steinbeck's public
visage in the late 1930s as he mordantly exposed, with the somberness of a
New England conscience, how the "other half" is preyed upon in a capitalis-
tic economy within the larger framework of Darwin's nature. Steinbeck's new
course was determined in large part by his politically conscious wife, Carol.
The unsigned Nation review of The Pastures of Heaven noted that if
Steinbeck "could add social insight to his present equipment he would be a
first-rate novelist," a remark that makes successful writing look surprisingly
like a cookie recipe. But, in fact, that is more or less the approach Steinbeck
adopted. Goaded by his loyal and liberal wife, he attended meetings of the
John Reed Club in Carmel, and the staunchly apolitical Steinbeck awoke to
the socioeconomic turmoil that was California in the 1930s. His labor trilogy
became his life's most significant work; it became a body of prose fiction that
critics, however divided on its value during the 1930s, would look back to
with great frequency as Steinbeck's main contribution to twentieth-century
literature.
When In Dubious Battle was published in 1936, Wilbur Needham de-
clared in the Los Angeles Times: "The man is unpredictable; he never writes
in the same way in any two novels, and he never uses the same emotional or
intellectual points of view." That unpredictability became, in fact, the source
of an opening line for reviewers for the next thirty years. After the raucous
Tortilla Flat, the weighty, "brutal" proletarian novel was unexpectedbut
Steinbeck was again lauded by a majority of reviewers. What impressed them
was that Steinbeck's text transcended the generic "strike novel." He did not
take sides. "He keeps himself out of the book," wrote Fred T. Marsh for the
New York Times Book Review. Marsh was pleased to find "no editorializing
or direct propaganda." It may have been the evenhandedness of Steinbeck's
treatment of common people that won him readers for decades; that essential
trait certainly ensured the popularity of his work of the late 1930s. Steinbeck,
proclaimed Joseph Henry Jackson in his 1936 evaluation of Cup of Gold, is a
writer with "integrity."
But to reiterate what became commonplace: One dissenting voice in par-
ticular touched a nerve in the author. Mary McCarthy's "Minority Report"
was just that. In a letter to Louis Paul, Steinbeck responded to her article on
In Dubious Battle:

The pain occasioned by this review is to some extent mitigated by the

obvious fact that she understood Caesar's Commentaries as little as
my poor screed, that she doesn't know her Plato very well, and that she
hasn't the least idea of what a Greek drama is. Seriously what happened is
 thisMary Ann reviewed Tortilla Flat, saying that I had overlooked the
fact that these paisanos were proletariats. Joseph Henry Jackson, critic on
the S.E Chronicle took her review and played horse with it. So Mary Ann
lay in ambush for me to give me my come-uppance. And boy, did she give
it to me. Wurra! Wurra!5

What this letter tells us about McCarthy may well be inaccurate, but her at-
tack was unwarranted from an artistic standpoint. Her critique, like many
published during the next few years, was more ideological than aesthetic.
What stung the author was that she belittled his art because she disagreed
with his ideas. Hers was a repeated stance of reviewers not with Marxist
leanings per se but with a liberal gaze that scrutinized Steinbeck's politics.
For the next few years, Steinbeck as frequently would be judged for his
ideologyor seeming lack of itas he would be appraised on his merits as
an artist.
Of Mice and Men (1937) and, in particular, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
also touched off heated sociological debates, while both were being lavishly
praised by a growing readership. Advance orders for Steinbeck's "big book"
nearly trebled those for all previous Steinbeck titles put together, reported
Burton Rascoe in his Newsweek review of Grapes. In part, his popularity was
the result of a series of astonishingly well-publicized creative endeavors.
Written as a "playable novel," in Steinbeck's words, Of Mice and Men was
the novelist's first Book-of-the-Month Club selection. The Broadway-play ver-
sion opened in November of that same year and was awarded the New York
Drama Critics Circle Award as the year's best play. The Lewis Milestone Mice
film premiered in December 1939, eight months after publication of The
Grapes of Wrath. John Ford's film about the Joads' trek was released on 24
January 1940. Grapes received both the National Book Award and the
Pulitzer Prize. The Grapes of Wrath, noted Louis Kronenberger, "makes one
feel that Steinbeck is, in some way all his own, a force." Undoubtedly, some
of his success can be attributed to the fact that he published three books on
labor at the precise moment when the country was ready to read them. If
movies and art of the decade were often escapist, if writers of the "hard-
boiled school" were increasingly grim, Steinbeck seems to have struck a
needed balance between sentiment and uncompromising realism. "What gives
[Of Mice and Men] an almost irresistible fascination," wrote Walter Sidney
of the Brooklyn Eagle, "is the contrast between the horror of the theme and
the poetic tenderness with which it is told." The most consistently supportive
of Steinbeck's critics, Lewis Gannett of the New York Herald Tribune,
concurred: "And it is, perhaps, that compassion, even more than the perfect
sense of form, which marks off John Steinbeck, artist, so sharply from all the
little verbal photographers who record tough talk and snarl in books which
have power without pity." Reviewer after reviewer noted the "quality of
mercy in the depiction of the small man" (Theodore Smith) in a novel of
"gripping" power and "immemorial theme" (Fred T. Marsh). This compas-
sion was to remain a benchmark for those measuring his talent. In Of Mice
and Men, George and Lennie articulated the dreams and frustrations of a na-
tion. And the Joads of Grapes lived the dream for a restless population. In his
assessment of "American Novels: 1939," Bernard DeVoto put Grapes at the
top of the list because "one is so engaged with the lives of its people that their
experience becomes one's own."
If Steinbeck's empathy won him devoted readersloyal for the next three
decadesdissenting voices on both texts were characteristically shrill. If the
artificiality of Mice rankled some, by far the most persistent objections were
directed, first, to Steinbeck's language (a complaint that resulted in Of Mice
and Men's top ranking on lists of banned books) and, second, to his treat-
ment of Lennie as "sentimental wallowing." Joseph Wood Krutch asked
whether the dramatized version was "really a tale of eerie power and tender-
ness, or whether, as it seems to me, everything from beginning to end is com-
pletely 'literary' in the bad sense, and as shamelessly cooked up as the death
of Little Nell." (Joseph Henry Jackson responded to that charge as well in "A
Bookman's Notebook," 18 December 1937.) Steinbeck would long face simi-
lar charges of sentimentalism, one of the most persistent and damning of the
objections made to his characters. "Steinbeck's sentimentalism is good in
bringing him close to the lives of his people," asserted Louis Kronenberger,
"but bad when it blurs his insight." In short, he seemed to walk unsteadily
the line between emotive power and emotionalism, drama and melodrama,
the tragic and the sensationally pathetic. The terms were repeatedly used
when Steinbeck was weighed. In fact, what both novels touched off was
a lively and often incendiary debate on the nature of realistic writing. Is senti-
mentality realistic? Must language be unexpurgated to be authentic? Must
the author of Mice portray life in its meanest guise, "serving his strong meat
fresh and still warm from life's slaughter house" (Maxine Garrard) and
focusing on "subhuman" types (Mark Van Doren's epithet)? Is Steinbeck in-
sistently didactic? With the 1939 publication of The Grapes of Wrath, the
question became especially highly charged for many Californians and Okla-
homans: Does this "termite," "liar," and "communist" tell the truth about
our state and our citizens?
Grapes, in fact, polarized the country in a debate over the province of real-
ism. Long anticipated, this book was as long praised and vilified, spawning a
controversy matched only by the literary and political frenzy that had greeted
Uncle Tom's Cabin, On one side, reviewers used rapturous prose: "Here at
last," wrote Michael March of the Brooklyn Citizen, "is the great proletarian
novel, a bitter, anguished, brutal saga, alive with human aspiration and
struggle and defeat, peopled with human beings vividly portrayed and deeply
understood." Precisely those qualities that he and like-minded reviewers

XV
across the nation praised, others lambasted. The book was too brutal, the
characters idealized with "too little of the fine-point etching" (Art Kuhl), and
the subject matter unsavory. The novel's didacticism was called heavyhanded.
But two charges, offensive language and inaccuracy, became central. The
"vile" language made some foam with disdain, for example, Randolph
Bartlett: "The canine imprecation is strewn upon the pages with a pepperbox,
and becomes so meaningless that when it drops casually from the lips of a
twelve-year-old girl in the later episodes it is barely shocking. The various
appellations of deity roll lazily from every tongue." As to the subject, Bartlett
on Steinbeck recalled Thackeray castigating Jonathan Swift: "Sexual aberra-
tions abound. Filth and slime, references to sanitary matters, entrails of ani-
mals, dirt, dirt, and still more dirtthese are the decorations with which Mr.
Steinbeck has adorned his tale. And all without purpose." In Buffalo, New
York, Grapes was publicly burned for its "vulgar words," and in Kansas
City, Missouri, the "obscene" book was banned from public libraries.
What kept Grapes to the fore in the public's mind, however, was charges
made against its accuracy. Representative Lyle H. Boren of Oklahoma, for
one, practiced book reviewing on the floor of the House of Representatives:
"I cannot find it possible to let this dirty, lying, filthy manuscript go heralded
before the public without a word of challenge or protest." The Associated
Farmers of California wooed Los Gatos author Ruth Comfort Mitchell to
give "California's Answer to The Grapes of Wrath " which she did in
Grapes's longest "review," her novel Of Human Kindness, published in 1940.
Harold E. Pomeroy, executive secretary of the Associated Farmers, delivered
a speech on 14 August 1939 to the Bakersfield, California, Kiwanis Club, in
which he attacked both Grapes and Carey McWilliams's Factories in the
Field. Steinbeck had "built his story on a few shreds of truth and distorted his
presentation of the migrant situation in California." Pomeroy further de-
clared, "Now is the opportunity for true Americans to use initiative in com-
bating the evil forces of radical labor leaders and communistic minority
groups who are pounding against the principles of democracy."6 Newspapers
across the country covered this story as it developed. Kern County, Califor-
nia, banned Grapes from schools and libraries that August, and the proscrip-
tion was not rescinded until January 1941.
III. The Novelist as Virtuoso: 1940-1952
Steinbeck's retreat from the fray is hardly surprising. He decided to become a
serious student of marine biology and, to the puzzlement of some critics who
scarcely knew what to say about a scientific narrative, in 1941 published a
book with friend and marine biologist Edward F. Ricketts about their 1940
voyage cataloguing marine life along the Baja peninsula. Critics found Sea of
Cortezpart narrative account of the voyage and part scientific study, part
comical and part philosophicaleither puzzling or brilliant, but impossible
to classify, seemingly a new type of book. John Steinbeck "abhors the con-
ventional," wrote Harry Hansen, a widely syndicated reviewer, "and he did
not write a conventional scientific monograph." Indeed, Steinbeck would
never choose a conventional course, never repeat himself. Nonfiction such as
Bombs Away (1942) and A Russian Journal (1948) seemed to belie his talent,
whereas the propagandistic The Moon Is Down, the 1942 novel and play,
provoked doubts about the writer's patriotism. Remarkably dissimilar nov-
els Cannery Row (1945), The Wayward Bus (1947), The Pearl (1947), and
Burning Bright (1950)even more clearly marked a break from the fiction of
the late 1930s, challenging reviewers to see the Steinbeck of eclectic propensi-
ties as either a successful or failed virtuoso. They found it especially difficult
to draw a bead on the protean author who would try who-knows-what next.
It was almost a mercy to the reviewers that Steinbeck allowed them to recall
the point of reference that was Grapes when he published another "big
book," East of Eden. The major novel he was long expected to write finally
came before them in 1952.
There is little need to reiterate those qualities that readers liked and dis-
liked in Steinbeck's work, a relative constant after the mid-1930s. What in-
trigues in the third phase of reviewer response is, first, the incisive attempts
by his critics to give shape to his career. "Sea of Cortez," noted the Boston
Herald reviewer, is "not another Grapes of Wrath, and yet a certain common
denomination can be found for both books in the intense interest Mr.
Steinbeck has in man as a species." The best reviewers of Steinbeck's work
traced such parallels between earlier and new works; others simply noted a
decline in his talent after the "great" period of Depression Era fiction. "Don't
forget," Steinbeck wrote to his literary agents, Mclntosh and Otis, in 1937,
"that criticism of my work now is not aimed at the thing in itself, but is con-
ditioned by the others,"7 that is, his other books. How much more true after
1939, when many waited for him to return to socially conscious fiction. Dur-
ing the next two decades, few books published in America received weightier
notices than The Moon Is Down, The Wayward Bus, East of Eden, andin
the next phaseThe Winter of Our Discontent (1961). Finally, reviewers
across the nation gave Steinbeck, for the most part, evenhanded commentary.
Far from lashing into him, most seemed more inclined to forgive his lapses
and appreciate each experiment for what it was.
It is revealing to follow the changes in a single newspaper's stance or one
reviewer's attitude. Two critics who regularly reviewed the books and also
produced critical overviews and biographical sketches assessed Steinbeck's
1940s work quite differently. Heretofore staunchly supportive, Joseph Henry
Jackson gave a lukewarm notice to The Forgotten Village (1941), an illus-
trated book accompanying a film about a cholera epidemic in a Mexican
village. Jackson disliked the "mystico-poetical text [that] succeeds only in
talking down to the reader. Some day," he continued, "a critic will take time
to analyze the curious, fatherly-godlike love that Steinbeck manifests for his
characters, to examine the chastiseth-whom-he-loveth attitude implicit in so
much of Steinbeck's work, the insistent diminishment of his human characters
(no not his turtles) by which the author-creator unconsciously magnifies him-
self in relation to them." He pinpoints better than any the quality that
sharply divided readers on Steinbeck's treatment of paisanos, bums, Okies,
and misfits, and his primitivism that both attracted and repelled. (See, for ex-
ample, the Edmund Wilson essay closing the Grapes section.) Jackson also
disliked Cannery Row and found the characters in The Wayward Bus "dehu-
manized. . . . Add to this something which has always been something of an
obsession with Steinbeckhis interest in the non-wholeness of peopleand
you have a tendency which is growing, I think, to the point where it is dam-
aging to his work." Lewis Gannett, on the other hand, was undaunted. He
was one of the few to understand that Sea of Cortez discloses aspects of
Steinbeck's personality that are essential to one's understanding of both the
novels and the man. And in a sympathetic review of Bombs Away, the 1942
propaganda piece on bomber crews that Steinbeck wrote on assignment for
the War Department, he offered a character sketch that goes a long way in
explaining Steinbeck's gradual mid-career shift from treatment of the group,
aggregate humanity, to assessment of individual character in his writings:

John Steinbeck is half-Irish, and he has a conscience, perhaps inherited

from the New England missionary who was his grandmother on the other
side. When an Irishman gets mad he wants to fight, and when a New
Englander gets mad he begins by preaching. Steinbeck, moreover, started
out to be a biologist before he took to writing stories: in a way he is still a
biologist. And he is forty years old. Put that all together and you may un-
derstand how John Steinbeck came to write Bombs Away.

Much later, shortly after Steinbeck's Nobel Prize was announced in 1962, he
wrote that Steinbeck "retainfs] the primitive's or the child's capacity to move
from joy to rage in seconds [and] is one of the modern world's consummate
story tellers."8 Both Gannett and Jackson, friends of the author's, understood
the man and his work.
When, in 1942, Steinbeck published his first novel after Grapes, a play-
novelette about an occupied European town, The Moon Is Down, it was a
thin, "message"-driven one, a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and, sur-
prising to modern readers, as widely reviewed and as hotly debated as Grapes
had been. Observed the New Republic reviewer: "A few weeks ago we pre-
dicted the controversy over John Steinbeck's new novel would be prolonged
and bitter, but we didn't realize at the time that it was going to develop into
all-out warfare on the literary front." Steinbeck's timing seemed unerring (as
it had been with the publication of Grapes). "Here, without doubt is the

xvin
book the world has been waiting for," declared the Youngstown (Ohio) Vin-
dicator, "Since the fall of France, a bewildered public has expected some art-
ist, some dramatist, some poet to distill out of the chaos of fears and hope-
lessness an elixir of new faith and new confidence in the basic principle of
human freedom." Repeatedly The Moon Is Down inspired critics with patri-
otic fervor like that expressed by Cara Green Russell in the Greensboro
(N.C.) News: "He projects and brilliantly dramatizes the idea, wonderfully
consoling to us just now, that the totalitarian use of naked force to conquer a
people accustomed to freedom is sure to fail." Once more, Steinbeck minis-
tered to the public heartwith two prominent and well-spoken exceptions:
Clifton Fadiman, writing for the New Yorker twice; and James Thurber,
whose acerbic critique appeared in the New Republic. Both claimed that
what the moment called for was not such flaccid idealism but "raw reality."
"The Nazis believe in evil and make no attempt to disguise the fact,"
Fadiman asserted. Steinbeck's Nazis were, they charged, too humane. To
Fadiman, Steinbeck appeared deluded, and "comfortable agreement with Mr.
Steinbeck's reasoning will lead to dangerous inaction." Once again, then,
Steinbeck was subjected to ideological mud slingingnot too strong a de-
scriptive phraseand the controversy went on for months, because it was re-
newed by the Broadway dramatic production andas was the case with
Grapesthefilmversion released in 1943. Some novelists would revel in the
attention, perhaps, but Steinbeck was stung by attacks on his motives, his
patriotism, and his supposed lack of sophistication. From this and the Grapes
reception he never recovered respect for critics, if ever he had possessed it.
Too often, in Steinbeck's eyes, they wrote from their own insularity.
For many reviewers, no novel of the 1940s seemed big enough or serious
enough to satisfy. Cannery Row is a "miniature gem" wrote A. C. Spectorsky
in the Chicago Sun, but to others it seemed merely "charming," sadly "trans-
parent," and objectionably escapist. Still others complained of the writer's
continual fascination with low life, and a few asserted that the great docu-
mentarian of the 1930s was coasting. Malcolm Cowley coined an epithet that
stuck: The novel was a "cream puff"though a "very poisoned" one.
Steinbeck is reported by Toni Jackson Ricketts to have retorted that "if
Cowley had read it yet again . . . he would have found how very poisoned it
was."9 In the author's mind, reputable critics repeatedly failed to comprehend
all that he was up to. Certainly publication of The Wayward Bus in 1947,
another Book-of-the-Month Club selection, did not improve his status.
Viking touted the work as his first full-length novel in eight years, and re-
viewers applauded his return to "serious" themes; they also debated the
worth of his allegorical intentions, and Bus was termed by Daphne Alloway
McVicker a "dreary" story about "horrible little people." But a constant
throughout his careerunexpected with minor bookswas the fact that seri-
ous, incisive, and famous critics were engaged by Steinbeck's texts: Bernard
DeVoto praised the "craftsmanship" of Bus, and Carlos Baker suggested that
the book "might even be good for one's soul." Norman Cousins marked the
occasion with an incisive little essay on realism, regretting the writer's ten-
dency to "extraneous realism," mere details recorded without moral force.
Orville Prescott was more severe: He noted that Steinbeck had not even mea-
sured up as a literary naturalist. It may well be that Steinbeck is our best
measure of the inadequacy of mid-twentieth-century critical categories: a
writer with one foot in the realism/naturalism camp, one dug into an ecologi-
cal perspective few then noted, and another tripping over the modernists' ex-
perimental approaches to the novel (a genre he declared "dead" as early as
the 1930s). That makes him a three-legged creature, which he seemed to
those critics who attempted to type him conventionally.
So-called slight books both preceded and followed publication of the
epical East of Eden in 1952. Far less controversial than The Wayward Bus,
The Pearl was, the same year, either labeled "fake primitive" or lauded as a
luminous parable, a rarefied "cultured" pearl. "It returns to the style of Gen-
esis," stated a sympathetic Bill Bedell of the Houston Post. A Russian Jour-
nal, an account of a 1947 tour of Russia with photographer Robert Capa,
was regarded as thin. It was described in the New York Times as "pleasant
reading but it doesn't add up to much"an assessment later given to the
pieces in Once There Was a War, written while on overseas assignment in
1943 and collected in 1958. Insubstantiality was a charge often brought
against Steinbeck's journalism, which he wrote with greater frequency in the
1940s and 1950s. He could be good on seemingly insignificant topicsor he
could be just inconsequential. Yet the absence of the ponderous, or the light-
ness of touch, in Steinbeck's nonfiction was seen by others as the very source
of his appeal: A Russian Journal was written by an author described as ap-
proachable, eminently readable, and one who, noted William McFee, pos-
sessed an "observant eye, a deadpan humor, and a command of the English
language unsurpassed by any American of our time." The book's outstanding
quality, wrote Richard Watts in the New Republic, "is its friendliness and its
refusal to take itself too seriously." Travels with Charley (1962) would be
embraced for precisely the same warmth. As the reviewer of the Newark
(NJ.) News related, Travels "gives us a chance to meet a man, which is what
most of us want to do with every book. This one is worth knowingun-
affected, simpatico, with the tolerance of approaching age." Unlike Faulkner
and Hemingway, Steinbeck was reviewed and read appreciatively by people
who, quite simply, liked him. Slouchy dresser, champion of the small man,
novelist of compassion, he appeared a regular guy and wrote accessible prose.
You might find fault with such a writer, but you stuck with him, even through
a "high art" experiment such as Burning Bright, although Lewis Gannett
found its prose "fatal on the printed page."
Burning Bright, however, was seen as obviously signaling an important

xx
change in Steinbeck. Famous for his social vision in the late 1930s, he was
increasingly recognized for his sensitivity to the individual and his moral con-
dition. "John Steinbeck has enrolled... on the side of individual worth and
human dignity," wrote Orville Prescott when reflecting on the focus of Burn-
ing Bright. In 1952, Robert R. Brunn unwittingly disagreed with Prescott but
made a like observation concerning East of Eden in the Christian Science
Monitor. He proclaimed that Steinbeck "wrestles with a moral theme for the
first time." It was Eden that won Joseph Henry Jackson back to Steinbeck's
camp, largely for the same reason: "The whole novel turns upon the qualities
in men which make them more than animals, not less." This large and "ambi-
tious" novel that he published only a few weeks after Hemingway's Old Man
and the Sea also indicated, in the eyes of many critics, that both writers were
again working up to par. Steinbeck's book was exhaustively reviewed with,
however, the usual mixed results. Its best qualities were those of an eigh-
teenth-century novelexpansive, ambitious, vital. Joseph Wood Krutch liked
it because it held "the attention to an extraordinary degree throughout the
six hundred long pages." On the front page of the New York Times Book
Review, Mark Schorer declared it "probably the best of John Steinbeck's nov-
els." Orville Prescott, also writing for the Times, said that "he has achieved a
considered philosophy and it is a fine and generous one." But Newsweek
hated the "shambling, stuttering Sherwood Anderson prose." Granville Hicks
disliked its "helter skelter" form. Anthony West and Leo Gurko regretted the
melodrama. And nearly everyone felt uncomfortable with the heroine, Cathy.
If Steinbeck's name was still associated with conflict, the discussion was,
happily, carried out on new ground, not sociological but artistic, aesthetic, or
formal, as can be seen especially in Mark Schorer's review. To a significant
degree, Steinbeck was at last being liberated from the ideological matrix in
place since the 1930s.
IV. The Final Phase: 1953-1968
The many who stuck with Steinbeck through thick and thin were rewarded in
1954 with the sequel to Cannery Row, Sweet Thursdaya book that de-
lighted those whom Carlos Baker termed the "unregenerate thousands whose
intellectual bridgework still permits them to relish salt-water taffy." As Ed-
ward Weeks explained in the Atlantic, those readers would appreciate its
"comedybawdy, sentimental, and in places implausible"; when "read in the
spirit with which it is written, [Sweet Thursday] is good fun." But the last
phase in the long-developing author-reviewer relationship was once more
characterized by controversy as Steinbeck again proved to be Steinbeck. From
the high seriousness of East of Eden, he had "descended" to the comical
nether realm of Tortilla Flat. He set his new book in Monterey among the
wacky, often cartoonlike characters familiar to readers of Cannery Row, and
his return to that landscape was disconcerting to many reviewers ready for
another Eden. Further, Sweet Thursday did not at all prepare them for his
next jaunt in 1957, to France, for his Candide-'mspirtd satire in The Short
Reign of Pippin IV. And in 1961 Steinbeck performed another about-face:
Before he amiably returned to nonfiction in Travels with Charley, the
Voltairelike "smile of reason" seen in Pippin vanished as he brooded over
modern morality in his last "big book," The Winter of Our Discontent.
Whereas Newsweek celebrated the return of "The Old Steinbeck," discontent
with Winter and a good many of Steinbeck's other works was uttered in a
remarkable way by Arthur Mizener. In 1962, one day after Steinbeck was rec-
ognized for his achievements by the Swedish Academy, Mizener's "Does a
Moral Vision of the Thirties Deserve a Nobel Prize?" appeared in the New
York Times Book Review.10 That headline encapsulates Steinbeck's treatment
by many critics: It's a question; it's mean-spirited; it looks backward; and it
grudgingly acknowledges that he's won. The issues of a career, then, greeted
his last novel, another Book-of-the-Month Club selection, which won praise
for its trenchant criticism of modern life but was as often dismissed as a dud.
Extolled for its compelling moral vision, Winter was, paradoxically, also cited
for lacking moral conviction: Whereas some saw Robert Poole's "Resurgent
Steinbeck" reemerging "as one of America's most subtle and human writers,
one whose work gathers enormous power from the calm restraint of the writ-
ing," Time found his style "overworked." John K. Hutchins noted "implausi-
bility at the heart of" Winter. "In it," concluded Fanny Butcher, "are to be
found Steinbeck at both his best and his worst. It is almost two different
books," one amusing and one profound.
That split would remain a Steinbeck legacy. "We have come to think of
John Steinbeck as a writer with two literary faces, the one gleeful, the other
outraged, but both startlingly and memorably alive," noted Virgilia Peterson
in a positive review of Winter for the New York Herald Tribune. The last two
of his books published during his lifetime, neither fictional, embody those
two faces: that of the genial novelist who traveled with Charley and that of
the moralist whom Walter Havighurst of the Chicago Tribune found apprais-
ing America with "curiosity, impatience, love and anger" in his final book of
essays on issues facing his country, America and Americans (1966). In short,
Steinbeck was a man of multiple interests and tastes, and, despite the many
consistencies in his writings, his works are properly, and fairly, described only
when their multiple discrete forms and the intentions giving rise to them are
recognized. Each work begs for consideration as, if not wholly original, a
unique attempt by Steinbeck to move in a new direction and through new
experiences, both personal and literary. Reviewers who did not approach his
books thus were at odds with others who didhence many of the radical dis-
agreements recorded in these reviews. Indeed, it may prove impossible to de-
termine any consensus regarding individual titles, and, if one finally does,
many qualifications would typically be necessary. A primary value of this vol-

xxn
ume, then, is that it puts a present-day student of the history of American lit-
erary taste in touch with the complex, often contradictory critical reception
of an evolving literary canon, positioning him or her in light of the reviewers'
valid insights, as well as their faux pas, to determine what are now the most
appropriate approaches to understanding and appreciating Steinbeck.
As one contextualizes the books vis-a-vis the reviews for the sake of devel-
oping a historically informed perspective on the canon, one other factor
should be kept in mind: Steinbeck's own view of what each new work meant
to him as an opportunity for continued development as an artist. "I don't
care about the critics," Steinbeck told Art Buchwald in 1955. "The only joy
for the writer should be the doing, not the end. Reception of a work should
not be a part of the pleasure of writing. There is no creative satisfaction when
a thing is finished. The thing I want to learn to do is write as freshly as when
I first started. A writer should never learn to write. He must continually ex-
periment or his technique will take over and he'll never write anything good
again."11 Here was a man who never quit writing and whose prose shaped
each day of his professional life. This is the Steinbeck seen in full in two post-
humous publications, journals recording what it meant to be ever striving for
a better "doing" of his craft: Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters
(1969) and Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989). The
reviews of these books, like those of the others, aid us in our critical discrimi-
nations. However, their contents, like other reflections by Steinbeck on his
craft, are just as significant as the reviews if one believes, as we do, that an
understanding of authorial intention is as important as reviewers' judgments
to anyone seeking to come to terms with what John Steinbeck wrought.

This volume was initially conceived as a means of providing an overview of

Steinbeck's critical reception, as comprehensively as possible within the stan-
dard space limitations of the series of which it is a part. This meant, we soon
discovered, that a writer reviewed so widely had to be treated selectively: We
had to identify representative and especially noteworthy reviews of his works
for reprinting and relegate the remainder to the lists of "Additional Reviews"
at the ends of most of the sections devoted to individual titles. Also, for so
productive a writer, even already modified ambition had to be further curbed.
We had to draw the line for the number of works to be treated at 32. Omit-
ted are items in the following categories: films for which Steinbeck wrote the
script (published or unpublished); anthologies such as the 1943 Steinbeck in
the Viking Portable Library series; books including the first publications of
letters by Steinbeck, such as Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (1975); and limited
editions such as Their Blood Is Strong (1938; published again as The Harvest
Gypsies in 1988). Two publications, however, are given special treatment: the
1936 edition of Cup of Gold, a novel that received relatively little attention
when first published in 1929, and the small-circulation, deluxe 1937 edition
of The Red Pony, because of the immediate attention it received from review-
ers and 1938 reviewer reaction to the inclusion and expansion of its story-
sequence in The Long Valley.
The reviews were condensed editorially when plot summaries proved es-
sentially repetitive of those given earlier in the chronologically arranged re-
views; when reviewers turned to other authors and works, and their commen-
taries were not directly related to Steinbeck's writings; and when reviewers
indulged themselves, normally at the beginnings of reviews, in general reflec-
tion deemed not immediately pertinent to the evaluation of the work by
Steinbeck at hand.
It is assumed that the reviews that are reprinted provide the "main story"
regarding how Steinbeck fared with his critics; but the reader is encouraged
to trust his or her own judgment finally, by both consulting the reviews only
listed at the ends of sections and continuing the search for as yet unrecovered
reviews of Steinbeck's works.

Notes
1 Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (New York: Viking, 1969), 141. Quotations
from, and references to, writings about Steinbeck in this introduction are identified in notes
only when those writings are not reprinted in this volume and are not listed at the ends of
the sections on individual works. The Index directs one to the pages on which commenta-
tors' pieces are reprinted or listed; unsigned reviews can be located via indexed periodical
titles.
2 Quoted in Bernard Kalb, "Trade Winds," Saturday Review, 36 (27 February 1954), 8.
3 New York: Modern Library, 1937, pp. ii-iii.
4 Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs (New York: Viking, 1993), 141.
5 Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, eds., Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (New York: Viking,
1975), 121.
6 "Pomeroy Flays Two New Books," Bakersfield Californian, 14 August 1939, pp. 9, 13.
7 Quoted by Lewis Gannett in "Introduction," Steinbeck, enlarged edition in the Viking Por-
table Library series, ed. Pascal Covici (New York: Viking, 1946), 23.
8 "John Steinbeck," New York Herald Tribune, 28 October 1962, Section 6, p. 1.
9 See Tony Seixas, "John Steinbeck and the Non-teleological Bus," in E. W. Tedlock and C. V.
Wicker, eds., Steinbeck and His Critics (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1957), 275-80.
10 112 (9 December 1962), 43-5.
11 Art Buchwald, "PS from New York," New York Herald Tribune, 29 March 1955, p. 21.
CUP OF GOLD
 CUP OF GOLD
A LIFE OF HENRY MORGAN,
BUCCANEER
With Occasional
Reference to
History

by
JOHN STEINBECK

ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY

NEW YORK 1929
 readers of good fiction in one of the latest
Will Cuppy. books from the Robert McBride Publish-
ing Company. While most previous sto-
"Cup of Gold." ries, whether historical or fictional of
New York Herald Tribune, Morgan's life, were written for the con-
sumption of school boys, here is one that
18 August 1929, "Books" is decidedly not for juvenile perusal. For
section, p. 12. here is presented Morgan's complete life
(including his loves) dealing with every
phase, whether real or legendary, of
Being a life of Henry Morgan, buccaneer, England's most noted buccaneer. Here is
with occasional references to history, and seen Morgan in all his brutalness, his am-
a promising stab at a novel of adventure. bition and his passion. One cannot help
Strangely enough, the tale lacks the color but thrill at the downright courage of the
and spirit traditional to its genre, perhaps man, nor fail to sympathize with him at
because the author has preferred to his disappointments. Morgan, for one of
tinker with a realistic methodor maybe the few times in a life which has ap-
it was an oversight. Mr. Steinbeck lapses peared many times on paper, is actually
into pedestrian narrative at times, but seen as a man. He was really human at
even so, enough brave names and places times, loving all earthly pleasures and,
are bandied about to hold the interest of according to the worthy Mr. Steinbeck,
most fans; and Mr. Steinbeck's graceful actually possessed ideals. He had a natu-
manner lifts the yarn above the adventure ral tendency for exaggeration which, one
groceries of this degenerate age. The tale suspects, has been handed down to his
tells of Henry's boyhood in the Welsh most recent biographer, which is altogether
glens, his sailing for the Indies at the age excusable in as much as no claim is made
of fifteen, his slavery in Barbados and to the historical accuracy of the book.
later triumphs on the Spanish Main, in- Cup of Gold is thoroughly masculine and
cluding the sack of Panama, the Cup of should find much favor with those male
Gold, for love of the mysterious Ysobel, readers who used to delight in those bloody
alias the Red Saint, and his respectable tales of piracy and rebellion.
death years later as lieutenant governor
of Jamaica.

"Morgan, the Pirate,

"Cup of Gold." Sails Raging Main."
St. Louis Star, Columbus Ohio State
1 September 1929, p. 11. Journal, 15 September
1929, "Magazine Section,5'
Henry Morgan, pirate, freebooter and
p. 3,
lieutenant governor, whose greatest ambi-
tion was to sack "The Cup of Gold" in
Panama, has, through the pen of John This is a romanticized story of Morgan,
Steinbeck, presented his life story for the pirate, pillager, killer, lieutenant-governor
of Jamaica and sacker of Panama, known of style in considering the historical sub-
to the world of that day as "the Cup of ject, the modern naturalistic and the pe-
Gold." From the time when Morgan was riod manner, and they do not harmonize.
a lad on his father's country acres until Yet there is much swing and movement
the day he died in his bed at Jamaica, the to the narrative at times, and Henry's
story takes him, through his slavery, his many undesirable qualities are not cam-
years as a buccaneer, his knighting by ouflaged. Morgan was a cruel, orgiastic
King Charles, and finally his death. He brute. And when the author makes him
started with nothing save a love for far philosophize in his "don't call it love" af-
places; he took a brown-skinned slave for fairs with his women, Henry does not
a mistress, and was defeated when he at- ring true. The actual record of his life
tempted a similar conquest of the Red shows he was no introspect. He looked
Saint of Panama; finally, he married his into the wine when it was red, and into
orphan first cousin, then died like a women's eyes when he was ready for
gentleman. them. It is a question whether he ever
There is little of fact or history here, looked into his own soul. Yet Mr. Stein-
although, as the author says, there is an beck's fantasy is enjoyable reading, with
occasional historical reference. The story its highlighting of the sack of Panama,
is fiction, purely, and Morgan is perhaps the West Indian "Cup of Gold," even
a more romantic figure here than he was though we find it hard to believe that
in real life. Some of his cruelties are soft- Morgan died thinking he "always had
ened, and under Mr. Steinbeck's pen the some rather good end in view," in all his
buccaneer is at times a strange, abstract deviltries.
creature who knows neither love nor sor-
row; who, dying, could not recall that he
had any sins to confess or to repent.
There is enough of the biographical A.M.
novel here to take away the shimmer of "The Reviewer."
imagination, so that the net result is a
meaty, pleasing yarn wherein action sets Stanford [Calif.] Daily',
the pace and clever writing plays the tune. 30 October 1929, p. 2.

F.H.M. There were once two Steinbecks, cousins.

"Morgan, Buccaneer.5' One of them came to Stanford and be-
came President of the student body. The
New York Evening Post, other came to Stanford and became a
28 September 1929, novelist.
Cup of Gold, by John Steinbeck, is a
Section M, p. 7. fanciful, rather weird, and sometimes his-
torical novel concerning the life of one
Henry Morgan, buccaneer, pirate, and
This novelized "Life of Henry Morgan, member of the "Brotherhood" that caused
Buccaneer," written "with occasional ref- so much trouble to Spain's power on the
erence to history," somehow does not "come seas during the sixteenth century. And
off." It seems to fall between two stools Henry is the whole show. We see him first
as a boy of fifteen, dreaming of life be-
yond the seas and eternally yearning for Paul G. Teal.
the wild adventurous life of men who did
things. We leave him just as death is coming, "Cup of Gold."
and all the terrible deeds of his past life San Jose [Calif.] Mercury-
are passing by in bewildering confusion.
Cup of Gold is the picture of a
Herald, 1 December 1929,
dreamerof a dreamer who eternally p. 7.
searched for some ephemeral happiness.
Cities and countries richer than man ever
dreamed of, fell before his armies. He Henry Morgan, pirate of note and ruler
had women, gold, ships, and power. But of the Spanish main who was never de-
peace was not there and Henry Morgan feated, as far as men knew, humiliated
was a lost soul looking for something he and repulsed by a woman, who used only
could never find. And thus he died. a pin for a weapon.
All novelists have some sort of a phi- Henry Morgan, a swashbuckler of power
losophy and John Steinbeck is no excep- and might, envied by half the world, the
tion. Says he, "All the world's great have most lonesome man that sailed the seven
been little boys who wanted the moon; seas
running and climbing, they sometimes Henry Morgan, who chose a friend from
caught a firefly. But if one grow to a his crew of adventurers and then killed the
man's mind, that mind must see that it friend because he was afraid of his pity
cannot have the moon and would not And lastly, Henry Morgan, "respected"
want it if it couldand so it catches no citizen and overlord of Port Royal, who
fireflies." put former members of his crew to death
It is not the plot in Cup of Gold that on charges of piracy, with the excuse: "I
makes the book interesting, for there do not hang you because you are pirates
have been many such plots. And it is not but because I am expected to hang pi-
the characters, for there have been many rates. I am sorry for you. I would like
such in the minds of all writers. It is the to send you to your cells with saws in
vivid, complete, and truly introspective your pockets, but I cannot. As long as
picture of Henry Morgan's life and char- I do what is expected of me I shall re-
acter that make the book a thing to be main the Judge. When I change for what-
remembered. As one reads the book he ever motive, I may myself be hanged."
feels as though he had experienced the Cup of Gold seems everything that
same things in his own life. If you ever a novel, a history and a book of travel
left the place in which you grew up, then should be. It impresses the reader as con-
you know how Henry felt that wintry taining all elements of literature clamped
morning he bid goodbye to the valleys of between two cloth-bound covers. There
Cambria. is pathos and horror in it and nobleness
John Steinbeck is a Stanford man, a and smallness. There are descriptions of
member of the class of '24. Since leaving cities and islands and swamps. Its people
school he has spent his time travel- are broad and narrow, strong and weak,
ing abroad and in this country, writing clever and dull and all of these virtues
things when time allowed. Cup of Gold and vices are bound up in Henry Morgan
is his first attempt in the field of novel- as portrayed by John Steinbeck, who,
writing. by the way, is a Palo Alto man.
 The tale follows the history of this fa- Desire of The Red Saint put Henry
mous pirate accurately. Not an action of Morgan on his way to Panama. He called
his that is known or sufficiently rumored for volunteers and an army of pirates re-
has been left out. And into this bit of his- sponded. They knew that Morgan never
tory, which is far from dull even when failed. The destination was not an-
recounted by the most drab of historians, nounced until the pirates had landed on
Steinbeck has woven bits of scintillating the beach that mouthed the swampy
beauty, incidents of stark horror, and has sloughs that led to Panama. The crew
peopled all incidents with genuine human nearly revolted with dread at the thought
beings. of attacking the impregnable city. But
He begins with Morgan as a small boy they thought too of The Red Saint.
in Scotland, merely an adventurous small "There is a woman in Panama and she
boy who leaves home. Henry is inden- is lovely as the sun. They call her the Red
tured as a slave in Barbados, an island of Saint in Panama. All men kneel to her.
the British West Indies. His master took She has stolen worship from the Blessed
an interest in the boy, taught him history saints." This was the rumor of the Red Saint.
and English and gave him access to a Barges were built and the army and
large library. Here the future buccaneer supplies began their watery march to-
studied war. Everything he could find out ward Panama. Disease and fatigue ha-
about fights at sea he consumedfor rassed them but under the lash of
young Henry had long determined to be- Morgan's will they continued.
come a pirate. By way of assuring his fu- The city was taken easily and sacked.
ture he soon became manager of his Morgan failed to find the Red Saint at
master's plantation and stole and laid first. She heard he was searching for her
aside enough money to set him up in the and came to his headquarters. He offered
pirate business. her marriage and she scorned him. He
Because of his actual knowledge of sea asked for her hand in the sweetest words
warfare, his ability to handle men and his he could remember.
sagacity, Henry Morgan soon became the "You forget only one thing, sir," she
most successful pirate in the trade. Thou- said. "I do not burn. You do not carry
sands of men flocked to his standard a torch for me and I hoped you did. I
when he called. came this morning to see if you did. And
The sack of Panama, the Spanish city I have heard your words so often and
known as the "Cup of Gold," was the so often in Paris and Cordova. I am tired
high point in Morgan's career. The rea- of these words that never change. Is there
son for this venture was the high point in some book with which aspiring lovers
his affairs of the heartif he could be instruct themselves? The Spanish men
said to have a heart. say the same things, but their gestures are
For Henry Morgan sacked Panama so a little more practiced, and so a little
that he might find a woman there. Her more convincing. You have much to
name was La Santa RojaThe Red learn. I wanted forceblind, unreasoning
Saintand she was known the world forceand love not for my soul or for
over for her charm. And when Henry some imagined beauty of my mind, but
Morgan found The Red Saint she scorned for the white fetish of my body," she told
him and jeered at him and defended the pirate.
herself with a pin until he left the city Her husband was soft and delicate,
like a whipped cur. she said. She was tired of such men.
 Morgan, thinking this his cue, tried it is doubtful if more than a handful of
force. But The Red Saint was not inter- people ever read its miscroscopically
ested. She repulsed his advances by stab- small first edition. By now, those who
bing a small pin in his face. She dared like Steinbeck are aware of the fact
him to kill her. He hadn't the nerve. He [that], as Lewis Gannett puts it [in] his
was cowed. A woman had defeated the preface, "no two of his books have ever
world's greatest pirate. fitted in the same valise." Tortilla Flat
Infuriated Henry Morgan killed the made him famous; but, stubbornly, he
first man that crossed his pathan epi- went on to write, not another amusing
leptic whom he despised. Half crazed he tale of the Monterey paisanos, but a
returned to the palace of the Governor dramatic labor novel, In Dubious Battle.
and sat amidst the gold that had been His astounded readers are now treated to
looted. His only friend entered. Morgan the spectacle of Steinbeck wallowing in
thought of the pity and comfort his gore and action, color and hard, brilliant
friend would have for him when he ex- romance.
plained his failure. Morgan couldn't Cup of Gold is a novelization of Sir
stand the thought of that. He shot his Henry Morgan's life, from his birth in the
friend through the heart. Welsh glens to his Carib exploits and the
But, nevertheless, Morgan finished capture of Panama and his death in Ja-
things in a business-like way in Panama. maica, written "with occasional reference
He sold The Red Saint back to her hus- to history." It is a gorgeous story; but
band for a great sum. He took the trea- you may be sure Steinbeck has not
sures back to the coast, piled them handled it in any orthodox fashion. I
aboard his ship, made all but a few men hope its publication may lead many to
drunk, then scuttled all ships but his and discover, with further surprise, his two
sailed away with the swag. His army really great books: The Pastures of
wakened next day to face starvation. A Heaven and To a God Unknown.
few escaped but most of them died.
Morgan bribed British officials with
some of his fortune and was knighted in-
stead of being jailed. The government Joseph Henry Jackson.
sent him to Port Royal where he judged "A Bookman's
and hung wrong-doers until he died.
Notebook.55
San Francisco Chronicle,
W[ilbur] N[eedham]. 31 July 1936, p. 15.
"Steinbeck's First."
Los Angeles Times, This, first of all, is not a new book. It has
26 July 1936, Part 3, been taken over by the present publisher
from the firm that originally brought it
p. 8. out in 1929. On record (as they very well
might be) as believing completely and
thoroughly in Steinbeck's work, Covici-
Here is a new edition of John Steinbeck's Friede wanted to be the publisher of all
first bookpractically a new book, since his books, and added this one to his

7
others which they already have. His first In a preface to this new edition Lewis
novel, it never had a very wide public, Gannett sketches Steinbeck's career brief-
and a great many who discovered him ly, but takes time to note how the charac-
with Tortilla Flat, and have since read his teristics that were later to be so notable
In Dubious Battle, and perhaps his To a in the author's work may be traced here
God Unknown and Pastures of Heaven, at their beginnings. It is a youthful book,
will be glad of this chance to get hold as Mr. Gannett says. But it shows very
of it. plainly where the youth who wrote it was
In the sentence immediately preceding headed. And I should like to quote for
this I spoke of Cup of Gold as a novel. you something that Gannett says in this
The publisher calls it that, in his jacket- connection, something which indicates
note, and perhaps it is. Mr. Steinbeck him- how well he has understood this point,
self must have considered it more or less and how well he understands Steinbeck
in that light when he wrote it, although it and his writing altogether. This is how he
is subtitled A Life of Sir Henry Morgan, concludes his preface: "Perhaps one may
Buccaneer, with Occasional References tofind, in this glowingly youthful book, in
History. As a matter of fact, the book this story of young Henry Morganpar-
partakes a little of the nature of a bio- ticularly in the boy's conversation, on the
graphy and quite a good deal of the na- mountain-top with old Merlina sort
ture of fiction. Which is far from being a of key to Steinbeck himself: 'Merlin
black mark against it. searched the boy's face closely. "I think I
As to the content of the book, it is just understand," he said softly. "You are a
what it is called. There is no point in re- little boy. You want the moon to drink
citing an outline of it here. Morgan was a from, as a golden cup; and so it is very
young man who knew very well what he likely that you will become a great man if
wanted and went out and got it. Like only you remain a little child. All the
most adventures he had a strong roman- world's great have been little boys who
tic streak in him, and perhaps just a dash wanted the moon; running and climbing,
of the mystic about his thought process- they sometimes caught afirefly.But if one
es. At least, Steinbeck shows him that grow to a man's mind, that mind must
way, and it is as likely an interpretation see that it cannot have the moon and
as another. Whatever the reason, he was would not want it if it couldand so, it
a curious and in many ways a significant catches no fireflies."'"
figure. And as you follow his progress in
this tale you find yourself admiring the And Mr. Gannett concludes: "Steinbeck
man more than you should admire a still catches fireflies, as lovely and as
gentleman of the ruthlessness and pirati- various fireflies as any man writing in
cal makeup of Morgan. It is, at any rate, America today. By some rare magic he
a story very well worth reading; one in has united a child's heart, a child's seeing
which you will find all the adventure you eyes, with a man's mind. I believe his fire-
could ask for, and all the color a book of flies to be among the most beautiful and
its kind could possibly contain. On that most significant specimens in Ameri-
ground alone it is a book you should can literature today. The scientists have
read. never solved the miracle of the firefly's
'cold light'; they can only assure us of
But the most interesting thing about it is its existence and perfection. Nor can crit-
that it was Steinbeck's first book. ics do more than assure the reader that
Steinbeck's magic, which anyone who buccaneer, had a streak of mysticism, and
reads must feel, is authentic magic." Mr. Steinbeck has done well to exploit it
It was no part of my intention to make in his "life," with "occasional references
Mr. Gannett, willy-nilly, write this review to history," to quote the sub-title. One
for me, but I see that he has done it. feels, however, that either the references
Those are precisely the things that to history should have been more precise
needed to be said about Steinbeckor at or else the general treatment should have
least some of them. I shall add only that been more free. As it is, the novel tends
if you have discovered the charm in to fall between two stools, and the story
Tortilla Flat, if you have read In Dubious "sags" rather badly in Morgan's sudden
Battle, and appreciated the integrity change from youth to maturity at Bar-
which led its author to refuse to take bados, with an effect of a missing text
sides in the extremely controversial mat- which would not have occurred with
ters about which he wrote in that book, more freedom in the treatment of the
if you have perhaps read either or both whole. Mr. Steinbeck's writing, too, is
of his other two novels and realizedas not quite the best for the purpose: he is
you could hardly fail to dothat what too fond of phrases like "the sensuous
Gannett says about Steinbeck's "authen- sureness of her were tonic things"; all
tic magic" is true, then you must get hold right for the author observing directly,
of this Cup of Gold. It is a story, yes; as but not so right for the boy's impression
rousing and adventurous a yarn as you of the ship; any more than is "a pleasant
will find anywhere. But in addition to hypnosis in the brain" for his experience
that it is a perfect literary preview of the at sea. But the story shows constructive
work of a man who has since become imagination, it has moments of excite-
widely known for books so different that ment, and the episode of Morgan's emo-
you would hardly believe the same stamp tional defeat by La Santa Roja at Panama
could be on all of them. Yet, as Mr. is very well managed.
Gannett points out, it is. And since
Steinbeck is without question the one
most worth watching of any of the
younger writers of the Pacific Coastand "Cup of Gold."
certainly one of those anywhere in America Times Literary
of whom it may be said that they are go-
ing placesI am sure that no one who Supplement [London],
cares about this work will want to let 20 March 1937, p. 214.
pass this chance to see how he began.

Charles Marriott. Unfortunately, The Cup of Gold must

"Satire and Sentiment." be classified as fiction rather than biogra-
phy, although Mr. Steinbeck makes more
Manchester Guardian, reference to history than his sub-title
29 January 1937, p. 7. suggests. For he follows the known and
traditional events of Morgan's life, in-
venting incidents, motives and somewhat
. . . It is by no means unlikely that Sir unconvincing dialogue when he sees fit.
Henry Morgan, the seventeenth-century He tells of his youth in Wales (without
committing himself to name Llanrhymny, Such efforts, of course, seem unusually
the Glamorganshire village in which the odd at a moment when the complaints
Morgans lived), his kidnapping in Cardiff over the censoring of European news will
(ascribed by Esquemeling to Bristol and no doubt make Americans extremely sen-
denied by Morgan), his slavery in Barba- sitive to any sort of censorship, whether
dos (also denied), and his subsequent ca- native or foreign.
reer as a buccaneer. Two earlier books by Mr. Steinbeck
The expedition to Panama, the "Cup of have just appeared in new, inexpensive
Gold," is the climax of the book; but Mr. editions. One is In Dubious Battle, first
Steinbeck makes Morgan's inducement published in 1936, and far more like the
not the gold of Panama but an attractive Steinbeck who wrote The Grapes of
young woman named La Santa Roja. His Wrath than the Steinbeck who wrote Of
luck did not hold with the Red Saint, and Mice and Men. The other is Cup of Gold,
Mr. Steinbeck makes him meekly accept first published ten years ago, and perhaps
her refusal. He offers neither criticism sufficiently described in its subtitle as
nor explanation of Morgan's conduct "The Amazing Career of Sir Henry Mor-
when he played his men the shabbiest gan, Buccaneer, With Occasional Refer-
trick in the annals of piracy by sailing off ence to History."
with the loot and leaving his companions
in the lurch; but since he accompanies his
hero to his death-bed he might, in one of
his occasional references to history, have Checklist of Additional
mentioned that nine years after being Reviews
knighted and appointed Lieutenant-Gen-
eral of Jamaica Morgan was deprived of
his office for outrageous conduct.
P.D.M. "News and Views of Happenings
in Book World." Raleigh [N.C.]
Times, 28 August 1929, p. 11.
Charles Poore. Louise V. Wiegand. "Adventure Story of
"New Editions of the Stirring Days in Indies Related." Salt
Lake [City] Telegram, 8 September
Week." 1929, "Magazine" section, p. 1.
New York Times, "Weekly Book Review and Book Gossip
and Chat." Quincy [111.] Herald-Whig,
15 September 1939, p. 27. 22 September 1929, Part 1, p. 9.
First Reader. "The Reading Lamp."
South Bend [Ind.] Tribune, 6 October
The astounding popularity of John Stein- 1929, "Women's Section," p. 12.
beck's magnificent novel, The Grapes of Edwin Francis Edgett. "A Buccaneer on
Wrath, must by now have surpassed just His Swaggerings through Fiction."
about every one's expectations. It con- Boston Evening Transcript, 21 July
tinues to be the most popular book in 1936, p. 13.
Americaeven in States that have seen "Cup of Gold." Washington [D.C.]
an effort or two to censor it. News, 25 July 1936, p. 12.

10
THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN
THE PASTURES OF

by

JOHN STEINBECK

NEW YORK, 1932

BREWER, WARREN & PUTNAM
 power of imagination, a miser; T. B.
R[obert] M. Coates. Allen, the garrulous storekeeper; Miss
Morgan, the school-teacher; the shiftless
"Books." Bert Monroe; Tularecito, the daft little
New Yorker, 8 Mexican boy; and all the othersweave
in and out of each other's lives casually,
(22 October 1932), 54-5. ironically or tragically, but always with
an effect as of real life. I think you'd en-
joy it.
The best of the novels I looked into this
week is, oddly enough, hardly a novel at
all, at least in the sense of having a
settled cast of characters and a continuous Margaret Cheney
story about them. This is The Pastures of
Heaven, by John Steinbeck, published by Dawson.
Brewer, Warren &; Putnam, and it has to "In a Peaceful Valley.55
do with the communal life of the inhabit-
ants of a valley in California so charming New York Herald
and so fertile that the Spanish settlers Tribune, 23 October 1932,
called it by the name which now serves as
the title of Mr. Steinbeck's book. "Books55 section, p. 2.
Such a story, dealing with a variety of
characters and the intricacies of their re-
lations, must almost necessarily be epi- The Pastures of HeavenLas Pasturas
sodic in treatment, and the danger is that, del Cielowas the felicitous name given
unless some mood or central theme can to a little California valley which, "by
be found to bind it all together, it may some regal accident," had escaped being
fall in too loose a pattern, becoming ravaged both by Spanish adventurers in
merely a sequence of short stories rather the old days and American adventurers in
than parts of a connected whole. the new. As Mr. Steinbeck pictures it, still
It may, indeed, be said that at times before the "development" which he sug-
Mr. Steinbeck fails to recognize this dan- gests will one day be its fateit holds in
ger, and gives away occasionally to a its gentle grip something almost unique
leaning for a sort of O. Henry twist at in California, indeed in America, today:
the end of some of his episodes which, peace. It offers a very normal, friendly
while surprising the reader, also has the kind of atmosphere in which the accents
effect of leaving him a little up in the air. of disaster and sorrow are not lacking,
And again, perhaps because this is a first but which nevertheless seems dominated
novel, his debt to some of his predeces- by a kind of magic. Whether the spell is
sors in this field of writingSherwood cast by nature's beauty or the author's
Anderson, George Milburn, etc.is some- charming serenity of style the reader will
times a little too plainly evident. probably neither know nor care, but he
But in the main his grasp of the whole will feel it and believe in it.
sweep of the valley, and the people in it The inhabitants of the Valley farmed
and their lives, is comprehensive and the easy-yielding soil, attended school
sure; and his charactersthe penniless board meetings and barbecues, talked
Shark Wicks, who made himself, by sheer about stock prices and cake recipes. The

13
framework was solidly conventional, but cal conclusions landed poor Tularecito in
the picture itself often arrestingly vivid. the asylum for the criminal insane.
Take Shark Wicks, for instance. Shark Thus each of the chapters presents an
had two treasures, his incredibly beauti- individual or group enacting some small
ful and equally stupid daughter Alice and drama against the backdrop of Heaven's
his reputation for shrewdness. The first Pastures. Short stories they are really
he guarded with suspicious vigilance and these tales of the giggling, pious Lopez
the second he enhanced by manipulating sisters who became "bad women" with
imaginary investments in a ledger until the air of two little girls pretending to
the profit column showed six-figure en- "get lost," and the New England patri-
tries. "Shark ain't nobody's fool," the vil- arch who tried to found a dynasty in defi-
lagers would say, and Shark, throwing ance of California's genius for restless-
out a hint now and then about real estate ness, and all the others. Yet there is at
or utility values, let the impression of his least, besides the little intermingling of
riches grow until he came to think of events and names, a binding unity of feel-
them as real himself. Then, in a fatal ing that perhaps justifies the author in
hour, one treasure canceled the other. For calling this a novel. And there is a clarity,
Shark, enraged by a whisper of gossip good humor and delicacy in Mr. Stein-
about Alice, rushed off with a gun and beck's writing that makes the book fine
fell straightway into the hands of the law. reading, regardless of its category.
And when the judge tried to put him un-
der bond to keep the peace the awful
truth was out: he had no money. Then
the fleshly daughter absconded, in effect, M.D.
with the imaginary ducats. Shark, in cha-
grin, left the valley.
"A Rich Stream Marks
Tularecito, also, was cast for a tragic Steinbeck's Tale."
role. Nobody knew where he came from, Chicago Daily Tribune,
this "frog-child" with thick, short arms
and long, dangling legs. He had been
19 November 1932,
found crying in the sage bush one night p. 14.
by a Mexican Indian, who swore that the
baby winked at him and said: "Look! I
have very sharp teeth!" Whatever the John Steinbeck has had a varied career.
truth of this report, the little "frog," far Besides being the author of one other
from being an intellectual prodigy, grew novel, he has been a newspaper man, a
to have the strength of a giant but only ranch hand, a carpenter's helper, a paint-
the brain of a five-year-old child. Under er's apprentice, a chemist, and a laborer.
one circumstance he was vicious: when Finally he spent two years as a caretaker
any one destroyed his handiwork. It must of an estate, during which time he was
have seemed reasonable to him that if the for eight months completely snowed in,
teacher made him draw animals on the with no means of communication with
board then no one should be allowed to the rest of the world. It was in this period
erase them, and that no one should dare that he wrote the novel The Pastures of
fill in the hole he had dug deep into the Heaven, which, he says, is a book purged
earth to find his brothers, the gnomes. of all hate.
But his murderous defense of these logi- Las Pasturas del Cielo is a valley in

14
California in which many families of Spanish corporal to the sheltered valley
widely diverse interests live. Somehow or
"floored with green pasturage, on which
a herd of deer browsed," when he caught
other, sometimes in a significant way and
sight of it from the top of a neighboring
other times simply trivially, they cross
ridge. Unimaginative and violent though
one another's paths, make entrances into
he was, he was so impressed by the
and exits from one another's lives. There
beauty of the place that he planned to re-
is the family of the Munroes, who decide
turn to it in his old age; but this, like so
to take a house that is considered haunt-
many human wishes, was not destined to
ed and that brings bad luck to all its oc-
cupants. The Munroes, however, succeed fulfillment.
in all their enterprises. A hundred years later the valley was
The Wickses have an only daughter settled by a community of some twenty
who is the most perfectly beautiful andfamilies, farmers and fruit growers; it had
a schoolhouse, a postoffice and a general
stupid girl in the valley. The father's two
store. John Steinbeck gives the reader a
passions in life are his protection of his
brief but penetrating glimpse into the life
daughter's purity and the creation of an
of each family and the drama which is
illusion that he is wealthy. Another man
has in his charge a boy whose mind had being enacted under each of the roofs
stopped growing when he wasfive.He has that seem so peaceful from a distance.
a superb talent for drawing and making The Battle farm had been abandoned,
things with his hands. Harmless and good,
and the place had the reputation of being
he is finally confined to an asylum for an
haunted. About it lay that intangibly dis-
quieting atmosphere peculiar to deserted
act that seemed vicious to the authorities.
One family after another enters thehouses. George Battle, its original builder,
had come to California in '63 to escape
story to give up its secrets, its family skel-
the draft; the wife whom he had married
etons, its foibles andfinenesses.Thus a rich
stream of life flows through the book. for her money had the taint of insanity in
her blood. After her removal to an asy-
The novel is well plotted, though, per-
lum George found an outlet for his disap-
haps the conclusion is of a somewhat ob-
pointed life and inarticulate aspirations
vious type. The characters are as vitally real
in the care of his beautifully kept farm
as your next door neighbor, and the style and
and orchard. His son, who with his
presentation of the novel are restrained,
compassionate, as well as compelling. mother's religious fanaticism inherited
her insanity, became a traveling evange-
list; the farm in his time became a place
Anita Moffett. haunted by imaginary devils.
55 Oversensitive, obscurely troubled and
"A Sheltered Valley. disappointed, Bert Monroe, into whose
New York Times Book hands the place eventually came, took
refuge there from an increasing sense of
Review', 82 failure. In some strange way he came to
(20 November 1932), feel that his own ill luck and that of the
15-16. place had neutralized each other; he pros-
pered and regained an outlook of hope.
Junius Maltby, who had come to the
"Las Pasturas del Cielo""The Pastures valley for his health's sake, was unfitted
of Heaven"was the name given by the for farming; his place was allowed to run

15
to waste while he and the hired man, unrelated except by the unity of place
Jakob Stutz, sat on a sycamore limb by and the occasional appearance of one or
the stream in endless philosophical dis- another character in an episode in which
cussion. At 5 his son Robbie took part as he is not primarily featured.
an equal in these talks, his opinions cour- The place: a paradisiacal valley in
teously listened to and considered. Nei- CaliforniaLas Pasturas del Cielo, origi-
ther the boy nor his father thought of nally settled by Spanish military. The
himself as poor until, on Robbie's going characters: farmers, merchants, and well-
to school, well-meaning neighbors at- to-do settlers and their families. The sto-
tempted to make him a charitable present ries possess a fairly wide scope, ranging
of new clothes. over the various field of human emotion
Mr. Steinbeck tells of Molly Morgan, without plowing it too deeplyloneli-
the young school teacher, who dreamed ness; insanity; poverty; well-being. There
of the absent father who had been a ro- is much humor of a tenderly ironic tinge,
mantic childhood memory, but could not the book as a whole makes for excellent
face the disillusioning reality of his return; entertainment and will be extravagantly
of Tularecito, who could draw or carve praised for its apparently objective atti-
every animal that lived, but whose mind tude. Nevertheless, there is an air about it
had ceased growing at 5; and of Richard of the case-bookas though its author
Whiteside, disappointed in the hope of had made a careful selection of variant
the children for whom he had built the human types, jotted down interesting sto-
white house that dominated the valley. ries of people with whom he was more or
Briefly, but with no effect of oversim- less familiar, and dished them up. Many
plification or undue condensation, Mr. of these tales are slick, many are pat and
Steinbeck tells the story of these and run smoothly to foregone conclusions.
other inhabitants of the valley, penetrat- Notable among these are the tales of the
ing in each case to the hidden springs of Banks poultry farm, the Lopez sisters, Pat
action, the secret weakness or unfulfilled Humbert's loneliness, and the frustrated
desire. He writes with deep feeling for the dynastic ambitions of the Whiteside fam-
tragedy implicit in each situation, yet un- ilynarratives which in themselves bear
deceived by the self-delusion or self-dra- the seeds of richly human fiction, but
matization of the persons involved. Racy, which in their present form are somehow
realistically direct and caustically humor- suspect as the fruit of a journalistic talent
ous, his writing is noteworthy for origi- rather than of a creative imagination.
nality of phrase and image and a strongly
poetic feeling.
Cyrilly Abels.
"The New Books." "Keeping Up with the
Saturday Review, 9 Novelists."
(26 November 1932), Bookman, 75
275-6. (December 1932), 877-8.

Though advertised as a novel, Mr. Steinbeck's Mr. Steinbeck postulates "a long valley
book is rather a collection of short stories floored with green pasturage" where

16
"perfect live oaks grew in the meadow of suggesting a belief in fairy-tale people;
the lovely place, and the hills hugged it digging a pit on the Munroe farm in
jealously against the fog and wind" as quest of his brother-gnomes Tularecito
contrast for the gray fortunes of his de- almost murders Bert because he inter-
centralized characters. Those watchful feres. The teacher leaves the valley be-
for new talent may have noticed that in cause a happy memory of her father is
England another young man, Mr. Hilton, threatened when she hears of a drunken
has just written a novel, /// Wind, which farmhand in the neighbourhood who re-
also blows various characters varied dis- sembles the parent whose faults she tries
appointments or misfortunes, although to hide from herself. A mother aggravates
Nature is not apotheosized. What is par- the psychopathic tendencies in her own
ticularly interesting is that both books child, cultivates day-dreams of her dead
share not only the same mooddisillu- husband, and eventually shoots her daughter.
sionment, with faint overtones of a faith Junius, a man of culture, comes to the
not quite talked awaybut the same valley because of his lungs; he stays to
form, short stories loosely linked to- marry and live a lazy contemplative life,
gether. The craftsmanship of the English- despised by his neighbours; he leaves, af-
man is more finished, but Mr. Steinbeck ter his wife's death, when a gift of clothes
seems to give more promiseperhaps be- from the School Board brings home the
cause of his very immaturity. fact that his boy is growing up as a little
A Spanish Corporal, rounding up a animal. A son of a New Englander, like
group of twenty converted Indians who his father before him, pictures his house
had abandoned religion while the Carmelo passing from generation to generation,
Mission of Alto California was being built, but finds himself with a son who cares
discovered Las Pastures del Cielo in 1776. neither for Thucydides, his father's house,
After the World War Bert Munroe brings or the Pastures of Heaven, but for mod-
his family to the valley to rehabilitate his ern commerce in town. And so on.
finances. He acquires a farm which has As we read we are almost persuaded
passed through the hands of an owner to believe in this community by the
eventually committed to an asylum and author's talent for character sketching,
of the Mustrovics, who appeared one while his gentle irony forces forgetfulness
day, worked the farm industriously, and, of the fact that he is picturing pathetic,
two years later, disappeared. Bert's confi- sometimes tragic, lives. His style itself
dence in himself is renewed: he comes to suggesting now Erskine Caldwell, now
feel that he has rid himself and the farm James Stephens, and again Anatole
of their respective curses. Shark Wicks, Francemakes good reading, although
who fanatically guards his beautiful-but- its simplicity is often ostentatious. We
dumb daughter from the supposed snares can put two constructions on his book:
of Bert's young son, carefully spreads the that civilization shows a pathetic gray
rumour that he is wealthy; when he is against the delightful green of Nature, or
found out he deserts the valley for new that even the Garden of the Hesperides
soil with his punctured ego reinflated by brings disillusion. To point a quite differ-
his loyal wife. Nearby, Tularecito, a foundling ent irony, Mr. Steinbeck incorporates on
who resembles a giant-gnome, is over- the last page of his narrative a warning
stimulated by the country school-teacher, he himself needs: an old man look-
who fosters the sub-normal boy's talent ing down into the Pastures of Heaven
for drawing and who sees no harm in "beat his hands helplessly against his

17
hips. 'I've never had time to think any- beck presents an idiot, two moronic sis-
thing out. If I could go down there and ters, several chronic failures, and an un-
live down there for a littlewhy, I'd feeling and essentially stupid son who,
think over all the things that ever hap- coming at the end of a line of distin-
pened to me, and maybe I could make guished men, destroys his father's will to
something out of them, something all in carry on. There is no heartlessness or cru-
one piece, that had a meaning, instead of elty in Mr. Steinbeck's view of them; he
all these trailing ends, these raw and rather forgives them all their trespasses in
dragging tails.' " excellent analytical narratives, written in
a supple prose. His future work should
lead to his recognition as an excellent
psychological analyst. If he could add so-
"The Pastures of cial insight to his present equipment he
Heaven." would be a first-rate novelist.
Booklist, 29
(December 1932), 116. H[arold] B[righouse].
"Rural Depression."
A secluded mountain valley in California,
named by early settlers Pastures of Heaven,
Manchester Guardian,
provides the setting for these short stories 9 June 1933, p. 7.
and links the fortunes of a dozen families
through a common environment. Sensiti-
vity, a very human pity, and humor pre- "One of those whom God has not quite
serve the book from an unwholesome im- finished" is a good phrase, and the way
pression that the themes of horror and of a patient man with a nagging wife is
abnormality might have conveyed in less neatly expressed by "It would be impo-
skilful writing. lite, he considered, to notice her when
she was not being a lady. It would be like
staring at a cripple." Mr. Steinbeck has
the short-story writer's happy tensity, and
"Shorter Notices." in effect his novel is a collection of short
Nation, 135 stories about people in a Californian val-
ley, which he names in irony "The Pas-
(7 December 1932), 574. tures of Heaven." Occasional characters
recur, but the book is a series of episodes,
and the writing is distinguished. Perhaps
Not really a novel, nor yet a book of it needs to be. The suggestion is that the
short stories, this series of connected valley is more of hell than of heaven in
sketches presents a group of out-of- its influence: it gathers failures, idiots,
the-ordinary characters who live in the and simple-minded impracticables, and
California valley called the Pastures of though some gleams of humour are per-
Heaven. It is the first flight of a fine writ- mitted to play upon them the intention is,
ing talent which, while kindlier than that clearly, to "debunk" California. The val-
of Faulkner, is yet related to it in its pre- ley lies near Carmel, and Carmel, we ad-
occupation with the abnormal. Mr. Stein- mit, is provokinga beauty spot as self-

18
conscious as Clovelly and twice as arty.
An American author distressed by Car- "The Pastures of
mel is justified in selecting its neigh-
bourhood for the scene of an attack upon Heaven."
the Californian legend; but to others, to Times Literary
those who must read this book unbiased
by local circumstance, it may seem little
Supplement [London],
better than well-written morbidity. The 15 June 1933, p. 413.
publisher, it is fair to add, is able to quote
high praise from American reviews. We
can agree that Mr. Steinbeck stylishly as- This book comes from America with a
sociates himself with the American novel's considerable advance reputation. The
contemporary mood of pessimism. author's central idea is that Eden is not
a garden but an inner condition, and that
any attempt to recover the Golden Age
merely by creating the appropriate exter-
E. B. C. Jones. nal circumstances is doomed to failure.
"New Novels.5' The Pastures of Heaven is a fertile rock-
bound valley in California and as perfect
New Statesman and a setting for a new Eden as one could
Nation [England], 5 hope to find. But the people who set-
tle there bring with them not only friend-
(10 June 1933), 764-5. ship and love but also the crime, disease,
insanity and injustices of the world with-
out. A queer misshapen outcast with
.. . Unlike Miss McPherson [in Few artistic genius is removed to a lunatic
Things Are Needful], Mr. Steinbeck has asylum because he is different from other
a sense of humour. He has taken a small people. A dreamer, who goes ragged for
beautiful valley in California, after which the sake of his dreams, loses his heaven
his book is called, and has loosely strung when his neighbours force him to become
together stories of its inhabitants. Some industrious and respectable. The dominat-
of the stories are grim, for when the local ing figures are Richard Whiteside and his
supply of epileptics, congenital idiots and son. Their ambition is to be the patriarchs
lunatics runs low, the author imports one and law-givers of the valley, to build for
from San Francisco; he is determined that permanence and found a dynasty; but the
his valley shall belie its name. He has been son lives to see their great house destroyed
much influenced by French authors by fire. The book is well conceived and
Rosa and Maria Lopez, for instance, have pleasantly written; and the characters, al-
an obvious origin in Maupassantand though, with one or two exceptions, they
for this reason, and because of a surface- do not live as individuals, effectively sym-
culture, The Pastures of Heaven recall bolize humanity and abstract human types.
that overrated book The Bridge of San
Luis Rey, although it is not irritatingly
precious. Like Mr. Forester, Mr. Stein-
beck deals straightforwardly with lives
which are active; he is at his best when
least literary. .. .

19
 a "masterly" skill. Again I see no reason
J. E. S. Arrowsmith. to be led by them. "Artistry" and "skill"
are here; but the adjectives are super-
"FictionI." fluous, as well as very hackneyed. It is
London Mercury, 28 a strong, holding book and eminently
readable; the writing is both effective
(July 1933), 268-9. and fluent....

. . . In the short story vein, though not

actually a collection of separate short sto-
ries, is Pastures of Heaven, by John Helen MacAfee.
Steinbeck. Each episode in the book re- "Outstanding Novels."
lates the story of a different family arriv-
ing in the loveliest valley, to settle. The Yale Review, 22
publishers of this volume have put them- (Winter 1933), xxii.
selves to great pains trying to evolve a
theory, or moral, from the stories therein.
And express their anxiety to see if the re-
viewers will decide whether it is the sinis- . .. The Pastures of Heaven is in struc-
ter effects of this deceptive valley upon ture much like a loose-leaf sketchbook.
the souls that enter it that makes them so Without serious damage, the order in
tormented, or if it is merely that in the which various sketches stand could be
most pleasant "pastures" man's troubled changed, which may be equivalent to say-
spirit is always spoiling the going for ing that the author has not quite mas-
him. Personally I see no necessity to take tered his chosen form. There is, however,
either view. This is a sort of Spoon River no question of the excellence of some of
Anthology, and the fact of the valley hav- the individual portraits, the young teacher,
ing been christened "The Pastures of for example, or of the binding unity
Heaven" by the first invader who viewed given to the series by the description of
ita Spanish conquistador who discov- the remote valley in the California moun-
ers a valley in California, so lovely that tains, Las Pasturas del Cielo, as a place
he whispers "Holy Mother! Mother! here of refuge, not so happy as its name, for a
are the Green Pastures of Heaven to community of restless souls....
which our Lord leadeth us"this fact
adds, simply, a touch of irony to the mor-
bid tale that follows of the lives of the
subsequent settlers. This irony is suffi-
cient art; and a very good touch. The sto- Checklist of Additional
ries themselves are boldly told and march Reviews
with a swing. Mr. Steinbeck knows how
to write about and handle the gloomy
substance of his thoughts. The publish- Gerry Fitzgerald. "Carmel Valley
ers, besides what they have already said, Inspires Story." Los Angeles Times,
claim for him "consummate artistry" and 23 October 1932, Part 3, p. 16.

20
TO A GOD UNKNOWN
TO A GOD
UNKNOWN
by
JOHN STEINBECK

NEW YORK
ROBERT O. BALLOU
 sion simply for the miracle of a body that
"To a God Unknown." yields, puts forth, grows and dies; which
is unconcerned with good or evil, solace
Christian Century!, 50 or punishment, error or reason. And of
(20 September 1933), 1179. all the books written out of such passion,
this is the purest expression of it that I
have ever encountered.
Already a comparison between Steinbeck The chief characters are a man, a tree
and D. H. Lawrence has been suggested. and an enormous stone. The man is Joseph
To most readers it will be a misleading Wayne, who set out from his Vermont
comparison, but there is a fierce beauty home to take up land in California with
here which gives it point. To a God Un- his father's blessing ("Maybe I can find
known is the story of a young farmer's you later," the old man had said, mean-
passion for the soila love passing the ing that he would soon be dead and
love of womanand the growing sense hence free to travel also). The tree is the
of his own identification with it. The oak on Joseph's new homestead in the
novelist has dealt imaginatively with the Valley of Nuestra Senora which became
mystery of man's relation to the earth to him the reincarnation of his father's
and the animals, and with those instinc- spirit. And the stone? Symbol of ancient
tive and irrational practices by which pagan religion, repository of earth lore
man has tried to give expression to his and haunt of both good and evil forces,
consciousness of that relation and to in- stern avenger of insult, last green fortress
fluence his earth-bound destiny. The story of the earth against drought, altar for the
might be considered a modern appendix sacrifice of human bloodthese are some
to The Golden Bough. of the roles it plays.
What it actually stood for in Joseph's
life and worship is not easily hobbled by
words. One can only say that he came
Margaret Cheney closer and closer to it in feeling until,
Dawson. when his crops and animals were dead
from the dryness of two years and all his
"Some Autumn Fiction." family gone in search of a less treacherous
New York Herald land, he chose to remain behind, living in
the shadow of the rock, husbanding the
Tribune, 24 September little water that ran from its side to pour
1933, "Books" section, over its still-green moss, finally dying
with cut wrists on its back, offering his
pp. 17, 19. blood to bring back the rain.
All that happened to Joseph between
the time of his coming to the lush Cali-
This strange and mightily obsessed book fornia valley and his final martyrdom for
is for those who are capable of yielding the land was influenced by the tree-spirit
themselves completely to the huge em- of his father and the stone-spirit of the
brace of earth-mysticism. Of all the earth. After he had established himself
brands of mysticism, religious or poetic, there, built a house and started to work,
there is none so vast and awesome as that he sent for his three brothers.
which arises from the earth and is a pas- Thomas was the one who could handle

23
the animals, treating them without senti- whose sole commandment is "increase
ment, but with "a consistency that beasts and multiply." It is a heathen god, mani-
could understand." Burton was meager, fest wherever life is reproductive, disdain-
pious and afraid. Benjy was sweet and ful of sterility. Joseph Wayne meets and is
wayward, lying and getting drunk and moved by false gods but he never yields
winning from bewildered women the gifts to them. His brother Benjy seeks the god
of their pity and virtue. With these men of the pleasures of the senses. Brother
came their wives and children, and later Burton worships the god of his Calvinist
Joseph was to have a wife and child also. ancestors. Brother Thomas identifies him-
Over them presided the oak tree, and self with the pure animalism of creature
Joseph (to Burton's horror) hung offer- feeling. Rama, wife to Thomas, symbol-
ings in its branches and poured wine at izes the mother of all living. The Catholic
its root. The tribe flourished, and Joseph priest worships a god he can respect but
was wild with joy at its increase and at cannot follow. Joseph is even drawn to
the growing size of the herd. Then Bur- the strange mortal who, living on a Cali-
ton decided to leave, go to some small fornia cliff, has figured it out that he is
town and set up a little shop. It would the last man of the Western world to see
suit him better, and he was ill with fear the evening sun go down and who, there-
over Joseph's practices. Before he left he fore, at each sunset, sacrifices some live
girdled the tree, so that it shortly died. thing to the sun god.
After that, the tide of disaster rose around In his wife, Elizabeth, Joseph discov-
them, until the Wayne ranch became only ers a woman who is both of earth and of
a cluster of deserted houses and a huge aspiration. Rama is earth itself; but Eliza-
empty barn. All but Joseph had left, and beth is the spirit of earth. And so when
he lay in communion with his stone. Elizabeth dies in the solitary place by the
It would be futile to urge this book big rock; when the tree which, to Joseph,
upon any one who draws back from embodies the spirit of his father is killed
strong expression of a strong emotion. Its by Burton who disapproves of it as a pa-
lust and furious power will repel some gan symbol; when the lean years come
readers, and others who were charmed and the land and the beasts that feed
by the lucidity of The Pastures of Heaven, upon it become unproductive; when arid-
may be dismayed to find Mr. Steinbeck ity, sterility and death, disease and fam-
on so different a tack. ine come, Joseph is defeated. Taking
a leaf from the eccentric cliff dweller, Joseph
sacrifices a calf to the rain god. Then the
truth comes to him and in the solitary
Virginia Barney. place by the big rock he sacrifices him-
self. And even before consciousness de-
"Symbols of Earth." parts the rain comes and fertility is assured.
New York Times Book The bare narrative, reduced from its
Review, 83 wrappings, is very brief. Joseph Wayne
leaves his revered father in Vermont to
(1 October 1933), 18. seek land of his own in California. The
father dies shortly afterward, but Joseph
communes with him through a tree. His
The unknown god of the hero of Mr. brothers come to California and take up
Steinbeck's second novel is an earth god homesteads adjacent to him. Joseph woos

24
and wins the school teacher Elizabeth,
who bears him a child. Life moves on C.S.
rhythmically at the ranch. A great fiesta
is given. All is well. Then Benjy is killed "To a God Unknown."
in the arms of a jealous Mexican's wife Saturday Review, 10
and a whole chain of disaster follows.
This is a symbolical novel conceived
(28 October 1933), 224.
in mysticism and dedicated to the soil. To
this reviewer it is little more than a curi-
ous hodgepodge of vague moods and ir- A novel such as this one prompts us to
relevant meanings. It cannot be said to be speculate as to how much there is really
successful even of its kind. It treads dan- left in the pantheistic view of the world
gerous ground without a touch of that for writers in twentieth-century America.
sureness and strength which characterize Steinbeck's is not the only novel dedi-
the very few good works of its order in cated "to a god unknown." His is un-
modern times. The elements of realism usual, and curious, because it serves to
and symbolism fail to cohere and it over- evoke, not one god, but a great many
steps all the bounds of convincingness almost every mysterious power, one is
even on the mystic plane. To a God Un- tempted to say, from Pan to the Freudian
known is a novel which attempts too Unconscious.
much; and by any standard it achieves To a God Unknown is a mystical and
too little. symbolical tale. Its characters worship
nature, fear certain stones, offer sacrifices
to trees, talk to the spirits of their fathers,
suffer defeat and death at the hands of
"Shorter Notices.55 mysterious powers, and in general show
Nation, 137 their dependence upon an unseen Will.
The fact that the characters are given
(18 October 1933), 456. American names and a New England an-
cestry (the story is laid in California a
hundred years ago) does not alter its es-
This book reads like a novelized version sential nature. The difficulty is that the
of a Robinson Jeffers poem, and its set- particular gods the author is striving to
ting is what may be known to tourists of evoke are not given names or their im-
the future as the "Robinson Jeffers coun- ages even approximate outlines.
try." It is the story of a Yankee Abraham Joseph Wayne migrated to California
who has emigrated to California and from a New England farm, settled on a
who, in obedience to the voice of his God piece of land in the valley of "Nuestra
which is the earth and the fulness thereof, Sonora," and brought his family to form
sacrifices his wife and ultimately himself a colony. Soon after Joseph's arrival, his
on the altar of fertility. In the bas-relief of father's spiritso Joseph believesenters
a poem, where much is taken for granted, a large tree under which his house is
the characterization of the story might built. Joseph turns to the tree for inspira-
have been adequate, but in a novel, which tion and guidance, talks to it and offers
demands treatment in the round, it is sacrifices to it.
pitifully thin and shadowy and invalidates A stone in a nearby grove he also feels
the most ambitious effects of the book. to have a mysterious power. From it

25
rushes a streamthe last to dry up when
drought strikes and the homestead is de- "To a God Unknown."
serted. On this rock Joseph's wife falls
and is killed, and here he ends his own Forum, 90
life. "I am the land, and I am the rain." (November 1933), viii.
He has always felt himself to be the
source of all life on the farm. And, sure
enough, the rain pelts down just as he . . . If Mr. Steinbeck were not an unusu-
expires, to make the land fertile again. ally powerful and poetic writer this novel
The book is full of worshipworship would seem as grossly implausible as by
of the sun, the land, nature, the sexual rights it should. The story of an earth-
act. And yet, curiously enough, it is al- mystic from Vermont who went a-pio-
most entirely without religious feeling. It neering in old California, it has an uncanny,
does paint a fairly interesting and (appar- half-mad atmosphere which somehow
ently) accurate picture of the region and binds the reader with its spell. Those who
the life of the times. Steinbeck can do the like the book at all will probably like it
genre novel if he tries. We hope he can a lot
find a more stable and definite principle
upon which to build his next novel.

H[arold] B[righouse].
"To a God Unknown." "Pan in California."
New Republic, 77 Manchester Guardian,
(20 December 1933), 178. 27 March 1935, p. 7.

It is a surprise to find Mr. Steinbeck leap- California's lonely valleys and giant red-
ing from the sharp characterization of his woods of all but fabulous age are plausi-
first book to mystic symbols of nature bly a haunt of Pan. Neither that nor the
worship. He writes of his principal char- Indian name is given to the pastoral god
acter with the fervor of a faithful apostle. who darkly moves the people of the
Joseph had no creed, no desire to be re- Wayne ranch, but behind these passion-
membered; above such human emotional ate pages there is the ancient and mysti-
indulgences as pain and sorrow, he lived cal spirit of fecundity. It is two years
like a man who, having Nature for a mis- since Mr. Steinbeck published The Pas-
tress, was willing to go through any tures of Heaven, and there is internal be-
straits to satisfy and please her. Nothing sides the external evidence of deliberation
disturbed his passion except sterility, and, in his second book. We do not deny that
when that came to him in the form of a the Wayne brothers reach elemental big-
drought that ruined his lands, Joseph ness, but Mr. Steinbeck's earnest seeking
stretched himself on the rock which sym- for the terse and telling phrase has some
bolized his worship and cut open his disconcerting results. "The red wine
veins, exchanging his life for the life of sang," "the tyres cried on the rocks," and
the soil. when Elizabeth thought "If only he had
the body of a horse I might love him

26
more" we remembered Gilbert, who al- etry and truth expressible in the novel.
most wrote that the meaning doesn't His chief character, Joseph, loves the
matter if it's only idle chatter of a D. H. land. He feels a deep, mystical kinship
Lawrence kind. This is, however, a novel with it. He worships its increase, he feels
built to a climax. At that climax, dealing it as part of himself and as part of his
with drought, Joseph Wayne sacrifices his patriarchal father whose momentous na-
own blood to the rain god, and we are ture he inherits; he loves with the land
unconscious of absurdity. It is action for and suffers with it. Thus, he performs all
which Mr. Steinbeck's character-drawing kinds of primitive acts. He talks to the
of Joseph has prepared us; it is a poet- tree, calling it "sir," and because he sees
novelist's victory over common sense. in it his Abraham-like father; he does odd
things with bits of calfskin; he visits a
forgotten pagan altar-stone on whichat
the end of the bookhe makes a literal
V. S. Pritchett. blood-sacrifice of himself in order to
break the drought which has skinned the
"Fiction." land clean. The story of Joseph is one of a
Spectator [England], 154 man with a mysterious intuition, who is
gradually absorbed into a cult which
(5 April 1935), 580. Christianity had silenced. It is not an im-
possible theme for a novel, but the
trouble is that we are painfully aware of
. . . Mr. Steinbeck . . . is a good descrip- Mr. Steinbeck, text-book in hand, telling
tive writer. He can describe the California Joseph what to do next. The cult is not
land, its richness and fertility, its torren- truly ancient: it is a revival. And when
tial rains, its scaly droughts with a warm, Joseph marries a schoolmistress and
vivid and simple poetic gravity. He can drives home with her across the moun-
suggest the pagan past immanent in the tains, there ensues a dialogue which is
hidden forests. His Vermont farmers who D. H. Lawrence at his symbolic worst:
go west to open up this splendid land are '". .. and there are times when the
plain men and women well drawn, and people and the hills and the earth, all,
he has the right touch of realistic humour everything except the stars, are ones, and
in dealing with the Mexican hangers-on. the love of them all is strong like a sadness.'
He is so clearly a far better novelist than "'. . . Not the stars, then?'
most, and for this reason, will stand "'. . . No, never the stars. The stars
much more serious criticism, while one are always strangerssometimes evil, but
picks out a few conventional words of always strangers. Smell the sage, Elizabeth.
praise for his more saleable made-to- It's good to be getting home.'"
measure contemporaries. This is one of Joseph has walked out of the Old Tes-
the injustices of reviewing, and if I were tament via Vermont to become a gigan-
a reader I should always put down on tic piece of half-baked mysticism. The
my library list the book on which the hiatus between idea and living man be-
reviewer has spent time, space and spleen comes more and more distressing. The re-
in pulling to pieces. Now for Mr. Steinbeck's sult is poetry gone flat. It is a pity because
crime. Fundamentally, it arises from a Mr. Steinbeck's grasp of the scene is
failure to understand that there is a dif- masterly.
ference between truth expressible in po-

27
 his abilities. There is no harm in borrow-
"Fiction." ing a habit of mind from somebody else,
but the unfortunate thing here is that
Times Literary what is borrowed is not merely unbecom-
Supplement [London], ing to the author but presents an appearance
of marked artistic falsity. The "literary"
11 April 1935, p. 236. conversation of these farming people
about imponderable things is, in fact, like
the invocation of mystery in the descrip-
"To a God Unknown will remind the tion of bulls and trees and hills and
reader inevitably of D. H. Lawrence" rocks, of the kind best described as shy-
so runs the wrapper. The novel is unlikely making. However, there are occasional
to do anything of the kind, though it may passages of straightforward narrative
well depress and perhaps annoy the per- that may be read with interest.
son whose respect for Lawrence's work is
a matter of genuine literary taste. Here
the tale is of a farmer in California at the
beginning of the century who had "New Books."
thoughts about the mating of man and London Mercury, 32
the earth. Joseph Wayne would observe
his animals from time to time, whisper to (June 1935), 196.
trees, bend down and kiss the ground,
and so on. Sometimes he would express
poetic ideas about lust and fertility and Drought in California gives an American
God and creation. When after a time he writer the motive for an earthy novel.
began to think about marriage a young Its hero is an ancestor-worshipper and
schoolmistress named Elizabeth, who had has an over-developed sense of fecundity;
some knowledge of algebra, chose to also, after converse with an old man who
tremble in his presence. Eventually he kills something at every sunset, a belief in
married her, after which she inconsider- blood-sacrifice; when the drought comes
ably slipped on a rock in a forest glade he sends his cattle to distant pastures and
and broke her neck, whereupon Joseph himself remains to barter his blood for
severed the veins in his wrists, hoping rain. Mr. Steinbeck has talent but not the
that his death would somehow put an genius required to make his paganism ac-
end to the drought. ceptable. But his descriptions of the
The author could make better use of drought are impressive.

28
TORTILLA FLAT
TORTILLA FLAT

By John Steinbeck

Illustrated by RUTH GANNETT

Covici Friede PUBLISHERS New York

 I take to be a look of malicious mischief.
Harry Hansen. "It will have to wait," I said. "You
know what life was like last week. Four
"The First Reader.55 volumes of Pareto, and even if I didn't
New York World- read them through I did that other unpar-
donable thing for reviewersI continued
Telegram, 28 May 1935, reading in them after writing my review.
p. 23. Two volumes of the life of William
Bootha grand book, by the way, but
two volumes. Don't you think I should
I was having a perfectly grand time lean- be allowed to review a few thin pam-
ing back in my chair and laughing at the phlets for a change?"
devices of Pablo and Pilon to get wine for So I went back to Tortilla Flat, which
themselves in Tortilla Flat when Miss happens to be the name of the place
Marx said, casually, "You know the Rus- where the backwash of Monterey, Cal.,
sian Revolution, by Chamberlin, is ready lives. Danny, the chief character, is a
Tuesday, don't you?" paisano, a "mixture of Spanish, Indian,
"Listen," I said, "Pablo and Pilon are Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods."
two good-for-nothing wine guzzlers, A paisano has lived in California for a
mixed breeds, in a part of Monterey, hundred or two years. He speaks English
Cal., that you don't care a rap about, but with a paisano accent and Spanish with a
they are drinking to each other's health, paisano accent. We shall have to get Pro-
and John Steinbeck, who writes the fessor Louise Pound to make some talk-
book, says this is what follows: ing machine records of paisano accents.
"Two gallons is a great deal of wine, Since the behavior of Danny and his
even for two paisanosSpiritually the friends is rather low-life, the things they
jugs may be graduated thus:Just below do are not for a conference of clergy-
the shoulder of the first bottle, serious men. Danny served in the war; so did the
and concentrated conversation. Two inches others, and Big Joe Portagee was six
farther down, sweetly sad memory. Three months late getting his discharge because
inches more, thoughts of old and satisfac- he had been sentenced to the hoosegow
tory loves. An inch, thoughts of old and for striking the sergeant with a kerosene
bitter loves. Bottom of the first jug, gen- can and stealing two gallons of cooked
eral and undirected sadness. beans. Theft was a familiar way of get-
"Shoulder of the second jug, black, ting what they wanted; when Pablo and
unholy despondency. Two fingers down, Pilon couldn't lift a few articles they
a song of death or longing. A thumb, ev- adopted deceit, and Tortilla, the Italian,
ery other song each one knows. The and various women were victims of their
graduations stop here, for the trail splits devices.
and there is no certainty. From this point Big Joe Portagee had done entirely too
on anything can happen." much shoveling while in the army to be
I looked at Miss Marx, and she said, interested in Pilon's desire to look for
"You do know that the Russian Revolu- buried treasurehe "abhorred the whole
tion, by William Henry Chamberlin, is principle of shoveling." But Pilon had the
published tomorrow?" naive belief, shared with other residents
"What, again?" I said. of Tortilla Flat, that you are apt to come
"In two volumes," she said, with what upon buried treasure on St. Andrew's

31
Eve. After a night of wandering among ago and became a teletype operator for a
the pines, cautiously avoiding other forms telegraph company near the Washington
that moved in and out among the trees Market. Steinbeck has written some ef-
on the same errandsome of whom fective short stories, and one of them we
might be the shades of the folk who had republished in the "O. Henry Prize Sto-
buried the treasurePilon and Big Joe ries for 1934." It was called "The Mur-
dug up a square block of concrete with der" and had a singularly effective end-
a metal plate on top of it. It was a ing. Tortilla Flat has been illustrated with
marker sunk by the United States Geo- drawings by Ruth Gannett....
detic Survey.
"Maybe we can take this good piece
of metal and sell it," said the Portagee.
"Johnny Pom-pom found one," said Joseph Henry Jackson.
Pilon sadly. "Johnny took the metal piece "A Bookman's
and tried to sell it. It is a year in jail to
dig one of these up and two thousand Notebook."
dollar fine." San Francisco Chronicle,
The characters of Tortilla Flat belong to 28 May 1935, p. 16.
the immortal band of vagabonds who
romp through the books of all nations,
combining a childlike belief with cunning This is a story of California's own
and never profiting very much by their Monterey, but not the kind of story you
knavery. These are twilight stories, that think it is.
never get into good company, that repeat It is no tale of the fading glories of old
anecdotes one has heard told about other Spain, nor yet a tale of pioneer days in
louts in other localities. California; it is a story of today, and of a
In the end the author gets Danny roar- handful of paisanos who have, all in all,
ing drunk and lands him at the bottom of a pretty good time. What is a paisano}
the gulch, with injuries from which he Let Mr. Steinbeck answer that himself:
never recovers, so that Danny becomes a "He is a mixture of Spanish, Indian,
legendary hero of Tortilla Flat, a fellow Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods.
with enormous vinous capacity. He has His ancestors have lived in California for
realized Danny only partially, for the story a hundred or two years. He speaks En-
skips back and forth between Danny and glish with a paisano accent and Spanish
his cronies, and the tragic end of Danny with a paisano accent. He is a paisano^
seems a trifle too casual to be moving. and he lives in that uphill district in the
John Steinbeck, the author, is a native town of Monterey known as Tortilla
of Salinas, Cal., and 32 years old. He lives Flat, although it isn't a flat at all."
at Pacific Grove, between Monterey and These, then, are the people about
Carmel, Cal. After he attended Stanford whom Mr. Steinbeck has written this
University he worked as rancher, painter completely charming little book. Specifi-
and carpenter's helper, then came east and cally, he has written about four of
worked as a day laborer on the Madison themDanny, Pilon, Pablo and Big Joe
Square Garden, then building. This is sim- Portagee, who together form the Athos-
ilar to the career of William Saroyan, who Porthos-Aramis-and-D'Artagnan combi-
worked his way east a number of years nation of Tortilla Flat.

32
 Danny had grown up in Tortilla Flat, memorable occasionwhen Teresina Cor-
but he hadn't been much of a figure in tez and his steps-and-stairs family were in
the little community's life until after he danger of starving. It must never be said
came back from driving mules in Texas that Danny and Pilon and Pablo and Big
for the duration of the war. Joe couldn't remedy so simple a situation
When he returned, he found that he as that. And there was a minor crime
was an heir and an owner of property, no wave in Monterey; but nobody ever dis-
less. The viejothat is, his grandfather covered who was to blame for the sacks
had died and left him two small houses of beans that vanished from the ware-
on Tortilla Flat. Danny bought a gallon house. Nobody ever discovered, either,
of red wine and went to look at the prop- which of the four had fathered Teresina's
erty. It wasn't long before his three new baby. But that was not, after all,
friends had rallied round him. One house important.
Danny took for himself as was his right.
The other he rented to Pablo, Pilon and Such a fine life, with a real house to live
Big Joe. That they paid no rent was a mi- in and wine almost all the time, cannot
nor detail. They were his friends, and go on forever; such things do not happen.
they shared what they had with him, And that was true in this case. The
which was chiefly wine. Even when they four had had their day when Fate took a
burned down the house and moved in hand and removed Danny. That was the
with Danny, it was all right. There was end of it, and it is the end of Mr.
too much responsibility about owning Steinbeck's book. But the day had been a
two houses anyway. good one, and it had lasted long enough
to furnish the materials of this saga, for
After their move, the Tortilla Flat Muske- which the reader may be thankful.
teers grew even closer friends. The trouble with a book like this is
Whatever one did was a matter for all. that you can't describe it. The best you
There was the adventure of The Pirate, can do is to indicate itfaintly, in the
for instance; they were together on that, sketch book manner, at best leaving out
even to the extent of lending The Pirate all the intangibles that really give it its
their best clothes when it came time for quality. I can't reflect the charm, the hu-
him to go to the church and see with his mor, the pathos, the wit and wisdom and
own eyes the golden candlestick that was warm humanity which illuminate every
his vow dedicated by Father Ramon to one of Mr. Steinbeck's pages. If I could, I
the service of San Francisco. There was should be writing just the same kind of
the time, too, that Danny gave the vac- book. But I can at least urge you to read
uum cleaner to Dolores Ramirez as a Tortilla Flat. Don't, please, miss it.
present. Dona Ramirez's house had no Simple as it is, it has in it all the elements
electric wires, but the cleaner was a pres- that go to make the best stories. And un-
ent nevertheless, and a fine one, and it less you are a very dour person indeed
got Danny the lady's favors. But, though you will relish it as you have very few
it was well enough to have Danny fooling books in your experience.
with the ladies, too much was too much.
The remaining three friends got Danny
out of that by their wisdom and shrewd-
ness, and afterward Danny was glad.
They stuck together, also, on another

33
 months before I read the book, while
Lewis Gannett. Ruth Gannett was drawing pictures to
illustrate it. John Steinbeck is a born
"Books and Things." writing man, and Tortilla Flat a book to
New York Herald cherish. . . .
Tribune, 29 May 1935,
p. 17.
William Rose Benet.
"Affectionate Bravos."
Danny of Tortilla Flat behind Monterey
was undoubtedly what settlement work- Saturday Review, 12
ers would call an anti-social character; (1 June 1935), 12.
and so were his friends, Pilon and Pablo,
and Big Joe Portagee and Jesus Maria
Corcoran. But they were among the most This is young Mr. Steinbeck's fourth
lovable men whom I have met for many a novel, but I believe he is prouder of the
day; and in his book about them, Tortilla fact that when he left after helping build
Flat. . ., John Steinbeck has fulfilled that the New Madison Square Garden, Red
promise which some of us so enthusiasti- Mike Flaherty, his foreman, told him he
cally discerned three years ago in his Pas- "had the makin's of a dom fine laborer."
tures of Heaven. . . . He is another of those writers who have
held all sorts of jobs and roamed about.
Tortilla Flat is full of such engaging and And he's been writing since the age of
moral legends. It includes also the stories twelve. Hence it wasn't hard for him to
of the Pirate who, with his five dogs, get to know the real Monterey, Califor-
gathered pitchwood in the forest and hid nia; the Monterey the tourists never
his earnings in the sand; and of a little guess. I've been there myself and seen a
Mexican corporal who, also, for a time, little of it, includingyears agothe late
lived in Danny's house, where the win- Jules Simoneau, who used to be a friend
dows were never washed because, as of Robert Louis Stevenson. But I never
Pilon pointed out, if the windows were got to know the paisanos, whose "ances-
clear the light would be better and then tors have lived in California for a hun-
they would be tempted to stay indoors dred or two years." Their speech either in
instead of going out into the fresh air; English or Spanish, Mr. Steinbeck tells us,
and of that final party for Danny which has a peculiar paisano accent. Tortilla Flat
the entire Flat still remembers with rever- is their stamping ground, and is in the
ence. But I shall not spoil the Danny saga "uphill district above the town of Monterey."
by repeating more of it. There lived Danny, and there gathered
Mr. Steinbeck is an artist; and he tells Danny's Round Table, like the knights of
the stories of these lovable thieves and oldwith a few differences. This tale of
adulterers with a gentle and poetic purity Danny and his paisano friends is full of
of heart and of prose that reminds one of gusto and humor. It is a short novel into
Robert Nathan's lovely One More Spring. which is packed a lot, and incidentally it
I like Tortilla Flat, and I do not think is perfectly illustrated by Ruth Gannett.
that I am prejudiced in its favor merely The innocent guile of these amigos is
because I lived with Danny for two all too touching. They are utterly without

34
morals or scruples and yet they are pious rather a series of episodes than a novel in
and of an almost overwhelming kindli- the strict sense of a novel's being a record
ness of spirit. It takes so little to disperse of the development of character in ad-
their sense of obligation, and how they verse or propitious circumstances.
can dispose of gallons of wine! They are The heroes of Tortilla Flat are all like
a Robin Hood's band without any orga- Pilon and Pablo, who "sat under a pink
nization save that dictated by their sly- rose of Castile in Torrelli's yard, and
ness. They live off the country and each quietly drank wine and let the afternoon
other and never by any chance pay the grow on them as gradually as hair
rent. After three of the friends returned grows." They have a great many adven-
from the Great War it all began by Danny tures of the flesh, but they are as un-
finding himself an heir, actually with two changed as the California sunshine when
whole houses on his hands. Unto himself the last page is ended.
he added his friend, Pilon, and soon The chief character is Danny, who
Pilon and Pablo and Jesus Maria were finds himself the heir of two tumble-
living in Danny's other house. Finally down houses on a hillside in Monterey.
came catastrophe. Then Danny and His "friends" gather about him in the
Pablo and Pilon and Jesus Maria were all same carefree fashion that he and they
living in Danny's own house. And so it gather their sustenance. They take what
goes with wistful abandon, with deli- is needful from whatever source offers it-
ciously demure comment upon these self. They beg or steal food, achieve wine
pleasant scoundrels. with amazing and amusing frequency,
The flavor of this book is something and have a blood brotherliness that is as
new; the setting and the people carry simpleand as complicatedas Robert's
thorough conviction; and the extraordi- Rules of Order.
nary humors of these curiously childlike Their rules of friendship are as stern
natives are presented with a masterly as a senator's rules, but their actions
touch. These silly bravos are always would give even a senator a laugh. Their
about to do something nice for each economics are as simple as the law of
other, their hearts are soft and easily supply and demand: the supply is there,
touched; and yet almost absentmindedly they provide the demand and take what
they live with atrocious disregard for they need.
scruple. To have so presented them and They are all sons of nature, and their
made their story sometimes almost hys- complete lack of accepted morality, their
terically funny is no slight achievement. childlike acceptance of the sunshine and
the joys of wine and women is an emul-
sion of the vinegar of reality and the oil
of romance, a luscious dressing for a fan-
Fanny Butcher. tastic tale. There are parts of it that
"Is This a Best Seller?" sound like Robert Nathan, other parts
that sound like Jim Tully, and it's not like
Chicago Daily Tribune, anything else.
1 June 1935, p. 14.

Tortilla Flat is a novel which . . . may

well find itself on the best seller lists. It is

35
 solved Danny's problem by renting the
Harriet Colby. smaller of the two houses for $15 a
montha sum which existed only in
"The Allies of Tortilla Pilon's mind and had a very fragile exist-
Flat." ence even there.
For a while it looked as if this vulgar
New York Herald business arrangement was going to inter-
Tribune, 2 June 1935, fere with Pilon's friendship for Danny.
"Books55 section, p. 4. Once or twice Pilon earned a dollar or
two cleaning fish, but somehow on his
way to give it to Danny his higher nature
always conquered and he bought wine
"It is good to have friends," said Danny. instead. "It is better so," he thought. "If I
"How lonely it is in the world if there are give him hard money, it does not express
no friends to sit with one and to share how warmly I feel toward my friend. But
one's grappa." Thus Danny sums up the a present, now. And I will tell him the
philosophy acquired during a lifetime of two gallons cost $5." But even so Pilon
doing nothing and doing it thoroughly worried a good deal about the rent, so it
and extensively. was a relief to him to come upon Pablo
Danny and his friends are paisanos of lying in a ditch. He brought Pablo back
the seaside town of Monterey, California. to the house on Tortilla Flat and charged
And paisanos, Mr. Steinbeck explains, him $15 a month rent, and everybody
are a blend of Spanish, Indian, Mexican was happy, because now Pilon could say
and assorted Caucasian bloods. It is per- that he couldn't pay till Pablo paid.
haps this mixture which makes them at And so the curious little brotherhood
once so nebulous and so alive; they are grew, with Danny always its soul and its
beings from another and more benign center. Pablo and Pilon were joined by
world who still maintain the best quali- Jesus Maria Corcoran, that "pathway for
ties of this one. Robust and loving ghosts, the humanities," and when Pilon's house
they wind themselves round you and dis- caught fire and burned down entirely, they
arm you, and the more firmly you are en- moved in with Danny. Then Pilon began
trenched in order and respectability the to worry about the Pirate, because God
more difficult you will find it to resist had not given the Pirate all the brain
them. he should have and because the Pi-
When the viejo died, Danny, returning rate lived all alone in a henhouse with
from Texas where he had been breaking his five dogsEnrique, Pajarito the curly,
mules for America for the duration of the Rudolph the American dog, Fluff the
war, found that he had inherited the two pug, and Senor Alec Thompson, who
small houses on Tortilla Flatan ideal "seemed to be a kind of an Airedale."
community where, without benefit of Pilon had also observed that the Pirate
economic planning, nobody works and was very skillful at getting food from the
everybody has a superb time simply by backdoors of restaurants and that he
being irresponsible. But Danny was earned 25 cents a day selling pitchwood.
somewhat floored by being a land- Since he never spent any money Pilon's
owneruntil one night he met Pilon, active business sense leaped to the con-
coming along the road with a bottle of clusion that [the] Pirate must have a sec-
brandy. Now Pilon was a realist and he ret hoard. And this made Pilon and his

36
friends wan with anxiety, because they How, and with what alarums and excur-
felt that some black-hearted knave might sions, the miracle, if it was a miracle, was
rob the Pirate of his treasure. So the Pi- accomplished, must not be mocked with
rate also came to live at Danny's house words.
where he could be protected, and where a It is perhaps fitting that Danny should
corner of the living room was marked off be the vaguest, the most difficult to de-
with a piece of blue chalk for him and fine, of Mr. Steinbeck's company of loyal
the five dogs. And Big Joe Portagee came waifs. Little John is more memorable
too, and peace and sweetness reigned at than Robin Hood, Lancelot than King
Danny's houseexcept that Big Joe Arthur; a god lives in the devotion of his
caused a good deal of trouble by having followers. Pilon, that moralist, that St.
no more sense at all. Paul among Danny's disciples, runs away
Gradually Danny's house became a with the story. An adept at flushing a
kind of symbol, a stronghold, a last out- whole covey of birds with one stone, he
post of charity and compassion. Together is never so satisfied as when cooking up
the friends drank wine and told stories. extravagantly good motives for some
The amorous irresponsibilities of the outrage, and drawing a profound and
lively Cornelia Ruizto whom only two useless moral lesson into the bargain.
things ever happened: "Love and fight- But to attempt to pin down Danny's
ing"were an endless fount of philo- friends and analyze them is by their very
sophical conversation. Mrs. Torrelli, wife nature impossible. There is no generaliza-
of the bootlegger, could always be be- tion into which they can be made to fit
trayed into parting with a gallon or two without losing the very qualities which
of wine in exchange for a worthless ob- make them beguiling. Lionhearted and
ject; and Mrs. Morales' chickens had the yet mild as milk, devious as quicksilver
fortunate habit of straying into Danny's yet innocent as babes, they defy descrip-
yard through a gap in the hedge which tion. It takes the wondering gentleness,
the kindly Pilon had provided because he the wide-eyed and extremely skillful na-
felt sorry for them scratching all the time ivete, the clear precision of Mr. Stein-
in the bare dirt of their own chicken yard. beck's writingas well as the blend of
But suddenly the friends began to per- tender formality and sudden billingsgate
ceive that something was wrong with which is their languageto give them
Danny. He began to brood and to grow their special life and sharpness. They will
restless; a great lethargy descended upon make you laugh very hardbut as Jesus
him. For awhile he disappeared entirely Maria says, "there is another kind of
and the only inkling his friends had of his laughing. . . when you open your mouth
whereabouts were the ravages he com- to laugh, something like a hand squeezes
mitted and the mischief he got into. Then your heart."
one day he came back, but he wasn't the
same Danny. As a last resort the friends
decided to give a partya real party,
with "music and wine and chicken." It
was a party to end all parties and to this
day it is remembered and talked about in
Tortilla Flat. For Danny it was both an
end and a beginning, for it was on this
night that Danny entered into godhead.

37
 to learn that his grandfather had died
Fred T. Marsh. and left him two houses up in Tortilla
Flat. The news is too much for Danny,
"Life in a California who gets gloriously drunk, smashes a few
Shantytown." windows and winds up in jail. Jail is a
pleasant place to rest in for a few days,
New York Times Book especially since Tito Ralph, the keeper, is
Review, 84 an old friend. But it becomes boring after
a while. So one night when he goes out
(2 June 1935), 5. with Tito to drink wine at the Torrellis he
decides not to return but to go up and
inspect his new property, already becom-
Tortilla Flat is the tumbledown section of ing a burden and a responsibility on his
the town of Monterey in California. Here hitherto carefree soul.
live the paisanos, a mixed race of Span- On the way he runs into his old friend
ish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Cauca- Pilon, Pilon the realist and the contriver.
sian bloods. In Mr. Steinbeck's humorous Taking possession of the first house is
and whimsical tale they appear as a a thrill and Pilon decides that he, too,
gentle race of sun-loving, heavy wine- should become a man of property. After
drinking, anti-social loafers and hood- some dickering he strikes a bargain with
lums who work only when necessity de- Danny to rent the second house for
mands and generally live by a succession fifteen dollars a month. The fact that
of devious stratagems more or less out- Pilon has never had fifteen dollars in cash
side the law. Tortilla Flat is not as sad at one time in his life is forgotten in the
and gentle a story as Mrs. Wiggs of the excitement of the moment. But once
Cabbage Patch. It is not as raucous in its Pilon is established the burden rests on
humor nor as grim in its realism as To- his spirit. So he takes in Pablo, who is to
bacco Road or God's Little Acre. It is not pay him fifteen dollars a month, thus
as whimsical and pathetic as One More passing on the weight of his responsibil-
Spring. It comes closer, perhaps, to the ity and easing his conscience.
novels that deal in a spirit of charm and But Pablo has no money either. And
amused sympathy with the manners and Danny, who is taking an interest in Mrs.
vagaries of Southern Negroes. Morales, the widow lady of substance
Mr. Steinbeck writes with affection next door, begins to hint for some money.
about the group that gradually accumu- So Pablo and Pilon rescue Jesus Maria
lates in Danny's house, the little wooden Corcoran, a good man, from his bed in a
shack set in a weedy yard and half hid- ditch by the roadside and pass the burden
den by straggling pines. "The paisanos," on to him. All three are relieved when the
he says, "are clean of commercialism, little shack burns down. They have done
free of the complicated system of Ameri- their best. Now they can all go to live in
can business, and, having nothing that Danny's house free of responsibility.
can be stolen, exploited or mortgaged, The further adventures of the friends
that system has not attacked them very in their daily search for free food and a
vigorously." dollar or two with which to buy wine
Danny and his friends, most of them, continues through the story, interrupted
did not have even a house in the early by occasional flashes of drama and love
days. But Danny came back from the war making. But the policy of taking new

38
members into their community in the ing about him. The following story about
hope of solving the financial problem is him is the first appearance in print of any
for the most part a mistake. In despera- details of his life. . . .
tion they lure The Pirate, a poor half-wit
of the town, from his chicken house Down out of the hills he came, he said;
where he had lived happily many years he felt as if he had somehow always lived
with his five dogs. They know The Pirate in them. And John Steinbeck looks as if
earns twenty-five cents a day collecting he might have; of giant height, sun-
and selling pitch and never spends any of burned, with fair hair and fair mous-
it, since he begs from the back doors of tache, and eyes the blue of the Pacific on
restaurants enough food for himself and a sunny day, and a deep, quiet, slow
his dogs. But when the innocent Pirate voice. He belongs to this Coast, the
brings out his hoard, over a thousand Monterey bay, the ranges and cliffs of the
quarters, and tells them how he is saving Big Sur country. His father was born and
to buy a candlestick for St. Francis, who lived most of his life in Salinas where he
had spared one of his dogs from death, remained a public officialCounty Trea-
the brotherhood mournfully resign them- surerfor many years. He has just died.
selves to protecting The Pirate's money as His mother taught in the tiny red school
their own. house of the Big Sur 60 years ago.
Mr. Steinbeck tells a number of first- He reminds one of Robinson Jeffers
rate stories in his history of Danny's immediately; his height, his blue eyes, his
house. He has a gift for drollery and for slow talk, his entwinement with the hills
turning Spanish talk and phrases into a and stones, canyons and people of this
gently mocking English. The book is as strange coast. He has never met Jeffers;
consistently amusing, we think, as Febru- he hardly dares to because "his poetry is
ary Hill. But we doubt if life in Tortilla perfect to me, and I don't think one
Flat is as insouciant and pleasant and should get the man mixed up with his
amusing as Mr. Steinbeck has made it work. I have tried hard to get myself out
of my own books, and I think I have just
about succeeded now."
His first books, The Pastures of Heaven
and To a God Unknown, are about
Ella Winter. ranch people and the almost mystic love
"Sketching the Author of of land they nurse; Tortilla Flat, just pub-
lished, is a charmingly roguish story of
Tortilla Flat." the paisanosnative Californians whose
San Francisco Chronicle, ancestry includes native and American
strains who live in the wooden-shacked
2 June 1935, Section D, "slums" above the old sea town and drink
p. 4. and laze and philosophize and do good
and evil joyously as the days pass by. It is
humorous, as his first books are not; but
humour with a wise, light, almost wistful
John Steinbeck, whose charming story, touch. One can't imagine Steinbeck either
Tortilla Flat, was published last week, coarse, or clumsy any more than one can
does not like publicity. He likes it so little imagine him hard, sophisticated or smart
that his publisher knows practically noth- in the modern manner.

39
 Steinbeck was born in Florida and Steinbeck reads little fiction although he
lived there till his seventh or eighth year likes the writers who had leisure to think
and then came West. Two of his sisters are about what they really thought. He likes
much older than John; one was brought Thackeray, for instance, but he doesn't
up with him. He went to Stanford off and like Proust "because Proust was sick, he
on for eight years, but was only happy wrote his sickness and I don't like sick
there when they accepted that he wasn't writing."
anxious for a degree and wanted to study He doesn't seem to think you can ex-
only what interested him. Then they let plain much in words. "Everything is non-
him be. sense," he says. "We are on the verge of a
He has been about a good bit; twice new age, but how can anyone tell what it
to New York, where he worked on a will be till it's here? And so everything
newspaper and got fired because he anyone talks or writes or says is just non-
couldn't report facts, but only the poetry sense." (This is very much Robinson
or philosophy he saw in the facts; where Jeffers' attitude.) Steinbeck loves to read
he helped carry bricks for the building of physics and philosophy and biology,
Madison Square Garden; where he worked however. "The biologists are on the verge
as chemist, painter's apprentice, laborer. of new discoveries that make a new
He has lived at Lake Tahoe, where he world outlook." His blue eyes with their
took care of an estate in the silent, snow- black pin-point pupils look far out,
bound winter. His father, who wanted through you and the walls of the room
him to have all the chances he didn't and the eucalyptus and cypress hedge,
have, gave his son a tiny pittance. way out over Point Lobos and those
For some years now he has done noth- "possessed" hills and the ocean. Much of
ing but write. John lives with his wife in the time you feel he is divining something
a tiny dark brown frame house sur- outside and beyond the mere earthly
rounded by many other brown and white creatures sitting there and talking plain
and yellow frame houses, in a little dirt practical words.
lane in Pacific Grove; the house is mostly He doesn't like publicity and he
hidden by honeysuckle and other creep- doesn't like photographs and he doesn't
ing vines. Steinbeck's tall, black-haired like personal fuss, not as a pose, but be-
and soft-voiced wife, Carol, who is from cause they do you damage; get you in the
San Jose, comes out on the little porch to way of your work; and because they
talk enthusiastically of John's work and seem so unimportant compared to the life
their funny runaway marriage five years in the hills out of which he came.
ago in Los Angeles and her historical re-
search in the SERA [State Emergency Re-
lief Association] in Monterey, and their
boating on the bay. They have just
bought Neil Weston's self-made launch
Edward Weston's sonfor Neil is going
to Japan on an old windjammer. When-
ever they can, the Steinbecks go out in it
and fish and sail. The fish are a valuable
additionor rather subtractionfrom
their budget, for they have been living for
a long while on $25 a month.

40
 protection. There is no effort to make the
Gladys Hoover. reader feel that these people should be re-
formed or the community "cleaned up,"
"In Monterey." physically or morally, but it is merely a
San Jose [Calif.] Mercury- well-written and entertaining narrative
about those who might live in another
Herald, 7 June 1935, world so untouched are they by Ameri-
p. 12. can principles and ideals. The story is
skillfully written.. . .

A novel whose scene could be laid only in

an old Spanish-California town is Tortilla
Flat, an amusing story about the tumble- "Wine: Steinbeck Outlines
down colony of people of mixed races in- the Spiritual Graduations
habiting a certain region on the fringe of
Monterey. of a Jug."
The happy-go-lucky folk who dwell in Newsweek^ 6
this California shanty-town are of mixed
blood, Latin strains with Mexican, Span- (8 June 1935), 40.
ish and Portuguese predominating, with
here and there strains of American Indian
intermingling with the others. Life is "Two gallons is a great deal of wine,
greatly enjoyed by these paisanos as long even for two paisanos. . ..
as they do not have to work for a living, "Spiritually the jugs may be graduated
and with a skill that approaches the mi- thus: Just below the shoulder of the first
raculous they manage to eat, love, and bottle, serious and concentrated conver-
drink with seldom an hour's labor to sation. Two inches farther down, sweetly
their discredit! For when one of the sad memory.. .. Shoulder of the second
colony is seen working the news is jug, black, unholy despondency. Two
quickly spread abroadsomething por- fingers down, a song of death or longing.
tentous in the air, for only dire necessity A thumb, every other song each one
can reduce them to such a plight! knows.
The story centers around Danny, who "The graduations stop here, for the
had aided his country in the World War trail splits and there is no certainty."
by breaking army mules in Texas, and Most of Tortilla Flat takes off where
then returned to Monterey to find to his the wine trail splits. The paisano pro-
amazement that he had inherited two tagonistspart Spanish, part Indian, part
shanties from his grandfather. Such Mexican, part Caucasian hoboes in
wealth was too much to contemplate, but Monterey, Calif.see to that.
aided by his friends he found a way to Each "claims pure Spanish blood and
ease the burden somewhat. rolls up his sleeve to show that the soft
The incredible and frankly-described inside of his arm is nearly white." Each
adventures attributed to these dark- does nothingexcept as it may become
skinned men and women are described necessary to steal food and wine, woo
by Mr. Steinbeck in a highly amusing corpulent country housekeepers, or hunt,
way that relieves a shocked reader at on St. Andrew's Eve, for fabulous buried
times when he needs some sort of mental treasure. This quest results in discovery

41
of a United States Geodetic Survey marker. South Wind. Yet it is an approach some-
But it can't be sold; its removal would what justified by the temperament of the
mean one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. characters who manage to preserve, in
Danny, the chief character, inherits the midst of their various vicissitudes,
two shacks. He occupies one and rents an equanimity comparable to the au-
the other to his buddy, Pilon, for $15. thor's own.
Where can Pilon find $15? He takes in a Economically, these five paisanos liv-
boarder at that figure. Neither has, or ing in a squalid section of Monterey, in
pays, a cent. Their consciences rest more Southern California, may occupy one of
easily after the shack burns down. Then the most desperate positions in the social
comes along Jesus Maria Corcoran with scheme, but in their aristocratic immu-
a genial smile and $3. He, Pilon, and nity to the problems of such a position
the ex-boarder get drunk and move in they deserve to rank with those gay and
with Danny. moneyed bohemians whom we encounter
In this volume, earnest readers will in the novels of Evelyn Waugh. Such ne-
find no new light on race problems, the cessities as rent and food scarcely seem to
younger generation, or class struggle. But trouble them; as long as they can "lift"
those seeking leisurely entertainment will an occasional jug of wine, or enough
enjoy a good tale spiced with wine-song money to pay for one, they are com-
and scandalous chatter. pletely happy. The rent problem is per-
At various times the 32-year-old Cali- manently solved when Danny, the hero,
fornian author has turned his hand to falls heir to two houses, in one of which
chemistry, carpentry, ranching, house paint- he installs his friend Pilon. Pilon agrees to
ing, and newspaper reporting. Once he pay him fifteen dollars a monthan
took the job of overseeing an estate on agreement which neither party takes very
Lake Tahoe, high up in the Sierras. He seriously, since both know that whatever
passed one Winter there, alone and snow- money flows in Pilon's direction is sure to
bound. From that experience, he says, he be spent on wine. After a night of revelry
emerged a "compassionate writer." Pilon's house burns down; and he and the
two friends whom he has invited to join
him go to live in Danny's house, where
the question of rent has not even a nomi-
Helen Neville. nal significance. The question of food is
permanently settled when they annex to
"Aristocrats without their clan a genial half-wit, practiced in
Money." the art of procuring hand-outs from back
kitchens. All these situations are handled
Nation, 140 in the spirit of farcea spirit with which
(19 June 1935), 720. the men themselves would seem to be in
perfect agreement. Only Danny succumbs,
somewhat unconvincingly, to a fit of de-
The subject matter of Tortilla Flatfive spair, but neither this nor his suicide, to
men living by their wits on the thin edge which it ultimately leads, supplies a tragic
of societyis surely grim enough, but note; they are merely occasions for get-
Mr. Steinbeck's approach to it is wholly ting drunk in his honor and singing
in the light-hearted, fantastic tradition; it bawdy songs.
suggests such novels as Vile Bodies and Mr. Steinbeck's attempt to impose a

42
mood of urbane and charming gaiety its current issue, has a most interesting
upon a subject which is perpetually at review of itinteresting because it re-
variance with it is graceful enough, but flects so plainly the weakness of that too,
the odds are against him. The traditional too earnest little periodical's attitude to-
"smart" novelsuch as Tortilla Flat aims ward all fiction.
to begenerally deals with a stratum of The reviewer makes the error of plac-
society with which such a mood is wholly ing Monterey in "Southern California";
consistent; in doing so, it avoids a certain that, of course, is excusable enough in a
confusion. The theme of such a novel as New Yorker who hasn't been out here.
Vile Bodies was, of course, that of utter But that isn't the point I want to make.
futility; but it was the kind of futility What amused me was the evident irrita-
which lent itself inevitably to satire or tion of the reviewer at Mr. Steinbeck's
farce, and each of its situations, no mat- failure to draw a moral from his story.
ter how absurd or impossible it might be, Here are five men, "living by their wits
was entirely convincing, since it never on the thin edge of society," as the re-
seemed to yield implications other than viewer puts it (never mind the fact that
those which the author had found in it. they prefer to live that way, as Mr.
The futility in Tortilla Flat is of quite a Steinbeck makes plain). And here is Mr.
different order; its situations are rife with Steinbeck; totally ignoring the social im-
possibilities which, despite the amount of plications of this sad state of things. Such
indifference to them manifested by Mr. a situation, The Nation's reviewer be-
Steinbeck and his characters, it is not al- lieves, "is surely grim enough." Yet Mr.
ways easy to ignore. Steinbeck thinks it is funny. And he has
been and gone and written a book whose
"situations are rife with possibilities
which, despite the amount of indifference
Joseph Henry Jackson. to them manifested by Mr. Steinbeck, and
"A Bookman's his characters, it is not always easy to
ignore."
Notebook.95
San Francisco Chronicle, Apparently the characters of the story are
just as bad as the author, too. Poor fel-
22 June 1935, p. 8. lows, they also are indifferent. Living "on
the thin edge of society" (by implication
because of our present faulty social and
San Francisco: John Steinbeck's Tortilla economic setup), they just don't seem to
Flat is meeting with an extraordinary fine care. Instead of raising the dickens about
reception here and elsewhere. Something the capitalistic regime or something, they
about his carefree, wine-bibbing, lazy just go on drinking another gallon of
paisanos, comfortable and happy in their wine and having a fine time. And they ut-
ramshackle house in Monterey, has terly refuseas does their creatorto re-
caught the fancy of the public and people alize that they are rife as rife can be with
are going around asking their friends if "possibilities."
they've read Tortilla Flat yet. Which, of It is too bad of them, of course. And
course, is the very best of all kinds of ad- it's too bad of Mr. Steinbeck not to have
vertising for a book or anything else. made his book a tract on the weaknesses
Speaking of that book, The Nation, in of our present social order. Here was his

43
chance and he muffed it. He might have There are, of course, plenty other tests
written a fine sermon, and all he did was by which to determine a novel's worth.
to write a funny story. You will have no trouble finding them.
But the most important is the single ques-
There, in a nutshell, is the precise weak- tion: "Has the author done well the
ness of which I spoke a moment ago. things he set out to do?" If you can an-
Why is it impossible for the reviewer swer that question satisfactorily then you
whose major interest in life is the class have the best yardstick of all for the mea-
struggle (which is his or her own affair, suring of fiction.
naturally) to consider a book, written In Tortilla Flat Mr. Steinbeck has done
around some totally different theme, ex- just what he tried to do, and done it de-
cepting from the class-struggle view- lightfully. Moreover (since Mr. Steinbeck,
point? Why must King Charles' head by all accounts, is a bright enough young
keep popping into the discussion?if man), it is altogether likely that he was
that reference isn't too old-fashioned for quite aware of the "possibilities" in his
the moderns. Why must a review of so subject, but had the good sense to see that
simple an affair as Mr. Steinbeck's Tor- this was the place of all places to ignore
tilla Flat, for instance, exercise itself about them. In which case he deserves, not a
the author's "failure" to do something he patronizing sneer from a reviewer afflicted
never wanted to do in the first place? with the class itch, but the congratula-
Why, in short, bother? tions of readers who also realize that
There is no use laboring the point, of there are times and places for everything.
course. But I have made it here because
this particular review is so good an ex-
ample of a critical viewpoint that has
been widespread in the past few years. Jerre Mangione.
From this view Keats was simply wasting "Under the Round
his time and the reader's when he wrote 55
"On Looking Into Chapman's Homer." Table.
Think of Huckleberry Finn, too; there New Republic, 83
was a book "rife with possibilities," if
you like, what with Huck's "grim situa- (17 July 1935), 285.
tion on the thin edge of society" and all.
How could Mark Twain have let pass
such a chance to drive home a lesson? Not since the days of W. W. Jacobs, mak-
You see the absurdities into which ing his charming characters out of scoun-
such a view leads you. Yet it is precisely drels, has there been a book quite like
the view deliberately chosen by a large this one. Both Jacobs and Steinbeck must
group of critics who would have the ordi- have worked on the assumption that
nary reader believe that no book or play most of us, having a slice or two of
or any work of art at all can be consid- Caspar Milquetoast in our systems or a
ered a work of art unless it (a) concerns streak that calls for out and out anarchy,
itself with the class struggle, and (b) puts are likely to revel in the antics of anyone
forward the particular opinions regarding getting away with what he shouldn't. The
that struggle with which these critics are paisanos of Tortilla Flat get away with a
in sympathy. No; it doesn't make good great deal in their tireless efforts to sup-
sense. But that's the way they'd have it. ply their gullets with red wine. They are a

44
mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and acter, is John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat....
assorted Caucasian bloods. A sunny- It deals with a company of lovable, un-
eyed, unmoral lot, with invisible means moral people belonging to a race of Cali-
of support, their paganism is chiefly ex- fornian cross-breeds and is one of the
pressed in their disreputable ways and most entertaining books I have recently
means of acquiring wine. read....
The incidents that make up the book
are based on this driving force and re-
volve around Danny and friends, who
live in Danny's house, drinking enough William Plomer.
wine to tell their stories, chase their "Fiction."
women, and beat the daylights out of
each other when the spirit moves them. Spectator [England], 155
Despite their free and easy lives these (6 December 1935), 960.
knights from under the round table have
a sense of philanthropy and will steal any
day to help a friend in need. Mr.
Steinbeck knows the humorous side of . . . It is time .. . Heinemann granted a
his paisanos, and if he has emphasized long, long holiday to their gushing blurb-
their eccentricities to the point of bur- writer, whose fond lucubrations are cal-
lesquing them, he can be excused on the culated to put any intelligent reader off
grounds that he rarely fails to be amus- even opening the novels of Mr. Stein-
ing. When he isn't amusing it is either be- beck. . . . Tortilla Flat suggests that the
cause he is trying too hard to eulogize a brutal and laconic tone of so much con-
philosophy of life that is as dust-laden as temporary American fiction may be only
your copy of the Rubaiyat, or because he an inversion of an inordinate sentimen-
lets his nature worship display itself too tality. Writing of a pack of vagabond pai-
much. Mr. Steinbeck's pantheism, much sanos, people of mixed blood inhabiting
more prominent in his other books than a suburb of Monterey, idle, drunken, dis-
in this one, often confuses the effect of honest and promiscuous, Mr. Steinbeck
his otherwise fine narrative manner. lays himself out to make them appear
wholly humorous and lovable. He exploits
with ingenuity and talent the sentimental
appeal of vagabondage, companionship
"Latest Fiction." in drink, simple-mindedness, crime altru-
istically committed, dogs, and funerals.
Saturday Review His brand of humour, surprisingly broad
[England], 160 in one small instance, is mostly that of
(23 November 1935), the comic stripwriggling one's toes to
keep the flies off them, stealing from
501. people who are asleep, hunting for non-
existent treasure, snoring, and so on
and has resulted in a fairy-tale for grown-
. . . A novel of unusual type, but distin- ups. The book may make a wet after-
guished for its delightfully facile style and noon wetter for its readers, as their
the whimsical humour underlying its "droppings of warm tears" alternate with
sharp and clear-cut presentation of char- sly chuckles at the winsome knaveries of

45
these gangsters or groupsters, Danny, incapable of doing an injury to a friend.
Pilon, Pablo, the Pirate, and Big Joe, to If he surreptitiously removes a friend's
say nothing of the ladies.. . . blanket and sells it for wine, that is be-
cause he knows that what the friend re-
ally needs is cheering up, and he gives
himor at any rate proposes to give
"On Monkey Hill." himsome of the wine.
Times Literary The central figure is Danny. On the
death of his grandfather Danny found
Supplement [London], himself possessed of a house in Tortilla
21 December 1935, Flata house with a bed in it. By degrees
there come to lodge with Danny some
p. 877. half-dozen friends, and it is of these
friends and their contributions to the
housekeeping that Mr. Steinbeck dis-
Tortilla Flat is the district in Monterey courses. They are all individualized, and
where the paisano has his being. The if we give "the Pirate" precedence it is for
paisano claims to be pure Spaniard, and the soul-side reserved for his friends. The
but for the numerous other elements in charitable gave him scraps for his five
his blood he would be. He and his kind adored dogs, and on these he lived him-
appear to be in the community of self. But he worked at wood-cutting an
Monterey but not of it. We come to think hour a day. Why? The friends reckoned
of the Flat as Monkey Hill at the Zoo in he must have a buried hoard; and they
its zenith, and of Mr. John Steinbeck as a tried every dodge to find itnot for
broadcaster describing it with genial themselves, of course, but to lay out the
irony and now and then dropping a hint idle money in the Pirate's interest. At last
that care-free poverty is a desirable state. the simple Pirate brought the undiscover-
Peering over the rails, Mr. Steinbeck able hoard to them himself, because,
announces to his public what the deni- knowing that he had been followed, he
zens are at and discloses their affinities thought it would be safer among the
with it. Their appetites are much the friends. That made things difficult; what
same though less complicated, but with made them impossible was that when one
no secret made about them. They help of the dogs was ill the Pirate, who had no
themselves to whatever they can lay use for money himself, had vowed a gold
hands on, including members of the op- candlestick to St. Francis if the dog re-
posite sex, and it is these raids which are covered. And it had recovered. Hence the
the subject of the broadcast. Wine flows hour's work and the hoard. St. Francis
in gallons through the Flat, and it is that got his candlestick.
rather than money which is its currency.
So far we might be having yet another
modern satire. But that is not what we
are given. The meanest of Mr. Steinbeck's
creatures "boasts two soul sides" and the
paisano boasts a moral side with tears in
his cups. He does not, we infer, recognize
obligations to people outside the railings
of Monkey Hill, but he proclaims himself

46
 w m m m
^ ^ ~ ~ ~ Times." New York Times, 28 May
Checklist of Additional 1935, P. 23.
Joseph Henry Jackson. "A Bookman's
Notebook." San Francisco Chronicle,
~~~'^~i~"~^~~^ 1 June 1935, p. 8.
Theodore Smith. "John Steinbeck Scores
Wilbur Needham. "Quietly Uproarious Hit in Creating Tortilla Flat." San
Novel Reveals Humble Lives." Los Francisco News, 28 June 1935, p. 7.
Angeles Times, 19 May 1935, Part 2, Charles Raymond Krank. "They Were
p. 6. Valiants All." Brooklyn Citizen,
John Chamberlain. "Books of the 5 August 1935, p. 16.

47
IN DUBIOUS BATTLE
 IN
DUBIOUS
BATTLE

BY JOHN STEINBECK

New York
COVICI FRIEDE
Publishers
 is really The Strike. Naturally he needs
Joseph Henry Jackson. an individual on whom he may hang his
story; his character, Jim Nolan, serves
"Tortilla Flat Author that purpose.
Produces Proletarian You meet Jim at an important mo-
Novel of Sound Worth.55 ment in his life. He has made up his mind
that the system has kicked him around
San Francisco Chronicle, long enough. His father was killed by a
1 January 1936, riot gun. His mother had died because
she just didn't want to live any more; life
Section D, p. 4. had dealt too harshly with her. Jim him-
self had been a shipping clerk until one
night he had stopped to hear a speaker in
One of the pleasant successes of last The Square. The speech had wound up in
year's fiction crop was a very amusing a riot and Jim, an innocent bystander,
yarn called Tortilla Flat, a story of a had been slugged and dumped into jail.
handful of carefree ragged edgers living He had tried to explain about it after he
in California's Monterey and getting woke up. The police called his boss on
along however they might, provided only the telephone. When they said he had
that they had enough money or could de- been picked up at a "radical meeting" the
velop enough schemes to get hold of a boss said he had never heard of him.
jug of wine sufficiently often. It was a That was the last straw. Jim was through
gay, tenderly written little tale and it with the system. He would join the Party;
found thousands of admirers. People, in- that is, he would if they would have him.
deed, went around telling other people They took him and decided to train him
they simply must read it, which in the for "field work."
end is the way best sellers are made. His first experience in the field, as
Now, in this new novel, John Steinbeck helper to a man trained in up-to-date
has done something totally different; some- Party methods is what makes this story.
thing as startling in its way (at least to For Jim was put to work immediately
those whose acquaintance with the au- with McLeod who knew the game.
thor is limited to Tortilla Flat) as though, Down in the apple country 2000 fruit
say, P. G. Wodehouse should have written tramps had gathered to handle the crop.
Germinal. This In Dubious Battle is just The Grower's Association had waited
as little like its immediate predecessor as until the pickers arrived; then they an-
you could very well imagine. It is a story nounced a pay cut. Their attitude was
of men on the thin edge of society, to be that since most of the pickers had to have
sure, but men who are workers rather some kind of work at any price at all, in
than charming loafers, men who have to order to keep alive, much less move on to
labor but want a fair return for the work the next crop, they would have to take
they do. It is, in fact, a "proletarian nov- the cut. There was nothing they could do
el," and a better one than most that ad- about it.
vertise themselves as such. That was what Mac and Jim were
working to stop. It was a tremendously
Mr. Steinbeck has chosen as his central difficult task. Fired by Party principles,
figure not so much an individual as a they knew what they had to door at
working principle. The hero of his book least Mac did. But they had to do it

51
blindly. They ran the chance, almost a reader the brutalities of the strikers as he
certainty it was, that they would be hated is to show them the brutalities of the so-
as cordially by the pickers as by the called "Citizens' Vigilante Committee,"
growers. A few pickers, maybe, would be made up, as he very shrewdly points out,
for a strike, would be glad to have the of "a bunch of fool shoe clerks and the
man among them who knew how to or- American Legion boys trying to pretend
ganize. But when the shoe began to they aren't middle aged." Certainly Le-
pinch, they would turn tail. They would gionaires may not like that description of
forget principles and tomorrow and hate themselves; but some of them have
the man who had persuaded them to de- earned it, whether it applies to all or not.
mand fair play. Nine out [of] 10 of them He is out to show both sides, and only a
would take any pay they could get, in or- stupidly reactionary reader will be un-
der to get away and move on. It wouldn't willing to admit that the "vigilance" idea
occur to them that if the Grower's Asso- has almost as much blood on its head
ciation succeeded in the pay cut, the and handsas the strike idea.
growers in the next valley or in control of A great many people will not like
the next crop would follow suit. what he is saying here, of course. The
Mac knew that he and Jim were up reader who belongs to the let-'em-eat-
against this situation. But he was able to cake school will consider Mr. Steinbeck's
think about tomorrow, next year, the eminently just presentation nothing less
next 20 years. Not all the time; some- than subversive, wicked and revolution-
times he got mad. But mostly he could ary; I can see such readersthe vigilante
bring his mind back to the principle of boys who went out and broke windows
the thing. That was why he was such a and heads on no more evidence than an
good organizer and why Jim was sent out anonymous letter dropped into the lion's
with him to train. mouthpositively sweating in their haste
And Mr. Steinbeck's novel is the story, to get Steinbeck nominated for inclusion
seen from inside, of how the strike was in Mrs. Dilling's "Red Network."
promoted, how it flared up, almost died, But those readers may as well calm
was stimulated again by the skill and themselves. Because a good many out-
strength of the man called Mac, of the and-out communists aren't going to like
methods the growers used to combat it the book any better than they will. Plenty
the whole story as it has happened again of extreme leftists are going to go into
and again, not only in California but al- nice little rages at Steinbeck's failure to
most anywhere you like to mention. make his book a fine hot argument for
their cause. They are going to feel very
It isn't an argument, this book; at any badly because Jim Nolan's first effort to
rate, it isn't consciously an argument. Mr. serve the Party ends in his death, and be-
Steinbeck sits aloof as far as he can; tells cause the strike he helped foment doesn't
the story from the mountain top looking in the book prove a great success, set the
downthough with a very powerful pair growers back on their heels, and prove
of field glasses, I should say. Just the the match that touches off the blaze of
same, it is the kind of book that should better days for labor. They're not going
do much to make the ordinary, decently to like this, either: Says Dr. Burton to
liberal citizen see two sides of the labor Mac, "You people have an idea that if
question. you can once establish a thing, the job'll
Steinbeck is just as willing to show his be done. Nothing stops, Mac. If you were

52
able to put an idea into effect tomorrow, their own sakes. But in the latter half of
it would start changing right away. Es- the book, Jim Nolan gets beyond me in
tablish a commune and the same gradu- precisely the degree that Mr. Steinbeck
al flux will continue." Especially they makes him get beyond himself. I can't
won't care about this paragraph, in which follow him quite to that exalted level to
Dr. Burton, on-the-fencer, expresses very which the author raises him. I can't feel
much what Mr. Steinbeck himself seems him as all genuine, for instance, when he
to feel: "I just want to see it, Mac. I[t] talks about pulling the bandage off his
might be like this: When group-man wants wounded head in order to stir up the men
to move he makes a standard, 'God wills with the sight of blood. But it may be my
we recapture the Holy Land'; or he says, fault.
'We fight to make the world safe for de- However, there is no question about
mocracy'; or he says, 'We will wipe out the quality of the book as a whole. Mr.
social injustice with communism.' But the Steinbeck, as I've already said, has writ-
group doesn't care about the Holy Land ten a better proletarian novel than most
or democracy or communism. Maybe the of those that claim that distinction. He
group simply wants to move, to fight, has also written a far better novel.
and uses those words simply to reassure
the brains of individual men. I say, it
might be like that, Mac." No; the enthu-
siast battling for a new social order under John Chamberlain.
communism or any other banner, won't "Books of the Times."
care for anything as mild as that. And
he'll be disappointed in Mr. Steinbeck be- New York Times,
cause he doesn't shout and wave his arms 28 January 1936, p. 17.
and emit war cries.

However, the reader who absorbs In Du-

bious Battle intelligently will find out Last year John Steinbeck wrote Tortilla
these things for himself. It remains only Flat, a sunny book about some amoral,
to say that it is a splendidly written, ex- wine-guzzling vagabonds who lived, phi-
cellently conceived and executed novel. landered and roistered without benefit of
Mr. Steinbeck writes, as always, with money or clergy in the more poverty-
strength and beauty. If you find that, af- stricken section of Monterey, California.
ter 200 pages or so of magnificently real- Reviewers promptly compared Mr. Stein-
istic writing (poetically realistic writing, beck with Victoria Lincoln and Robert
if you'll allow the description) he goes a Nathan, and the best-seller lists each
trifle mystical; well, if he sees the thing week have continued to testify to Mr.
that way, then that's the way he sees it. Steinbeck's hold on the capacious Ameri-
His conception, for example, of the mob, can heart. But if readers expect to get a
the crowd, as "not men, but a different succession of warmly whimsical and hu-
kind of animal" is thoroughly sound. His morous stories from Mr. Steinbeck, they
observation, put into Mac's mouth, that are in for a rude surprise. For Mr.
"Guy after guy gets knocked into our Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle is a grim
side by a cop's nightstick" makes such thing, wildly exciting at times, but with
good sense that it's a wonder the men no trace of the sweet gentleness of Tortil-
who line up against labor don't see it, for la Flat. Certainly the publication of In

53
Dubious Battle marks Mr. Steinbeck as in Milton's Paradise Lost, with Satan
the most versatile master of narrative ultimately relinquishing thefieldand retain-
now writing in the United States. ing only his "unconquerable will.. . and
In Dubious Battle is another strike the courage never to submit or yield."
novel. But it is not just another strike Last Spring I read In Dubious Battle
novel. Every one has read about vigilan- in manuscript for Pat Covici. He had had
tes and broken heads and "Reds" in the a Communist read the manuscript, and
fruit-growing districts of California, and the Communist had reported that Mr.
most liberal Americans have bewailed the Steinbeck had the "party line" all wrong.
situation as evidence that fascism can Mac, Mr. Steinbeck's Red organizer, is a
come delivered to us with a sunkist label. cool proposition who works toward one
Mr. Steinbeck's novel is about a strike end alone: that of increasing working
in the California apple country. It is some- class intransigence in the United States.
what disconcerting to me, as an ex-fruit He doesn't like to see individuals hurt,
tramp who once packed oranges in Clare- but he is willing to sacrifice individuals
mont and Lindsay, to be told that Cali- for the end involved, just as a general is
fornia raises apples in a valley that is willing to sacrifice soldiers to capture a
next door to cotton country, but we can salient. To Mac, the working stiffs of the
let that pass. The situation which Mr. Torgas Valley are just so much revolu-
Steinbeck describes would have been es- tionary clay. If he can help things along
sentially the same if he had chosen a by a good deed, such as is depicted in the
more specifically Californian product. It marvelously dramatic scene where he
is the strike and how the fruit-tramps and pretends to be a doctor and successfully
the top dogs of the Torgas Valley respond delivers Lisa, London's daughter, of a
to it, that is the important thing here. child, then Mac will gladly do a good
Most strike novels tell about the deed. But Mac is even willing to lose the
growing political consciousness of the apple strike if the fight will only serve to
workers. They show us typical groups be- prevent the cotton growers from cutting
ing roused by the education of events their wages over in the next valley. He is
to drastic decisions, and many of these willing to let one man be busted over the
books have ended on the note of solidar- head if the blow will only serve to make
ity forever. Mr. Steinbeck's book concen- the onlookers into radicals.
trates more on the problems that face la- Mr. Covici's Communist reader ob-
bor leadership, and it differs from more jected that Mac was Mr. Heart's idea of a
orthodox Left novels in showing us how Red, one who is always fishing in trou-
a strike disintegrates in a spot that has bled waters. And Mr. Covici's Commu-
been previously organized to the hilt by nist reader may be right. For all I know,
the owning class. Two men dominate In Mac may be a complete caricature of a
Dubious Battle. They are Mac, an experi- Red. Maybe a real Communist leader in
enced Communist organizer, and Jim the California fruit country would stress
Nolan, an apprentice. When Nolan, the immediate demands; maybe he would be
disciple, has just had the elements of unwilling to use individuals in the way
leadership ground into him, he is am- Mac used Al, the lunch-wagon propri-
bushed and killed by vigilantes. There is etor, or Al's father, who owned a small
no "Red dawn" on the final page of In apple orchard. (Vigilantes smash Al's wa-
Dubious Battle, for the fight is like the gon and Al's face, and Al's father loses
one which raged on the plains of Heaven his picked crop when vigilantes fire his

54
barn.) But, as a lay reader, all I could have to say the final word on that. But,
report to Mr. Covici was that Mr. Stein- whatever the truth about the "line" in In
beck had written a dramatic and stirring Dubious Battle, it is undeniable that Mr.
book. Steinbeck has written a novel that is as
Call it fantasy if you like. Call it Com- exciting as Tortilla Flat was genuinely
munist propaganda, or call it subtle anti- warming. As a thinker, Mr. Steinbeck
Communist propaganda. The point is may be crazy; as a dramatic artist, he is
that In Dubious Battle is a wildly stirring as brilliant as he is versatile.
story. It is stirring in the way Liam
O'Flaherty's The Informer is stirring, as a
"melodrama of the conscience." Jim
Nolan joins the Communist" party be- R.W.S.
cause "he wants to feel good" again. He "Hard Punching Labor
has seen his father beaten by life; he has
seen the apathy grow on his mother's Trouble.55
face. His sister has disappeared, probably Boston Evening
to wind up as a prostitute. And Jim de-
cides that he doesn't want to be "gnawed Transcript,
to death" by life. He wants to sink him- 29 January 1936,
self into a movement that is larger than
himself. And Mac's movement seems to Section 3, p. 2.
him to offer a way out of his psychologi-
cal impasse.
As the publishers say, John Steinbeck Proletariat novels are, as a general rule,
is only "secondarily an observer of the rather cagily written opuses tactfully de-
class struggle." His interest is in the dra- signed to interest, but not shock, possible
matic confrontations which the Torgas converts in the capitalistic fold and, at
Valley presents. As an acute master of the same time, appropriately hearten the
characterization, Mr. Steinbeck is at "comrades." This technique has culmi-
home in showing how different individu- nated in nauseating extremists on both
als respond to a given situation. Dick, the sides, showing only the very dubious
good-looking Red who collects money profit of throwing the borderline pink
from the "sympathizers"; Al, the little groups into a pretty dither of class-con-
lunch-wagon man; London, the natural sciousness. Since the pinks are not par-
leader of the fruit tramps; Lisa, the young ticularly admired by anybody but them-
mother; Dakin, who loved his shiny selves, a stigma looms over this type of
green Chevrolet truck; Sam, who burns literature.
Hunter's house; Doc Burton, who loves John Steinbeck definitely ends all this
mankind, but who doesn't think the shilly-shallying. In Dubious Battle merits
"class war" will ever be settled; Bolter, many adjectives, but "frightening" would
who wanted to compromise the strike be all inclusive. It will cause the solid
these, and scores more, live vividly in the bourgeois to gulp and roll his eyes. Tea-
pages of In Dubious Battle. cups in pink parlors all over the land will
They may, quite possibly, live vividly quiver in terror. The rampant radicals
in relation to inconceivable polarizers alone will exult for at last a writer has
in the persons of Mac and Jim Nolan. arisen whose ability commands the ser-
Earl Browder and William Z. Forster will vices of reputable publishers, despite an

55
uncompromising "don't give a damn" at- their hurts touch him. He is one of a
titude. Steinbeck is a literary power to growing typethe courageous intellec-
reckon with regardless of his affilia- tual brave enough to sit on the fence and
tionshis writing is breathless, raw, and, ask questions of both sides and quite aware
if not superb, it is at least hypnotic. of the futility of a cause such as Mac's.
In Dubious Battle is laid among the There are a series of brutal clashes be-
transient working class of California as tween the workers and the usual capital-
was Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck's earlier suc- istic weapons of scabs and police. This
cess, but there the comparison ends for looks like failure to Jim, but Mac is quite
the latter was a picaresque whimsy that content. "If they will only call out the
left all class-consciousness to the reader's militia," he prays, "and shoot a few men,"
deduction. then the strike will be a success because
The apple pickers come to the Califor- workers all over the country will hear of
nia orchards in their usual shoe-string it, and be stirred regardless of the out-
style. The owners, knowing their neces- come of this piddling little affair. The
sity, drop their hourly wage rate at the powerful growers finally climax their per-
last minute. Disgruntled and unimagina- secution by burning the innocent farmer's
tively sullen, they prepare to pick in or- barn with his entire crop. All Mac can
der to eat. find to say is "That's tough," but he does
The stage is perfectly set for Mac and relax his disciplinary control just long
Jim, the two party organizers who are, if enough to permit a like retaliation on the
the phrase is possible, the incredibly be- principal grower. He regrets this immedi-
lievable combination of brute and ideal- ately because of the bad publicity. Jim,
ist. They reach the apple-pickers' camp who has played the role of disciple, has
just as Boss London's daughter is going an hour of genius in which he turns the
through the unattended throes of child- tide of the strike towards success when
birth. Seeing this priceless opportunity to Mac's iron nerve weakens. In Dubious Bat-
gain their confidence, Mac takes charge tle ends in an unsatisfactory manner
and delivers the child with a common the strike is not settled, nor does it indi-
sense technique that works out happily. cate a trend, and the lovable Doc Bur-
He is thenceforth called "Doc" by the ton's mysterious disappearance remains
grateful pickers even though he confesses entirely unexplained. The catastrophe of
to Jim that he had worked in abysmal ig- Jim's death is a climax of grimness that
norance of his next move, "but the leaves the reader with a feeling of shock as
chance was too good to miss." Their real as the sight of the horrible accident.
work must be furthered at any cost.
After this auspicious beginning, the
workers are easily organized and the
strike is called. A small farmer, who does William Rose Benet. 5
not belong to the organized growers, is "Apple Pickers' Strike.
persuaded to give them a pasture to camp
in. An authentic doctor, Burton, is im-
Saturday Review, 13
ported by Mac to keep the camp on the (1 February 1936), 10.
legal side of the sanitary regulations. He
is the book's most human character. In
sympathy with no cause in particular, the If anyone anticipates in this novel such
gyrations of mankind fascinate him, and characters as the rogue Mexicans of Tor-

56
tilla Flat, he will not find them. This is a book. The issue is too serious to those in-
proletarian novel, and, as it seems to me, volved. The author's attempt has been to
one that handles its material with accu- bring out heroic motive and action in
racy. Jim Nolan joins the Communist those whom the newspapers denounce as
party and is set to work. "Mac" Mcleod "Reds," and at the same time to state
takes him down into the apple country of events as they would naturally happen as
California to organize the apple-pickers, logically and fairly as possible. This is a
where they are going to work for a dras- book one respects. Mr. Steinbeck writes
tically cut wage. Before long the occasion most graphic prose and conveys the
for a strike is found. How it is got going, thought and speech of ordinary laborers
the work of organizing it, the progress of with great ability. The idealism of Jim
it, and the interaction of the chief charac- Nolan, both noble and tragic, pervades
ters make a vivid and exciting story. I the story. The wavering of the men as a
shall not retail the episodes of that story, group, the tactics of their opponents, par-
as the novel is well worth reading. ticularly the interview between Bolter, the
For one thing the locale is excellently new president of the Fruit Growers' As-
described, the characterization strong, sociation of the valley, and London, the
the communist point of view and meth- boss of the strikers,these developments
ods authentically presented, and the work- carry conviction. The language of the
ers in mass or separately, both in their story is never handled with gloves. But
speech and their actions, are extremely here are no puppets of propaganda. Here
real. The character of the doctor who is are real men of flesh and blood.
called in to see to the sanitation of the
strikers' camp on Anderson's property is
outstanding. Though a sympathizer, he is
not a party member, and his depth of phi- "In Dubious Battle."
losophy is not for men who are fight-
ing for their bare existence as migratory
Literary Digest, 121
workers. (1 February 1936), 28.
The battle between those in authority
and the strikers has plenty of bloody mo-
ments. The book ends with the fight still The author of Tortilla Flat in this vol-
going on. The situation is given in all its ume goes enthusiastically proletarian. His
aspects, and one feels that what did hap- hero is a Communist; his big scene is the
pen is just about what would have hap- outbreak of violence among the striking
pened. Back of this immediate war looms apple-pickers in California. Propaganda
the whole economic struggle of the day, fairly spouts from every chapter, but de-
but what we witness in the foreground is spite the author's fascination with the
a single battle for one definite objective. class struggle, at no time does he permit
In that desperate fight there is cruelty on the theme to render his story dull.
both sides, there is the terrible side of the As an experiment, In Dubious Battle
roused mass-animal. Though this book is is an interesting literary event in its own
on a smaller scale one is somewhat re- right. The author's loyalty to the tradi-
minded of Frank Norris's The Octopus tion of story-telling should assure him a
(not at all in style) by the vigorous real- wider public than the run-of-the-mine
ism of this presentation. labor novel which only too often goes
There is no place for humor in this astray in the mazes of political economy.

57
 With a fine head for yarning, Mr. Here it is:
Steinbeck starts his young Communist off
at organizing. The strike hits the district; VIGILANTES
the strikers set up a camp. The town at "John Steinbeck", the Salinas-Stanford-
first is tolerant. Pacific Grove lad who rang the bell with
Day by day, however, the men become his Tortilla Flat, now publishes a novel of
more determined and it can only be a blood and iron taking one of California's
question of time before an active clash orchard strikes for its theme and agita-
between strikers and the authorities is tors for its chief characters.
bound to come. The manner in which it "Neither conservatives nor radicals
breaks out; how distrust enters camp will be pleased with Steinbeck's In Dubi-
along with failure of the food supply; ous Battle because he stays above the
how even men fighting for a living can be conflict, calls the turn on both sides, and
as mean and base as those in other sta- doubts the finality of the Utopian society
tions, and how London and Mac got the on which radicals are intent. Some of his
bloodshed needed to stiffen the dwind- fruit pickers behave as outrageously as
ling spirit of the men are best left to the their oppressors. But how the boy can
author's telling. write! And he has one of his characters
As a tale of how the other half gets say something about vigilantes that is
alongin the tramps' jungles, following worth repeating:
the harvests, inarticulate, and its mem- "'Why, they're the dirtiest guys in any
bers not always sure in their own minds town. They're the same ones that burned
just what they desireMr. Steinbeck's the houses of old German people during
novel reeks with power. the war. They're the same ones that lynch
Negroes. They like to be cruel. They like
to hurt people, and they always give it a
nice name, patriotism or protecting the
Joseph Henry Jackson. Constitution. The owners use 'em, tell
'em we have to protect the people against
"A Bookman's reds. You see, that lets them burn houses
Notebook." and torture and beat people with no dan-
San Francisco Chronicle, ger. And that's all they want to do, any-
way. They've got no guts; they'll only
1 February 1936, p. 9. shoot from cover, or gang a man when
they're 10 to 1. I guess they're about the
worst scum in the world.'
San FranciscoA last minute notice from "Said by the off-side Steinbeck, who is
the publisher, Covici, Friede & Co., ex- as far from being a red as a vigilante, that
plains that John Steinbeck's new novel, bites!"
In Dubious Battle, is delayed one week. No further comment should be neces-
Publication date is now February 3next sary. Mr. Steinbeck said something that
Monday. ached to be said, the News did its part in
While we're on the matter of Mr. helping to spread it, and it is reprinted
Steinbeck, and particularly his new book, here for the same reason.
I should like to reprint here an editorial
from the San Francisco News, which should
make some conservatives think twice.

58
 jailed for vagrancy, comes to Communist
"Little Reviews." headquarters and joins the party, he does
not know what lies before him. But he
Newsweek, 7 finds out, soon enough, when he and a
(1 February 1936), 44. labor organizer, McLeod, are ordered to
the battle front in California apple or-
chards, where the migratory workers are
Last year John Steinbeck wrote Tortilla enraged over wages being cut.
Flat, a novel of charm and humor. In Writing brutally and frankly, shorn of
Dubious Battle leaves charm far behind the warmth and style he showed in two
and plunges into a bloodthirsty strike. aspects in Tortilla Flat and To a God Un-
Communistfieldworkers, professional known, Steinbeck has created a novel
agitators, engineer a strike among the whose timeliness is only exceeded by the
itinerant apple pickers in the Torgas Val- controversies it will arouse. Jim and Mac
ley of California. A wage-cut has given organize the workers and enter into a life
a real grievance. But even without it, Jim of violence and bloodshed that leads only
and Mac want strikes to spread the class to failure of the strike. Steinbeck remains
war, deepen the workers' sense of soli- on the side lines and watches these men
darity and hasten the revolution. Mr. Stein- as they talk over theories and courses of
beck tells his grim tale with brutal direct- action, as they rise to acts of appalling
ness, sparing no gruesome details. brutality.

Neither radicals nor reactionaries will

like the book, for they will never be sure
Wplbur] N[eedham]. just where Steinbeck stands. And it will
"California's Radicals." arouse a storm of protest because of the
delicacy of the situation he has treated;
Los Angeles Times, because of the indelicacy he often dis-
2 February 1936, Part 3, plays in treating it.
p. 4.
Fred T. Marsh.
Readers who discovered John Steinbeck "In Dubious Battle and
when To a God Unknown and The Pas-
tures of Heaven appeared are due for Other Recent Works of
a shock here; and those who knew him Fiction.55
only when Tortilla Flat came amusingly
forward to give him his deserved and New York Times Booh
long-delayed success, are not going to Review, 85
recognize him, either. The man is unpre-
dictable; he never writes in the same way (2 February 1936), 7.
in any two novels, and he never uses the
same emotional or intellectual points of view.
You may remember Tortilla Flat, Mr.
When Jim Nolan, tired of a life that of- Steinbeck's last novel, which described
fers him nothing and angry at being with genial gusto and gentle irony the

59
picaresque adventures of a small group of of the owners. But the arguments on the
Latin-American vagabonds in a Califor- other side are also given, though not
nia suburban slum. That was a gay, mel- without the caustic commentaries and
ancholy and charming book. It did for the violent reactions of the workers and the
lotus eaters of a bum's paradise what Penrod ideological counter-arguments of their
did for the small boys of the middle-class Communist mentors.
suburbs of pre-war daysdescribed them All the elements of such a strike are
accurately, wittily, ironically, engagingly, here. The concealed discontent and hos-
as they would appear to bustling outsid- tility emerged into the open. The party
ers nostalgic for the simple amoral life. workers succeed in winning over the leaders
You would never know that In Dubious to a program of united and effective ac-
Battle was by the same John Steinbeck if tion. A small fruit-grower, at odds with
the publishers did not tell you so. the powerful interests in the valley, is in-
It seems to me one of the most coura- duced to give the men a camping-ground
geous and desperately honest books that on his place. A doctor is imported to en-
has appeared in a long time. It is also, force sanitation and prevent the authori-
both dramatically and realistically, the ties from using the health laws as an
best labor and strike novel to come out excuse to oust the strikers. Bribes and
of our contemporary economic and social promises are offered. Overtures are made
unrest. It will alienate many of Steinbeck's and rejected. Scabs are imported and the
readers, particularly in California, where strike enters the stage of violence.
Tortilla Flat headed the best-seller lists First blood is drawn by "vigilantes,"
for weeks and where the new story is laid. irresponsibles of the kind which short-
But it is not cut to any orthodox, Com- sighted capitalistsknowing they cannot
munist or other pattern. It is such a novel depend 100 per cent on the law, which,
as Sinclair Lewis at his best might have after all, is dependent on popular support
done had he gone on with his projected foster and encourage, sometimes getting
labor novel instead of turning to the far more than they bargain for. Thousands
easier, although possibly no less valuable of peaceful citizens in the valley, resentful
job of striking a blow against fascism. against the domination of a "big three"
Steinbeck keeps himself out of the owning group, sympathize with the strik-
book. There is no editorializing or direct ers and supply them with food. The law
propaganda. His purpose is to describe wavers and tries to get rid of them peace-
accurately and dramatize powerfully a ably before it turns against them. Violence
small strike of migratory workers, guided results in counter-violence. The strikers
by a veteran Communist organizer, in a are doomed. But to the irreconcilables
California fruit valley. It is true the book they have won a moral victory, a minor
is focused on strike headquarterson the victory on a broad front.
two Communist field workers, the little But his is a story of individuals as well
doctor who gives his services to the strik- as one of mass action and of mental and
ers but remains philosophically and ironi- spiritual attitudes translated into action.
cally but sympathetically detached from Mac, the hard-boiled organizer; Jim, the
the spirit of fervor, and the strikers' natu- new convert, intense and brooding and
ral leaders, some of whom have no use passionate; London, the born leader whom
for "Reds," but decide to strike in per- Mac and Jim succeed in winning over and
sonal and group rebellion against what putting at the head of the little army
seems to them a double-cross on the part these three principals are real men, who,

60
like men in other fields of endeavor, lead radical sympathizer. That fact must be
both public and private lives; are plain stated immediately and baldly in order to
human beings off guard and off duty, but warn the readers of Mr. Steinbeck's previ-
something else again as leaders in a cause ous book, Tortilla Flat, who thought it
or a fight. Just so, the thousand or more merely "another February Hill" and were
men under them integrate and disinte- "charmed" and "amused" by it and looked
grate, now an amorphous tangle of indi- forward to another titillating novel by
viduals and small groups, now an army, the same author. This book has neither
now a fanatic mob moving as one, fused humor, gayety nor gentleness; what it has
into a single will, with double the are such painful emotional qualities as
strength of their numbers, only to dis- hatred and bitterness. And what it deals
solve again into helpless disorder. It is his with are such painful physical entities as
extraordinarily effective and moving han- hunger, torture and death.
dling of these elements which makes From the first page of cold, brief, yet
Steinbeck's book not only a powerful la- strangely tense description of a lower-
bor novel of our times but a profound class rooming house to the last agoniz-
psychological novel of men and leader- ing line of oratory, Mr. Steinbeck's narra-
ship and masses. tive builds and mounts and at last soars.
In Dubious Battle will not change the The dramatic movement has a cumula-
opinions of those already seated firmly tive power, the characters are vividly por-
in the saddle of their various faiths, opin- trayed, and the dialogue is compact, nat-
ions and prejudices. These strikers and ural, and in manner and flavor invariably
their leaders and their arguments and ac- true to type. All of this amounts to saying
tions will, however, win the admiration that Mr. Steinbeck is an artist, which he
and sympathy of many middle-grounders. is. With material as inherently rich in
They will repel many othersjust as do sheer human interest as this, he could not
their prototypes in real life. It's an honest help but produce a book capable of hold-
book, and it is also a swift-moving and ing any but the most antagonistic reader.
exciting story. But this is a story which is interesting
for more reasons than that which arises
out of the experiences of its characters.
To begin with, it announces the enlist-
Bernard Smith. ment of one of the most gifted writers of
our younger generation into the ranks of
"John Steinbeck Comes the proletarian novelists. Mr. Steinbeck is
of Age.55 no raw youngster coming to the radical
movement to learn the elements of his
New York Herald Tribune, craft. He comes as a mature, technically
2 February 1936, proficient writer, with a valid emotion
"Books55 section, p. 6. and a remarkable intuitive understanding
of people.
Another reason is what it indicates
about the development of the author con-
John Steinbeck has written a proletarian sidered purely from the point of view of
novel: he tells here the story of a strike aesthetic achievement. It indicates that he
and of the making of a revolutionary, has found himself, that he has integrated
and he tells it from the standpoint of a his sentiments with his observations and

61
 both with his art, and that there is now excellent students of economics and labor
nothing to prevent him from doing some- tactics, but indifferent writers. Now we
thing very big, perhaps even great. I can are beginning to get proletarian novels by
explain what I mean by referring to the men who are excellent writers, but indif-
faults of his two preceding novels, in one ferent students of political theory. For ex-
case a fault of conception, in the other a ample, there is the central character of
fault of structure. To a God Unknown Mr. Steinbeck's book. He is a labor organ-
(published in 1933) was architecturally izer, member of a revolutionary party; he
sound, but weak and soppy inside. In- is brave and wise and magnetic, and he is
vested with a beautiful feeling about the consumed by a flaming devotion to his
landthe soil and the things that come party and his ideals. But Mr. Steinbeck
of itand expressed sensitively and po- makes that man say things for which he
etically, it petered out finally in a murky could be expelled in disgrace from his
symbolism which suggested that the au- party twenty times over. Specifically, this
thor was uneasy and unsure about his man displays a recklessness and a cold-
feelings concerning the relation of man- blooded manipulation of violence which
kind to the terrible forces of nature. His are romantic fictions of the author's ima-
search within himself led to a mystical gination.
paganism, which helped him not at all. The truth is that Mr. Steinbeck is out-
But his next work, Tortilla Flat, proved side the movement about which he writes.
that he was coming out of the clouds of His natural sympathies with the under-
introspection and landing on his feet. He dog together with the dramatic and he-
was looking at men with his eyes wide roic aspects of the revolutionary's life
open. Unfortunately, it proved also that have aroused him to an artistic under-
he was seeing them in fragments, so to standing of his subject, but they cannot
speak, for the book was not really a nov- give him a factual and intellectual under-
el but a collection of character sketches standing. It is to be hoped that further
and anecdotes. It lacked causality, growth study of the grubbier everyday side of his
and completion. In In Dubious Battle, material will subdue a little his Heming-
however, it is clear that he has discovered wayish adoration of physical conflict.
a unifying idea, a vision, that enables him We need not fear that such study will
to see his characters whole and consis- reduce the passion or impair the sensi-
tently in the light of reality. Here the tiveness of his writing. Mr. Steinbeck is
drama never falters, the development and too much an artist to be sapped by his
conclusion are logical and forceful, and political and social investigations. He can
there is no final surrender to symbolism. absorb the latter and be the better for it;
Only one thing is still lacking: He has he is not likely to become simply a politi-
yet to make his vision so much a part of cian. The reader of this story cannot
himself that his understanding of it is as doubt that. Embodying innumerable com-
near being instinctive as such things can plexities of emotion and thought, yet
be. If that sounds too literary, I can make simple in method, courageously direct
it matter-of-fact by saying that he is not in appeal, and combining lucidity with
yet expert in his knowledge of the issues strength in style, it could only have come
and processes which stir him so deeply. from a man who possesses a completely
This reveals a curious situation. It was disciplined craft, and that means more
not very long ago that proletarian novels than the ability to put the right words to-
were usually written by men who were gether in the right sequence. Focusing the

62
reader's attention upon the broad social although in the present novel they fight a
dramathe welding together of a mob battle whose outcome is dubious, they
of migratory workers in the California taste a promise of victory such as their
apple region, into a communal fighting predecessors have not known. It is a vic-
armyhe is actually giving the reader an tory of integration for them and for their
insight into the minds of rebels: the di- author as well; and the proletarian novel-
verse but significantly related characters ists have been reinforced by one of the
that emerge from the class struggle and ablest young writers in the country.
the motives that make such men elect The foreground heroes of this story
a cruel and dangerous life. The imper- are two young agitators, an old hand and
sonal epic is therethe battles with the a greenhorn, who are controlling a strike
deputies and the vigilantes, the tumult of of fruit-pickers. They are likable and al-
the picket-line, the last desperate stand ways real. Besides the struggle of keeping
against destructionbut with it goes the the strike going against crushing odds,
personal epic. And when it is all done they have fierce internal conflicts between
you realize that the latter has permitted their momentary feelings and their devo-
you to penetrate into the psychological tion to the long view. And through them
sources of types of personality that are and beyond them runs the story of the
too little known in American literature. background heroes, the migratory work-
And you realize, too, that Mr. Steinbeck ers who have been practically dehuman-
has achieved this with a minimum of ef- ized before the start of the story. You
fort, with a phrase here and a line of dia- sense the strike awaking them, restoring
logue there, and that is why you must their humanity: another thousand men
have faith in his future. have been aroused to resistance by the
wholesale sadism of hired bullies, and
even though this strike is lost, with some
of the strikers brutally murdered, you
Harry Thornton Moore. know the others will carry on the fight on
"Though the Field Be other fronts.
Steinbeck creates a marvelously living
Lost.55 world here, very full and vivid. You get
New Republic, 86 the feel of the whole place, the zombie-
men coming to life, then all the tension of
(19 February 1936), 54. resentment and oppositionyou sympa-
thize strongly and want hard to partici-
pate. Many of the surrounding characters
Despite his preoccupation with localized are done in the flatall the strikers and
atmosphere, John Steinbeck has always all the oppositionbut Jim and Mac
written of the common people as one of are very good people and they take you
them, with an intense love of their sim- with them. Their development (that of
plicity and heartiness and what might in Jim especially) is interesting to watch,
the best sense be called their vulgarity. and the cool way they go after things.
His leading characters have been good Steinbeck sees them, he sees all of his
earthy men who have lived life in the full. people, sympathetically; he has a great
But they have gone down in some form tenderness; and he goes whole-hog, pull-
of defeat. Now Steinbeck has identified ing none of his punches.
his characters with the class struggle, and In Dubious Battle cannot be dismissed

63
as a "propaganda" novelit is another being initiated into its methods. Other
version of the eternal human fight against characters join the conversation with oc-
injustice. It is an especially good version, casional observations of their own; of
dramatically intense, beautifully written these, London, the itinerant worker, the
without being too literary for the subject natural leader of men, and Dr. Burton,
matter, and its climaxes have a sweeping the philosophic, disillusioned observer of
power. It is the real thing; it has a vigor men, have the most to say. Almost the
of sheer story-telling that may sweep whole novel is in dialogue form. The dra-
away many prejudices and win it the matic events, the small, separate climaxes
wide audience it deserves. of the strike, take place for the most part
off stage, and are reported to the conver-
sationalists, as in the Greek drama, by a
breathless observer.
Mary McCarthy. It is quite possible that a successful
"Minority Report.55 proletarian novel could be written ac-
cording to this classic scheme; but I sub-
Nation, 142 mit, in this minority report, that Mr.
(11 March 1936), 326-7. Steinbeck was not the man to write it.
If a revolutionary general with a talent
for prosesay Trotskyhad cast his re-
flections upon the technique of class war-
The surface action of John Steinbeck's fare into the form of a novel, though
new book, which has already been ac- they would fall more naturally, as did
claimed as a topnotch proletarian novel, Caesar's, into the form of a memoir, the
moves about a strike in the California results might have been exciting. Caesar
apple-picking country. A group of itiner- and doubtless Trotskyhad something
ant workers, dispirited and disorganized, to say about the curious and wonderful
are bullied, cajoled, and harangued by behavior of embattled human beings; Mr.
two Communist organizers into a sort of Steinbeck, for all his long and frequently
solidarity which enables them to fight a pompous verbal exchanges, offers only
bitter battle for better wages and better a few, rather childish, often reiterated
conditions. The incidents of the strike generalizations.
are, of course, dramatic: murder, kidnap- Mr. Steinbeck may be a natural story-
ping, and arson scar its progress. Never- teller; but he is certainly no philosoT
theless, the novel which Mr. Steinbeck pher, sociologist, or strike-tactician. Mr.
has woven about the events in Torgas Steinbeck, for instance, is interested in
Valley is, in an odd way, academic, crowds. Men in a crowd, he declares over
wooden, inert. Mr. Steinbeck's novel is and over again, behave differently from
no strike drama but a kind of interior men by themselves. How a crowd is
monologue on the part of the author different, why a crowd is different, he
about the technique of strikes in general. cannot say; he is content to assert at
This interior monologue is not presented great length that a crowd likes the sight
brazenly as such; rather, it is couched in of a little blood, that a crowd is certainly
the form of a Socratic dialogue between different, and no more. That the legiti-
the two organizersMac, the elder, sea- mately dramatic incidents to the strike
soned in party work, and Jim, the green should be subordinated to such infantile
recruit to the Communist Party, who is verbalizations is unfortunate. The reader

64
who is not allowed to see the vigilantes to a violent and bloody end. Mr. Steinbeck
burning a barn or the kidnapping of Doc gives us a convincing account of the two
Burton, and who is not given adequate, enthusiasts and of the feeling, half-ro-
intellectual compensation for the loss, mantic, that grows up between them.
has every right to be annoyed. In several
unpretentious scenes Mr. Steinbeck shows
how well he can report the behavior of
men dealing with simple, material things. William Plomer.
His picture of two men eating hamburg- "Fiction."
ers, for example, gives a suggestion of
what this strike novel might have been Spectator [England], 156
like had he confined himself to the facts (8 May 1936), 850.
and restrained himself from ponderous
comment upon them. For the most part,
however, the author and his characters
remind one of those tedious persons who . . . In /w Dubious Battle is another book
in the theater indefatigably chat through about revolutionary strife, in California
the climaxes of the play, and whose vocal this time. Mr. Steinbeck was the author
efforts have nothing to recommend them of Tortilla Flat, an effort in the sentimen-
but their loudness. tal picaresque. His new novel is much
better, and, although it is pretty plain
where his sympathies lie, he cannot be
accused of being too tendentious. After a
Peter Quennell. large number of casual labourers have ar-
"New Novels.55 rived in the apple-growing country to
pick the crop, a cut in their wages is pro-
New Statesman and posed. Two agitators, idealists both,
Nation [England], 11 make this the excuse for fomenting a
strike. Are they successful? Yes and no,
(2 May 1936), 670. but as usual the cause is the thing.

" . . . What though the field be lost?

. . . In Dubious Battle is the story of a All is not lostthe unconquerable
strike. I did not enjoy Mr. Steinbeck's will,
previous novel, Tortilla Flat; but his new And study of revenge, immortal
book is one of the best novels of social hate,
conflict I have yet read. American prole- And courage never to submit or
tarian literature is seldom digestible; but yield:
In Dubious Battle is a well-written and And what is else not to be
unpretentious story, all the more interest- overcome?"
ing because it lacks the usual touch of
violent parti pris. This is an account of The two agitators, Mac and Jim, are too
how two professional Communist agents single-minded, and the relationship be-
go down to foment a strike among the tween them somewhat sentimentalised,
Californian apple-pickers. They succeed; but this is a small defect in what might
but the strike collapses for want of ad- almost be called a story of adventure, ex-
equate financial backing; and Jim comes citing, well put together, full of pleasant

65
American dialogue, and vividly told thetic, characters are members of a "red"
sometimes a little too vividly, as in the organization definitely setting out to en-
stress laid upon the physical signs of gineer and direct a local strike among
emotion, the tears of fury, the chest that Californian apple-pickers has its implica-
shudders, the shoulders that "gradually tions not entirely to be ignored, but its
widen," the necks that "take on a dan- real virtue lies in its clarity, one might al-
gerous gleam," the flushes that "steal up most say its cleanness, of presentation of
the neck and out on the cheeks," so that personality and event. The vigour and di-
these emotional creatures seem to be cha- rectness common to so many American
meleons and contortionists. "Sometimes," novels is here sharpened and refined by a
says a non-red character, "I think you re- definite purpose, but with a minimum of
alists are the most sentimental people in romanticization.
the world." He is not altogether wrong, When Jim Nolan joins "the Party" he
and we are not surprised to hear of a vic- finds comradeship; there are, however, no
tim of the law that "there was a kind other luxuries. He and the more experi-
of ecstasy in him all the time, even when enced Mac are sent to the apple-orchards
they beat him." Mr. Steinbeck is an inven- to see what profit they can make among
tive story-teller, and he knows something the pickers from the announcement of
about mob psychology, whether among a pay-cut. Perhaps they can spread the
strikers or vigilantes, who "like to be strike, perhaps it will remain local; in ei-
cruel. They always give it a nice name ther event it is deemed to have its propa-
patriotism or protecting the constitu- ganda value in disciplining the workers
tionthat lets 'em burn houses and tor- and teaching them their inevitable enemy.
ture and beat people with no danger. . . . " Mac especially is shown in no gentle
colours. He is an expert at turning every
event to his own ends. He will play with
"Strike in California.'5 a woman's life, smash a boy's face, have
a corpse out of its coffin, if any of these
Times Literary things will forward his cause. With all
Supplement [London], this, he is shown as an honest and in
many ways likeable human being, but the
16 May 1936, author clearly does not regard his wis-
pp. 417-18. dom as ultimate. When the strike begins,
to meet ruthless opposition, something
is wakened which even Mac, with all
Mr. Steinbeck's work, we fancy, has not his skill, cannot completely control, the
found particular mention as a contribu- mass- or mob-spirit so much easier to
tion to America's new "proletarian litera- turn to destructive violence than creative
ture," and it is probably better in fact that cooperation.
such labels should be avoidedbetter It is partly his sense of the interplay
that In Dubious Battle should be recog- between individual and mass feeling,
nized simply as one of the best "strike" partly his knowledge of his background,
novels (and there have been some good and partly his sheer literary efficiency
ones) published in recent years, and prob- which give Mr. Steinbeck's book its dis-
lems of specific sympathies and political tinction. It moves quickly and economi-
alignments left wholly out of account. cally throughout, adventure following on
That its two leading, and most sympa- adventure, the talk hard, sinewy, collo-

66
quial. If it is less pretty than exciting, one must measure the driving force, the
so is American life lived on this parti- mind-set, the ruling emphasis, which has
cular level. fixed the direction of Steinbeck's writing
in the past seven years. One way of de-
scribing this force is to call it an interest
in the phenomena of group action. Stein-
Carlos Baker. beck is supremely interested in what hap-
"In Dubious Battle pens to men's minds and hearts when
they function, not as responsible, self-
Revalued." governing individuals, but as members of
New York Times Book a group. What happens to separate iden-
tities when they merge into corporate
Review, 92 identities? In what way does the single
(25 July 1943), 4, 16. organism change its characteristics when
it mutually interacts with other organ-
isms in its environment?
Among Steinbeck's best novels, the least Biologists have a word for this very
known is probably In Dubious Battle, important problem; they call it bionom-
the start-to-finish, play-by-play story of a ics, or ecology. Bionomics comes from
fictional strike among the itinerant apple- two Greek words meaning the manage-
pickers in a fictional valley in California. ment of modes of life. Steinbeck's bio-
In any period the novel would repay a nomic interest is visible in all that he has
serious reader. In a time harassed by war, done, from Tortilla Flat, in the middle
strikes and race riots, In Dubious Battle Thirties, through his semi-biological Sea
takes on the proportions of a parable for of Cortez, to his latest communiques as a
our day. It also furnishes a handle by war correspondent in England. This in-
which one can grasp the larger intentions terest is especially clear in the novel un-
of Steinbeck's work. For these two rea- der consideration.
sons, as well as for its intrinsic merit as a In Dubious Battle is an attempt to
work of art, Steinbeck's strike novel, now study a typical mid-depression strike in
seven years old, is distinctly worth a re- bionomical terms. It is the story of two
view and revaluation. Communist organizers, Mac and Jim,
Steinbeck came of writing age in the who seek to function as the directive,
depression of the Thirties, and, like Of disciplinary force, the brain, for 900
Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, striking men, an extremely complex
In Dubious Battle bears on its face the super-organism in which all those lesser
grooves and scars of a decade of social individualities are merged. As an experi-
agony. The devil (whose names and pre- enced organizer, Mac initiates Jim into
occupations are legion) was much abroad the practical mysteries of the science.
in those years. His carbonaceous foot- The problem resembles that of an
prints are almost as visible between the army colonel who, surrounded by the
lines of In Dubious Battle as they are in foe, must provide tents, food, sanitary
the pages of Milton's Paradise Lost, from facilities and some manner of discipline.
which Steinbeck drew the title, and per- It differs from a military problem in that
haps the basic parable, of his novel. the task is to win the strike, not to as-
Before one can get at this basic par- sault the enemy physically. The organiz-
able and its significance, for our time, ers must perform the particularly difficult

67
feat of keeping strikers' morale at high inely scientific and detached observer
pitch, yet never allowing the enthusiasm (whom Steinbeck introduces as a rough
to overflow into violent action. For vio- equivalent of the chorus in a Greek trag-
lence would adversely prejudice public edy) pronounces judgment on Mac's
opinion and invite reprisal. Upon the methods. "You practical men always lead
working out of these problems the novel practical men with stomachs. And some-
is built; out of these problems its inner thing always gets out of hand. Your men
tensions arise. They are enough to keep get out of hand, they don't follow the
the reader on the edge of his chair. rules of common sense, and you practical
men either deny that it is so, or refuse to
Mac is a practical-minded graduate of think about it."
the school of mob experience. His method Mac protests that the organizers have
is opportunistic: to seize and capitalize a job to do and no time to fool around
on any event which can fuse his 900 indi- with high-falutin' ideas. "Yes," says Bur-
vidual charges into a compact, unani- ton, "and so you start to work not know-
mous entity. He knows, for example, that ing your medium. And your ignorance
men like to work together. When he first trips you up every time."
appears among the apple-pickers he finds Ignorance of what? Well, ignorance of
a young wife in labor and doctorless. If both means and ends. Ignorance of the
he can safely usher in the baby, and con- bionomic mysteries which result when
vince scores of pickers that they have had one has joined nearly a thousand men
a share in the undertaking, he will have into a crowd. Like Mrs. Shelley's Fran-
promoted a single-minded esprit de corps kenstein, Mac has assembled, and is try-
which will be helpful to him when the ing to handle effectively, a monster which
time comes for the strike to begin. He works under a new and different set of
sets up huge cans of boiling water and rules. A force of this sort is perhaps use-
urges the pickers to contribute articles of less unless it is unleashed, and (being un-
clothing to be sterilized for use at the leashed) is too often a force destructive of
child-bearing. the ends for which it was created.
It does not matter that he will be able
to use only a fraction of the shirts, under- Not only is Mac ignorant of the uses of
shirts and handkerchiefs that are contrib- the implement he has forged, he is igno-
uted. "Every man who gave part of rant also of the ends toward which he
his clothes felt that the work was his is moving. This practical man's vision of
own. They all feel responsible for that the future, when justice, fairness and
baby.... To give back the cloth would freedom from want and fear may be real-
cut them out. There's no better way to ized actualities, is constantly befogged
make men part of a movement than to by immediate emotional drives which he
have them give something to it." Thus does not know how to control. He takes
far, in creating the psychological environ- sentimental refuge in the notion that
ment which will best serve his immediate he is working for a long-term cause. Ac-
ends, Mac is a practicing ecologist. tually he may be doing the cause more
Mac's adroit resourcefulness stands harm than good. He can't see the forest
him in good stead until the strike is well because he has stuck his head inside one
started. Then begins a series of events rotten tree. "Mac," says Dr. Burton,
which show that his control is by no "you're the craziest mess of cruelty
means complete. Dr. Burton, the genu- and hausfrau sentimentality, of clear vi-

68
sion and rose-colored glasses, I ever saw." charges is no more absolute than the
Steinbeck's sympathies are with the control of any reasonable mind over any
strikers here, just as surely as they are potentially wayward body. This battle,
with the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath like a struggle in the mind, is of dubi-
or the beleaguered townspeople in The ous outcome. That his emotions override
Moon Is Down or the ne'er-do-wells of his reason is the flaw in Othello's men-
Tortilla Flat. But he does not allow his tality, which leaves the opening through
sympathies to betray him into "hausfrau which Iago can reach a corrupting finger,
sentimentality," for he retains that neces- like Satan in a medieval sermon. This is
sary objectivity which is his inheritance the flaw on which Milton expatiates in
from the naturalistic writers of this and his great epic of the fall of man. And this
the last century. This is part of the is the flaw that brings to tragic issue not
strength of In Dubious Battle. One no- a dubious battle on the plains of heav-
tices with admiration, too, Steinbeck's en, but the equally dubious struggle
ability to shear away the extrinsic, so among the fruitful apple orchards of
that the movements of the novel take on California.
an appearance of tragic inevitability.
Shearing clean to the bone, as he does in
The Moon Is Down, involves a certain
sacrifice of textural richness. He contrives Checklist of Additional
to leave more warmth and flesh in the
strike novel. Reviews
Yet the real strength of In Dubious
Battle lies deeper than texture, and be-
yond the niceties of structure. For the George Currie. "Passed in Review."
book exists on a double level. There is Brooklyn Eagle, 29 January 1936,
the explicit social level, the description of p. 18.
the strike, the probing of a festered Herschel Brickell. "John Steinbeck
wound in the body politic. If this were Swaps Whimsy of Tortilla Flat for a
all, the novel might be mere strike propa- Dramatic Novel of California Fruit
ganda, either pro or con, depending on Strike." New York Post, 30 January
the reader's political position. 1936, p. 19.
But the explicit social level is not the Theodore Smith. "John Steinbeck
only one. At the psychological level the Deserts Role of Gay Troubadour to
novel takes on parabolical significance. Depict Strike Scenes in In Dubious
Where reason and the more violent emo- Battle." San Francisco News,
tions struggle for mastery, the best-laid 8 February 1936, p. 7.
strategical plans are often circumvented Sibyl Hayes. "In Dubious Battle." San
by bionomic unknowns. In psychology Jose [Calif.] Mercury-Herald,
and sociology there are few absolutes. 23 February 1936, p. 12.
Mac and Jim, trying to function as the D.A.N. "In the Margin." Brooklyn
directive brain for the unwieldy body of Eagle, 28 February 1936, Section C,
strikers, are themselves the prey of the p. 17.
very emotions they must stifle among John Chamberlain. "The World in
their men if their plans are to succeed. Books." Current History, 43 (March
Moreover, their control over their 1936), iv.

69
OF MICE AND MEN (THE NOVEL)
 OF MICE
AND MEN
John Steinheck

NEW YORK COVICI FRIEDE PUBLISHERS

Charles A. Wagner. Lewis Gannett.
"Books.55 "Books and Things.55
New York Mirror, 24 New York Herald
February 1937, p. 25. Tribune, 25 February
1937, p. 17.
Of the two selections for March made by
the Book-of-the-Month Club, and just "Guys like us, that work on ranches,"
published, we like best the young Ameri- George told Lennie, "are the loneliest
can Steinbeck's novel, though the veteran guys in the world. They got no family.
Britisher Wells, who shares the selection, They don't belong no place. They make a
has returned to the grand manner. little stake and then they go into town
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men . . . and blow it in, and the first thing you
is just about the closest thing to a little know they're poundin' their tail on some
prose masterpiece in the social stir we other ranch."
have seen in years. "But not us," Lennie interrupted. (This
It is the story of two barley bucker is in John Steinbeck's story Of Mice and
pals who migrate from job to job along Men . . . which the Book-of-the-Month
the grain belt. One is a towering giant Club sends its members this month.) "We
with the strength of ten men but the got a future. Some day gonna have a little
brain of a child. The other hasn't the house and a couple of acres an' a cow an'
heart to get rid of him, for fear he will some pigs, an' live off the fatta the Ian'
come to harm; to which, of course, he an' have rabbits! An' I get to tend the
does. rabbits."
But the cycle of friendship, even in It was a sort of incantation with
tragedy, remains unbroken. And in the which George, a small, quick, bony-
course of his swift-moving tale, Mr. nosed man, soothed Lennie when that
Steinbeck gives us a holiday pageantry of huge, shapeless halfwit grew restless.
portraits in toil, in men's passions and re- They had a dream, and Lennie lived for
pressions, in workers' dreams and devil- it, and George, who loved him, knew it
ments, told with a poet's eye to sounds could never come true.
and silences which makes his book a "Funny how you and him string along
memorable thing indeed, and something together," said Slim, the jerkline skinner,
at last to cheer about. prince of the ranch, who could drive
twenty miles with a single line to the
leaders. "It seems kinda funny, a cuckoo
like him and a smart little guy like you
travelin' together."
"It ain't so funny," George said. "Him
and me was both born in Auburn. When
his Aunt Clara died Lennie just come
along with me out working. Got kinda
used to each other after a little while. He

73
ain't no cuckoo. He's dumb as hell, but hardly ever nice fellas it vanished long
he ain't crazy." ago. It gives a richness to Celtic lives and
"He's a nice fella," said Slim. "Guy to Steinbeck's writing.
don't need no sense to be a nice fella.
Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the
other way around. Take a real smart guy
and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella." James Ross Oliver.
Danny and Big Joe Portagee and Jesus "Book News and Views."
Maria Corcoran, citizens of Tortilla Flat,
didn't have much sense either; nor did Monterey [Calif.]
the farmers of The Pastures of Heaven. Peninsula Herald,
They talked tough, and they had no mor-
als, but you ended the books loving 25 February 1937, p. 5.
them; and you will close this strange,
tragic little idyll with a vast sense of com-
passion for big, dumb Lennie and for Book reviewing can be a joy at times, and
George, who knew Lennie would never it so happens that this is one of them.
get to tend those rabbits, and that if he The cause for the good feeling at the mo-
did stroke their fur with his too strong ment is that we have just finished reading
hands he would kill them. And it is, per- the one book we have encountered in
haps, that compassion, even more than some months which has impressed us
the perfect sense of form, which marks with the extreme artistry of its composi-
off John Steinbeck, artist, so sharply from tion. It happens less frequently than one
all the little verbal photographers who might suppose.
record tough talk and snarl in books As usual, this kind of a book can, and
which have power without pity. The most does stir up all manner of argument, in-
significant things John Steinbeck has to say tellectual and violent. And John Stein-
about his characters are never put into beck's Of Mice and Men . . . will be no
words; they are the overtones of which exception. Of course publishers and au-
the reader is never wholly conscious thors are quite willing to let the storm
and that is art. rage. Sales never suffer from it.
John Steinbeck said once that when he Of Mice and Men is a small book of
was six an auntone of his string of only 186 pages, but it is big in its accom-
fabulous aunts, down in the Big Sur plishment. Again Steinbeck convinces us
country, south of Salinas and Carmel that his is the mission to bring to the
gave him a copy of Malory's Morte reader the lives and minds of the lower
d*Arthur, and that he read it through class. It is that purpose that has brought
again and again. He said, too, that upon him the condemnation of many;
though his name was German his heri- expressed doubts in no uncertain terms
tage was rather Irish. I think that Celtic concerning the immorality of his writ-
background lives in all his sagas of the ing. But considering the characters the
California behind the concrete roads, as author brings us, and considering again
well as in that first Cup of Gold, where his thoroughness in doing this, no con-
Malory shone like a star behind a moun- demnation is just. If one will only glance
tain peak. The Celts have never lost the through Steinbeck's pages, one will see
sense of wonder; nor has Steinbeck, that these things which they decry are not
though to the real smart guys who are the author'srather those of whom he

74
writes. Pressing still further, and as a last Once more John Steinbeck has pre-
plunge to get this thing off our chest, sented us with a simple, realistic portrayal
anyone who knows these people will of simple, earthy men and women. They
agree that he is right in his work. are the hardest characters to delineate.
But enough of that.
Of Mice and Men is what it is because Tortilla Flat made Steinbeck a prominent
of its inherent simplicity. The plot is not writer. In Dubious Battle increased his
great, nor are its characters great, but prestige. Then comes Of Mice and Men,
they are both real and carried through to and his reputation is further made. But
completion. It is a plot upon which the we mustn't forget that he wrote novels
characterizations and story are laid as before these. There are many critics who
effectively as flesh upon bone. feel that one of those is among his best.
Lennie is a huge hulk of a man whose To test that theory for yourself, we would
brain stopped functioning somewhere in suggest that you read his book about a
his early childhood. But he is a kindly hidden valley, Pastures of Heaven.
soul, harmless. But being stupid he makes Of Mice and Men will be released
blunders. George, the small faithful com- through your favorite book store on Sat-
panion, is destined to keep Lennie out urday, the 27th.
of trouble. Yet Lennie and George are
forced to flee from Weed, and through
an agency in San Francisco they get work
on a ranch south of Soledad. George F[anny] B[utcher].
purposely postpones their arrival so that "Books.55
he may coach Lennie to silence. For,
as George says, "Lennie doesn't think Chicago Daily Tribune,
very well, but he can do the work of five 27 February 1937, p. 11.
men."
And though Lennie's future is wholly
made of rabbits to care for, or live mice
to pet, he blunders into trouble again. We The author of Tortilla Flat has written
might say the trouble was waiting for Of Mice and Men so simply, so movingly,
him. Curley, the boss's son, had married so factually that only when its last page is
a young woman of questionable charac- finished does the reader realize what a re-
ter from Salinas. At any rate, she had markable literary feat John Steinbeck has
eyes for all the men. Most of them saw performed.
her for what she was, but that realization The book tells the story of Lennie, a
was beyond Lennie. huge moron who has a passion to touch
Dramatically, skillfully, Steinbeck takes anything soft and goes into a panic if it is
us on to as simple yet magnetic a climax taken from him, and of George, who
as one could wish for. And the accom- watches over Lennie with touching care.
plishment which impressed us the most is George, a little man with a quick mind, is
that the author, in his faultless plot, has the only person in the world (since
pegged, or forewarned us of each devel- Lennie's Aunt Clara's death) who can do
opment: some trifling event, some sym- anything with the giant moron. He can
bol, some twist of character, goes before do everything with him, and does every-
like a perfect prologue. The artistry of it thing for him, including thinking.
is that we do not object to it in the least. When the book opens Lennie and

75
George are about to start on a new job, ten a long short story which should
after having had to flee for their lives please everybody.
from their last one. All they ask of life is It should please everybody because it
to lay aside a little money and buy a farm has every element of good story-telling,
and "live on the fatta the Ian"' where and it must be remembered that most
they can raise rabbits. They think they of our successful novels of recent years,
can. But the reader knows they can't with any substance of art to them, have
knows that fate is piling up something succeeded by violating most of the can-
for them as one after another sinister ons of the storyteller's art in order to
shadow is cast. emphasize ideology, the stream of con-
sciousness, or behaviorism.
Brutality and tenderness mingle in these Of Mice and Men is the story of a
strangely moving pages. Language that defective. His weakness is soft things,
gentle ears would never hear seems as in- strokable things. Upon them his great
evitable as Lennie's clumsy devotion to fingers sooner or later close. He does "a
the puppy which he kills with his petting. bad thing," he kills them. But the prin-
The reader is fascinated by a cer- ciple in Lennie is nevertheless the prin-
tainty of approaching doom. It comes ciple of good. And defective though he
swiftly, inevitably, and the final moments may be, it is his longing for living things
of George's service to Lennie are high that are lovable and to be taken care
tragedy. One false word, and Of Mice oflike rabbitsthat makes articulate
and Men would have been melodrama, the longing of all the rough hands at
and bad melodrama at that. But the au- the ranch for something of their own,
thor never, after the first few pages, land, a house, animals, perhaps a wife
writes that one false word. something different from their wandering
from lousy bunks to gilt saloons, get-
ting nowhere, owning nothing. George,
Lennie's friend, who has got him out of
Henry Seidel Canby. danger before, and Crooks, the nigger
hostler, and Candy, the broken-down
"Casuals of the Road." swamper, and even Slim, who is the just
Saturday Review', 15 and capable man in the story, all feel it.
And slowly the plan develops. "Every-
(27 February 1937), 7. body wants a little bit of land, not much.
Jus' som'thin' that was his."
This is the principle of good, even in
Mr. Steinbeck has given us In Dubious the moron, Lennie. The principle of evil
Battle, a proletarian novel about the is, obscurely, in the conditions of life that
rights of laboring men, which did not keep these men bummers and vagabonds.
please the party workers because there But it focuses in the boss's vicious son
was as much sentiment as ideology in Curley, the ex-prizefighter, and in Curley's
it. He has given us Tortilla Flat, a loose- wife, a poor little prostitute infected by
hung story of California Mexicans as ir- egoism because some one once told her
responsible as children, which did not she could go into the pictures, and held
please the serious-minded because the here among these men by Curley, where
characters found liquorous wastefulness all she can do is to wander about like
so perfectly delightful. Now he has writ- some venereal germ looking salaciously

76
for a victim. And she finds Lennie, trying But George and Lennie HAVE something
not to do a bad thing. to look ahead to. They dream of saving a
The story is as simple as that, but su- stake, of buying a few cheap acres in the
perb in its understatements, its realisms hills, of having their own rooftree, of
which are used, not to illustrate behavior, raising their own fruit and chickens and
but for character and situation. Indeed, pigs and rabbits. Lennie is a simple-
there has been nothing quite so good minded Hercules. George, wiser, watches
of the kind in American writing since over him, snatches Lennie from the disas-
Sherwood Anderson's early stories. It is a ters into which he blunders, keeps his
limited kind, but close to the heart of the dear dream alive.
whole fiction business. If you can create The dream seems ready to come true
a charactera fresh character, belonging when simple Lennie runs afoul of shrewd,
to his soil and shaped by a fresh set of bullying Curley, the boss's son, and Curley's
experiences; and if (choosing sentiment man-chasing, painted, voluptuous, tanta-
rather than the other offgivings of human lizing wife. Then comes tragedy, stark,
natureand sentiment is quite as real as utter, smashing.
its opposite), and if you can make that It IS tragedy, pure classic, profoundly
character make its own story, you are concerned with human weakness and
closer to the job of fiction than most suffering, hurtling from heights of pity to
writers come in our time. depths of agony. And all simple, direct,
I question the extravagant claims for mincing no word, wasting not a single
style in the jacket blurbs of this book. magnificent brush-stroke. Call it the fin-
The excellence of Mr. Steinbeck's book est published work of one of America's
is precisely that it does not make you most gifted writers.
think of style or of "soaring beauty." Its
style is right for its subject matter, and
that subject matter is deeply felt, richly
conceived, and perfectly ordered. That is Ralph Thompson.
praise enough for a book. "Of Mice and Men.99
New York Times,
"Steinbeck Touches the 27 February 1937, p. 15.
Sublime.55
San Francisco Call, The boys have whooped it up for John
27 February 1937, p. 6. Steinbeck's new book, Of Mice and
Men,... so enthusiastically that there
isn't much else left to say in the way of
Through California's fertile valleys trudge praise. It is a grand little book, for all
"the loneliest guys in the world." its ultimate melodrama; and although
They are cattle-ranch hands, drifting this reader can't begin to string along
from job to job. with Harry Hansen, who calls it "the
finest bit of prose fiction of this decade,"
"They got no fam'ly. They don't be- he must admit that it is a long time since
long no place. .. . They ain't got noth- he laid eyes on anything as completely
ing to look ahead to." disarming.

77
 Mr. Steinbeck's story is of two wan- was their introduction to the author, John
dering farmhands, George and Lennie. Steinbeck. He had already done three
George and Lennie are friends, sticking books but the public at large didn't know
to each other in desperation and dream- them. Tortilla Flat was, to all intents and
ing of the day when they won't have to purposes, his bow to his audience.
bum around the country looking for Steinbeck followed that book with a
workof the remote day when they will novel, In Dubious Battle. I have an idea
have enough money to buy some sort of that it hadn't occurred to him that it
place of their own. would make so many different kinds of
This probably sounds like sentimental people so angry. Especially I don't think
truck, and in a way it is. But under Mr. he realized ahead of time that the prole-
Steinbeck's magic touch it is also strong, tarian critics would be quite so irritated
moving and very funny. Lennie is a because he had (in their view) missed his
grown-up baby, physically powerful and chance to point a moral. But the realiza-
mentally weak, with a passion for soft, tion didn't throw him off stride. If that
furry things. George is a tough and irri- was the way people felt, very well, they
table codger, but he bears patiently with felt that way. As for him, his business
Lennie.... was to go on writing what he wanted to
. . . What happens when the two reach write in the best way he knew how to
a ranch where they are to work is the write it. He may or may not have based
story. Read it and see how aptly John that conviction on the knowledge that all
Steinbeck turns a tale. good writing comes at length out of just
such a determination; my own idea is
that he knew instinctively what his job
was. At any rate, that's what he did. He
Joseph Henry Jackson. listened to none of the argufiers, but sim-
ply went on writing his stuff his way. Out
"Steinbeck's Art Finds of that undisturbed pursuit of his own
Powerful Expression in private purpose has come Of Mice and
Men, one of two books chosen by the
Of Mice and Men." Book-of-the-Month Club as its March
San Francisco Chronicle, selection for its members.
28 February 1937, Of Mice and Men, first of all, is not a
"proletarian novel" in the sense in which
Section D, p. 7. the arm-wavers currently use the term.
It does concern working men, yes. Its
setting is the road, the field and the bunk-
About two years ago the public became house. Its central figuresthere are two
conscious for the first time of a young of themare workers who take what
Western writer who had produced a great jobs they can get where they can get
yarnor rather a bookful of loosely con- them, in the fruit, wrestling grain bags,
nected yarnscalled Tortilla Flat That running cultivators, skinning mules. But
book had charm, humor, what the re- the author's first preoccupation is not
viewers used to call "local color," and a with these men as symbols or even as
pleasant delicacy of style which did not units in the mass of beaten-down labor.
hide the robustness beneath it. It was As always, Steinbeck is interested in his
widely read, too, and for most readers it characters as men, as human beings who

78
think and do and desire the many and screamed and they had to hide in a ditch
various things that men have always all night. Sometimes George wished he
thought and done and longed for. Indeed could put Lennie in a cage with about
it is the very commonplace desire of a million mice and leave him there. But
George and Lennie for their own little he couldn't. And he couldn't stay angry
heaven-on-earth that gives Steinbeck his at Lennie. He had to take care of him
story. These two, like other men, had anyway; somebody had to, that was sure.
plans. And how their plans went astray. And besides, he and Lennie shared a
(All right, "agley" if you insist. There dream.
will be a fine, grand misquoting of Burns That dream was a little ranch some-
before all the reviewers are done with where. Lennie liked to hear George tell
this book.) How their plans, in fact, about it, over and over again"a big
could never have come to fruition any- vegetable patch and chickens and a rab-
how is Steinbeck's theme. It is a simple bit hutch [rabbits were soft and smooth
story, one that combines a curious and Lennie loved them]. And when it
dream-like quality with the swift stream- rains in the winter we'll just say the hell
lining of a good play. It is a story that with goin' to work, and we'll build up a
will sweep you irresistibly with it, too. fire in the stove and set around it an' lis-
Even though you may shudder more than ten to the rain on the roof...." There
once you will not put it down. was nothing strange about their dream as
You meet George and Lennie as they you see. Men everywhere have had it. But
have made their way to a camping so far George and Lennie had never been
spot by a stream near the ranch where able to fulfill it.
they have a job promised them for the As the story opens, however, they are
next day. still dreaming it. And when they come to
George, small and shrewd, is the brains the ranch and go to work there develops
of the pair in much more than the usual out of nowhere, by sheer luck, a chance
sense. For Lennie, huge and strong and that their dream may be realized. An-
willing, hasn't good sense. He can't re- other man has had that dream too, and
member things. He will do anything George he has the one thing George and Lennie
tells him but by himself he is lost. Some- have never been able to scrape together
times George grows furious with Lennie a stake. A little more money, no more
for his stupidity, long as he has known than George and Lennie can earn and
him. Lennie repeats things he shouldn't save in a month or two, and they can buy
because though he remembers what he the place they want. They even know the
has heard now and then he can never re- one, and how much it will take.
member that he shouldn't blurt them out. How that dream, so near fulfillment,
Sometimes, too, Lennie gets into trouble. was snatched away is the story Of Mice
He never means to do anything bad, but and Men. You know what's coming; you
he can't resist anything that feels soft to can't help knowing. Steinbeck has done
his enormous but sensitive fingers. When such a masterly job of story-telling that
he pets a mouse he pets it hard and kills you feel the horror that is ahead even be-
it. Up in the north George and Lennie fore it begins to grow. You see the fate
had to clear out in a hurry because that is going to overtake these men and
Lennie couldn't help himselfhe had to their dream. You realize what's going to
feel the soft silk of a little girl's dress. happen, what can't help happening.
Lennie had meant no more but the girl Butwell, let me see you stop reading,

79
that's all. And in spite of the grimness of
the tale, let me hear you deny, after you Fred X Marsh.
have finished it, that Steinbeck has writ-
ten it beautifully as well as powerfully. "John Steinbeck's Tale of
There is no question, of course, that Drifting Men.55
there will be the usual chorus of recrimi-
nations. Here (so it will go) Steinbeck New York Times Book
had the materials for a fine propaganda Review, 86
novel, a tale of the class struggle that
might show how the working man is ex-
(28 February 1937), 7.
ploited, etc., etc., etc., and he didn't
make use of his chance to strike a blow
for freedom. He didn't Unite with the John Steinbeck is no mere virtuoso in the
Front. He didn't do this and he didn't do art of story-telling; but he is one. Wheth-
that. He might have done such-and-such er he writes about the amiable outcasts
and he should have done it thus-and-so. of Tortilla Flat or about the grim strikers
They've said it about Steinbeck before of In Dubious Battle, he tells a story. Of
and they'll say it all again. And they'll Mice and Men is a thriller, a gripping tale
make it sound plausible, too. running to novelette length that you will
But I'm pretty sure that he won't care. not set down until it isfinished.It is more
I hope he won't. I hope he will go right than that; but it is that.
on, sharpening his talent as he is doing, George and Lennie belong to the
changing his subjects, his interests when- floating army of drifting ranch hands.
ever he feels like it, writing about what- "Guys like us," George says, "are the
ever is close to his heart at the moment loneliest guys in the world. They got no
he writes, doing books that are sensitive, family. They don't belong no place. They
beautifully written, imaginative works of come to a ranch and work up a stake and
art. That's plenty to expect of any writing then they go inta town and blow their
man who cares as much for what he is stake, and the first thing you know
doing as Steinbeck does. As for the books they're poundin' their tail on some other
written to prove this or to demonstrate ranch. They ain't got nothing to look
that, to put forward a thesis or to help ahead to."
the acceptance of an idealet the ones The relationship between these two
who want to write them do so. Some- buddies of roads and ranches is a strange
times such books will be literature. Some- one and causes comment at the new
times, if the writers of them happen to be ranch. George is small, dark, wiry, rest-
artists, they will also be beautiful books. less, keen-witted. Lennie is a huge, hulk-
But more often you will find beauty in ing man with an expressionless face, pale
books that were written because their au- blue eyes and wide, sloping shoulders,
thors wanted to write them, just for their walking heavily, "dragging his feet a
own sakes. So far, Steinbeck has stuck to little, the way a bear drags his paws." He
that plan. And Of Mice and Men is the is stupid, but well-meaning.
best evidence that it is the right way for George and Lennie came from the
him to write. same Southern town, and George has
taken it on himself to take care of the big
fellow. Sometimes he wishes he were free
of him. He'd get ahead much faster.

80
Lennie is always getting them into beauty, is always coming around where
troublelike the time he wanted to the men are on the pretense of looking
stroke the pretty red skirt of the girl on for Curley, giving all the men the eye
the last ranch and in his dumb strength and, because, being a town girl, she is
tore it off her. They had to run away bored on the ranch, bent on stirring up
again to keep Lennie out of jail. The excitement. The other boys know how to
baby boy in the big man's body has baby keep out of trouble. But Lennie only
urgesto stroke, pet and fondle animals, knows what George tells him when
all soft or pretty things, and he kills or George is right there on the spot. The girl
destroys them unaware of his strength. spots Lennie as the only soft guy in the
But when George is around he is all right, bunch. The climax comes, not as a shock,
for he obeys George implicitly. but as a dreaded inevitability.
George is a keen thinking man. There The theme is not, as the title would
is nothing in this knocking about. If only suggest, that the best laid plans of mice
he and Lennie could get together $600 he and men gang aft agley. They do in this
knows of a little place with a few acres story as in others. But it is a play on the
they could buy and settle down to work immemorial theme of what men live by
for themselves. If only Lennie can be kept besides bread alone. In sure, raucous,
out of trouble. And so he keeps drum- vulgar Americanism, Steinbeck has touched
ming it into Lennie's head that he must the quick in his little story.
be good and not do bad things. Then
they can get a stake together and live on
the fat of the land in a place of their own.
They'll grow their own stuff, keep a few Wilbur Needham.
pigs and chickens and raise rabbits;
Lennie can take charge of the rabbits and
"John Steinbeck Does
have all the pets he wants. The big fellow Dramatic Novel."
never grows tired of hearing this story Los Angeles Times,
just as a child likes to hear a tale told
over and over again. And at the new 28 February 1937, Part 3,
ranch, the way things are shaping up, p. 8.
the dream seems to be on the point of
coming true.
The tension increases and the appar-
ently casual acts and conversation never- Once more, John Steinbeck refuses to be
theless fit together to create suspense in neatly pigeonholed. He has qualities la-
an atmosphere of impending doom. mentably rare in modern novelists: imagi-
There are trouble makers in the bunk- nation and a restless, inquiring mind. He
house. Curley, the boss's son, a little fel- will not sit down, like Thomas Wolfe,
low handy with his fists, likes to take on and contemplate his navel. He refuses to
big clumsy fellows, pick fights with them. exploit one locality or any single idea
He wins no matter how the fight comes or set of characters. That is the way nov-
out, because if he licks the big fellow ev- elists achieve fame and shelves of books
ery one says how game he is; and if he all stamped with their trademarks; and
gets the worst of it every one turns on the Steinbeck cannot be accused of courting
big fellow for not taking [on] some one fame, for he chooses queer balconies.
his own size. Then Curley's wife, a lush Beyond that, the man is something

81
more than original in creation. Those Lennie, a hulking fellow, is not quite
who seek originality are almost always bright, and he gets them both in trouble.
experimenters; and the results they offer Lennie likes to pet soft things, mice and
areexperiments, usually unsuccessful. rabbits and dresses and shining women's
Steinbeck, obviously, does experiment; hair. The mice die, surprisingly, for
but he has a discernment in approach, an Lennie is very gentle; or, he thinks he is.
uncanny touch in creation, that lift every- But his great paws have an unconscious
thing he writes out of ephemeral brackets power; and the mice die and the women
of experimental work. That is because he scream. So they drift on to other parts,
always has his feet on the ground sometimes none too quickly.
rooted in the earth and the things of Always before them is a dream of a
earthno matter what mountain peaks little place of their own, where they can
his level eyes look on. live on the "fatta the Ian'" and Lennie
Cup of Gold was a novel of Sir Henry can "get to tend them rabbits." Always
Morgan. Pastures of Heaven contained before them; and now, it seems about to
short stories, held together by feeling and turn real. Here the drama, ever close be-
locale. To a God Unknown was filled side Steinbeck's strange inventiveness and
with a hunger for the land and a mysti- native humor, begins to outpace it and to
cism that baffled many readers. Tortilla draw away.
Flat and its Monterey paisanos every- Of the book's inner meaning, never
one knows. In Dubious Battle seized the obvious but never entirely obscured by
most difficult of proletarians to handle unexpected laughter and the movement
migratory workersand made them live, of the story, I will not speak. If you do
where other novelists for the most part not like inner meanings, you will cer-
failed with easier material, workers who tainly not find one here; and, if you do,
remain in one environment. No two of you'll see more than one for yourself.
these books had anything in common
except John Steinbeck, who was out-
wardly different in each, inwardly no one
but himself. Louis Paul.
Now, Of Mice and Men. A little book,
half the size of an ordinary novel (the
"Prose Made of Wind
gods be praised for that!) but containing and Soil and Weather,"
more. In everything but its superficial New York Herald
form, the novel is a play. I was not sur-
prised to learn that a second script is be- Tribune, 28 February
ing rehearsed at a San Francisco theater 1937, "Books" section,
now. It does not creak: and it will not, on
the boards. There is fluid movement, p. 5.
here, and inevitability; never spoiled by
theatrical mechanicsand yet, it is the-
ater, as theater ought to be. With inner The weeds and the willows and the tall
rhythms that move out into a prose that waving grain of California's sweet val-
is Steinbeck's own. leys, rabbits and mice and a woman's soft
George Milton and Lennie Small wan- hair, the hot slanting sun and the hungry
der from one job to another on Califor- desire of a pair of floaters to own a hand-
nia ranches. They don't want to drift; but ful of dirt are the materials out of which

82
this lovely new novel by John Steinbeck especially rare are those authors who
is evoked. Purling water is purling water think in terms of panaceas, whose lack
here, without overtones; a gracious sky is of courage and vitality draws back from
as beautiful as in any lyric poetry. The the monumental task of understanding;
men are lads sent down to the ranch from they are all for short cuts, for adopting
Murray and Ready's in San Francisco: some ready-made philosophy and rushing
Lennie, like Nature itself, whose power- on from there, and what we get from
ful fingers killed little animals before he these authors are drab second-hand dis-
knew it, and George, struggling to be- coveries, valueless, intrinsically dull. Here,
come human. Of Mice and Men is an- however, is an intelligence as explicit as
other of John Steinbeck's parables of earth, any research scientist's, an intelligence di-
and no writer I know shapes the soil into rected toward the understanding of the
truer patterns for us to understand. relationship between men and earth. In
In Pastures of Heaven this dream had each successive book this desire to ex-
its first fruition. A tapestry whose threads plore the complex affinity is more appar-
were woven from the design the lives of ent, until, with the publication of Of
the men and women of a fertile valley Mice and Men, it achieves such cumula-
created in the author's imagination, these tive impact as to be undeniable.
stories are unforgettable. A prose that Of Mice and Men is made of a theme
seemed made of wind and weather and which some lesser novelist might have
growing acres came alive in them. To a called too insignificant to expoundtwo
God Unknown continued Steinbeck's in- indigent members of the strange tribe
ner examination of earth, when a tree of casual workers destroyed by the
and a mossy rock and the silent fury of a simple mystery of loyalty. But before they
drought murdered the fragile human are destroyed there burns brilliantly be-
figures. And then, because Nature is any- tween the covers of this little book the
thing but monotonous, this versatile nov- image of the fire inside the flesh of two
elist went down into Monterey, bought human beings, whom fate has crushed
himself a "balloon" of claret, made the before birth, human beings whose lives
acquaintance of Danny and his paisano mean no more to Nature than robins
pals, and decided to recount the adven- caught up by hawks.
tures and achievements of Pilon, Pablo, The story seems simple when accom-
Big Joe and Company in Tortilla Flat, plished by a superb craftsman: the desire
Again when the fun of living with the and struggle of those who till the soil for
childlike was done, the writer presented others to own a tiny plot of the earth for
for our information, in In Dubious themselves; against this primitive hunger,
Battle, what is unquestionably the most like the rising tide of a destructive river, is
important study of strike technique to played the forces which make a naive as-
find its way on paper in this nation. piration impossible of attainment. "Sure,
These works have been called dissimi- we'd have a little house an' a room to
lar. Versatile, perhaps; in a day when suc- ourself. Little fat iron stove, an' in the
cess has the tendency to standardize, ver- winter we'd keep a fire goin' in it. It ain't
satility in a novelist or any one else is enough land so we'd have to work too
thought of with some astonishment. The hard. Maybe six, seven hours a day. We
threads that run continuously through wouldn't have to buck no barley eleven
these stories by John Steinbeck are, under hours a day. An' when we put in a crop,
examination, more than perceptible. Not why, we'd be there to take the crop up.

83
We'd know what come of our planting." ley. Such nonsense invalidates the very
And while George dreams in the crummy spirit in which the author of such a work
ranch bunk-house, he knows that his as Of Mice and Men is creating.
words are lies; and the reader knows his The verities we can live with are those
words are the lies we use to escape our thoughts born out of dreams which, in
destinies. And the author knows. They the end, distinguish us from the robins
are not ugly lies, you understand; merely and the waving grain. Of such verities
the imagination evoking for the moment does John Steinbeck write, out of a warm
its little dream, an escape into a fairyland and a rich knowledge. With the genuine
where there is no barley to buck. artist's respect for his materials and love
In the cities men go to "movies." of his craft he puts away cheap prejudice,
There are little dumps on the Bowery the distortion which comes from anger;
where for 10 cents the disinherited may his thought is to tell the little truths he
observe life aboard a yacht or in a pent- had discovered with his eyes and callused
house, or cowboys riding the beautiful hands and intelligence, and if these truths
ranges of Arizona. In Arizona the cow- do not touch your social conscience noth-
boys ride fence, one leg propped over ing can. In Of Mice and Men the truth is
against the saddle horn, absorbed in a made into a moving and profoundly
magazine of hair-raising adventure sto- beautiful book full of singing prose and
ries. Men in factories tiredly dream of enchantment. If, standing upon some pin-
grubbing for gold "out West," and office nacle of dry logic, we suspect that his cre-
workers dance themselves all night into ations of these ignorant American labor-
insensibility. Men take whisky into them ers are idealizations, that without the
and, with its drug, bump their heads magic of his poetry they must remain
against the stars in their rosy fancy. And sweat-soaked beasts of the fields, we but
serious observers, infuriated by a world doubly assure ourselves of his essential
which impels us frantically toward es- humanity and pay his artistry the highest
cape, babble in an impotent fashion of compliment we know.
cures. Those who speak of books hunt
down such observations and interpret
them in terms of social significance.
But the poet who immortalizes the Maxine Garrard.
fleeting tragedy of two such men as "Of Mice and Men by
George and Lennie is his own social
force. That Lennie was an idiot, no less, Steinbeck: Powerful and
and victim of a pathological disease, is Absorbing Novel."
entirely beyond the point. John Steinbeck
does not know what makes men idiots Columbus [Ga.] Enquirer-
and victims of disease; such knowledge Sun, 1 March 1937, p. 2.
comes slowly and painfully, as does the
cure for cancer. We sting the flesh of our
economic body with patent medicines,
wondering, let us say, if Lennie's tragedy Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is
might not be avoided if the government a book so powerful it will make the
in Washington gave every crop floater reader's hair stand on end and curl a little
and bindle stiff and lettuce picker and in the bargain. Mr. Steinbeck is a con-
wheat sacker a little farm in Salinas Val- tributor to Esquire and has been startling

84
its readers since that magazine exploded bits. Not conscious of his blundering
upon the public a few years ago. His strength, Lennie was apt to kill what he
Tortilla Flat caused comment and Of petted. George kept him in line as well
Mice and Men will bring on even more as he could by bawling him out, threaten-
talk. Weak-hearted readers and lovers ing to leave him, telling him a beautiful
of moonlight and romance should take fairy story about how they would save
a word of warningthis is not of the enough money to buy a little farm, settle
pleasant school of thought wherein things down in comfort, let Lennie take care
turn out fine in the end; they don't. of rabbits.
Serving his strong meat fresh and still They had just had to leave one job in
warm from life's slaughter house, John a hurry because Lennie's passion for pet-
Steinbeck shades nothing in presenting ting things had been misunderstood by a
his terrifying tale; however beneath the frightened little girl. On the new ranch
superficial horror of the story the reader everything went all right at first. Lennie
senses a dream of breathless beauty shim- was a terrific worker, did beautifully as
mering through the lives of the two main long as George was at hand to tell him
characters. These vagabonds are men pre- what to do. It looked for a while as if
destined to a stark, empty existence but they could really make their stake, buy
between them flickers some unexplained their little farm, settle down to make
devotion and future vision of the time when their dream come true. But then things
they will "live on the fatta the Ian'." . . . began to go wrong. The boss's son was
From the sordid lives of a cocky an ugly customer, and he had just mar-
tramp and a balmy moron, John Stein- ried a floozy who kept him at a white
beck has written a drama of indescrib- heat of suspicion. When he picked on
able magic and heart-breaking futility. Lennie, the big half-wit got so panicky
Even if you think you are tough and can that he seized his little tormentor's hand,
"take it," this book will cause an emo- crushed it nearly to bits. George managed
tional upheaval. It is strong, it is power- to get them out of that scrape, but when
ful and it is wonderful, but unless you Lennie accidentally broke the floozy's
can swallow raw stufflay off. neck, there was only one thing George
could do to remedy that. Knowing where
Lennie was hiding, George got to him
ahead of the posse, got trusting Lennie to
"Young Man's Dream." turn his head while he shot him behind
the ear.
Time, 28 (1 March 1937), To Americans whose eyes are still
69. smarting from the unhappy ending of the
Wall Street fairy tale of 1929, John
Steinbeck's little dream story will not
George and Lennie were ranch hands. seem out of line with reality: they may
George was small, wiry, tough, shrewd; even overlook the fact that it too is a
Lennie was enormous,floppy-lookingbut fairy tale. An oxymoronic combination
Herculean, and a half-wit. George and of the tough and tender, Of Mice and
Lennie were pals. Lennie was always get- Men will appeal to sentimental cynics,
ting them into trouble, losing them jobs, cynical sentimentalists. Critic Christo-
getting them run out of town because he pher Morley found himself "purified" by
liked to pet thingsmice, little girls, rab- this "masterpiece . . . written in purest

85
compassion and truth." Readers less eas- them. Fabulously strong but very timid,
ily thrown off their trolley will still prefer he is quite docile in the hands of George,
Hans Andersen. the pilot-fish of the pair. George feels that
Lennie has been given into his keeping.
He controls him by talking about the
rabbit farm they will have one day, where
Ralph Thompson. Lennie may look after the rabbits if he is
"Books of the Times." goodfor George too is webbed in the
dream. They come to work in the Salinas
New York Times, Valley and it is there, among the people
2 March 1937, p. 19. they meet at the ranch, that their story is
worked out.
This story has that common denomi-
nator of most good imaginative writing,
. . . John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men . . . a shadow of the action that means some-
is the most recently published of books thing beyond the action. But the underly-
mentioned here, and in bulk one of the ing theme (of the danger of dreaming)
smallest, yet it should not be overlooked never clogs the primary story. The book
by any one interested in American fiction. is well contrived and effectively com-
In retrospect, the lovable half-wit Lennie pressed, driving ahead with straight and
seems even more improbable a character rapid movement, as magnificently written
than at first reading he appeared to be. as Steinbeck's other four California nov-
But improbable or not, he is memo- els. He again shows a deep understanding
rablea blend, if such a thing can be of both place and people, and his presen-
imagined, of Paul Bunyan, Tiny Tim and tation of the ranch and its daily life has
Browning's sprawling Caliban.... the gleam of actuality. The people, hu-
man beings reduced to bareness of
thought and speech and action, are on
the side-tracks of the main line of west-
Harry Thornton Moore. ern culture. They exist in a hard reality
but most of them are susceptible to
"Of Mice and Men:' dreams. Some of them are lost in com-
New Republic, 90 pensatory dream-images of themselves,
others are set afire by the wish-dream of
(3 March 1937), 118-19. George and Lennie. But in one way or
another all the dreams and some of the
people (both good and bad) are smashed:
George and Lennie are two drifting ranch a spirit of doom prevails as strong as in
hands who dream, as rootless men do, Steinbeck's fellow Californian, Jeffers.
of a piece of land of their own, where A writer deep in the ways of his own
they will "belong." They have never been people feels (in many cases uncon-
able to work up a stake because big, sciously) a racial compulsive: the actual
blundering, simple-witted Lennie keeps and mythical experience of his people
getting them into trouble. He can never helps generate his material. But the final
remember things. He tenderly loves pup- shaping of it depends upon the artist's
pies and mice but always forgets about own vision. In the present story Lennie
not squeezing them too hard, and kills is cast up from the midst of us and we

86
all know him. Baffled, unknowingly power- romanticists and the stern-faced boys and
ful, utterly will-less, he cannot move girls who have recently been treating the
without a leader. And we also know novel as if it were nothing more than a
many Georges, good-heartedly trying to candid camera. Steinbeck knows his farm
help the Lennies of life muddle through; workers as well as anybody else. Lennie
but all the while, despite their courage and George talk straight. No spurious lit-
and good intentions, none too certain erary phrase creeps into the mouth of ei-
of themselves. John Steinbeck sees them ther. Nevertheless many long stretches of
as unable to prevent their charges (or their conversation are animated by true
often themselves) from steering into ca- poetic content.
tastrophe. In book after book his pro- I think life is like that and that mod-
tagonists, tragic or comic, are shattered; ern authors are beginning to find it out.
and it goes hardest with those who had Transcripts of talk may be as faithful as
the brightest dreams. It is disturbing to you please and still take on the cadence
find these men of good will so consis- and color which make for beauty. Per-
tently going down in spiritual defeat or haps somewhat after the manner of
meeting with a brutal death. Moliere's hero who discovered that he
had been talking prose all his life the
common run-of-the-mine American may
wake up to the fact that he uses a good
Heywood Broun. deal of poetry in dealing with his daily
"It Seems to Me.55 concerns. That may be a shock to some,
since along certain levels poetry means
St. Paul [Minn.] Daily Eddie Guest and a rhyme scheme fit to
News, 4 March 1937, break the ear with its persistent beat, like
that of night club drums.
p. 8. I do not know which native author
should be selected as the spiritual ances-
tor of Steinbeck. Every writer has to have
I'd like to come along with the large an ancestor forced upon him, whether or
group of critics who have already re- not he recognizes the old gentleman. Off-
corded their enthusiasm for John hand it would seem to me that Ring
Steinbeck's new novel, Of Mice and Men. Lardner might have suggested in part the
This is a book written with compas- manner and mode of John Steinbeck. To
sion, celerity and an admirable sense of be sure, there is little similarity in subject
structure. It is that rare and much to be matter and none at all in point of view
desired thinga short novel. The telling save the quality of compassion for those
takes no more than 31,000 words, and who get pushed around.
yet the narrative is fully rounded out and I assume that at some period of his life
complete. For instance, in my opinion, Steinbeck read Upton Sinclair. Mr. Sin-
Of Mice and Men is infinitely more im- clair is a good model for young authors,
portant in the literary scheme of things since he can serve both as an inspiration
than Gone With the Wind. and at the same time as a horrible ex-
ample. I think that writers will be lucky
I am moved to great excitement about if they can catch from Upton something
the emergence of Steinbeck because he so of his terrific zeal about present problems
neatly splits the bracket between the old in the workaday world, and yet if the

87
younger men are exposed to his influ- human if the range of the word human
ence too long they may become infected is understood to coincide with the range
with the flatness and bleakness of the thus far established by fiction. Two of them
Sinclair prose. are evil, one of them is dangerous with-
I'm aware that Upton Sinclair is a out meaning to be, and all of them are
poet as well as a novelist. And his is a ignorantall of them, that is, except the
style which doesn't get in the way when one who shall be named hereafter. Far
he has a fast moving and deeply biting from knowing the grammar of conduct,
story to tell. It is smoother, of course, they do not even know its orthography.
than the English of Dreiser, and yet never No two of their thoughts are consecutive,
ornate. Fine writing and bad writing may nor for that matter do they think; it is
be equally destructive in the matter of rather that each of them follows some in-
getting into the reader's eye when he is in stinct as a bull follows the chain which
close pursuit of the theme itself. Of runs through a hole in his nose, or as a
course, I'm using "fine writing" in the crab moves toward its prey. The scene is
worst sense of the phrase. a ranch in California, and the bunk-
house talk is terrificGod damn, Jesus
The proper time to admire the style of a Christ, what the hell, you crazy bastard, I
man is when you have finished the last gotta gut ache, and things like that. The
sentence on the last page of his story. So dialect never varies, just as the story
it was with Of Mice and Men as far as I never runs uphill.
was concerned. I had put the book down George and Lennie, the itinerant workers
all stirred by the logical poignance of its who come to the ranch one day with a
conclusion. And it was only then that I dream of the little farm they will own
suddenly realized that this man Steinbeck as soon as they get the jack together,
could write like a magician. seem to think their new job will last at
Until then I had been too much inter- least that long; but the reader knows
ested in what he had to say to pay very from the beginning that it will not last,
much attention to the manner in which for Lennie is a half-witted giant with a
he said it. Like a conjurer, a novelist should passion for petting miceor rabbits, or
be able to take the rabbit out of the hat pups, or girlsand for killing them when
without letting his audience in on the they don't like it. He is doomed in this
way in which he did it. John Steinbeck book to kill Curley's wife; that is obvi-
seems to me right now to be the wonder ous; and then. Lennie, you see, cannot
man of current American letters. help shaking small helpless creatures un-
til their necks are broken, just as George
cannot relinquish his dream, and just as
Mark Van Doren. Curley cannot ever stop being a beast
55 of jealousy. They are wound up to act
"Wrong Number. that way, and the best they can do is
Nation, 144 run down; which is what happens when
Mr. Steinbeck comes to his last mechani-
(6 March 1937), 275. cal page.
What, however, of the one exception?
Ah, he is Slim the jerkline skinner, the tall
All but one of the persons in Mr. man with the "God-like eyes" that get
Steinbeck's extremely brief novel are sub- fastened on you so that you can't think
of anything else for a while. "There was
a gravity in his manner and a quiet so S.W.
profound that all talk stopped when he
spoke. . . . His hatchet face was ageless. "Current Literature."
He might have been thirty-five or fifty. Philadelphia Inquirer,
His ear heard more than was said to him,
and his slow speech had overtones not of 6 March 1937, p. 14.
thought, but of understanding beyond
thought. His hands, large and lean, were
as delicate in their action as those of a . . . Most stories of those President
temple dancer." He looks through people Roosevelt calls the "underprivileged"
and beyond thema feat never accom- sound a protestant note. It is as if the
plished save in mechanical novels. And author had a graphophone record of re-
he understandswhy, he understands ev- marks by Norman Thomas or Mr. John
erything that Mr. Steinbeck understands. L. Lewis at his elbow. So fiction suffers;
It is the merest accident of education that and argument is confused. Such things
he talks like the rest; "Jesus, he's jes' like may not be said of the novels of John
a kid, ain't he," he says. If he had his Steinbeck. On his record of six books he
creator's refinement of tongue he could takes rank as the best interpreter of the
write such sentences as this one which in- semi-submerged in this country. Whether
troduces Lennie: "His arms did not swing good or bad, unfortunate or self-stricken,
at his sides, but hung loosely and only he goes to the core of character with the
moved because the heavy hands were precision of a surgeon whose diagnosis
pendula." It wouldn't have done to write is given in terms of art. Tricky rhetoric he
pendulums. That would have given the eschews. The manner of his expression
real sound and look of Lennie, and be- is fine and true. In his newly published
sides it is a real word. short novel, Of Mice and Men, [what]
Mr. Steinbeck, I take it, has not been might seem vulgar is dignified, and at
interested in reality of any kind. His times transfigured, by a soul shining
jerkline skinner (mule driver) is as hope- through. This is the story of George and
lessly above the human range as Lennie Lennie, strange partners in grain-bucking
or Candy or Curley's painted wife is be- on a California ranch. The story of
low it. All is extreme here; everybody is a George, small and active, and Lennie, the
doll; and if there is a kick in the story it is hulking giant with a child's mind and a
given us from some source which we can- passion for petting a mouse, a rabbit, a
not see, as when a goose walks over our piece of velvet, anything soft. With affec-
grave, or as when in the middle of the tionate strategy George stands between
night the telephone rings sharply and it is Lennie and disaster until Curley's wife,
the wrong number. We shall remember it the foolish jade, invites him to stroke
about that long. her hair. So there is one thing more for
George to do in the most affecting pas-
sage of recent American fiction.

89
 bear the mawkishness of a Milne, the
Eleanor Roosevelt. crudity of a Coward, or the mysticism of
a Morgan were able to take the sorrow-
"My Day." ful symmetries of a Steinbeck to their
New York World- hearts and write their reviews with tears
running down their cheeks.
Telegram, 16 March Who does not know by this time of
1937, p. 21. Lennie, who loved to stroke soft furry
things, but didn't know his own strength?
Of Slim, with the "God-like eyes," knight
. . . I have just finished a little book called sans peur et sans reproche of the bunk-
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, house? Of George, who loved Lennie
which a fellow columnist, Mr. Heywood well enough to shoot him? Of "Curley's
Broun, reviewed in his column not long wife," that wax-dummy girl who might
ago. My admiration for Mr. Broun leads have come straight out of the window of
me to want to look into anything he a chain dress-shop, so glossy, so hard, so
praises, and so I sent for the book to brightly paintedand so far from ever
bring it away with me. It is beautifully having drawn a breath?
written and a marvelous picture of the Mr. Steinbeck is "economical." He is,
tragedy of loneliness. indeed. That is perhaps the secret of his
I could see the two men, one comes charm. I feel sure that all those reviewers
across their likes in many places, not only who cheered so hard for Of Mice and
in the West described in the book but in Men would, if they could have been
every part of the country. When I closed caught while still sobbing over George
Of Mice and Men I could not help but and Lennie, have admitted that even crit-
think how fortunate we are when we ics are only boys at heart, for that is just
have real friends, people we can count on the mood that Mr. Steinbeck's work in-
and turn to and who we know are always duces. So perhaps again, they would ad-
glad to see us when we are lonely. mit that the secret of his success is that a
certain simple type of reader feels, when
he discovers that he has foreseen cor-
rectly any movement of a story, a kind of
Dorothea Brande Collins. participation in the creative act of the au-
thor. Almost any critic would admit this
"Reading at Random." if the book under consideration were one
American Review, 9 of the Tarzan books, or a book by Lloyd
(April 1937), 100-13. Douglas, or any one of a dozen "popular
novelists" of the sort they affect to de-
spise, but perhaps they have not noticed
that the symmetry and expectedness (or,
. . . As for Of Mice and Mensurely no if you prefer, read "economy") of Mr.
more sentimental wallowing ever passed Steinbeck's work put the average pulp-
for a novel, or had such a welcome, as writer to shame.
this sad tale of a huge half-wit and his If Lennie kills a mouse by stroking
cowboy protector! Mr. Steinbeck this time it, you may be sure he will unintention-
wrings the Tears of Things from a ten- ally kill something larger in the same
gallon hat, and reviewers who cannot way; when you hear of Curley's wife's

90
soft hair, "like fur," you can begin to co-
operate with the author by expectation Edward Weeks.
of her end. When George learns that
a poor old worthless smelly dog can be "The Bookshelf.55
dispatched easily by a shot in the back Atlantic, 159 (April
of his head, you are unwarrantably guile-
less if you do not suspect the manner 1937), [pp. 14, 16 at
in which Lennie will meet his death. If back of issue].
an old man dreams of a home, peace,
and security, you may be sure that a
home, peace, and security are what he Since the death of Ring Lardner, an ele-
will most agonizingly just miss. And so ment once characteristic of American
forth. You can call this sort of foreshad- fiction has been conspicuous by its ab-
owing "economy" if it pleases you; but if sence: laughter. The short stories and the
"economy" is the word you choose you novels of our younger writers are so of-
should abandon the word "obvious" ten pervaded by a humorless intensity or
hereafter and forever. by an irony and didacticism that leave
It may be some time before the cur- the reader cold. Now from California
rent vogue for Steinbeck passes. Mascu- comes a novelist with a better balance,
line sentimentality, particularly when it a shrewder skill, a more native sense of
masquerades as toughness, is a little reality. His name is John Steinbeck: he
longer in being seen through than the has five novels to his credit. Farsighted
feminine or the inclusively human vari- reviewers began to spot him three years
ety. Undoubtedly there are plenty who ago; the reading public, slower with its
would deny, even today, that The Sun recognition, will now hurry to make
Also Rises and What Price Glory? are amends.
(although far more distinguished) proto- John Steinbeck must have footed his
types of Of Mice and Men. Surely it way through that California which is nei-
should not be too hard to find the soft ther movies nor real estate. He knows the
spots where the decay shows: the roman- wanderersthe fruit pickers, the ranch
tic overestimation of the role of friend- hands, the hoboes; he knows this migra-
ship, the wax-figure women, bright, hard, tory raceits pride, its humor, its gull-
treacherous, unrealwhether a Lady ibility and futility. New Steinbeck readers
Brett, the French girl behind the lines, or might follow this programme: first, Tor-
"Curley's wife," these are all essentially tilla Flat, light-hearted, wholly delightful;
hateful women, women from whom it is next, In Dubious Battle, which, partisan
a virtue to flee to masculine companion- though it be, is quite our most vital story
ship. There was certainly a sort of stag- of an American strike; and so coming
party hysteria and uproar about the ap- down to his Of Mice and Men. . ., a
proval we have been hearing for this pad- short tale of two harvest hands, the one a
ded short story about underdogs and ani- slow-witted elephant, the other a ferret.
mals, bunkhouses and bathos, which has You feel the affection that binds Lennie
seldom risen so high since "Wait for and George together. You hear talk as
baby!" soared over the footlights... . Ah, natural as grass. You recognize in them a
I was forgetting Mr. Chips. hunger which moves all men. There are
moments when the tension and brevity of
the story make it read like a theatrical

91
script: I mean that Slim's authority and nique that is one of many employed by
Candy's dog mean more to me than the writers; her interests are intellectual, and
drama in the barn or at the pool. But, her concern with the novel is chiefly as an
whatever be your favorite passages, here exercise for the mind. This is a high form
is indisputable proof of a vital and expe- of artistic appreciation and expression,
rienced story-teller. .. . but by no means the only one. What
counts in Of Mice and Men is that the
author meets the expectations of his
readers (women as well as the stag line) a
"Dorothea Brande bit more successfully than many other
Doesn't Enjoy Steinbeck." workers in his medium.
Charlotte [N.C.] News,
6 June 1937, p. 9A. Harold Brighouse.
"New Novels: Archers of
In the same measure that John Steinbeck's the Long Bow."
Of Mice and Men gave pleasure to many Manchester Guardian,
readers, so it outraged the critical sen-
sibilities of two reviewersMark van 14 September 1937, p. 5.
Doren and Dorothea Brande Collins.
Professor van Doren was dreadfully put
out by its profanity, which suggests that . . . In [Wallace Stegner's] Remembering
he is the Rip Van Winkle of our times. Laughter the farm and the landscape
Mrs. Collins (the author of Becoming a are realised without sentimentality. Mr.
Writer, which tells how to make your un- Steinbeck, in Of Mice and Men, is both
conscious do the work) decided that the melodramatic and sentimental. Assume
story was so obvious that it bowled over that there is love between a performing
only critics who were boys at heart. bear and its keeper; the bear hugs a woman
Commenting in the American Review, to death and the keeper has to shoot it.
she says the secret of Steinbeck's success For "bear" read Lennie, a giant of a man
is "that a certain simple type of reader mentally defective, and for "keeper" read
feels, when he has foreseen correctly any George. They came, partners, through the
movement of a story, a kind of participa- Californian woods to a farming ranch,
tion in the creative act of the author.. . . and George's dream was to save wages till
If Lennie kills a mouse by stroking it, you they could own land of their own. There
may be sure he will unintentionally kill is an incident, made significant, of the
something larger in the same way; when shooting of a sheepdog, stinking in use-
you hear Curley's wife's soft hair 'like less old age, and insistence upon Lennie's
fur,' you can begin to cooperate with the passion for stroking mice and rabbits till
author by expectation of her end." his brutish affection killed them. So it was
Mrs. Collins evidently feels that in that he stroked the red hair, and she not
saying that the author meets the expecta- unwilling, of the raffish wife of the
tions of the readers she has dealt his story rancher's son, and, stroking, killed her. It
a body blow. As a matter of fact, she has is a pitiful tragedy amongst people the
merely expressed her dislike for a tech- brightest of whom is hardly more than

92
half-witted, and the publisher is rhap- his devoted protector, is an extremely
sodical about it. Personally, I think Mr. skilful variant of the tough tabloid. The
Steinbeck has done better work than this. companions have an escape-story of a
place of their own with cows and rab-
bits where they will live "on the fatta
of the Ian'," which George tells Lennie
V. S. Pritchett. on their long tramps from job to job.
Lennie's daftness takes the form of killing
"New Novels." small, soft things, including women. The
New Statesman and final scene, in which George, preparing
Nation [England], 14 to shoot his friend to save him from be-
ing lynched, tells the little story for the
(25 September 1937), last time, is a triumph of the sentimental
448-9. macabre.

. . . Of Mice and Men is decidedly sur- "Of Mice and Men."

prising and queer. It is the story of two Times Literary
casuals who run out of one job into the
next. One is a huge half-wit with a grip Supplement [London],
like a vice and a brain like a pea. He has 2 October 1937, p. 714.
a sinister mania for touching things
mice, puppies, velvet, girls' hair and
sometimes he strokes too hard; the other
is a dogged little chap who "travels This is a moving story of two drifting
around" with him and tries in vain to cattle-ranch hands in California. George
keep the soft-headed, hard-handed fellow and Lennie are friends, owning nothing
out of trouble. The feeble talk of cow- but what they pack from one job to the
boys, their pathetic hopes and affections, next. But they are optimists. The dream
their childish preoccupations, are per- that buoys and binds them is of the bit of
fectly recorded. The American underdog land they are going to buysome day.
has provided Mr. Steinbeck with some The vision comes excitingly near, then
macabre material. The reader must not vanishes.
be put off the book by its awful jacket The disaster is inherent in Lennie's na-
and its pointless illustrations.. . . ture. A phenomenal worker but a want-
wit, he is pathetically incapable of look-
ing after himself, or even of controlling
his huge body. George, small, active,
"Of Mice and Men." querulous, is incessantly watchful over
London Mercury, 36 his infantile friend and liability. They
have been chased from their last job be-
(October 1937), 595. cause Lennie innocently touched a girl's
red dress. Now a promising fresh start
offers on another ranch. But when the
Mr. Steinbeck's tale of two cattle-ranch wanton wife of the owner's unpleasant
hands, Lennie, the "natural," and George, son makes up to Lennie, he shakes her,

93
not in anger but in fear of George's Brooklyn Eagle, 28 February 1937,
wrath, and finds he has killed her. He Section C, p. 17.
acts on George's standing instruction that "Steinbeck Tells Story of Harvest."
in event of trouble he is to hide by the Knoxville journal, 28 February 1937,
river. The lynchers go in pursuit. But Section 4, p. 3.
George, with a stolen pistol, reaches Sterling North. "Blessed Are the Meek
Lennie first and deals quick death, the Portrayed by John Steinbeck."
best that could come to his friend. Chicago Daily News, 3 March 1937,
It is a tremendous climax to a short p. 31.
tale of much power and beauty. Mr. "Somerset Maugham, H. G. Wells and
Steinbeck has contributed a small master- John Steinbeck." Philadelphia
piece to the modern tough-tender school Inquirer, 6 March 1937, p. 14.
of American fiction. Harry Hansen. "Critic Hails John
Steinbeck Story as Finest Bit of Fiction
in Decade." Pittsburgh Press, 7 March
1937, "Society" section, p. 14.
Checklist of Additional Russell Smith. "Steinbeck Humanizes
Reviews Statistics." Washington Post, 7 March
1937, p. 8.
Emma Wilson. "Of Mice and Men."
Chico [Calif.] Record, 9 March 1937,
Joseph Henry Jackson. "A Bookman's p. 5.
Notebook." San Francisco Chronicle, Hume Dow. "Of Mice and Men."
6 February 1937, p. 13. Harvard Advocate, 1 April 1937,
Theodore Smith. "John Steinbeck Adds p. 32.
New Book to List on Transient Gilbert E. Govan. "Roamin' the Book
Workers." San Francisco News, World." Chattanooga Times,
20 February 1937, p. 15. 29 May 1937, p. 10.
Herschel Brickell. "H. G. Wells and Helen MacAfee. "Outstanding Novels."
John Steinbeck Prove that Books Do Yale Review, 26 (June 1937), vi.
Not Have to Be Long to Be "Book Review." Corona [Calif.]
Important." New York Post, Independent, 1 September 1937, p. 3.
25 February 1937, p. 19. Joseph Henry Jackson. "John Steinbeck:
"Friendship." Newsweek, 9 A Portrait." Saturday Review, 16
(27 February 1937), 38-9. (25 September 1937), 11-12, 18.
"A Tender, Touching Tale Admirably Helen E. Haines. "Novels of Last Year."
Told." Chicago Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, 1 January 1938,
27 February 1937, p. 11. p. 24.
Charlotte Becker. "John Steinbeck Writes T. C. Worsley. "General Release." New
Miniature Epic in Of Mice and Men, Statesman and Nation [England], 20
a Story of the Human Vagabonds and (19 October 1940), 396.
Flotsam He Depicts So Well." Buffalo James Newcomer. "Reappraisals IV:
Times, 28 February 1937, p. 8C. Steinbeck's Mice and Men" Dallas
Walter Sidney. "Treacle from a Talent." News, 14 August 1949, p. 32.

94
THE RED PONY
 THE RED
1. THE GIFT

II. THE GREAT MOUNTAINS

III. THE PROMISE

BY

JOHN STEINBECK

NEW YORK <> M C M X X X VII

C O V I C I F R I E D E P U B L I S H E R S
 These three episodes are told with illu-
Christopher Morley. minated simplicity. Steinbeck knows what
effect he desires, and he gets it without
"Boy against Death." fumbling. In the first we have the gift of
Saturday Review, 16 the Red Pony, its training, its tragic death.
The second chapter is a charming inter-
(25 September 1937), 18. ludeostensibly quite apart from the
themeof the old paisano who comes to
the ranch (because he was born there)
Tortilla Flat and Of Mice and Men were and, finding himself de trop, rides off into
not accidents. It is unlikely that anything the mountains to die, on the old horse
Mr. Steinbeck publishes will be casual; he that is also ready for death. And the third
is a controlled, deliberate and ascertained chapter (or fable) is of the breeding and
workman. In this little book he again birthing of new promisethe colt to
shows himself equal in power and in sen- come. So we have the boy Jody, in his
sitiveness, and purposeful in both. It would ranch-childhood, encountering Death on
not be fair to suppose that because The three planes: the last time in all the blood
Red Pony appears in a deluxe limitation and disgust of an equine csesarian. And
that he (or his publisher) regards it as the buzzards, and the gold-hilted rapier,
hors d'ceuvre. It may be a sketch of some and the emphasized thematic opposition
shape of things to come; it may be a of the mossy spring uphill in line with the
mood (of memory or fancy) that the au- frightening black cauldron where the pigs
thor prefers to keep within restricted are slaughtered: all these elements are
bounds. It has on it his own mark of thought, focussed, and intended.
beauty and pain. So, I repeat, Mr. Steinbeck knows
It would be possible (as it always is what he is doing; he does it thrillingly; in
possible) to read into these three episodes theme as well as in its deliberately re-
in the life of a ten-year-old boy some stricted publication (although the three
larger meanings and suggestions. Is it the sections have appeared as short stories in
first glimmering in the boy's mind of the The North American Review and Harp-
collapse of faith or certainty? For first er's) this is a book for comparatively few.
the death of the pony, and then the death But the few are important, and some-
of the mare in bearing another foal, are times they eventually prevail.
attributable (in the boy's mind) to Billy
Buck who knew all about horses. So Billy
(a notable character portrait) proves fal-
lible after all. That is one suggestion of Randolph Bartlett.
fable that the reader may find; and there 55
are others. Mr. Steinbeck is a writer of "Tang of Sage.
such gauge that we enjoy speculating New York Sun,
what he may have intended between the
lines. It is an impertinence: but he has
27 September 1937, p. 6.
earned the right to be subjected to it. As
in the book before us, we know by the
sound of his tread on the floor that he is John Steinbeck, scrawling rowdy carica-
wearing riding boots; but the boy always tures in charcoal on butcher's paper, has
looks under the table to make sure. laid aside his familiar tools to prove his

97
artistry withof all thingsthe etcher's what is to be found there, and what lies
needle. There was never any doubt of his beyond.
mastery of the other medium. He proved The third story, "The Promise," car-
it in the boisterous and bawdy Tortilla ries the boy to the fulfillment of his wish,
Flat and the sinister and fleshly Of Mice through doubts and apprehension which
and Men. It was not to be expected that have crept into his consciousness because
he would be equally at home in a me- of the experiences through which he
dium which requires finesse in place of has gone in the two previous episodes.
brutality, and yet here is The Red Pony. This time, a horse is to be bred for him,
This latest work consists of three and at the end of the long period of wait-
novelettes, each self-contained and yet ing there occurs a denouement that is
threaded in sequence, depicting the life of the one touch of the ruthless Steinbeck in
a boy on a ranch in that part of Califor- the series.
nia Mr. Steinbeck knows so thoroughly, An interesting characteristic of this
between the naive south and the sophisti- work is that in the transition from char-
cated north, the Monterey region. Deli- coal to stylus, Mr. Steinbeck has lost
cately, and affectionately, he reveals the nothing of his force and vitality. He
very soul of the lad, his love for animals, merely seems to have realized that in
his appreciation of generosity, his faith in dealing with this essentially human nar-
his elders, his great need to do some vio- rative, it was necessary to adopt a differ-
lent thing when tragedy has shattered his ent technic than was useful in picturing
hopes and dreams. the denizens of Tortilla Flat or the men of
The first story tells of a gift from his violence in Of Mice and Men.
father of a pony of his own, a pony he The effectiveness of his work is due in
must teach to love and respect him, a a very large measure to the fact that he
pony to train and one day to ride. Lest it obviously knows intimately the region of
might be inferred that this is a mere tale which he writes. The reader cannot fail
for boys it must be added that Mr. to sense the tang of sage in the dusty air,
Steinbeck is equally effective in picturing nor to see the nodding bunches of wild
the family background of his little hero, oats on the hillside. Horses too he knows,
Jody. There is his father, a man of keen inside and out, and what is going on in
understanding and with all the wisdom their minds, and boys he knows and must
of the ranges; his mother, stern but gentle, love, or he could not have written of
and quick to sense her son's needs; Billy Jody as he did.
Buck, the ranch hand, who knew all It must be assumed that there will be
about horses that there was to know. It is subsequent editions of this charming
a kindly atmosphere. work. The present format is exquisite, a
The second story, "The Great Moun- large paper edition with a flexible linen
tains," deals with the return to the ranch cover, and limited to 699 copies, as if
of a man who had been born there, a Covici-Friede were anxious to accentuate
Mexican, now grown old and asking the difference between the old Steinbeck
only a place to sleep and a little food. and the new. The picture is entirely wor-
This is an interlude between the other thy of its luxurious frame.
two novelettes, in which the boy fills in a
void in his life by dreaming and inquiring
about the mountains in the distance,

98
Ralph Thompson. Eda Lou Walton.
"Death and Jody." "The Simple Life."
New York Times, Nation, 147
29 September 1937, p. 21. (1 October 1937), 331-2.

. . . As for Mr. Steinbeck's latest,. .. any A romantic ardor for the simple life is the
one who can afford a handsome sum for bridge between John Steinbeck's earlier
handsome presswork and design (this is a work and his later. What has always
Pynson Printers job, each copy signed by seemed to him the cure for modern neu-
the author) will be well rewarded. Mr. roses is man's identification with nature.
Steinbeck had three stories to tell, each His scene has been California and par-
one relating to a 10-year-old boy named ticularly the Salinas Valley. His first books
Jody, who lives on a ranch in the West had to do with the psychologically sick
and is much concerned with the life intellectual brought to health by a return
about him. to nature; his later books have had to do
The first story is about a red pony. with the sick farm laborer cured, again,
Like young Lincoln Steffens, Jody went largely by nature.
down to the barn one day and found a Once he stopped treating of characters
pony of his very own, which he had now like himself, Steinbeck pruned his style,
to manage and, in time, to ride. But Mr. swept away most of his lushness and
Steinbeck, unable to abide for long a sen- emotionalism, and became a realist. But
timental situation, does not let it go at he continued to rely for his symbols es-
that. Before many weeks have passed the sentially on the Freudian psychology that
red pony sickens and dies, horribly. marked his earlier books. He merely
The second story also ends in death, turned to a large circle of characters, to a
though this time Jody does not see it with new class, to exemplify his thesis that
his own eyes. The third story, a little man and his natural environment should
masterpiece dealing with the breeding of not be separated. In turning from self-
a mare and the subsequent birth of a colt, examination to the applications of his
again comes to tragedytragedy quite as thesis in simple characters, he lost some-
melodramatic and deliberate as that in thing of his personal passion but became
Of Mice and Men. Yes, yes, of course, it a more competent writer relying on a re-
is true that in real life everything does die alistic technique and dramatic shock to
sooner or later. But it is hardly necessary make his points.
for Mr. Steinbeck to make that point time I am not asserting that Steinbeck's first
and time again, particularly if in so doing books were his best. They were overwrit-
he cramps his talent into the confines of a ten and sentimental, but Steinbeck him-
formula. self appeared in a different light. In his
latest books his Freudianism remains, but
he has turned from working out a per-
sonal solutionin its nature somewhat
reactionaryto the application rather
than the evolution of the psychology of

99
frustration. That society alters personal situation, and forced, as always, to em-
psychology he knows, but he reveals little phasize Steinbeck's symbolism.
feeling for social evolution in itself. In general, Steinbeck's Salinas Valley
How does all this affect his work? farmers never indicate more than their
Every short story in this book springs own characters, manipulated to some ex-
from a preconceived symbol, not from a tent by the author. Toward what ideol-
rich knowledge of character (although ogy, if any, do they move? Toward what
the outlines of these character drawings ideology does the author himself move?
are clear) or a social situation. In every Nothing in his work seems resolved or
narrative, therefore, character and action, progressing toward resolution. His sto-
as by a formula, exemplify a symbol. The ries are competent, but reading them one
most significant symbols to Steinbeck are goes through no authentic experience.
always life, death, nature. This fact
causes him to place his emphasis on the
bravery and pathos of the simple poor of
the farm laboring class. But because his J.H.C.
symbols do not necessarily evolve out of
the situations presented, nor out of his
"Dreams and Tragedies in
impassioned vision of his characters' sig- Salinas Hills."
nificance, they seem obvious. The alert Los Angeles Times,
reader will know in a paragraph or two
of each story just how the author pro- 10 October 1937,
poses to prove his point. Part 3, p. 8.
These stories are clever, but they move
toward nothing. Nor do Steinbeck's nov-
els move toward any consistent vision of
life or toward any set of values. He has If American collectors know one-tenth
written one study of labor struggle which as much as we believe they do the entire
reads like a detective story (In Dubious edition of Steinbeck's Red Pony is ex-
Battle), inconclusive in its social philoso- hausted. The publisher has sold out his
phy but effective in dramatic plot. Of stock, and it is to be hoped that Los
Mice and Men is far more certainly a Angeles admirers of this powerful Cali-
study of neuroses than it is a picture of fornia writer have not failed to secure
the proletarian. The best short story in their copies.
this new collection, The Red Pony, is There are three stories printed be-
forced, by the interjection of an act of tween the elegant covers of this volume:
violence, to prove that through violence "The Gift," "The Mountains," "The Prom-
life springs from death. This story of a ise." They are episodes in the life of Jody,
boy's loss of his first pony, of his learning a 10-year-old farm boy from up Salinas
about life in watching the entire process way. Jody had dreams and they quivered
of his second pony's conception, prenatal into life over far horizons. Then Jody got
growth, and emergence into the world, a red pony, and Billy Buck, who knew all
would have been right had the author not about horses, taught him how to take
insisted that the second pony's mother, care of it. But Jody's faith in Billy was
too, meet death in order to show that life shaken when, in spite of everything, the
is born of death. The killing of the mare pony died; all because Billy was not a
in order to save the colt is a totally forced rain prophet. That tale is followed by a

100
touching interlude concerning the fate of Jody is a polite, shy little boy whose
old men and horses. The last story shows home is that mountainous California coun-
how Jody got another ponyat a price. try near Salinas and Monterey. His par-
Once upon a time Mr. Aristotle laid ents own a small ranch and with them
down the rules for writing masterpieces. lives a brusque, kind ranch-hand, Billy
Whether he got it out of Aristotle or not, Buck, who knows an inordinate amount
Steinbeck knows the rules. He knows about horses. In the first and best story,
what he intends to do and does it in the "The Gift," his father presents Jody with
simplest and most effective fashion. He a wild red pony which the boy cares
knows life at both ends and the middle. for and trains and loves almost raptly.
He grips your heart and satisfies your Then, cruelly, the red pony dies, not only
mindif you have one. If you have not, bringing to Jody his first real sorrow but
it makes no difference, he takes hold of filling him with doubts of Billy Buck's
you anyway. omniscience. Unreasonably, he blames
Billywho redeems himself with diffi-
culty in the third story, "The Promise,"
which concerns the breeding and birthing
Edith H. Walton. of a colt that is to be Jody's. Jody gets
"Three Short Stories by his colt, as Billy has grimly promised, but
to compass this fulfillment the mare has
John Steinbeck.55 to die.
New York Times Book Between these two stories, which are
closely related and both richly poignant,
Review', 87 there is a curious, legend-like interlude
(10 October 1937), 4. which affects the boy more intangibly. An
old paisano, born in the neighborhood
of the ranch, returns there with the
stubborn desire to die where he belongs.
In a very short timejust, indeed, since When, however, he finds himself un-
the success of Tortilla Flatit has be- wanted, he rides off to the great moun-
come bromidic to say of John Steinbeck tains which have always tantalized Jody,
that no two of his books ever resemble taking with him an ancient horse which
one another. They do, however, have has likewise outlived its usefulness. This
many traits in common. Power, for one story has charm and a kind of eerie
thing, and a lovely gift of words, and an beauty, but it seems a shade more artifi-
astonishing way of making the simple cial than either "The Gift" or "The Prom-
seem important. As for the latter trait, ise." Because of its very singularity, it
nothing could be more starkly simple does not move one to the same half-pain-
than this new book, The Red Pony, ful extent.
which consists merely of three episodes in If one speaks of the tenderness and
the life of a 10-year-old boy. In other sense of compassion which run through
hands, these slight, delicate stories, quite these stories, there is danger that The
unremarkable in theme, might have Red Pony may sound like a sentimental
struck one as somewhat jejune and cer- book. Actually it is nothing of the kind.
tainly not exciting. As it is, they are pure Mr. Steinbeck has avoided this note
gold and furnish the most exacting proof with the most rigorous care and skill. As
he has given of Mr. Steinbeck's artistry. well, the tone of his three episodes varies

101
subtly and often. Both "The Gift" and luxe copies, Novelist Steinbeck's latest
"The Promise" build up to a climax work, The Red Pony, was quoted at $10
which is bloodily brutal in its harshness; a copy, and no man knew where it would
there is the shrewdest kind of humor go from there.
in Mr. Steinbeck's character drawing of Some readers, baffled by the famine-
the likable Billy Buck. Slight as they price set on this slim, 81-page volume
seem, tenuous as are their plots, all three (all the more remarkable in view of Stein-
of these stories have more depth, inten- beck's proletarian themes), may jump to
sity and variety than one could possibly the wrong conclusion that The Red Pony
anticipate. contains erotic or esoteric matter too
The Red Pony has been published in a caviarish for the general. On the con-
limited, de luxe edition, exquisite in for- trary, The Red Pony is neither scandalous
mat and, of course, very expensive. Pre- nor abstruse but of an innocence that al-
sumably, John Steinbeck and his publish- most qualifies it for juvenile readers. It
ers quite honestly believed that this is a consists of three episodes based on Au-
book for the few and not for the public thor Steinbeck's youth. Central character
in general. If so, they could hardly be is a healthy, shy, tow-headed, 10-year-old
more wrong. The stories in The Red farm boy named Jody Tiflin. Given a red
Pony have such a fine, candid simplicity, pony colt by his father, coached in its
are so moving and so real, that only the training by the hired hand, Jody is in per-
wholly philistine could possibly fail to re- petual seventh heaven except when he is
spond to them. They are not tidbits for in school. A few days before the pony
the connoisseur, however fastidious their is ready to ride, it catches pneumonia,
workmanship, but warmly human tales sneaks away to die in the woods, where
which a larger public should know about. Jody is found beside the corpse, hammer-
To restrict their circulation is to do that ing insanely on the long-since smashed
public an injustice. head of a buzzard that was too slow to
escape his wild grief.
Most tenuous, but also the most inter-
esting in showing how the early Stein-
"Steinbeck Inflation." beck twig of romanticism was bent is the
Time, 29 second episode: Jody who feels deeply the
mystery of the distant California Sierras,
(11 October 1937), 79. thinks he has the answer when he
watches an old Mexican going off into
the mountains to die.
For a parallel to the inflation that has Last episode relates how Jody got his
skyrocketed the value of John Steinbeck second pony. In return for Jody's putting
first editions, bibliophiles must turn to in a summer's hard work, Farmer Tiflin
the classic rise in the price of calves' liver, lays out $5 to breed their own mare
once given away in most butcher shops, Nellie. Jody dedicates himself completely
currently selling at 85# a lb. Distributed to Nellie's prenatal care, to giving his fa-
free to Publisher Covici-Friede's friends ther more than his five-dollars' worth.
last Christmas, Author Steinbeck's St. When complications develop at the deliv-
Katy the Virgin, a short story, is now ery, the hired hand kills Nellie with a
quoted at $10. Published last fortnight in hammer, and in a gory Cesarean delivers
an edition limited to 699 autographed, de Jody his promised colt.

102
California-born (1900), big, blond, blue- very well known indeed to the public at
eyed, slow-spoken John Ernest Steinbeck large, the product is worth the price
has been a farm hand, hod carrier, care- askedat any rate, on the supply-and-
taker, chemist and painter's apprentice, demand basis.
itinerant newspaper-man. At Stanford But why? The average reader is going
University off and on for six years, he to ask, "Why the limited edition in the
treated it as a sort of public library where first place?"
he read only what took his fancy: phys-
ics, biology, philosophy, history. Indiffer- Well, there's a good enough reason. First
ent to most fiction, he thinks Thackeray consider the story itself.
passable, cannot stomach Proust because The Red Pony is not a novel, nor
he "wrote his sickness, and I don't like even strictly a novelette"novella," as
sick writing." He is dead set against pub- the word is coming to be, borrowed from
licity, photographs, speeches, believes "they the Italian. It's a group of three related
do you damage." Now living in Los short stories, all having to do with the
Gatos, Calif., since publication of his same small boy, Jody, and with his acqui-
best-selling Of Mice and Men (167,000 sition of a red ponytwo ponies, as a
copies), Mr. Steinbeck can well afford matter of fact. That's on the face of it.
to abandon an erstwhile $25-a-month Beneath this, the book is a presenta-
budget which he and his tall, brunette tion of a small boy's first encounters with
wife Carol supplemented by fishing, not deathdeath that is unavoidable, natu-
for fun, from their own launch in Monte- ral, yet frightful and violent as death always
rey Bay. must be to the human being when he first
comes into contact with it. Twice in the
form of death to animal life, once in the
form of death as an old paisano meets it,
Joseph Henry Jackson. Jody sees what dying is like. And even
"A Bookman's though once it means birth, too, never-
theless it is death, bloody and horrible.
Notebook." Steinbeck could have called the book,
San Francisco Chronicle, "Jody Looks at Death and Life"though
it wouldn't have been a very good title.
12 October 1937, p. 11. That Steinbeck writes these stories
with extraordinary delicacy of touch al-
most goes without saying. Even in the
One of the things that the ordinary most violent, most frightful scenes, the
reader is going to wonder about is the delicacy is there: Don't mistake this for
price of this latest Steinbeck book. To "delicacy" in the sense our mothers and
be sure, it's printed in a small limited maiden aunts used the word in the nine-
edition600-odd copiesand very beau- ties; that's not what I mean at all. They
tifully designed and printed, with a slip- would have called The Red Pony any-
cover and all that sort of thing. Moreover, thing but that; "excessively indelicate" is
each and every copy is signed by the au- what they would have said, if, indeed,
thor and bears its number in the edition they had been able to read it at all with-
all carefully written in the back. Obvi- out fainting. The delicacy is in the pre-
ously, just as a limited edition of the cise, beautiful handling of words, in
work of a man who has suddenly become the equally precise and exact placing of

103
scenes, in the even more exact and lovely bother his head about such matters. He
balance of the whole. It bears the Steinbeck bothers his head about writing. At the
mark; you can't help but recognize it. moment, he's working like a slave on the
next book, and that's all that concerns
Outside the nature of the story, though, him. The play made from Of Mice and
why the limited edition, to come back to Men is in rehearsal in New York. Jack
that? Kirkland is said to be working on a dra-
The reason is simply publisher's figuring. matization of Tortilla Flat. The book
Steinbeck's last book, Of Mice and Men, printing of the play Of Mice and Men
is still on the best-seller lists. Moreover, it will be out any minute. The Modern Li-
is a short book. It was very nicely printed brary edition of Tortilla Flat is just on the
and bound and designed, and in order market, and so is a regular-size dollar
for the publisher to get anywhere at reprint of it. In the meantime, John
all with it, he had to charge $2 for it. Steinbeck is doing what he wants to do,
The public, odd animal that it is, doesn't which is to pay attention strictly to the
like books at say, $1.50; no one knows book he has in hand, and stay as far as
why, but it doesn't. It just doesn't buy possible from New York. Which is very
them. good sense indeed.
But even though that's the case, the
public at large, which gets heavy tomes
such as Gone With the Wind and An-
thony Adverse for $2.50 and $3, did re- Joseph Henry Jackson.
gard Of Mice and Men as just a bit "Bookman's Notebook."
on the slim side. People are like that.
They still think of books by length and San Francisco Chronicle,
breadth, even though they know, ab- 6 September 1945, p. 12.
stractly, that it's content that counts.
Steinbeck, then, is nearly finished with
his next full-length book. It's coming next
year; the publisher doesn't know exactly As you probably know, John Steinbeck
when, but probably late in the spring. In has become a collectors' item; his books
the meantime, here's The Red Pony, slim- in their first editions and in mint condi-
mer than Of Mice and Men, a story in- tion, or even fair condition, command
volving horror, yet the author's next premium prices, and while fads in collect-
work and by all means worth printing. ing change it's pretty safe to say that
What to do? Present it in a regular "Trade Steinbeck firsts and special editions will
Edition" at a dollar or a dollar and a stand up well.
half? By no means. (You can almost see This note is prefatory to the notice
the publisher working it out in his head.) that there is published today a new edi-
What then? Well, in order to bridge the tion of one of Steinbeck's great favorites,
gap in Steinbeckiana, and to cultivate in- The Red Pony. . ..
terest in an important field, which is the Another point here, in addition to the
collector of Steinbeck. Ah! A limited edi- fact that the book is beautifully illus-
tion, of course! And there you are. trated, makes this a Steinbeck item.

Naturally none of these steps in figuring The first edition of The Red Pony ap-
it out occurred to Steinbeck. He doesn't peared in a slim de luxe printing of 1000

104
copies at $10. It contained three con- Dennis' work, which is splendidly suited
nected stories about the boy, Jody, his fa- to the next.
ther and his pony. They'd appeared in As for typography, the whole book
magazines, but never before as a book. has been redesigned and set, and some-
This first printing was soon gone and where the publisher has managed to get
that was that. Then "The Red Pony" ap- hold of thoroughly good paper and buck-
peared in a larger volume, The Long Val- ram cloth for binding. Just as book, it
ley, which was a collection of Steinbeck's seems to me worth more than the origi-
short stories. In that collection, too, was nal $10 edition, and at half the price.
a story, also involving Jody, called "The Doubtless the fact that the Book-of-the-
Leader of the People"; it had been writ- Month Club is to make it a dividend
ten later than "The Red Pony," where- book had something to do with it; a large
fore it was not included in the original printing would naturally bring down the
first edition. unit cost.
That fourth part, which really belongs You'll note, by the way, that I've said
with the whole story, is now included in nothing about the story. The assumption
the new, illustrated edition, which is what is that readers will already know about
makes it, in a sense wholly apart from it. Just in case some don't know it, better
other printings, a Steinbeck "first." let me repeat that it isn't a children's
The pictures, however, constitute a rea- story. For my money, however, it and the
son in themselves, and the publisher has novel, In Dubious Battle are the two best
found precisely the right man to do things Steinbeck has ever done.
themWesley Dennis, who has long
been well known as a painter of horses.
Working in water color, Dennis has done
a beautifully imaginative job of it, his 13 A. C. S[pectorsky].
full color pictures and end-papers inter- "A Postwar Publisher
preting the story vigorously and yet with
just the mystical touch that the narrative Luxuriates.55
needs. Of the 13 illustrations, there is Chicago Sun Book Week,
only one which seems to me at all out of
key, and that's a good enough illustration 3 (10 September 1945), 2.
in itself. It's the heading for Part II, "The
Great Mountains," and it's a rather too
comic painting of Jody's dog catching its The first bite of a point-free steak, the
nose in a mousetrap. The Red Pony, after first easing of a tired body into a soft
all, is neither a funny story nor a child's bed, the soldier's first civilian suit are all
story, and this one picture suggests that it in the running but not on a par with the
might be either or both. Quite possibly publishing thrill the people at Viking
Steinbeck himselfwho's in Mexico at Press treated themselves to when they
the moment, living in the old Marik Ho- reissued, last week, Steinbeck's The Red
tel, from whose windows you get such Pony.
a magnificent view of Popowouldn't Since the early days of wartime paper
agree with me, and obviously the pub- rationing, new books have pretty much
lisher and the artist don't feel that way. gobbled up the available paper, and thin
Anyhow, it isn't an important enough paper plus small margins and run-in
point to damage the total effect of Mr. chapters were the rule.

105
 Imagine the pleasure, then, of relaxing
the reins and bringing out a handsomely May Lamberton Becker.
printed,fine-quality,new edition of a fine
older book, illustrated beautifully with "Books for Young
13 full-color pictures done by Wesley People."
Dennis, known for his painting of horses.
We hope it presages equally good
New York Herald
things to come and feel optimistically Tribune Weekly Book
that it does. Meanwhile, if you own no Review, 22
copy of The Red Pony or if you want to
have or to give a truly handsome and (4 November 1945), 6.
lasting one, this volume is what you've
been waiting for. It is the complete story,
too, in a volume by itself, for the first As a rule only the first appearance of a
timethe original edition of 1,000 copies book is chronicled in this department,
(at $10) did not contain one part of the but two new editions are of such impor-
story, which first appeared in The Long tance that attention must be called to
Valley. them. John Steinbeck's The Red Pony
stands out among the year's books be-
cause a fine story for grown-ups, already
adopted by boys who love horses, has
now received its perfect picturesscenes
and portraits in color by Wesley Dennis,
making it a book of the class truly de-
scribed as "a handsome present." [It] will
be welcomed by public libraries as stan-
dard literature in handsome form, one
that will bring them new readers....

106
OF MICE AND MEN (THE PLAY)
Of Mice and Men

A P L A Y I N T H R E E A C T S

byjohn Steinbeck

New York COVICI FRIEDE Publishers

 tail of rabbits and murders and with
Margaret Shedd. gaping omissions. Why? Maybe the an-
swer to that question would also answer
"Of Mice and Men: the "why" of the whole socially-minded
Theatre Arts, 21 theatre.
The San Francisco Theatre Union's
(October 1937), production is good! It is forthright, giv-
774-80. ing off a clear integrity not easy to over-
rate. The group draws its personnel from
workers; rehearsal must come in their
San Francisco had two world premieres spare time. This means that several
this summer. That both plays will be head- months are spent on every play, and so
lined fall openings in New York is not the actor has, perforce, a chance for slow
the point to be recorded here, which is, identifications with his part. Combined
instead, the almost extravagant difference with this impression of growth is a strik-
between Jean Giraudoux's Amphitryon ing directness of attack which may be ex-
38 . . . and the production with which plained partly by the fact that bindlestiffs
this review is concerned: John Steinbeck's are familiar people to the garage repair-
Of Mice and Men presented by the San man, milkman, store salesperson, who
Francisco Theatre Union. make up the cast; no doubt many of
Whatever the causeingenuousness, these actors themselves originated in agri-
curiosity, lust for contemporaneousness cultural communities.
of scene,one expects a great deal from The Theatre Union was justly appre-
a play about the living, wandering men ciative of the opportunity to predate the
who plant crops they never see harvested, rest of the world with Of Mice and Men.
and harvest where they have not seen the Long before the book was out the Union
planting, in a soil which refuses them knew that Steinbeck was living and work-
roots, men who are lonely beyond our ing in one of the agricultural areas. All
natural heritage of loneliness. All the ex- intelligent Californians realize that his-
citing dramatic realities are in the theme, tory is being made in those centres. The
and when the curtain goes up on Of Mice Theatre Union, whose administration has
and Men the play seems authentic: char- been consistently clear and direct, believed
acters who demand we learn all about it should have plays about local current
them, situations which we feel impelled history. Wellman Farley, the president,
to follow through to a consummation said this to John Steinbeck and forthwith
or an intensity of non-consummation Steinbeck handed him an as yet unpub-
which is the same thing. A simple back- lished manuscript, Of Mice and Men.
ground of Santa Clara hills and a non- There is something nice about that
existent river in the orchestra pit, beside transaction; one dislikes to be querulous
which Lennie and George lie down to about the result of it. Steinbeck, I believe,
sleep, give promise of evoking what is in- made no pretense that this was a critic-
herent in the tragic saga of the itinerant proof, completed play: the six scenes are
agricultural worker. taken verbatim from the novel. So it
But Of Mice and Men, in its present would be unjust to criticize the play,
form, does not tell that saga; it does as given in San Francisco, from a struc-
no more than block in the tantalizing tural technical angle. Let that be done
outlines, with too much sentimental de- when New York sees its version. But a

109
non-technical analysis is integral to the audience's intense desire that these men
western production because here is an ex- shall be different from the other fifty
cellent left-wing group with competent thousand and really get their ranch,
actors and direction, situated in what is abruptly the tension is ruined by an ex-
probably the best theatre town in traneous remark of Candy's, apropos of
America, which opens its new playhouse his dog, that he hopes when he gets old
with a production written by a young somebody will take him out and shoot
man whose novel on the same theme him too. The remark is not in character.
holds for months the top spot on best- Candy on the whole is excellently devel-
selling lists and who, at the same time, is oped and he is well played by Carl
admittedly social minded. And the play is Anderson. But no actor can compete with
a success, favorably received by good au- the author if he decides to walk into a
diences. It sounds like the dream come play and interrupt him. The timing and
true of a real people's theatre. But what? movement of this particular scene have
Of Mice and Men could have been a been meticulously rehearsed; but eternal
character study of eight or ten persons in rehearsal could never have given rhythm
relation to each other, a slow digestive to it because the rhythm is not there. And
process for the audience, at the end of that in turn is because there is no basic
which Lennie and Candy and Slim and dramatic pattern there.
all would have been absorbed, under- If this sounds like harsh criticism of
stood, pitied, loved, hated. Or it could small detail I must answer that there is
have been essentially a study of Lennie, no criticism too severe for an author
the pathetic, destructive village idiot, all who, through confusion of purpose, de-
too common and all too misunderstood. stroys epic material. Precisely this hap-
Or it could have been a high-powered pens over and over in Of Mice and Men,
tragedy on almost classical lines. That The question "why" repeats itself of-
does not exhaust the list of possibilities ten to the audience mind, because ad-
for the play, but in any one of these equate motivation is not furnished. The
forms it would have been a social docu- very core of the play, Lennie's obsession
ment with a punch far greater than it for stroking mice, is an example of the
now carries. As it stands it looks like a confusion and of the lack of motivation.
social document (a highly personalized It is widely known that many itinerants
one), for the negative reason that it carry small animals with them on their
doesn't look like anything else. And the travelsrats, dogs, rabbits: this has in
violences, which are probably what have it the raw element of human interest. It
sold the book to a majority of its readers, is also a matter of common knowledge
appear to have been thrown in for high that a great many bindlestiffs are feeble-
seasoning. The result is, to say the least, minded; there is certainly the raw element
confusing. of human tragedy in that. But for an au-
For instance, at what appears to be thor merely to throw together these two
the climax of the playthat is if you con- facts to make a curiosity is not enough.
sider that the theme is the stiff's right to Steinbeck at no point establishes whether
be a mana point in Scene 3 where Lennie's destruction of the animals he
George, Candy and Lennie are pyramid- strokes is a matter of abnormality or of
ing up their hope for a little ranch of accident. He implies it is accident, which,
their own, a point which has been built happening so often, is not convincing.
to a fine natural tight excitement by the The audience assumes it is sadism and

110
gets a little excitement out of that. Actu- dictated by the author. Perhaps Farley in
ally there is no excuse for this confusion. the one case and Alice Hult in the other
If Lennie is to be any sort of universal do well to keep the motivation in simple
symbol, anything more than an isolated channels.
monstrosity, and if the play is to be more The direction by Florence Hagee
than a reporter's notebook, then all ques- shows a consistent effort to organize the
tions of behavior psychology must be play into bounds of some sort, with the
settled before they arise. "Strange as it curious result of creating time and again
seems" is no longer satisfactory predica- an unfulfilled prediction that just around
tion for serious writing. the next corner the play will solidify, take
And always the "why" comes up. form. Mrs. Hagee's direction is, in effect,
Why doesn't George leave Lennie to his of the play as it might have been rather
fate? For the clumsy, pitiful fool to be than as it is.
pursued and killed by such a bully as Perhaps what the proletarian theatre
Curley is the way the cards might really wants is not literature but photographic
fall. When George shoots Lennie it needs reality of scene, a factual presentation of
explaining, and to watch that scene is working class life. T. K. Whipple's recent
to witness something shocking, not con- analysis, Literature in the Doldrums,
clusive. One doubts that George could would indicate exactly that. And yet the
have done it, because his author has been Theatre Union's production of Of Mice
to some pains to show how beaten and and Men indicates something else. I think
frustrated he is: George who abandons the Union hoped it had the makings of a
the plan for a home although the money great play, not just another tract.
for it is still available; George who, after Their painstaking effort to suggest a
numerous allusions to his certainty that Chekhovian texture, would show that:
they will get into trouble at this ranch, the magnificent weaving in of incidental
has still stayed on there; George who background events, references to past de-
goes off of a Saturday evening and leaves tail which seem insignificant but which
Lennie alone with Curley's wife (that the are never accidental nor wasteful.
murder does not happen that night is The fifth scene of Of Mice and Men
merely another of Steinbeck's vagaries). should have beenbut is notsuch a
In fact most of the events seem vagrant. delight. Here we have Lennie, who has
This should be tragedy, but it has no just fondled his puppy to death (and
stature. Its authenticity lies in its small whom by now we know quite well) and
talk, not in the consistent development of the girl, Curley's wife, about whom we
a theme. have accidentally learned a good deal. Up
The best projected character is to this point the story of the girl has been
George, the little man, played by Sal nicely suggested: there is much tragic hu-
Pizzo, who successfully suggests the un- mor in the character of this little trollop
willing wanderer's galling helplessness who thinks her husband isn't a nice man,
and at the same time his essential manli- who was a natural for the movies but
ness. Wellman Farley, as Lennie, keeps didn't get in them because her old lady
the simpleton hero too much on the one must have stole the letter from the guy in
note of pitiful, clumsy childishness; but Hollywood.
that, as well as the limitations of the These twoboth dull as to wits and
character of Curley's wife (which has in it with a desperate need for communica-
the makings of a great acting part) are tion; and the only communication there

111
can seem to be between them results in very fact that the San Francisco Theatre
the destruction of both. The scene cli- Union produced the play is an occasion
maxes in the girl's murder, of course, and for good cheer. And yet, even with clarifi-
in its way it is an absorbing scene. It is at cation of its dramatic cloudiness, Of
the same time a denunciation of its au- Mice and Men would still be only a study
thor. It becomes at once apparent that the of men, not of classes. Is it possible that
background, as essential as the seen hap- the left wing theatre really wants a play
penings, is only an accident. The impres- like that?
sion given is that Steinbeck had to have a
girl for Lennie to kill, and in a workman-
like desire for verisimilitude he knew the
girl had to have a background, just as she Brooks Atkinson.
had to have soft hair; so he looked in his "John Steinbeck's Of
notebook and pulled out a girl, probably
an actual girl he had talked to. Mice and Men in a
But this real girl leaps out of the note- Production Staged by
book, and the fugitive but moving events
of her background completely dwarf the
George S. Kaufman."
events we see. That she is choked to New York Times,
death seems beside the point. 24 November 1937,
Let the girl live and speak her real
piece! Let Lennie live! Why does their au- p. 20.
thor hurry to put them under the
ground? Or if he must kill them let him
at least not do it wantonly! He does not Having a story to tell in Of Mice and
know what dynamite he has in those Men, John Steinbeck has told it with reti-
characters. Nor does the so-called left- cence and integrity, and the theatre has
wing theatre know what it has. And ex- had the genius to look at it from his
actly because, in the case of the left-wing point of view. Although the performance
theatre, it does not know what it wants. which opened at the Music Box last
. . . The one thing the left theatre evening makes no artistic pretensions, it
knows it wants, and gets, is "agit prop" is art in the keenness of its expression.
plays. It does them well, witness Waiting Mr. Steinbeck has caught on paper two
for Lefty. But if it chooses to be anything odd and lovable farm vagrants whose
more than a high-powered propaganda fate is implicit in their characters. As the
device for class consciousness it must go director, George S. Kaufman has put it
farther than that. It must want great on the stage with consummate adroit-
plays. When they appear it may not be ness. Although many people may shy
able to produce them adequately but it away from the starkness of the fable,
must recognize them. If it does not, no every one will admire the honesty of
one will, because the modern great play, the author's mind and the clarity of its
when it does appear, is going to break statement in the theatre. There is consid-
molds, be searching to express a new hu- erable magnificence in the tight-lipped
man consciousness. telling of this singular tragedy in the
Of Mice and Men is certainly not a comradeship of two footloose men.
great play, although, just as certainly, it Mr. Steinbeck first told it in a compact
has in it the raw material of one. The novel that startled the bookshops about a

112
year ago. The comrades are George, a staged it. Wallace Ford's George is a mar-
likable farm laborer in the West, and vel of patience, courage and griefcasual
Lennie, a huge, powerful, feeble-minded and sincere. Broderick Crawford's lum-
youth with a sweet humility in his nature. bering Lennie is the perfect counterpart
Out of George's loyalty and manly for- in uncomprehending earnestness and
bearance and Lennie's pathetic helpless- good-will. John F. Hamilton brings a
ness an interdependence has grown up third figure into the compact with his
that is fine and rudely affectionate. portrait of a defeated field laborer who
George keeps Lennie straight by vigilant grasps at straws for deliverance. Claire
understanding. But it is a lost cause from Luce acts vividly the part of a restless
the beginning, for Lennie's poor, dumb wife who cannot abide her husband. As
impulses of love result in death. He kills the best mule-skinner on the place, Will
the mice he loves. He kills the puppy he Geer plays with a wholesomeness that
loves. Finally, he kills the woman who gives further scope to the tragedy. Sam
lets him stroke her hair. A lynching posse Byrd, Walter Baldwin, Charles Slattery,
sets out after him with firearms. Recog- Thomas Findlay and Leigh Whipper
nizing the hopelessness of defending complete the tale with able acting in the
Lennie any further, George kills him as other parts.
mercifully as he can. In designing the outdoor and ranch
If the story were callously told the building sets, Donald Oenslager has cap-
conclusion might be unbearable. But Mr. tured the natural beauty against which
Steinbeck has told it with both compas- this rueful fable is told. By the complete-
sion and dexterity. The patient comrade- ness of their sympathy, all the workmen
ship is developed in a series of homely associated with this production have
episodes, conveyed in the vernacular of turned Of Mice and Men into a master-
two lonely men blundering around their piece of the New York stage.
small world. In the bunkhouse of a ranch
in California the story ensnares some
other rootless lives and expands into
dreams of a glorious deliverance. Al- Russell Rhodes.
though Mr. Steinbeck's talent is for spare- "The Stage at Eve."
ness in expression, he is a virtuoso in the
free-hand sketching of a narrative. Under Where to Go [New York],
the comedy and the gusto of ranch life 1 December 1937, p. 7.
the note of doom is constantly echoing,
and the tragic conclusion is foreshad-
owed in the first scene of the play. Of Intelligent playgoing was resumed last
Mice and Men is the dark side of an idyll. week when George S. Kaufman, the
Out of some tatterdemalion simplicities theatre's miracle man at reticent home-
comes a rushing of the fates. spun dialogue, etched John Steinbeck's
If Mr. Steinbeck's talent is for pithy tragic tale of loneliness among the bar-
statement, he has met his match in the ley hustlers of Central California across
laconical Mr. Kaufman, who also works an artist's parchment at the Music Box
best in that way. He has cast the play under the banner of Sam H. Harris.
with assurance of choice, and, excepting Steinbeck's novel is packed to the hilt
the off-stage sounds of wild life and hus- with stark, repressed emotiona gaunt
bandry in the barns, he has brilliantly story that Steinbeck himself has trans-

113
lated in dramatic dialogue with a shrewd and Men must go into the record as
sense of theatre unusual in a novelist. For a high spot of the current Broadway
its staging, no better talent could have season....
been found than Kaufman, who has an
understanding genius for phrases that cut
like a knife. He has cast his characters
flawlessly. Grenville Vernon.
Of Mice and Men bristles with pro- "Of Mice and Men."
fanity and the vulgar speech of drifting
vagabonds. The Catholic White List cen- Commonweal, 27
sor would shear it to ribbons after hear- (10 December 1937),
ing the opening speeches and turn a
professionally deaf ear to the rest. But its 191-2.
honesty pierces, for this is vastly more
than a shocker from the garbage heap
of lost men. George, the strong, is a Those who have read John Steinbeck's
dreamer who wants a little place of his novel realize that a new and original tal-
own, where there'll be no more toil. ent has risen in the literary world. Of
Lennie, a great hulking giant with an Mice and Men is not a pleasant story. It
idiot's brain, depends for his very exist- deals with a group of men and one
ence upon George. There is a genuine woman who are not in the genteel tradi-
link of affection between these two. tion, and the chief protagonist, Lennie, is
Lennie wants something to love, but a half-wit. To tell the story of these
whatever he touches dies. His unwitting people, most of whom belong to the
strength kills a mouse, a puppy and the flotsam and jetsam of the world, is a
brazen hussy whose hair he fondles. difficult thing to do without offense
When the posse attempts to track him against the basic decencies of art, yet Mr.
down George kills him in a bush, like a Steinbeck by his sense of pathos and his
lion despatching a cub. poetic feeling robbed some of the story of
Were this all to Of Mice and Men, it its unpleasantness, informing the tale
would be nothing less than cheap melo- with tragedy and pity. In short, Mr.
drama. But Steinbeck has crammed it Steinbeck is not just another hard-boiled
with a homely philosophy and the fragile, realist, but a poet sensitive to the plight
half-articulate dreams of men lost in the of the unfortunate and underprivileged,
flotsam and jetsam of life. Wallace Ford of those inarticulate men and women,
as George is a marvel of forbearance; without roots or basic intelligence, who
Broderick Crawford displays hitherto un- are one of the chief problems of Ameri-
expected gifts in his portrayal of the can civilization. Out of this novel Mr.
fumbling Lennie; Claire Luce is a shrill Steinbeck has fashioned a play holding
siren-tramp; John F. Hamilton, as the the essential spirit of the book, a drama
crippled Candy, turns in another one of of suspense and brooding tragedy. More-
his unforgettably crisp characterizations. over, George S. Kaufman has cast and di-
Donald Oenslager's sets for the Sali- rected it superbly. It throbs with life and
nas River bank, the bunkhouse and the is permeated with an implicit poetry.. ..
barn fit the picture and mood admirably. So far Of Mice and Men deserves
The only discordant notes are the ridicu- praise and only praise. But then comes
lous forest and barnyard noises. Of Mice the matter of the dialogue. It is true to

114
life, at times poetic, utterly dramatic, but mains for any critic to say upon this level
is none the less appalling. It is unques- of criticism, and it is hardly worth dis-
tioned that the people of Mr. Steinbeck's cussing either novel or dramatization any
creation would use the language allotted farther unless one is willing to go on to
them, but are such people fitted for dra- ask how genuine either the one or the
matic representation unexpurgated in other really is. Many critics have already
their speech? Mr. Steinbeck has made found in both a combination of high
their language less brutal than it would imagination, stunning reality, and a most
be in real life, but it is to be wished that ineffable tenderness. I found, I must con-
the dramatist had gone farther, and fess, only great adroitness and a sense, so
employed suggestion rather than bald acute as to constitute genius of one par-
statement. To say everything violates the ticular kind, of what a particular public
canons not only of good taste but of art wants at a particular moment. Of Mice
itself. Of Mice and Men is an unusual and Men puts its author in the topmost
play, but it would have been an even bet- class of popular writers. It does not, I
ter one had it allowed less license to its think, lift him out of that class.
language. .. . Unfortunately, so far as the effective
presentation of my own case goes, it is
difficult to tell the story without seeming
to be doing it a deliberate injustice. It is,
Joseph Wood Krutch. as doubtless most of the reading public
"Oh, Hell, Said the already knows, concerned with a strange
friendship between two migratory har-
Duchess." vest workers, one of whom is a witless
Nation, 145 but amiable giant given to fondling all
soft and helpless things with a hand so
(11 December 1937), unintentionally heavy that, sooner or
663-4. later, he infallibly breaks their necks. The
theme is tenderness taking strange forms
in a brutal environment, and the dra-
matic tension arises out of our fore-
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men has knowledge of the fact that at some time
been lifted from between the covers of his and for some reason the heavy hand will
book and set down upon the stage of the be laid with fatal results upon the camp's
Music Box Theater. Very little change in only member of the female sexa pa-
even the order of events proved neces- thetic little nymphomaniac married to the
sary, and what one gets in the theatre boss's cruel son. All the grotesqueness in-
is almost the total effect of the short herent in the tale is emphasized rather
novel plus the additional vividness of than concealed (we first meet the strange
fine, imaginative sets, expert direction, pair when the giant is being unwillingly
and highly accomplished performances. deprived of a dead mouse he has been
No wonder, then, that the play is already keeping too long in his pocket), but the
established as the solidest dramatic suc- skill of the writing is such that the whole
cess of the season, for the novel itself was is carried off far better than one could
something of a sensation and the dra- well imagine and that success is absolute
matic version now contributes additional in so far as it consists merely in forc-
elements of obvious appeal. Little re- ing the spectator to take the whole with

115
perfect seriousness. The only question is supplies. Flavor your sentiment with
the question whether he is right so to those and the public is sure that it has got
take it, whether what we are presented the real thing at last.. . .
with is really a tale of eerie power and
tenderness, or whether, as it seems to me,
everything from beginning to end is com-
pletely "literary" in the bad sense and as Brooks Atkinson.
shamelessly cooked up as, let us say, the "Episode in the Lower
death of Little Nell.
After all, Dickens, as well as thou- Depths.55
sands of his readers, sincerely believed New York Times,
that Little Nell was the real thing, and
there lies a fascinating but largely unex- 12 December 1937,
plored field ready for any psychologist- Section 11, p. 3.
critic who wishes to examine the reasons
behind the demand of every age that sen-
timent be served up according to some
formula the peculiar charm of which no After speaking contemptuously of the
previous age would have recognized and commercial theatre on many occasions,
which every succeeding age finds patently this column is prepared to eat its words
ridiculous. Your Victorian was ready to this morning. Of Mice and Men is the
weep over the fate of any sentimental quintessence of commercial theatre and it
monster if that monster could be de- is also a masterpiece. John Steinbeck,
scribed in sufficiently convincing terms as who first wrote it as a novel, offers it as
"innocent." Today nothing arouses the his first play without artistic bravado.
suspicions of any audience more infalli- George S. Kaufman, who has staged it,
bly than either that word or that thing, never looks at a box office with disdain.
but a tough Little Nell, thoroughly famil- Sam H. Harris, the producer, is in the
iar with four-letter words, would be a theatre to make money with the most
sensation on any stage, and the moronic expert plays he can find. The actors have
giant of Mr. Steinbeck seems real because been hired off the auction block of Broad-
all the accidents of his character and sur- way or Hollywood. Donald Oenslager,
roundings are violent and brutal. Mr. the scene designer, takes the jobs that are
Steinbeck, as I have already suggested, offered him without fastidious quibbling.
writes with great technical adroitness. Although this grim bucolic of Central
But neither that adroitness nor all the California is not sure-fire box office, like
equal expertness of staging and acting ex- Yd Rather Be Right and You Cant Take
hibited in the performance of his play It with You, it appears under the same
would avail if the whole were not con- hard-headed auspices, and the honesty
cocted according to a formula quite as and perfection of the workmanship put it
definite as that proposed in the story cur- in the front rank of the new plays pro-
rent a decade ago and recalled in the title duced this year.
of this review. It is not exactly aristoc- When the theatre falls on lean days it
racy, profanity, and sex which is called retreats to Shakespeare and adaptations of
for at the present moment, but it is novels. The recrudescence of Shakespeare,
toughness, violence, and just the soupc.on the staging of new versions of old plays
of social criticism which Mr. Steinbeck and of plays based on novels are signs of

116
the theatre's loss of spontaneity. Of Mice pens; Mr. Steinbeck, once started, has no
and Men, however, is no product of choice. To be technical about it, Of Mice
weariness. As nearly every one knows and Men is a perfect work of art.
by now, Mr. Steinbeck first wrote it as The shattered playgoer may soothe
a novel with the stage in mind. The econ- himself a little by remembering that, after
omy of the story, the unity of the mood, all, the story Mr. Steinbeck is chronicling
the simple force of the characters, the is no more than an episode in the stupen-
tang of the dialogue are compactly dra- dous pattern of life. Not all dogs have
matic, and Of Mice and Men is not to be shot as deliberately as Candy's
theatre at second hand. Since I did not blind and moldy cur who stinks up the
read the novel until after seeing the play, bunkhouse unbearably. Not all feeble-
it was all fresh to me and infinitely mov- minded boys have to be shot by their
ingan isolated chapter in life, but one most loyal comrades. Although Of Mice
that is somberly beautiful. Although the and Men is written as skillfully as Ma-
novel contains a few descriptions of a na- dame Bovary and Ethan Frome, it is
ture which the theatre cannot use, they lacking in scope and universal meaning
are merely crisp evocations of tone which and it has no general significance. We
the theatre captures without speaking a may be terrified by the swiftness with
word. What was in the book is now to be which Mr. Steinbeck's furies ride, but
seen and heard on the stage, admirably we are not purged by it or rebuked.
vitalized in the patient and subdued act- Compare it with O'Neill's dour and
ing of Broderick Crawford, Wallace Ford gnarled Desire Under the Elms, in which
and John F. Hamilton and in the selfless the characters are larger than life and the
direction of Mr. Kaufman. morbid passions are expressions of man
In less scrupulous hands Of Mice and in conflict with nature. Of Mice and Men
Men might have degenerated into a chill- is tragedy without that much compass.
ing shocker. The dialogue could be scan- But the charge that the characters are
dalous if it were a less honest expression ignoble shows obtuseness to the effort
of male life in a ranch bunkhouse. The George, Candy and Slim make to live
"mercy killing" that concludes the play as honorably as they can according to
might be sadistic or cheaply sensational. their poor enlightenment. They do as
If Lennie were played with less compas- well as they know how, which is an im-
sion by Mr. Crawford, he might be the provement on the behavior of many of
sort of lumbering monster the meretri- their superiors. Although George, Lennie
cious theatre likes to truckle with to and Candy are a shiftless, drifting lot,
draw gasps out of the gaping public. But they are driven onward, like most human
the supreme virtue of the story, on the beings, by pathetically imagined dreams
stage as well as in print, is the lyric per- of peace and comfort and a life of
fection of all these rude materialsthe their own. Out of their loneliness rises
violence springing naturally out of the anguished talk of a better day. Mr.
situation and the bawdy dialogue tum- Steinbeck's characters have more stature
bling without self-consciousness out of than the chaotic situation into which
the mouths and minds of "bindle-stiffs." they fall.
Although you may resent the tragedy and Although Mr. Kaufman is celebrated
the harrowing of your feelings, you can- for his wit and his craftsmanlike facility
not retort that it is false or gratuitous. in stage direction, admit Of Mice and
Given these materials, this is what hap- Men as evidence of the fact that he can

117
also enter into the spirit of a fine play while her husband is on a rampage about
and give it the most humble sort of his husband-honor, planning at length to
expression. Apart from the casting, the run away, and ironically killed by the
performance is meticulously and affec- crazy man, or freak, whatever you want
tionately modulated; the silences are to call him. There is the same projection
as eloquent as anything Mr. Steinbeck into a kind of lurid unreality, expressed
has said in the play. Mr. Crawford's meek in terms of a violent realism in detail and
and bewildered Lennie, Mr. Ford's bellig- circumstances.
erent George, with his warm heart and How one might describe Of Mice and
forbearing nature, Mr. Hamilton's bro- Men as we get it at the Music Box I do
ken bunkhouse swamper and Leigh Whip- not know; I have never seen a play quite
per's acrimonious Negro stableman are like it, have no previous acquaintance
remarkable portraits of character. It is with the nature of its suspenses, or with
seldom that distinctive acting and indi- the curious artistic satisfaction that its
vidual voices merge so quietly into a development affords. But from that last
whole. Although the commercial theatre point its quality derives, I am sure of
is seldom inspired, it has produced Of that. That is to say you never quite recog-
Mice and Men as though it were grateful nize or believe the characters or the
for a chance to serve a distinguished active moments; the speech is not com-
piece of work. A theatre-goer may find pelling as an actual, sharp recording out
the story heartbreaking, but in all hon- of life; the locale is not borne in on you
esty he cannot suggest a kinder way of as exactly literal, as inevitable realism, an
telling it. indisputable entity. But the whole of it
seems to come off right in its own kind. It
remains artifice, theatre, a work of art;
but it loses nothing by it. It loses nothing
Stark Young. in compulsion, projection, mood. Good
or only pretty good, it turns out to be
"Two from the Novel." one of the few plays these several seasons
New Republic, 93 that know their own mind, though you
may or may not like that mind, which is
(15 December 1937), another issue entirely. The repetition of
170-1. motifs is bold and insistent, as in the first
scene, for instance, where three or four
things are said over and over with star-
. . . Of Mice and Men, rewritten for the tling assertion of sheer pattern in theme
stage by the author himself, follows its and style. The total mood of the play
novel more closely than is commonly the dominates all else; all actuality, forward
case. There are the two men, one a defec- movement, detailed record, character
tive, the other cherishing and guarding analysis, are superseded by the design
him, and their story retains its character that establishes this play's inner and
and its leading importance. The compact outer force.
impression of the work as a whole is car- Of Mice and Men would appear by
ried over from book into theatre. The report to be drawing what is known as
single love motif is still secondary: that carriage trade, which on Times Square
of the restless wife, shut off in the loneli- might mean society people and otherwise
ness of the ranch, eyeing the other men might imply a certain sophistication. There

118
was a suggestion of this kind of audience
the night I saw the play; and a part of Joseph Henry Jackson.
them when things got hot seemed to be
getting out of it something of the kick of "A Bookman's
the Grand Guignol; others took it as a Notebook."
shocker, while others took it as a picture
from life, and others yet as, whatever
San Francisco Chronicle,
else, vivid theatre. But the attention was 18 December 1937, p. 8.
remarkable. The whole play turned out
to be an absorbing work of theatre art.
Meanwhile it must be said that the
evening might much more likely have San FranciscoThe play version of John
been regarded as preposterous, to say the Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is finally
least, had not the way been prepared for out and on sale at the bookstores. The
it by such a piece as Tobacco Road, play, as you doubtless know, opened in
Compared to Tobacco Road, Of Mice New York on November 23, and was al-
and Men has a much less vivid, basic and most unanimously voted a fine thing by
promising speechrooted English idiom, the critics.
shall we say, tang of the soil, heat and I write "almost unanimously" because
authenticity of blood. It has a less genu- I have just read in The Nation the re-
ine and far less vivid locale, and less liv- marks of Joseph Wood Krutch who
ing color and variety; and it has less of an doesn't seem quite sure about it all. He
immediate social application. It has far writes, "I found (in the play), I must
less bounce, gusty relish, scope and tren- confess, only great adroitness and a
chant humor; and less of the outline of sense, so acute as to constitute genius of
significant fable. Nevertheless it survives one particular kind, of what a particular
the comparison, and holds its own, in its public wants at a particular moment.
own kind. A comparison arises also with Of Mice and Men puts its author in
Little OV Boy, a play three or four sea- the topmost class of popular writers. It
sons back that quickly failed but that left does not, I think, lift him out of that
with those who saw it an impression of class." Later, Mr. Krutch adds: "The
directing by Mr. Joe Losey and acting by question is whether what we are pre-
Mr. Burgess Meredith that was unforget- sented with is really a tale of eerie power
table. Of Mice and Men is more secure, and tenderness, or whether, as it seems to
single, and as to mood more successfully me, everything from beginning to end is
calculated and stamped. completely 'literary' in the bad sense, and
as shamelessly cooked up as the death of
Little Nell."

As for Little Nell, anyone will agree, I

suppose, that her death was "cooked
up." Dickens was, if you like, a cooker-
upper. (That there is anything "shame-
less" about "cooking up"in the case of
Dickens or anyone elseis another mat-
ter. Mr. Krutch is disingenuous in his use
of the term here; he employs it with

119
much the same effect as that of the first emphasis on such cheap physical charm
syllable of damyankee. "Cooking up" as the subject may possess. That was all
may or may not be "shameless." It de- Curley's wife knew. But that doesn't
pends, one would think, on the end to make her a harlot, nor (of all silliness) a
which the cooked up mess was concocted.) "nymphomaniac."
But the point is not the use-for-
effect of the term "shamelessly." The What I'm driving at, is that, having
point is that Mr. Krutch is confused. missed this you would be bound to miss
Steinbeck, he writes, has at least one Steinbeck's tenderness toward the girl
quality "so as acute as to constitute gen- who was Curley's wife; a cheap, not very
ius." But Steinbeck is also not "out of the bright little thing, not vicious in the true
class of popular writers." Still further, sense at all but just, so to put it, a poor
Mr. Krutch feels that he . . . isn't sure. little tart, as Steinbeck meant her to be
There is a question in his mind. Is the and knows she is. And if you miss his
play "really" powerful or is itI suppose understanding of the girl and tenderness
"really"bad? with her, then you may as well miss it
elsewhere, and so come to wonder (as
Without doubt it is sometimes a difficult Mr. Krutch does) whether there is "re-
thing to make up one's mind. I am not ally" any tenderness in the play.
blaming Mr. Krutch for his confusion; Certainly Steinbeck is adroit, as Mr.
rather I feel he deserves full marks for Krutch suggests. Certainly he writes skill-
admitting it. But in his review he com- fully and brilliantly. But that the quality
pletely misses one thing which, I believe, of either the book or the play proceeds
contributes in some degree at least to his out of any idea of deliberately giving
unsettled state of mind. The single point a particular public the particular thing
is not all of it, but it is important. it wants at the momentthat simply
That is the nature of the girl, Curley's isn't so.
wife. Mr. Krutch may be sure that the "eerie
Mr. Krutch is not alone in failing to power and tenderness" are there"re-
understand her. The Literary Digest's re- ally." The notion of giving a particular
viewer, for example, calls her a "harlot." public what it wants at a particular mo-
Mr. Krutch calls her a "nymphomaniac." ment is not in Steinbeck's book or play
What they both miss is that Curley's wife anywhere. If any writers have that idea
is neither of these things. She is simply a nowadays you are more likely to find
stupid young girl with a good-sized dash them among the "proletarian" writers on
of the tart in her. Tens of thousands of "proletarian" themes, from whose agi-
technically "good" girls are no better. tated typewriters come the "literary in
And, missing this, you miss much more. the bad sense" novels and plays for
You miss, chiefly, the truth about her which the leftist critics are so fond of
hanging round the bunkhouse. Steinbeck finding good words.
explains it clearly: "Curley's wife a little
wearily, dropping her coquetry: 'I'm jus'
lookin' for somebody to talk to. Don't
you never jus' want to talk to some-
body?'" Certainly. The girl wanted just
that: to talk to somebody. With that type,
"talk" implies a more or less unconscious

120
 by Claire Luce) is a harlot. When she
"Theatre: A Completely screams, suspecting the usual thing, her
screams terrify him. He tries to keep her
Satisfying American Play." quiet. Lennie is a big and stupid man. He
Literary Digest, 124 doesn't know his small gesture has
crushed her to death.
(18 December 1937), 34. This is the point toward which the
play drives mercilessly. George, Lennie's
small, smart friend who has always cared
A great play has reached Broadwaya for him and gotten him out of scrapes,
play of lowly, cast-off men, whose stark has but one course. He spares Lennie a
emotions have tamed testy critics and vengeful lynching by shooting him in the
tired audiences into stunned reverence. It back while he talks happily of the rabbit
is the dramatization of John Steinbeck's farm George has promised to get them. A
best seller, Of Mice and Men. The mil- rock would crack at that scene.
lions whom the novel hypnotized have The scenes take place in and around a
but one question: Does the play make California ranch. Men come when there
George and Lennie and their friends real is work, move on to the next spot when
with the mighty brutality and overpower- the job is done. Their language is lusty
ing tenderness of the book? It does. and forthright, but never obscene. In the
The hulking, stupid, well-meaning words of Richard Watts, Jr., New York
brute, Lennie, creates the situation in his Herald Tribune critic, "there is no line in
first speeches. "Guys like us," he ob- it that does not possess the true ring of
serves to George, "guys like us what work authenticity." It is a play for adults, not
on ranches are the loneliest guys in the for children or bigots seeking the secret
world. They got no family. They don't thrill of naughty words.
belong no place." A fair share of praise goes to the ver-
Then, breaking off with the look of a satile and prodigious George S. Kaufman,
trusting animal, he says: "With us it ain't for his directing. He has stressed every
like that. We got a future. We got some- chance for realism. Wallace Ford, once
body who gives a damn about us. An' of Hollywood and The Informer, fires
why? Because I got you to look after me George with the deep and unaccountable
and you got me to look after you, and friendship which caused him to waste his
that's why." life protecting Lennie. The robust, kindly
The tone is set. With that Mr. Steinbeck mule skinner, the disillusioned Negro
and his actors proceed relentlessly to un- who reads books in the barn because the
fold the tragedy of loneliness that errs whites won't have him, and particularly
unwittingly in its immense craving for Candy (played by John F. Hamilton)
affection. Lennie wants love and beauty are fine and moving characterizations.
so desperately that he takes a field mouse Broderick Crawford, son of the famed
and the stroking of his giant hands kills comedienne, Helen Broderick, takes what
it. Lennie loves the warmth of young ani- must be the most difficult acting assign-
mals, so he nestles a puppy until his ca- ment in recent years, as Lennie, and
resses choke it. Lennie worships beauty makes it a creation of stature. There
in women, and it is natural to him to run would be no play if Lennie lost the affec-
his hands through a woman's silken hair. tion of the audience.
But she (the boss's son's wife, played The author, John Steinbeck, at thirty-

121
five, lives in California with his wife. As a the book and the actual production,
boy he worked on ranches with these those elements of the piece that lend
very tramp laborers. He came to New themselves to sensationalism and to false
York in 1920 as a reporter, ended up car- emphasis. (Are these not often the same
rying bricks, and went back west to be a thing?) And yet (to underscore a more
watchman. violent disagreement with virtually the
Of Mice and Men has been justly de- whole sanhedrin of New York critics), as
scribed as "the first completely satisfying in the case of Ben Hecht's unlucky To
American play of the season." Quito and Back, I feel that the faults are
far outweighed by the virtues. In the case
of Steinbeck's play, indeed, I feel that we
have, with whatever reservations may be
Isaac Goldberg. made, a true tragedy.
"Drama and Dramatists." As I see it, Of Mice and Men is a fable
of human aloneness, complicated by hu-
One Act Play, 1 man incapacity and misunderstanding.
(January 1938), 858-9. There is not a truly "evil" person in
the story; there is not a truly "evil" mo-
tive. All the harm that is done comes,
not from human perversity, but from hu-
Not being of that gentry whose opinions, man ineptitude. The embrace of love be-
to them, are sacred, I can with the greater comes the embrace of strangulation.
ease discuss deviations from those opin- Wilde, writing his ballad in Reading
ions. I am immensely interested in the Gaol, knew that fatal caress. The case of
differences that divide the critics in the Lennie is, in its way, a pathological sym-
case of John Steinbeck's play, Of Mice bol. It reaches deep down into the human
and Men, Gentlemen such as Messrs. psyche, however. It has its patent refer-
Krutch and Gassner, for example, are ence to the sanest of us, just as the crimi-
among those to whom I always look for nal in the cell has his patent reference to
stimulating discussions of the current the most law-abiding.
drama. When one of them finds the For these people, even for the bluster-
Steinbeck play "literary" in the bad sense ingly self-revealing Curley and for his
of that term and when the other finds a wife whose frustrated tenderness takes
character such as Lennie too abnormal, the form of an inciting snarl, one feels a
too psychopathic, for the dignity of trag- sad pity. The end of the play is foreshad-
edy, it is to me, as a critic, interesting and owed at the very beginning, not only in
even important. Agreement with one's the structural skill with which the action
own opinion is, naturally, flattering; is articulated, but in the impossible goal
moreover, it soothes. Disagreement, how- that these derelicts have all set for them-
ever, is stimulating, and by no means al- selves: a goal that becomes communal in
ways in the disagreeable sense. its aims as it becomes, in the end, com-
My feeling about Of Mice and Men is munal in its defeat. It is not strange that
that it is one of the most important dra- Lennie's vision of a Utopia should infect
mas to have reached our stage in many the others. They all have a touch of
years. I can see, I can feel, the force of Lennie in them. Soand this is one of
Mr. Krutch's and Mr. Gassner's respective the pointshave you and I. It is, to me, a
objections. I can appreciate, from both serious mistake to sit back from these

122
misfits in the belief that they are too
far removed from us to have relevancy. Euphemia Wyatt.
This is a cycle of human destruction
destruction of others, and of self. A theo- "The Drama,"
logian might say that each wanted love, Catholic World, 146
but wanted it not enough, or wanted not
enough of it. A psychologist might say (January 1938), 468-9.
that they feared love too much. They
are at that stage in civilization when
the stranger is the enemy because he has . . . Few recent books have raised such
not yet proved himself the friend. It is stormy arguments. The eloquent reviews
a stagewitness Europe and Asia and lured me to open it last spring but the
the United Statesthat we have not first few pages so nauseated me that I
yet outgrown. But surely no one who couldn't bear to keep it in my room over
cannot forget the action of the children night. But all summer, gentle elderly la-
in Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, when dies would declare that it was one of the
they hasten the death of their doomed most beautiful stories they knew. When it
mother, should misunderstand the end came to reviewing the play the Harris of-
of Steinbeck's tale, when George kills fice advised my taking a shock absorber
Lennie. It is possible to kill from love as with me.. . .
well as from hate. George is more articu- Technically the play has the simplest
late than Lennie, but almost as confused. and best construction of any on the boards
And every other man in the action is and has quite enough inherent power and
quite as guilty as Georgejust as guilty atmosphere to make its oaths and its
as if he, and not George, had pulled the starkly naked dialogue so much excess
trigger. Just as guilty, and, who knows, horror. Twice I put my fingers in my ears
just as merciful. when I was afraid of a story told in the
There is, in the tale as it unfolds a bunkhouse so I will never know just how
healing terror, a scarifying pity. Although bad it is. The sacrilege of the oaths is
the play takes place upon the deceptive something that should be discussed by
plane of reality, it does achieve, for many some Christian Committee with the Pro-
spectators, and with a cast of humble ducing Managers' Association.
toilers, that tragic effect which the Greeks The hunger of the three men, George
achieved with a cast of gods and almost and Lennie and old crippled Candy, for
superhuman beings. These lowly figures a home, cuts to the heart and the pause
tread their way to a predestined doom as that is held when Candy's old lame dog
surely as any Oedipus, any Electra. Not is taken out to be shot, breaks records
since the coming of O'Neill has any for length and intensity. Wallace Ford,
American playwright so infused his Broderick Crawford and John F. Hamilton
drama with a seemingly inevitable ca- all do extraordinary characterizations. If
tastrophe. Of Mice and Men is a hit it will not nec-
I am not a box-office critic, nor do I essarily mean that this generation is de-
take it that one of the functions of criti- praved in its tastes but it does mean that
cism is prophecy. But my eye is upon Mr. it has strong nerves for suffering and no
John Steinbeck. And some of my hope. shame. The play has the sense of impend-
ing doom of the old tragedies and all the
pitifulness of the present....

123
Grenville Vernon. A.D.
"The Prize Plays." "Music, Stage, and
Commonweal, 28 Films."
(3 June 1938), 161. Manchester Guardian,
13 April 1939, p. 11.
. . . [Of] Mice and Men is a tragedy, but
despite the fact that it deals with the
flotsam and jetsam of life, and that there Mr. John Steinbeck's dramatisation of his
are passages offensive to good taste, it is own short novel Of Mice and Men was
informed with a sense of pity and a sup- presented to-night at the Gate Theatre.
pressed poetry of feeling. Mr. Steinbeck, Doubt is expressed whether the censor
unlike his brother proletarian writers, is will ever be persuaded to license for pub-
not a materialist; it might even be as- lic production a play which is wholly
serted that he is not a realist. He has an couched in the strong language of a Cali-
acute feeling of the spiritual quality in the fornian ranch. A censorship which has al-
submerged, and he writes dialogue which ready permitted Mr. Eugene O'Neill's
while realistic is often poetic. He has stokehold exchanges can hardly raise
moreover an unusual power of making objections to Mr. Steinbeck's dialogue.
his characters one with their surround- There are land mice as well as water
ings, of permeating them with the life of mice, as Shylock so nearly said, and it
nature. In his depiction of life in flux, would not be logical to find one more
without bearings, and without founda- offensive than the other.
tion, he expresses as no other writer the The gist of Mr. Steinbeck's play, as of
tragic side of the America created by an his tale, is that passage in which the
industrial civilization. His people have short, wiry, nimble-minded George de-
fled the city, and yet have found no rest scribes to his fellow-wanderer, the vast,
or haven in their rural stopping places. iron-handed, half-witted Lennie, exactly
They are not lovely, and they are ap- the order to which both, in spite of their
pallingly dumb, but despite their impo- mental and physical dissimilarity, belong.
tence they are blindly groping toward the "Guys like us that work on ranches are
light. Some have even a nobility, though the loneliest guys in the world. They got
a nobility twisted and inhibited. They no family. They don't belong no place.
suffer, not only in their bodies but in their They come to a ranch an' work up a
souls. It is this realization that a stake, an' then they go inta town and
human being has a soul which raises blow their stake, and the first thing you
Mr. Steinbeck head and shoulders as a know they're poundin' their tail on some
thinker and an artist above the herd who other ranch. They ain't got nothin' to
have stemmed from Hemingway. . . . look ahead to."
George and Lennie do, however, nour-
ish a fond prospect of owning a cottage,
a cow, and a couple of acres all their
own. There must also at the heart of this
mirage be rabbits in a hutch, because

124
Lennie has a childish urge to fondle soft almost impossible for Miss Luce to lie
things like rabbits, puppy dogs, velvets, convincingly strangled for twenty min-
and the heads of young women, who utes and quite impossible for us to be-
screamingly misunderstand him and get lieve that these moilers and toilers and
him into trouble. When Lennie finds him- slayers on a Californian outpost could
self in trouble he has not mind enough to have hands so white and finger-nails so
do anything but squeeze the protesting well tended.
object. He has been in trouble before
the play begins and he meets a spot of
dire trouble in the shape of the far-too-
elaborate young wife of Curley, his new "Gate Theatre."
boss. Lennie, in his stumbling way,
breaks this insidious siren's neck, and
London Times,
George at the end is obliged to shoot his 13 April 1939, p. 10.
friend rather than let the husband do it.
The scene of this sacrifice is the wood-
land pool at which the story opened. The strength of this play, which has won
This gives the play, as it does to the for itself a high reputation in the United
novel, an admirable pattern. The novel States, lies not in any subtlety of thought,
itself being brief, tense, and highly dra- but in the plainness of its statement and
matic, the transition to the stage has been in the impression it unfailingly gives of
almost direct with hardly any addition, adhering to fact without embroidery or
subtraction, or adjustment. But whereas distortion. If it were to be compared with
the book quite masterfully avoids senti- certain French plays that have been given
mentality the play splashes into the mo- at the Gate Theatrewith the work of
rass at least twice. The episode, for Monsieur Mauriac, for exampleit
example, of an aged dog having to be might appear young and crude, young
shot is quite embarrassingly irrelevant in aesthetically in its love of violence, and
the play and the production overstresses crude in the simplicity of its comment
the emotion of this convocation of tough upon the nature of man; but such a com-
ranchers at so necessary an event. The parison would be unjust to it, for Mr.
tenderness, the grief and pain, and the Steinbeck's work is different from Mon-
promised joy of all the essential part of sieur Mauriac's, not only in treatment,
the story are, on the other hand, surpass- but in purpose. His desire is, above all
ingly well communicated. Mr. Norman else, to stir his audience by direct and
Marshall has here directed a cleverly simplified narrative to obtain his effects
chosen cast with notable skill. Mr. John by the use of swift and vigorous dramatic
Mills is right as George, Mr. Niall outline.
MacGinnis has a large amount of the He is writing of two Californian tramps,
dumb pathos necessary for Lennie, Miss George and Lennie, who obtain work
Claire Luce repeats her New York suc- on a farm. Lennie is a good-natured
cess of the wild carnation of a woman, giant with a sub-normal mind. His great
and Mr. Nicholas Stuart is absolutely strength is dangerous, for he is incapable
authentic as the most amiable of the of controlling it, and George has made
maudlin toughs. But perhaps the present himself responsible for this vast babyish
theatre is too small for so vivid and vio- man. On the farm is a girl, the young
lent a play. Its minuteness makes it wife of the Boss's son, who, being lonely,

125
seeks the company of the labourers, not
wishing to stir desire or jealousy in them Derek Verschoyle.
but inevitably doing so. Only the extreme
directness of Mr. Steinbeck's writing and "The Theatre."
of Miss Claire Luce's admirable perfor- Spectator [England], 162
mance could make this character persua-
sive, and persuasive it is. That there will (21 April 1939), 668.
be a clash between Lennie and the girl is
foreseen from the outset. Neither wishes
harm to the other; neither loves or desires Of Mice and Men is an entirely unsubtle
the other; when, at last they are alone to- and extremely effective play. It describes
gether, the girl talks of her life and Lennie an episode in the lives of two young
of his, neither listening to the other. It is a American casual labourers who arrive to
brilliant piece of dialogue and a good ex- work on a Californian ranch....
ample of Mr. Steinbeck's method. Lennie Of this story a play crude to the point
touches her hair in curiosity and his of vapidity might easily have been made.
clumsy fingers become entangled in it. The material of Of Mice and Men is
She cries out in fear, he, frightened in his crude, and it is not subtle in its methods;
turn, tries to stop her crying and breaks but it is effective because it is never in-
her neck by mistake. He escapes, is pur- flated and always gives the impression of
sued, and, by the time his friend George being honest and truthful. In its construc-
finds him, has completely forgotten what tion there is no flaw: granted that from
he has done. He is happy, is looking for- the moment that her existence is men-
ward childishly to the future, when tioned it can be foreseen that the play is
George mercifully shoots him. going to depend on a clash between the
Mr. Niall MacGinnis performs the girl and Lennie, the way in which this
giant's part with the innocence of a theme is developed is perfect. The actual
flawless simplicity. Miss Luce brings to scene in which the two are alone is the
the girl an energy of attack and an emo- best written part of the play. Hitherto the
tional economy that are of great value to girl has made an impression less as a spe-
the play. The events in which they are cific character than merely as an auto-
concerned remain nevertheless open to matic cause of trouble; when she enters
the criticism that they are over-simplified, the barn she becomes for the first time a
and it needs the sympathy and charity of distinct character; she talks excitedly of
Mr. John Mills's treatment of George to her future (she is proposing to run away
give the piece light and shade. George, from her husband), Lennie talks of his;
whose single purpose is to save Lennie quite disinterestedly she invites him to
from himself, and who is to him at once feel the softness of her hair, his clumsi-
nurse and brother and friend, brings to ness makes her panic, there is a short
the tale a warmth and sentiment that are struggle, and in five seconds she is dead.
its salvation. It is a beautifully written scene, so tactful
in its handling that what might have ap-
peared melodramatic seems genuinely
tragic. The real tragedy in this play is
not that of the girl who dies nor that of
the man who kills her; it is that of
George who has striven so long to save

126
Lennie from disaster; but while the play one can hope for at any rate six months
lasts it seems that the tragedy is also for it in London.
theirs.
In this production every part is well
performed. Mr. John Mills and Mr. Niall
MacGinnis, who play George and Lennie, Desmond MacCarthy.
act extraordinarily well together; and if "The American View of
Mr. MacGinnis's is the more spectacular
performance, it is by the touches of Human Nature."
warmth and sentiment with which Mr. New Statesman and
Mills invests his part, that the play is re-
lieved from the threat of a monotony of Nation [England], 17
mood and temper. Miss Claire Luce (22 April 1939), 605-6.
played the solitary girl with beautiful
tact, and for lack of space Mr. Sydney
Benson must be singled out from the re-
maining members of a consistently tal- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
ented cast for a portrait of an old man is admirably acted at the Gate Theatre.
which enshrined a legitimate sentiment The play, founded on a successful novel
but avoided mawkishness. Mr. Norman in which, I am told, the Simple Simon
Marshall's production and Mr. Gower has more time to endear himself to read-
Parks's settings were, within the limita- ers, is American; so is the cast. This is
tions of the small Gate Theatre stage, as fortunate since the scene is laid in central
good as one could wish. California, and the types are indigenous.
There is apparently no truth in the Neither the atmosphere nor the charac-
rumour that Of Mice and Men has been ters would have been convincing had
denied by authority the chance of presen- they not been interpreted by actors en-
tation in a London theatre. For it to tirely at home with them. The play itself
be refused a licence would be fantastic; is a sentimental tragedy. By that I mean
and while vapid suggestiveness is habitu- that it touches us rather than moves us
ally given the run of more popular stages, deeply, and that the climax (too easy to
it would be bare hypocrisy to require that foresee) does not awake that strange, still
a line of it should be altered. It is doing exhilaration which springs from looking
the play no service to overpraise it; it fate in the face. It is not the passion of
is not, as it has been declared to be, man that brings about the catastrophe,
a masterpiece, if by that overworked but the accident that the central figure is
term one means a play which achieves a congenital half-wit. Lennie, with his gi-
the most distinguished effects of drama. gantic muscular strength, wasto use the
But its obvious failings are venial com- words of the sister of a lovable village
pared with the mortal sins which beset simpleton I knew myself"not exactly
the generality of modern plays, and its quite all right." And when George, who
merits are precisely those which are to- loves him, is forced to shoot him, because
day most desirable and most uncommon Lennie has absent-mindedly strangled a
on the English stage. It ran for nearly two girlthe chase is up and he would be
years in New York, so the relative pow- lynched unmercifullywe, the audience,
ers of discrimination in American and feel: "Well, it is sad. But in a rough world
English audiences being what they are, where no man has time to be his

127
 brother's keeper, Lennies are a danger dently they are bound together; they are
and better dead." Of Mice and Men is a on their way to a farm where they hope
play hard on the surface and tender to get a job together.. ..
underneath; it is about "tough guys" with Well, thanks to George's speaking up
warm hearts. The confidence of its appeal for him, they both get the jobs they are
to the conviction that at bottom plain hu- seeking. Lennie as a worker gives full
man nature is sound and splendid is char- satisfaction, doing the work of four. But
acteristic of America. This is the deepest unfortunately the son of the "boss" em-
difference between America and Europe. ploying them has married a poor little
In Europe such a feeling is apt to be floosey of a girl, whose only notion of
merely sentimentala pretence which getting into friendly contact with the men
people leading sheltered lives nourish in about her is to give them the glad eye.
themselves because it looks kind and is Her husband, Curley, is a bully who can
comforting. But in America it is instinc- use his fists and isfiercelyjealous. George
tively believed and common property. It and the other hands on the farm are terri-
is the main prop of their traditional pas- fied of getting involved with Curley's
sion for equality and of their generosity. wife, and George warns Lennie against
To-day, it is speaking through the mouth speaking to her. You can guess what hap-
of President Roosevelt. It is the most pens. . . . The great merit of Of Mice and
heartening element in the make-up of Men is the way in which it conveys that
a suspicion-ridden modern world. The these "tough guys" need above every-
grudging response it meets here (often to thing some outlet for affection.
the dismay of practical Englishmen who . . . Mr. John Mills plays the part of
are eager to make use of it) is due to the George, Mr. Niall MacGinnis, Lennie,
reproach generosity of faith conveys. A Mr. Sydney Benson, Candy, admirably;
by-effect of this faith in human nature is and I cannot imagine the parts of the old
that it leaves the American playgoer free negro and Curley's wife (Miss Claire
to revel in a surface cynicism of comment Luce) being more completely filled. I have
and laughter such as horrifies English au- indicated the limitation of this sentimen-
diences; for he cannot be frightened tal tragedy, and that the spirit of it is
Man is all right. This is not the theme, something to be grateful for. I can only
but it enters into the spirit of this play. repeat that the interpretation leaves very
The lives of the men who compose little to be desired.
the wandering mass of casual labour in
America are very lonely. They have no
roots; few are married. They compete
against each other for temporary jobs, Derek Verschoyle.
well-paid enough to dangle before them "Stage and Screen and
perpetually a seldom realised hope of
some day settling down on a piece of Theatre.55
land of their own and of being at last Spectator [England], 162
their own masters. They seldom hunt in
couples, for each must take his chance as (26 May 1939), 901.
it comes; a pal may be as great a draw-
back as a wife in finding one. The curtain
goes up on two such men, a big one and . .. Of Mice and Men was fully reviewed
a small one, who are exceptions. Evi- in this column about a month ago when

128
it was produced at the Gate Theatre. It [The] play moves quickly in a series of
has now been deservedly transferred to tersely written commentaries on its main
the Apollo. It is a rather unsubtle but en- theme of loneliness. The scene in the
tirely honest and extremely effective play bunk-house when the men have per-
describing a tragic episode in the lives of suaded old Candy to let them shoot his
two young labourers who arrive to work ancient dog is very good indeed, and so is
on a Californian ranch. It is recom- that in which the crippled negro is at
mended as one of the few plays running home. There is not an inch of padding in
in London that is genuinely worth seeing. any of the dialogue.
The casting is wonderfully accurate.
Mr. John Mills gives George just the
quality of nervous intensity which is
Eric [Keown]. wanted, Mr. Niall MacGinnis plays the
"Of Mice and Men childish mountain (ridiculus mus in pocket)
so that Lennie is always lovable and
(Apollo).55 never silly. These are both notable perfor-
Punch [England], 196 mances. Miss Claire Luce cleverly brings
out the vamp's unhappiness, and the men
(7 June 1939), 640. on the farm are all well taken.
Mr. Norman Marshall must be given
credit not only for so good a produc-
I always dread seeing the stage versions tion but for having launched the play at
of books which I have very much en- the Gate.
joyed; and so in honesty I must say about
this play that I cannot remember any
more successful dramatisation.
Mr. John Steinbeck's story, which took Anthony Merryn.
America by storm, and even shook the "Of Mice and Men."
book-shelves of this country, went deeper
and got further in the writer's job of re- Life and Letters To-day\
vealing human nature than most of its 22 (July 1939), 92-4.
fatter brethren which have moved the
pundits to immoderate ecstasies. It went
straight for the subject of loneliness like a Of Mice and Men has no propaganda, no
terrier and bit hard from the beginning, criticism of society, no plumbing the
with an exquisite economy of sentiment depths of human experience. Yet that
which allowed it to expose the most inti- most difficult of modern achievements
mate feelings of simple people with never true tragedyhas almost been realized. I
a touch of the maudlin. Here is the whole say almost, for while there is pity and ter-
essence of the book transferred without ror, there is little suffering on the part of
evaporation or dilution, here are Lennie the principal character, Lennie, who is
and George exactly as they appeared in half-witted and not responsible for his
its pages, and here even is the same end, actions. The suffering is rather in the
out in the wood by the river, and still the mind of his friend George, who feels so
purest tragedy. Mr. Steinbeck has written strangely attached to him as to take
the play himself, and has scored a double his protection upon himself, though he
triumph. . . . thereby handicaps his own career.

129
 But the sense of inevitability is there John Hobart. "John Steinbeck, a
the doom of a man essentially lovable but Convert to the Stage." San Francisco
with the brain of a child. There is a po- Chronicle, This World magazine,
etic sensitiveness in the drawing of his 12 December 1937, p. 19.
character which is thrown into powerful Burton Rascoe. "John Steinbeck."
dramatic relief by the complete absence English Journal, 27 (1938), 205-16.
of poetry in the settinga background of Edith J. R. Isaacs. "When Good Men
tough Californian ranch-men with primi- Get Together." Theatre Arts, 22
tive ideas of justice. (January 1938), 11-22.
Lennie loves to handle soft things "Of Mice and Men Wins Critics' Prize."
mice and rabbits and puppies, and women's New York Times, 19 April 1938,
dresses and hair. In his childish ecstasy he p. 23.
forgets his colossal strength (an ironic Brooks Atkinson. "Critics Circle Play."
compensation for wit) and chokes the New York Times, 24 April 1938,
life out of the only woman who has ever Section 10, p. ix.
taken any notice of him. To save him Mark Barron. "Two Candidates for the
from a fearful vengeance, George sets Pulitzer Prize." San Francisco
him dreaming of the happy days that are Chronicle, This World magazine,
to be, and, when his head is turned, 1 May 1938, p. 19.
shoots him. The last scene, in its over- Gilbert E. Govan. "Roamin' the Book
whelming poignancy, is perhaps unique World." Chattanooga Times,
in dramatic literature. 29 May 1938, p. 10.
Niall MacGinnis's portrayal of the John Mason Brown. "Mr. Steinbeck's Of
clumsy, simple Lennie is a carefully stud- Mice and Men." Two on the Aisle:
ied piece of artistic interpretation, en- Ten Years of the American Theatre in
tirely convincing and full of imaginative Performance (New York: Norton,
subtleties. John Mills, as George, in a more 1939), 183-7.
straightforward, and therefore rather more Frank H. O'Hara. "Melodrama with a
difficult part, is equally sure of touch. Meaning." Today in American Drama
The production, with its superb timing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
and pregnant silences (helped by a fine 1939), 142-89.
economy of dialogue), lifts the whole sig- Charles Morgan. "Steinbeck in
nificance of the drama far beyond the London." New York Times,
narrow confines of its setting... . 30 April 1939, Section 11, p. 3.
"Of Mice and Men" New Masses,
5 March 1940, 29-30.
"Plays and Pictures." New Statesman
Checklist of Additional and Nation [England], 19
Reviews (13 April 1940), 493-4.
Louis Calta. "Theatre." New York
Times, 5 December 1958, p. 38.
Michael Sayers. "New Plays by Messrs.
Howard, Steinbeck, et al." New
Masses, 7 December 1937, p. 26.

130
THE LONG VALLEY
JOHN STEINBECK

T
LONG
VALLEY

THE VIKING PRESS

NEW YORK
1938
 Heaven was not like going through a
Wilbur Needham. group of short stories; and the common
locale did not alone give forth that effect,
"New Steinbeck Book: any more than it does in these tales of the
Event of Autumn." Salinas Valley and the Bay of Monterey.
Something else ties together varied
Los Angeles Times, techniques, colorings, tonal qualities. Be-
18 September 1938, hind each story, inside it and surrounding
Part 3, p. 6. it, there is a presence you do not often
find in the work of writers with more
than one string to the bow. It is a fragile
presence, but with surprising strength, in
John Steinbeck has published nothing that borderland story of this world and
that was beneath himself, and he never the mind's world and maybe another
will. Curiously, he also gives you the im- world, "The White Quail." Mary Teller,
pression that he has printed nothing that for all she lives in her garden unaware of
is quite up to himself; there is a sense of a backstage presence, has got some subtle
reserve power in all his novels and sto- fragrance that is not wholly hers.
ries, of material deliberately withheld, of It is a clinical presence, a pathological,
ideas that will some day be unleashed. that comes forth with snakes in its
Yet nothing is gone from any of his hands in the story of a scientist inter-
work, just as nothing is there that ought rupted at his work by a woman whose
not to be. aura has Freudian gleam to it. When Pe-
His books are effortlessly right. His ter Randall's wife dies and leaves him
work has perfection, but not the precious alone on the farm she ruled invisibly, a
perfection that is sterility. Everything laughing presence enters and the old man
he writes has the perfection of finality, is ruled by it. A grotesque presence
even the stories he does not like himself. shambles in with "Johnny Bear;" a quiet-
His pages are as uncluttered as those ly bitter one, shocking in its gestures,
of Robert Nathan, as rich as Thomas takes command of "The Vigilante;" a
Wolfe's. boyhood presence animates "The Red
He can be delicate, shy, mystical; he Pony." All these presences are different,
can be vulgar, brutal, even horrifying; he and they are all the same.
can be quiet like a mouse, light of step as Whenever I read John Steinbeck, I am
a deer on the Salinas hills, warm as the in the presence of a man. That is a feel-
sun on a lazy paisano's back. And he can ing I have had only at rare intervals
laugh, ah, how the man can laugh! Low during my twenty years of book-review-
and soft and bending over to hear little ing peonage.
people laughing back at him; loud and
boisterous with drinkers making tavern
walls shake down; sly and chuckling
when satiric laughter struggles in his
throat.
All these moods and tones are in the
sixteen tales of The Long Valley; and
they are there without spoiling the book's
essential unity. Reading The Pastures of

133
 with the Salinas Valley land of California
William Soskin. that nourishes Steinbeck's art, as well as
stories theatrically set in mystic gardens
"Varied Art of John and castles which seem to have no rooted
Steinbeck." strength. Here are exquisite studies of
childhood, poetic and fresh, as well as
New York Herald brutal accounts of mortal struggles with
Tribune, 18 September Nature and mercilessly true descriptions
of violence. Here are portraits of workers
1938, "Books" section, and peasants and farm wives with genu-
p. 7. ine vitality and truth about them, and
over-subtle studies of emotional women
which seem false and lacking in under-
John Steinbeck is certainly one of the standing. Here are dramas of the class
most richly promising novelists of the struggle, pictures of hangings and social
younger American group, and yet he is aberrations that conform to the best so-
popularly honored for a work of doubt- ciological patterns, yet contain individual
ful value, Of Mice and Men. His genu- studies of character and human behavior
inely tragic In Dubious Battle is generally which take them out of the rut of official
neglected. He is known to part of his au- proletarian writing.
dience as a realist to whom human blood From this bewildering variety of mate-
is merely ketchup, to another part as a rial a transcending body of work emerges
mellow, leisurely observer of his Western in a group of stories under the general
paisanos, to some as a psychological ana- title "Red Pony," stories of the growth of
lyst, to others as a proletarian writer with a small boy, Jody, on a Salinas Valley
class consciousness. Many readers and ranch. These stories, magic with the
critics are observing his work anxiously, child's sensitive observation of the animal
for they feel that he will emerge as a life about him, of the smell and feel and
writer of impressive stature, but they also sound of the stables, the farmyard, the
are inclined to regard his present writing pigsty, the corral, the kitchen, the moun-
as material still in the crucible, still un- tains, the California skies and dews and
dergoing the chemical processes that will nights, and brilliant and simple in the
ultimately produce pure artistry. boy's forthright understanding of adult
It is therefore especially interesting to character, certainly sound a major chord
weigh the various merits and faults of so and a harmony dominant over all of
large a variety of his work as appears in a Steinbeck's work to date.
volume of Mr. Steinbeck's short stories, Coincidentally, the name of the boy in
The Long Valley. Reading these stories is these stories is that of the equally delight-
very much like studying a subject by the ful child in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's
case-methoda purely inductive process novel, The Yearling, and the boys have a
whereby the law student finally arrives at great deal in common. But whereas Mrs.
his knowledge of contracts or torts or Rawlings's story sometimes borders on
real property though an analysis and dis- romantic sentimentality, and is saved
cussion of already existing decisions that from such a fate by her virtuosity in the
illustrate fundamental principles. Here, in sheer writing, Steinbeck's boy and the
a single volume, are stories which dem- tragedies of his pets and the ordeal of his
onstrate intimate, delicious communion adolescence seem somehow closer to a

134
bedrock honesty and a thoroughly realis- onethis despite the complete compas-
tic grasp of life in the child's perspective. sion of his story. The young Communists
Even when one bears in mind the ruth- behave exactly like Christian martyrs in
lessness of Richard Hughes's writing of their heroism. When the boy who has
children in The Innocent Voyage, as well been virtually murdered says, drowsily,
as Mrs. Rawlings's lovely story, it is hard "Forgive them because they don't know
to recall a work so impressive as "The what they're doing," his companion re-
Red Pony." plies: "You lay off that religion stuff, kid.
Steinbeck is at his comfortable best in Religion is the opium of the people."
stories that demand careful reporting of The humor in Steinbeck's writing
detailthe agonizing detail of a hunted seems healthier and more sturdy in these
youth's flight into the mountains after he stories than in the rather sweetish, soft
has killed a man, of increasing pain and stuff of the novel Tortilla Flat. The story
thirst and desperate struggle and fear that of "St. Katy the Virgin," a pig who be-
remind you of one of William Faulkner's came a saint, is a riot of hilarious icono-
hunted creatures and of Eugene O'Neill's clasm, and the tale of the farmer in "The
terror-stricken Emperor Jones. This same Harness" who relaxed his belly after his
gift for concrete realism makes a gripping wife died and grew acres of sweet peas
little horror playlet out of an incident in for the smell instead of practical crops, is
which a woman in a biological labora- a lovely job.
tory identifies herself with a rattlesnake All the lavish comment that has been
and watches it devour a rat. The weak- made about Steinbeck's conciseness and
ness in this tale lies in the obvious sym- the economy of his style in regard to his
bolism whereby the woman's sexual ab- novels may be repeated and emphasized
normalities are dramatized. Equally weak in the case of these short stories. The me-
is a story called "The Chrysanthemums" dium requires just those qualities of com-
wherein one of those atavistic women position, and Steinbeck has practiced his
who garden passionately, but inefficiently, art carefully and efficiently.
discovers that life is passing her by. An-
other story in the same vein, about a
woman who identifies her "pure" self,
the mystic self which eludes her blunt Lewis Gannett.
husband's understanding, with a white
quail in her garden, also seems synthetic "Books and Things."
and psychologically phony. It is signifi- New York Herald
cant, I believe, that Steinbeck's traffic
with sophisticated women and female Tribune, 19 September
emotion in these stories is his weak point. 1938, p. 11.
The only women he does well are moth-
ers, ranch wives, eccentrics and clods like
the Jugo-Slavic wife in "The Murder" The Long Valley... is a sort of sample
who becomes devoted and faithful after room of John Steinbeck.
she is beaten.
In "The Raid" Steinbeck gives us Here is one story of a halfwit, "Johnny
a tense portrayal of an attack upon a Bear," which will remind you at once
couple of Communist organizers by a of Of Mice and Men and of William
vigilante mob, but his point is an ironic Faulkner. Here is a raw lynching story,

135
and a picture of two young Communists out of the people. Westering isn't a hun-
waiting for the mob they know is on ger any more. It's all done. Your father is
their trail, which are somewhat in the right. It is finished."
mood of In Dubious Battle. Here are two But still the wanderers fill the roads of
sketches of paisanos, echoes rather of the the West, some of them hardly aware
Pastures of Heaven than of Tortilla Flat. that they are hungry. And some of them,
Here is the ribald "St. Katy the Virgin," squatting in their California valleys, are
privately printed some years ago, but caught up in some such quick mob as
never put on sale. Here are three or four John Steinbeck tells of in "The Vigi-
less successful studies of more sophisti- lante," help drag a man from jail and
cated people, which I suspect were writ- burn him, and go home with a light in
ten long ago. And here are the famous their eyes which makes their wives look
Jody stories, "The Red Pony," published up and say, "You think I can't tell by the
in a limited edition last spring, and a new look on your face that you've been with a
Jody story, never before printed any- woman?"
where, and as good as anything John John Steinbeck can pack into a few
Steinbeck has ever written, suggestive, paragraphs what many novelists stretch
possibly, of the mood in which he is writ- out over a whole book. Sometimes, I
ing his new novel. think, he packs almost too much. There
"Why do I have to listen to it?" Carl is an almost climactic monotony in some
Tiflin cried out angrily at breakfast, tired of these sultry, slow-moving, dry-country
of his father-in-law's endless stories of the stories which suddenly break out in a cy-
crossing of the plains. "That time's done. clonic last paragraph; it becomes, in the
Why can't he forget it, now it's done? weakest of them, almost a trick.
Why does he have to tell them over and The Jody stories are almost miracu-
over. He came across the plains. All right. lously good. No one, I think, has ever
Now it's finished! Nobody wants to hear caught the ecstasy of a small boy with his
about it over and over!" first horse more movingly; beside "The
Carl did not know that his father-in- Gift," even Lincoln Steffens's story of his
law had opened the door, and was listen- small-boy passion for a pony seems long-
ing. Jody knewJody, the ten-year-old winded and amateurish. In "The Great
boy who was Grandpa's only eager au- Mountains" and "The Leader of the
dience. Later, sitting tired in the sun, People" Mr. Steinbeck maintains with
Grandpa talked to Jody. It wasn't just the rare precision the balance of a small
stories, he said; he wanted people to feel boy's intuitionsthe uncanny insights
those westering days. Every man wanted into an old man's mind, the decent un-
something for himself in those days, he spoiled sympathies, and the utter un-
said; but the big beast that was all of awareness which go with these.
them together wanted only to move on,
westward. "The westering was as big as "St. Katy the Virgin" is such a ribald,
God," he said, "and the slow steps that blasphemous story (of a pig who became
made the movement piled up and piled a saint) as only a man brought up among
up until the continent was crossed." Now primitive Catholics, to whom blasphemy
"there's no place to go. There's the ocean is real as well as dear, could tell. It might
to stop them. There's a line of old men have been born in France in the days of
along the shore hating the ocean because Romain Rolland's "Colas Breugnon"; it
it stopped them. . . . Westering has died grew, obviously, out of whispered stories

136
told at paisano campfires in the half- his pal Billy Buck, and the effect on Jody
Mexican uplands of Monterey County, of the gift of the pony and the tragic epi-
Calif., where John Steinbeck grew up. sode of the maretales of a boy's hopes
That is a violent and beautiful coun- told with a deep knowledge of ranch life
try. These are, more than half of them, in the Salinas country of California, and
violent stories, and all of them beautiful a high sense of drama.
stories. John Steinbeck has some strange Other highlights:"The Raid," a
affinity for violence, but he is never lost brief episode telling how two radicals feel
in it. There is always a warm sunshine in when they know that they are about to
the background; and such an understand- be beaten up for their activities (excel-
ing of the simple belly satisfactions of life lent); "Flight," the curious inverted psy-
as crops out in the four simple, satisfying chology of Pepe and the Torres family,
pages here called "Breakfast." with a careful analysis of Pepe going to-
ward his death; "The Leader of the
People," the story of the old grandfather,
whose tales of the westward movement
Harry Hansen. angered his anchored son-in-law, a story
"The First Reader." splendid for characterization and rich in
meaning. Less successful, to my notion,
New York World- are "The Snake," a synthetic attempt to
Telegram^ 19 September identify a mental state with an episode;
"The Chrysanthemums," a bit too abrupt
1938, p. 19. at the start but with a good ending, and
"The White Quail," which reminds me of
Wilbur Daniel Steele. I am also less im-
Case of John SteinbeckThink of Sher- pressed with "Saint Katy the Virgin," a
wood Anderson sitting at the feet of heavy-footed exercise in irony; Anatole
Katharine Mansfield and absorbing some France has spoiled my appetite for
of her sophisticated understanding of coarser fare.
the short story as an artistic expression, This is Viking's first book by
and you get near an explanation of Steinbeck; good jacket by Elmer Hader.
John Steinbeck. Like Anderson, Steinbeck
knows people who live close to the earth
and are affected by its moods, and, like
him, he is absorbed with their inner tur- Ralph Thompson.
moil. Like Mansfield, he watches the ef-
fect of every word, every sentence, and,
"Books of the Times.5
so far, this has not stood in the way of his New York Times,
originality. 21 September 1938,
In The Long Valley he gives us a book
of superb short stories. In each one, p. 29.
whether he writes of gardens, snakes, po-
nies or radicals, he is interested in what
goes on inside the human actors. He John Steinbeck has almost as many man-
shapes them quicklycuts the cloth into ners as there are letters to his name. He
a single pattern. Don't miss "The Red can be tender. He can be tough. He can
Pony," three stories of the boy Jody and be waggish, cunning, sentimental, callous.

137
He can turn on the weeps or the heat with arms like a gorilla and brain like a
with equal ease, and combine the saccha- mayfly, does everything but choke a girl
rine and the sordid without batting an eye. to death. This big Johnny has a peculiar
He is an exciting writer with a curi- talent: he can repeat anything he hears,
ously catholic taste. Its variety is well dis- whether he understands it or notany-
played in The Long Valley, a collection of thing, in any language, including the
fifteen (not, as the jacket says, sixteen) Greek. And not only the words but the
stories, all but two of which have been inflections, so that when he has a couple
published before in one form or another. of drinks under his belt and gets started
Here is the "Red Pony" sequence is- he can reel off whole conversations that
sued a year ago in a limited edition, plus he has overheard. About this monster the
a new Jody story called "The Leader of author builds a story and all but weeps
the People." Here is the fumbling "Chry- when he has to conk him with a bung-
santhemums," the powerful "Vigilante," starter to get him out of the way.
the chilling "Snake," the casual "Break- It is admittedly dramatic, etc., but
fast," the pretentious "White Quail"; hardly scrupulous, and I for one pray
also a half dozen other tales including that Mr. Steinbeck will avoid cretins5
"St. Katy the Virgin," privately printed fools, imbeciles, boobies, idiots, dolts and
by Covici, Friede as a Christmas book for particular boneheads in the future. He
1936, and "Flight," the second of the seems to do far better with normal
pieces now published for the first time. people or with people who could pass for
He is an exciting writer always, but so normal in a sizable crowd. The best sto-
far as I am concerned much at his best ries in this collection, at any rate, are
when he doesn't work too hard at it. The those revolving about the quite ordinary
callous Mr. Steinbeck, describing a cold- small boy named Jody Tiflin, who grows
blooded shooting ("The Murder") or a up on a ranch in a California valley and
fatal manhunt ("Flight"), is impressive has for a time a pony of his own.
but artificial. The cunning Mr. Steinbeck, There's not much more to say about
dealing with sex symbols ("The Snake") Jody than was said after his debut last
and feminine neuroses ("The White year except that Mr. Steinbeck's combi-
Quail"), is artificial and not impressive. nation of toughness and tenderness makes
The waggish Mr. Steinbeck, pushing his him a memorable figure. In "The Leader
tongue hard against his cheek and writ- of the People" he is more interested in his
ing of a thirteenth-century pig and two grandfather than in any one else; he even
pious monks ("St. Katy the Virgin") is all invites Grandfather, who has come to the
right but something of a shock. It is quite ranch for a visit, to hunt mice in the hay-
as though Ernest Hemingway had come stacks with him and his two dogs. But
forth with an Uncle Remus story. the old man happens to have something
And the sentimental Mr. Steinbeck, on his mind, and the hunt never comes
who takes all sorts of unfortunate freaks off. Jody learns what that something is
of nature to his bosom, is something else with much the same sort of emotion that
again. This happens to be the best-known he had when he saw his red pony lying
Mr. Steinbeckthe author of Of Mice dead in the sage brush or when Billy
and Menbut I doubt exceedingly that it Buck pulled the colt out of Nellie one
is the best. He is represented here with a night in the stall.
yarn called "Johnny Bear," in which a
huge halfwit, shambling, stupid, smiling,

138
 toads or the buzzards. It is not so much
Elinor Davis. the malice of man that gets them down as
Nature, internal and external; the pity
"The Steinbeck Country." you feel for them is the pity you would
Saturday Review, 18 feel for an animal trapped and doomed.
But Steinbeck is not too proud to pity
(24 September 1938), 11. them himself; and if his vision is perhaps
limited in scope there are no blind spots
in the areas where it operates. He sees
Steinbeck is one of the few American clear down through these people, and re-
writers who refuse to be backseat-driven produces them in as many dimensions as
by success; he writes what he wants to they have.
write, instead of letting the expectations Preferences among the fifteen stories
of his public push him into a groove. Yet will differ, of course; but perhaps most
in this collection of fifteen short stones readers would agree that the best are the
there is less variety than you would ex- three episodes in a boy's life which have
pect, after his last three novels; which already been published, in a limited edi-
may be just as well. The one distinctly tion, as The Red Pony. The same boy and
off-the-trail story of the lot is a burlesque his grandfather, a wornout pioneer to
hagiography, which might better have whose repetitious reminiscences people
been left in private circulation. The oth- no longer want to listen, appears in "The
ers all deal with what will soon be Leader of the People." How much auto-
known as the Steinbeck country, the re- biography there may or may not be in all
gions around Monterey and Salinas, this does not matter; those stories are
which seems to be populated by sup- packed with truth, that would have been
pressed husbands, frustrated wives, brides just as true in the Stone Age. Notable
who cheat unless you horsewhip them, among the others are "The Raid"how
old men who are no good any more, sex- it feels to be beaten up by vigilantes, and
starved spinsters of good family who fool to have to wait for it; "The Vigilante"
around with Chinamen and then hang after-effects of a lynching on a member of
themselves, etc. About the only people in the mob; and "Johnny Bear," in which a
the book who are pointed in my direction half-wit with a trick of reproducing over-
are a couple of communists who go look- heard conversations catalyzes both the
ing for martyrdom under orders; and good and evil emotion of a whole com-
even them Steinbeck regards with a munity. A collection of short stories does
faintly ironic eye. not always add much to the stature of a
However, if that is what he sees that is successful novelist; but The Long Valley
what he has to write about; and here is leaves Steinbeck still the best prospect in
certainly some of the best writing of the American letters. .. .
past decade. Outside of one or two sto-
ries you won't find an ounce of fat in
his style; and you could pick forty
paragraphs out of this volume that would
be fit to appear as models in any text-
book of composition. Steinbeck makes
his country live and the people live as
part of it, as much a part as the horned

139
 some shrewd critics felt, I think rightly,
Clifton Fadiman. marred Of Mice and Men. On the whole,
however, a remarkable collection by a
"Books." writer who so far has neither repeated
New Yorker, 14 himself nor allowed himself a single care-
less sentence.. ..
(24 September 1938),
71-3.
Stanley Young.
. . . I can't understand why some review- "The Short Stories of
ers persist in classing John Steinbeck as
a hardboiled writer. I guess it must be John Steinbeck."
because he uses homespun English and New York Times Book
because so many of his characters are so-
cially submergedas if itinerant workers
Review, 88
and tramps necessarily exuded a more (25 September 1938), 7.
hardboiled atmosphere than, let us say,
Captain Anthony Eden. Actually, if resis-
tance to emotion is the true mark of the Of late John Steinbeck has had some
hardboiled writer, Steinbeck is softboiled, pretty high adjectives hoisted above his
and no bad thing either. Far from being name. But he will not have to strike his
tough, he is exceptionally sensitive, not colors with this collection of short sto-
merely to the cruder, or what one might ries. As a group they are neither pro-
call large-muscle, emotions but to those found nor passionate stories of great stat-
subtleties of feeling that are the stock in urethat is, they do not illuminate an
trade of writers like Chekhov, D. H. age or a people either emotionally or in-
Lawrence, and Katherine Mansfield. tellectually, and they are occasionally
Try his book of short stories, The flagrantly sentimental, as was Of Mice
Long Valley, to test whether this is so. and Men. Yet all have one rare, creative
Note particularly such tenuous tales as thing: a directness of impression that
"The Chrysanthemums," "The White makes them glow with life, small-scale
Quail," "Breakfast," and "The Harness." life though it is.
All four stories are beautifully written, The background is again Salinas
though I think that in them Mr. Steinbeck Valley, Monterey, with ranch hands, pai-
is trying just a mite too hard to be sensi- sanos, farm boys objectively observed as
tive and Open to Beauty. But about such they struggle with one primitive emotion
matters it is easy to disagree. after another. In "Flight" the emotion is
The best thing in the book is the fear, and the long, agonizing hours in
three-part story, "Red Pony," a heart- which Pepe the Indian boy rides from his
breakingly true picture of boyhood. I first murder into the shelter of the moun-
think it's a masterpiece. It has something tains become as terrifying and as vivid as
intimate, unworked-over, that the other the flight of Reynard the Fox as Mase-
stories, fine as some of them are, lack. field set it down. Pepe's escape is the only
"Johnny Bear," for example, is a horror thing that matters, one narrow slit of
story; it's subtle, it's highly originalbut time with a boy in it running for his life.
there is that touch of contrivance which The story of Mike the vigilante has

140
the same emotional undertow. Mike has Johnny is as pathetic as the groping half-
helped at a hanging, and after the wild wit of Of Mice and Men, and as menac-
mob fury is over he is left with a dull ing. He is a peeping Tom who has a pho-
tiredness and loneliness, pathetically tographic memory which allows him to
empty and fearful. It is hard to believe repeat entire conversations while catch-
that a man who has stormed a jail and ing the intonations of voice of the charac-
pulled a rope around a neck can be so ters he has seen. For a whisky he will
filled with remorse or made so sympatheti- talk, and the way in which he reveals
cally understandable. It's sentimental stuff, the tragedy settling over two respectable
but try to resist it as Steinbeck tells it! maiden ladies in a small town is story-
"The Raid," a courageous but bitter telling oblique and effective to the high-
little story of two union organizers in a est degree.
California town, is the only piece in the Finally there is "The Harness" and
book that has any topical political impli- "The Red Pony," two stories that fulfill
cation. Two men, one experienced, the the fine promise of the author's best
other young and fearful, schedule a meet- novel, In Dubious Battle. The first tells of
ing. When they hear of the coming of the a man trying to escape the domination of
raiders they stand their ground and are his dead wife; the second gently and
beaten mercilessly. They go down smiling effortlessly recreates the day-by-day rou-
a "tight, hard smile," which makes it an- tine life of a farm and a small boy's love
other fictional raid for this reviewer. for horses. They leave nothing to be de-
The most exciting thing about this sired. They cannot be talked about. They
collection lies in the stories that step out- must be read.
side the usual emotional province of this It comes down to this: out of sixteen
author. The superb story, "The White stories John Steinbeck has written a good
Quail," has a delicacy and symbolism dozen that are memorable. He shows
and design that recall Katherine Mans- more emotional range than he was sus-
field. Mary, whose frozen purity presided pected of having and a maturing crafts-
over the garden and the house and drove manship. Fortunately he is not working
her husband to desperate loneliness, sees to prove any pet notions. He is writing
in a white quail all the cool lovely essence about people, beautiful or nauseating, as
of herself. The way this self-knowledge they come. He knows his people and his
affects her and her husband makes for a scene without being bogged down by re-
story of subtlety and grace unlike any- alistic detail. Beyond that he has a tre-
thing Steinbeck has yet written. mendous and abiding sympathy for hu-
Equally new is the author's capacity to man beings on all levels of experience.
tell a fine, humorous, mocking fable such With time and experience and discerning
as "Saint Katy the Virgin," a rollicking, criticism he may become a genuinely
grand story of a pig that became a saint. great American writer.
Tortilla Flat suggested the broad Elizabe-
than mirth of Steinbeck, but the imagina-
tive doings of Katy the pig clinch the
matter for all time. Voltaire would have
loved Katy, but Disney will get her.
Completely in contrast to Katy's
happy story is a grotesque and haunting
character study of one "Johnny Bear."

141
"More from Steinbeck." Joseph Henry Jackson.
Newsweek, 12 "A Bookman's
(26 September 1938), 29, Notebook,"
San Francisco Chronicle,
The rich Salinas Valley of California is a 28 September 1938,
world in itself. It abounds in all sorts of p. 13.
peoplebarley ranchers, Mexicans, fruit
pickers, and farmers. The self-appointed
historian of this little world is John
Steinbeck, who sticks close to his elected This volume is a kind of cross-section of
territory, eating, drinking, and work- Steinbecka collection of shorter pieces
ing; out of it he has wrought the stories chiefly, and most of those published be-
that have made him a writer of first fore in one form or another.
importance. Several of the 15 have appeared in Es-
In The Long Valley are thirteen short quire, one or two in Harper's. The three
stories treating, for the most part, of the related stories under the single title, "The
same people of his novels, the agricul- Red Pony," were brought out last year in
tural workers of In Dubious Battle, the a limited edition, and "St. Katy the Vir-
paisanos of Tortilla Flat and the ranch gin" only saw print as the publisher's
hands of Of Mice and Men. When Christmas gift to friends, and in an edi-
Steinbeck does stray out of his terrain he tion even more strictly limited. One story,
wanders far; one tale about a pig named "The Chrysanthemums," was included in
Katy is set in fourteenth-century Europe. the O'Brien "Best Short Stories" annual;
There are all kinds of stories here, vio- two pieces, "Flight" and "The Leader of
lent ones, horrible, funny, poignant, and the People," are here published for the
tragic ones. One or two are mere sketch- first time. So much for the mere physical
es but, like everything the author does, description of the volume.
they are watertight. Particularly out-
standing is "Flight," the story of Pepe, a Out of the 15 tales "The Red Pony," to
Mexican boy, rudely thrust into a man's my mind is by far the most important.
shoes and a man's fate by a sudden As you will remember, it is about a
crime. "The Red Pony," almost a novel- small boy, his passion for his pony, his
ette, shows Steinbeck in a tender mood, agony when it is lost to him, his reactions
evoking the idyl of a farm boy's life and to his first encounter with the harshness
his love for a horse. "The Raid" seems to of the world into which he is growing
be something left out of In Dubious up, his feelings when he is faced, one af-
Battlea brief and terrifying description ter the other, with the perpetual miracles
of a beating administered by vigilantes to of death and birth. No, it isn't a "nice"
two Communist organizers. story; but it is an immensely powerful
No one needs be told that John one. Manifestly it is drawn from full un-
Steinbeck is a master craftsman; these derstanding of small boys and small
tales reaffirm it. horses and the casual cruelties of ranch
life. It remains (I think) top-level Stein-
beck, ranking with the best he has written.

142
 Supplementing it, in a way, is a new away from. These, with the remaining
Jody story, one of the two never before three, make up the book.
printed, "The Leader of the People." This That it is good Steinbeck has already
tenderly told tale of an old man who for- been said. It is also completely character-
got himself and told over and over again istic Steinbeck. Like everything he writes,
his stories of crossing the plains is an- these tales are compounded of brutality
other fine piece of work. In it, too, Stein- and tenderness, beauty and ugliness, be-
beck expresses through the mouth of old cause (as I am quite convinced) Steinbeck
Grandfather something about which he sees these contrasts as equal parts of the
has been thinking more and more. "It same thingwhich is life. There is in
wasn't the Indians that were important," them, too, some of the best writing Stein-
says Grandfather, "nor adventure, nor beck has done; as witness, not to make
even getting out here. It was a whole too great a point of it, "The Red Pony."
bunch of people made into one big crawl- As for "St. Katy," I'm a little curious to
ing beast.... It wasn't getting here that see what the reactions will be. The world
mattered, it was movement and wester- sometimes seems completely filled with
ing. . . . Then we came down to the sea people crying "Ah, why doesn't Stein-
and it was done." beck do another Tortilla Flat}" Well, let
Unquestionably it is Steinbeck's knowl- them (as Marie Antoinette didn't say),
edge of the new westering, today's ma- read Kate.
chine-economy-driven migratory move-
ment, that leads him to say this. Because
it is plain as a pikestaff that though the
old kind of westering is done with, there "The Long Valley."
must be a new kind, something to take Booklist, 35
the place of the olda westering of ideas
perhaps. (1 October 1938), 48-9.
For the rest, they vary from the frankly
ribald and blasphemous "St. Katy" all Thirteen short stories, most of them set
the way to the short "sketch" (it's hardly in the long Salinas Valley, California.
more) called "Breakfast." There is the Two have not been printed before; one,
"Johnny Bear" piece that Esquire ran "Saint Katy the Virgin," which may
a creepy tale of an idiot whose mind offend Roman Catholics, appeared in a
and voice functioned like a phonograph private edition, not for sale; the finest,
record. There is "The Vigilante," also a The Red Pony, in three parts, appeared
magazine piece, in which Steinbeck lays only in a limited ten dollar edition, now
bare (in a manner that should please the out of print. The characters are mainly
Freudians) something of the underlying people of the land; the writing is eco-
sexual motive behind such things as nomical and vivid.
lynchings. There is "The Snake," which I
like least of all of them, and there is
"Flight," in which the emotion of fear is
traced to an almost hysterical pitch. And
there is "The Harness," wherein the au-
thor demonstrates very plainly that you
can't run away from what you can't run

143
 liquid melody which flows on and on un-
T[homas] K[ing] Whipple. til even such an experience as a man's dy-
ing of thirst in the morning sunlight
"Steinbeck: Through a among remote and rocky hills can seem
Glass, though Brightly." not altogether ugly, because it has be-
come a legendary thing that happened
New Republic, 96 once upon a time.
(12 October 1938), Proper distance, I think, is the secret
of this effectto place people not too
274-5. close or too far away. In the middle dis-
tance they cannot touch us, and yet we
can see their performances with the
The Long Valley carries its readers back greatest clarity and fullness. Detachment,
to Steinbeck's first published volume, The of course, is the essential: we are here to
Pastures of Heaven. Here is the same contemplate only, like the Lucretian gods
beautiful countryside, with the same in- but less remote. We feel the appropriate
habitantsthe half-wits, the delightful emotionspity, sympathy, terror and
Mexican peasantry, the Americans who horror even-but with the delightful
are either healthy normal farmers or in- sense that we are apart, in the audience,
teresting psychological freaks. It is true and that anyhow nothing can be done or
that in The Long Valley there are also needs to be done. Such a form of contem-
vigilantes and Communists, to remind us plationwhich some would like to have
that times change, but since Steinbeck is the function of all artis so agreeable,
concerned not with external facts, but presumably, because it frees us from all
only with their odd states of mind when responsibility. It is a tremendous relief to
lynching or being lynched, they do not get rid of our ordinary burden of feeling
jar against the general tone of the picture. implicated in human destinies.
They take their place in the immemorial Such seems to me the attitude that is
spectacle of the ill fated race of men. induced not only by Steinbeck's earliest
Surely no one writes lovelier stories, and latest work, but by almost all of it,
yielding a purer pleasure. Here are trag- and that largely accounts for his popular-
edy and suffering and violence, to be ity. Tortilla Flat, with its rococo comedy,
sure, but with all that is sharp and harsh ironic and romantic, ornate and man-
distilled to a golden honey, ripe and mel- nered, may be a photographically accu-
low. Even cruelty and murder grow some- rate portrayal of the poor Mexicans
how pastoral, idyllic, seen through this of Monterey, but it leaves its readers
amber light, as one might watch the amused and incredulous onlookers. Is Of
struggles offishesand water snakes in the Mice and Men an exception? It has more
depths of a mountain pool. Beyond ques- reality than Tortilla Flat of course; its
tion, Steinbeck has a magic to take the dialogue is extraordinarily lifelike and
sting out of reality and yet leave it all lively, as is most of Steinbeck's talk, for
there except the sting. Perhaps it is partly he is amazingly observant; but George
the carefulness of his art, with endless and Lennie seem to me unbelievablethe
pains devising and arranging every detail flavor of grenadine is too strong. In any
until all fits perfectly and is smooth and case, even if there have been half-wits as
suave as polished ivory. But probably it is amiable as Lennie with friends as devoted
more the enchantment of his style, of that as George, the question is not of reality,

144
but of the attitude toward reality. Does comes too aloof from mankind, so that
anyone, in reading the book, participate the life of men turns for him into a mere
in the fate of these men as their inevitable esthetic spectacle to be exploited for its
doom rolls upon them? Or does one various notes and colors, does his human
watch merely, without sharing? nature revenge itself by forcing upon him
Steinbeck's reticence threatened to an obsession with power in its most re-
give way at least once: in his least suc- pulsive forms? Is a surrender of humanity
cessful novel, To a God Unknown, a and an assumption of godhead likely to
strange and puzzling version of the Jo- lead to such a result? Perhaps one obser-
seph story, full of myths and symbols and vation might be permitted to a reader:
mystical identification with the earth. that a taste for books which place one in
The hero, who is one with the processes the situation of a superior being above
of life in nature and men, finds himself the fever and the fret and apart from
comprehending all people so thoroughly one's fellows may be an undesirable taste.
that he can have relations with none. Af- Apparently many people reconcile them-
ter his brother's murder, he says to his selves to being human only with great
father's spirit: difficulty and would much prefer to be
almost anything elsea mountain or a
Thomas and Burton [his other broth- beast or a godin order to escape the
ers] are allowed their likes and dis- limitations and troubles and obligations
likes, only I am cut off. I am cut off. I of humanity; but the literature which en-
can have neither good luck nor bad courages these impossible fancies may
luck. I can have no knowledge of any not be very good literature.
good or bad. Even a pure true feeling It will be objected that these are social
of the difference between pleasure and and moral considerations: so they are,
pain is denied me. All things are one, but none the less appropriate to litera-
and all a part of me. .. . Benjy is dead, ture, a social and moral art. But to take
and I am neither glad nor sorry. There the esthetic view, and to return to
is no reason for it to me. It is just so. Steinbeck, it may be asked whether de-
I know now, my father, what you tachment is good for a writer's writing
werelonely beyond feeling loneli- or whether "detached" writing makes the
ness, calm because you had no contact. best reading. To stand aside and contem-
plate these creatures with pity or with
So might Steinbeck's reader, whether admirationit is not so interesting as to
rightly or wrongly, be tempted to speak get inside them and participate in their
to him. In To a God Unknown he seems living. For one thing, the detachment is
for once to commit himself to a point of relatively monotonous, and leads to mo-
view, of identification with everything notonyas well as to languor and soft-
and detachment from everybody. ness, however seductiveof style. No
A reader of the passage just quoted first-rate novelist or playwright, I venture
can hardly help thinking of Steinbeck's to say, has gone in for detachment or im-
neighbor, Robinson Jeffers. As writers the posed it upon his readers, but quite the
two have little in common, but they do reverse: the best impose the most com-
share this detachment, and furthermore plete participation.
they share a preoccupation with physical Steinbeck's finest work affords a case
suffering, cruelty and violence. Are these in point. In Dubious Battle tells of a
two qualities related? When a man be- fruitpickers' strike led by Communists.

145
To be sure, one may surmise that the au- four stories which conclude The Long
thor speaks through the mouth of the Valley, These stories concern a little boy
doctor who sees little difference between and his ponies, his parents, his grandfa-
men and microbes, who doesn't "want to ther and the hired man. They are so well
put on the blinders of 'good' and 'bad,' told it is hard to see how they could be
and limit" his vision, yet who wishes to better. Delicate and sure, they attain per-
give help to men who need it simply be- fection in their kind. And here is no de-
cause they need it. But, however that may tachment, no distance. The writing is re-
be, In Dubious Battle achieves an effect served and economical, but it leads
that none of Steinbeck's other books does: straight into the characters and the rela-
the reader does not stand by and look on; tions among them. In this respect "The
he lives through the strike, he shares it Red Pony" shows a gain over In Dubious
and takes part in it. To be sure, there are Battle, in which necessarily the emphasis
stiff and awkward passages of philoso- was upon external action. That The Long
phizing, and the hero does not come out Valley should close so well is auspicious.
at all clearly, but these are minor blemishes.
The strike and the strikers are directly
and immediately conveyed, with none of
the magic or the safety of distance. Ralph Thompson.
In Dubious Battle is by all odds "Outstanding Novels."
Steinbeck's best book because it is far
and away the best written. Perhaps for
Yale Review', 28
once his material ran away with him; at (Winter 1939), x.
any rate his style disappears into the ma-
terial and they become indistinguishable.
Here is none of that mellifluous and silky . . . Mr. Steinbeck, as hardly needs saying,
flow, of that saying that things were is as native as sagebrush, and when he is
fierce and harsh and savage in the sweet- good he is as good as he is native. Cer-
est and most musical of words. The writ- tain pieces in The Long Valley don't
ing, sharp, energetic and unnoticeable, come off, but others, notably those deal-
follows and fits the stuff, and is worthy ing with the small boy named Jody Tiflin,
of it: more could hardly be said. For the who lives on a California ranch, are su-
story is the tragedy of not one but of perb. . . .
many individualsit is a national trag-
edy told through individuals. The theme
is great, the execution excellent. And inci-
dentally it has more excitement than any- "The Long Valley."
thing else of Steinbeck's. Yet the Ameri- Times Literary
can public would have none of it. The
public probably does not want to get too Supplement [London],
close to any reality that amounts to any- 4 February 1939, p. 75.
thing. It prefers rococo Mexicans and
saccharine half-wits carefully kept in the
middle distance. With every book Mr. Steinbeck moves
It must be said, however, that In Du- forward in the ranks of America's out-
bious Battle now shares its excellence, standing younger writers. This collection
though nothing else, with the series of of fifteen short stories is one of the most

146
brilliant, as it is one of the most distress-
ing, published in a long while. Its author Thomas Moult.
is pitiless. Seeing life as made up far more
of despair and frustration than of beauty "Short Stories."
or even courage, he spares his readers Manchester Guardian,
nothing, refusing to blink an eyelid at
whatever climax of horror, or to soften in 14 February 1939, p. 7.
the least degree that fine clarity of vision
which gives the slightest of his pieces
their distinction and their fascination. . .. The woman in Mr. Steinbeck's open-
Some of the situations are relatively ing story, "The Chrysanthemums," is
commonplace. Wives and husbands hate neurotic about lifethrough loneliness.
each other with sour distaste, inescapable The woman in "The White Quail," the
even after death. Mr. Steinbeck treats this story that comes next, is also neurotic
comically in "The Harness," and a rather about lifethrough an obsession about
similar case poetically in "The White her garden. Later on there is a story en-
Quail." But comical or poetic, bitterness titled "The Snake" in which the woman
is predominant. A murderer runs from is neurotic in a more horribly perverted
his pursuers through the bleak moun- wayshe purchases a snake so that she
tains, hampered by his slowly poisoning can watch the reptile devouring his meal,
armhow often has it been done before, a live rat. The imaginative treatment of
and how freshly here it is done again, these and other variations of his theme
and with what chilling starkness! Nor is and the craftsmanship by which it is ex-
the laughter exactly gay when a man ploited make each story not only toler-
murders his wife's lover, and the two of able but readable in a way that leaves an
them thrive on it. effect almost unique among present-day
Other tales have an air almost patho- short-story writers. If we are reminded of
logical. One describes scarcely more than D. H. Lawrence it is to mark a contrast;
a woman avidly gloating over the killing here is a successorin a senseto Law-
and swallowing of a rat by a snake. In rence without his forerunner's lack of
another a man who has taken part in a balance and sentimentality. Lawrence was
lynching realizes that he feels exactly as subjective; he re-created himself. Mr.
though he had "been with a woman." Steinbeck is objective, clinical. He has the
Cleverest of all, repellent yet unforget- detachment of the scientist. Our confi-
table, is "Johnny Bear," the story of a dence in him is the confidence we feel in
deformed half-wit, who automatically a scientist. Again we are taken away
mimics voices and repeats conversations from the cities to the parched, wide-open
secretly overheard. spaces, where every shack and farmstead
Only in the shortest sketch of all does gives up to him its secret history, unique
beauty manifest itself unshadowed. It and ruthless, and its cruelty, suffering,
appears again, more sustained and more and tragedy. Here and there among the
effectively, in the three tales making up sixteen stories that compose the volume
"The Red Pony," but mixed here with we come upon a few pages of relief, sar-
harsh brutality. No, Mr. Steinbeck is not donically humorous relief, as in a crazy
a happy writer. But he is an extraor- description of how legend was created
dinary artist, and not to be shirked on "Saint Katy the Virgin." But immediately
any excuse. afterwards we are overwhelmed by the

147
raw actualism of "The Red Pony," sentimental and few exaggerated, and it
the longest piece in the book, which, out- is altogether a notable collection.
doing Lawrence in some respects, is rank
with the atmosphere of buzzards hover-
ing over carrion on a ranch, of pig-
killings, and a pony's death. But much of John Main
the story is Steinbeck, not Lawrence, es- "New Novels.55
pecially the rancher's boy Jody, a charm-
ing youngster, and the tender-hearted New Statesman and
Billy, the farmhand, not to mention Nation [England], 17
Nellie, the ill-starred mare, who remains
a beautiful thing until the very end of this (18 February 1939), 250.
powerful epic of birth and life at the cost
of death.
.. . The Long Valley is a collection of
short stories, most of which have already
been published, though some only in lim-
J.S. ited editions. The themes are very simple:
the death of a fugitive in the hills; a man
"American Tales." walking home after taking part in a
London Times, lynching; a small boy's love for his pony
(the best of all, this); but the stories are
17 February 1939, p. 9. far more than those "authentic glimpses"
of experience that offer a facsimile rather
than attempt understanding. Without affec-
The most original and thoughtful story tation of style or any of the numerous
in Mr. John Steinbeck's collection is narrative tricks that mark such a book as
"Johnny Bear." As in several of the other Hope of Heaven, Mr. Steinbeck possesses
stories in The Long Valley, the scene is a that directness of feeling and expression
Californian township, where farmers and that is coming to be regarded as distinc-
roadmakers and others who have busi- tively American, yet he never falls in-
ness in the country gather at night in the to the complementary error of making
one saloon and amuse themselves by ply- his characterseven the oddeststock
ing the local halfwit with whisky in re- figures from a feature reporter's note-
turn for mimicked excerpts from what he book. Mr. Steinbeck is not a great
has overheard during the day. In this way writerhe has too little passion for that,
the story comes out of the disgrace to the and his mind seems too observant to be
big house in the valley, where ladies live really creativebut in his own way he is
who behave, to the great encouragement as perfect a craftsman as Hemingway and
of their neighbors, "as though honesty his disciples. But whereas Mr. O'Hara
really is the best policy." "The White has mastered merely a peculiar idiom,
Quail" is a bitting note on selfishness, Mr. Steinbeck has learnt the trick of the
"Flight" a remarkable account of a young short story and given each of his tales the
Mexican fleeing from a blood feud into polish and poise of a sonnet.
the mountains, and "Saint Katy the
Virgin" a lively piece of nonsense on a theme
of Anatole France. Few of the stories are

148
"The Long Valley." Checklist of Additional
London Mercury, 39 Reviews
(March 1939), 564.
Sterling North. "A Modern Writer Who
These short stories by the author of Of Dares to Be Sensitive." Chicago News,
Mice and Men centre round a valley in 21 September 1938, p. 23.
California, and the humble people, most- Laurence Hartmus. "A Western
ly agriculturists, who live there. They are Bookshelf." Frontier and Midland, 19
dexterously told, and though seemingly (Winter 1938), 140-1.
slight, handle confidently the more un- Herbert J. Muller. "Farrell and
comfortable aspects of human relation- Steinbeck." Kenyon Review, 1 (Winter
ships. In spite of Mr. Steinbeck's tender, 1939), 99-101.
almost whimsical, attitude towards his "Spring Books." Times Literary
characters, there is a vein of stark brutal- Supplement [London], 25 March
ity in nearly all these tales. 1939, p. xiv.

149
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
 The
Grapes of
Wrath
JOHN STEINBECK

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK

 sweep of the migration and the personal
Charles Poore. affairs of all the Joadshas the true air
of inevitability.
"Books of the Times." Mr. Steinbeck did not have to create a
New York Times, world for the Joads. It is there. What he
did have to do is to make you see it and
14 April 1939, p. 27. feel it and understand it. And he does this
in the one way a novelist can give life and
truth to his story: through the creation of
Their covered wagons are antique jalop- character. It is in Tom Joad (who learns
ies and the gold of their Eldorado hangs at last what Harry Morgan learned in To
on trees in California orchards. If they Have and Have Not, that standing alone
lived a hundred years agothese salty, will do nothing much to move impres-
brave and enormously human wanderers sively united opponents) that the story
of John Steinbeck's magnificent new makes Mr. Steinbeck's eloquently pre-
novel, The Grapes of Wrathwe should sented point.
call them heroic pioneers. We should ad- But our belief depends, in great meas-
mire their courageous will to survive in ure, upon our belief in them allfrom
spite of nature's elements and man's in- the rare and garrulous grandfather who
humanity. We should relish their Rabe- dies on the way, or Rose of Sharon,
laisian candor, their shrewdness and their whose child is born much later, after her
humor. We should undoubtedly say their whippersnapper of a husband has de-
spirit made this country great. serted, or sin-haunted Uncle John, or the
Well, we can admire those great- mother, who is the best man of the lot, or
hearted qualities all the more, knowing the father, who is slowly losing his grip,
that they belong to contemporary Ameri- or Casy Strange, the ex-preacher who
cans, and that novelists need not go to joins their caravan for a time, or Al, the
the past to find them. born mechanic, or Noah, who makes his
For within recent years thousands separate peaceto Ruthie and Winfield,
upon thousands of people like the Joads the two most completely credible chil-
in The Grapes of Wrath have been roll- dren we've seen in any recent novel.
ing westward, carrying all they own in For, as MacLeish once said in a totally
perilous cars of strange vintages, hungry, different connection, out of the vigor of
restless, the children riding on top of the emotions may well come a new art: "But
tents and the blankets and the cooking to mistake the art for the emotions is to
pots, their desperate elders hanging on perform no service to criticism. Only the
wherever they can. . . . art matters. The emotion lights the
Out of the dramatic elementals of this stove." And Mr. Steinbeck's triumph is
great American migration (there is, by that he has created, out of a remarkable
the way, an excellently illustrated article sympathy and understanding, characters
about it in this month's Fortune) Mr. whose full and complete actuality will
Steinbeck has created his best novel. It is withstand any scrutiny.
far better than Of Mice and Men, where When his characters hold the stage the
the overmeticulously orchestrated theme story has a superb drive and force. It is
of loneliness gave certain artificiality to only in his commentary on the migration,
the story's course. Here, his counterpoint the chapters interleaving the story of the
of the general and the particularthe full Joads, that he is apt to be a little too

153
hortatory. Here, in a grave, stately prose our time what Les Miserables did for its,
that seems to be half Jacobean and half Uncle Tom's Cabin for its, The Jungle for
Hemingway, he occasionally obscures the its. The Grapes of Wrath is the kind of
story with the moralwhich is better art that's poured out of a crucible in
borne out in the lives of his characters. which are mingled pity and indignation.
One believes in them absolutely be- It seems advisable to stress this point. A
cause one sees every side of their natures. lot of readers and critics are going to
And their natures are shown in every abandon themselves to orgies of ohing
possible kind of test and confrontation, and ahing over Steinbeck's impressive lit-
in words that can offend only the squea- erary qualities, happy to blink at the
mish and in scenes you will never forget. simple fact that fundamentally his book
The most memorable scene is the last is a social novel exposing social injustice
one.... and calling, though never explicitly, for
Everything in the book leads up to it. social redress. It's going to be a great and
From the time when Tom Joad (who'd deserved best-seller; it'll be read and
been in jail for killing a man who had praised by everyone; it will almost cer-
planned to kill him) came home to the tainly win the Pulitzer Prize; it will be
Oklahoma farm, where his family was filmed and dramatized and radio-acted
getting ready to go in search of the land but, gentle reader, amid all the excite-
of oranges and grapes and promise, to ment let's try to keep in mind what The
the book's ending the march of events Grapes of Wrath is about: to wit, the
is as relentless as it is absorbing to slow murder of half a million innocent
read. The scenes along Route 66, the and worthy American citizens.
wanderer's trail, in Hoovervilles, in the I don't know and in truth I don't
government campwhere the Joads much care whether it's the "work of gen-
found the humanity and courtesy almost ius" the publishers sincerely believe it to
unbelievable, after what they'd been be. What sticks with me is that here is a
throughare wonderfully realized. You book, non-political, non-dogmatic, which
can't help believing in these people, in dramatizes so that you can't forget it the
their courage and in their integrity. terrible facts of a wholesale injustice
committed by society. Here is a book
about a people of old American stock,
not Reds or rebels of any kind. They are
Clifton Fadiman. dispossessed of their land, their pitiful,
"Books." little homes are destroyed, they are lured
to California by false hopes. When they
New Yorker, 15 get there, after incredible hardships, they
(15 April 1939), 81-3. are exploited, reduced to peonage, then
to virtual slavery. If they protest, they are
beaten, tortured, or their skulls are
If only a couple of million overcom- smashed in. Even if they do not protest,
fortable people can be brought to read it, they are hounded, intimidated, and fi-
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath nally starved into defeat. The industrial
may actually effect something like a revo- and political groups that do these things
lution in their minds and hearts. It know quite well what they do. Hence
sounds like a crazy notion, I know, but I they cannot be forgiven.
feel this book may just possibly do for Along Highway 66, ribboning from

154
the Mississippi to Bakersfield, California, of fake symbolism. Just occasionally
these disinherited, in their rickety jalop- Steinbeck's dramatic imagination over-
ies, have been for the last five years leaps itself and you get a piece of pure, or
streaming into the Far West. Driven off impure, theatre like these last pages. One
their farms by the drought, dust, or the should also add that his political thinking
juggernaut of the tractor, the small farm- is a little mystical. The sense of unity that
ers and sharecroppers of half a dozen his migrants gradually acquire is not nec-
states, but mainly Oklahoma and Arkan- essarily, as he implies, of a progressive
sas, have been staking their salvation on character. It is based on an emotion that
the possibility of work in California. can just as easily be discharged into the
Steinbeck creates a familythe Joads channels of reaction. In other words, are
of Oklahomaand makes them typify a not these simple, tormented Okies good
whole culture on the move. At the same Fascist meat, if the proper misleaders are
time he gives us this migrant culture it- found for them?
self, in all its pathetic hopefulness, its It is unlikely, however, that such mis-
self-reliance, the growing sense of unity it givings will occur to you in the reading of
imparts to its people. the book. Its power and importance do
If ever The Great American Novel is not lie in its political insight but in its in-
written, it may very possibly be com- tense humanity, its grasp of the spirit of
posed along the lines here laid out by an entire people traversing a wilderness,
Steinbeck. No one since the advent of its kindliness, its humor, and its bitter in-
Sinclair Lewis has had so exact a feeling dignation. The Grapes of Wrath is the
for what is uniquely American. This feel- American novel of the season, probably
ing Steinbeck shows not only in his por- the year, possibly the decade....
trayal of the Joads themselves, in his
careful notation of their folk speech, folk
myths, folk obscenities, but in a thousand
minor touches that add up to something Louis Kronenberger.
major: the description of the used-car "Hungry Caravan.55
market, of the minds of truck-drivers and
hash-house waitresses, of Highway 66, of Nation, 148
the butchering and salting down of the (15 April 1939), 440-1.
pigs. It is this large interest in the whole
lives of his Oklahoma farmers that makes
The Grapes of Wrath more than a novel This is in many ways the most moving
of propaganda, even though its social and disturbing social novel of our time.
message is what will stick with any sensi- What is wrong with it, what is weak in it,
tive reader. what robs it of the stature it clearly at-
The book has faults. It is too detailed, tempts, are matters that must presently
particularly in the latter half. Casy, the be pointed out; but not at once. First it
ex-preacher, is half real, half "poetic" in should be pointed out that The Grapes
the worse sense of the word. Occasion- of Wrath comes at a needed time in a
ally the folk note is forced a little. And, powerful way. It comes, perhaps, as The
finally, the ending (a young girl who has Drapier's Letters or Uncle Tom's Cabin
only a day or two before given birth to a or some of the social novels of Zola
dead child offers the milk of her breasts came. It burns with no pure gemlike
to a starving man) is the tawdriest kind flame, but with hot and immediate fire. It

155
is, from any point of view, Steinbeck's creatures forced to fight for their very ex-
best novel, but it does not make one istence. During the first half of Stein-
wonder whether, on the basis of it, beck's long book the Joads, both as
Steinbeck is now a better novelist than people and as symbols, have tremendous
Hemingway or Farrell or Dos Passos; it vitality. Steinbeck's account of this one
does not invoke comparisons; it simply family leaving home and journeying forth
makes one feel that Steinbeck is, in some in a rickety makeshift truck is like some
way all his own, a force. night-lighted, rude Homeric chronicle
The publishers refer to the book as of a great migration. It has a vigor, as
"perhaps the greatest single creative of half-childlike, half-heroic adventuring,
work that this country has produced." that almost blots out the sense of its des-
This is a foolish and extravagant state- perate origins and painful forebodings.
ment, but unlike most publishers' state- But after the Joads reach California,
ments, it seems the result of honest en- somethinga kind of inner lifedisap-
thusiasm, and one may hope that the pears from the book. The economic out-
common reader will respond to the book rage, the human tragedy are made bru-
with an enthusiasm of the same sort. And tally clear. The chronicle of the Joads
perhaps he will, for The Grapes of Wrath remains vivid; the nature of their fate be-
has, overwhelmingly, those two qualities comes ever more infuriating. As a tract,
most vital to a work of social protest: the book goes on piling up its indictment,
great indignation and great compassion. conducting the reader on a sort of grand
Its theme is large and tragic and, on the tour of exploitation and destitution. And
whole, is largely and tragically felt. No all this has, emotionally at least, a very
novel of our day has been written out of strong effect. But somehow the book
a more genuine humanity, and none, I ceases to grow, to maintain direction. It
think, is better calculated to awaken the is truly enough a story of nomads; but
humanity of others.... from that it does not follow that the pro-
In the fate of one such familythe letarian novel must fall into the loose
Joads of OklahomaJohn Steinbeck has pattern of the picaresque novel. Artisti-
told the fate of all. Their fate is the theme cally speaking, the second half of The
of an angry and aroused propagandist, Grapes of Wrath, though it still has con-
but the Joads themselves are the product tent and suspense, lacks form and inten-
of a lively novelist. A racy, picturesque, sity. The people simply go on and on,
somewhat eccentric tribe, with certain re- with Steinbeck left improvising and am-
semblances to Erskine Caldwell's Georgia plifying untilwith a touch of new and
exhibits, the Joadsmean, merry, shame- final horrorhe abruptly halts.
less Grandpa; brooding, conscience- The Grapes of Wrath is a superb tract
stricken Uncle John; strong, tough, un- because it exposes something terrible and
derstanding Ma; Al, a squirt thinking true with enormous vigor. It is a superb
only of women and cars; Tom, who has tract, moreover, by virtue of being thor-
been in prison for killing a man in a oughly animated fiction, by virtue of liv-
brawlthe Joads, with their salty, slant- ing scenes and living characters (like
ing speech, their frank and boisterous Ma), not by virtue of discursive homilies
opinions, their unrepressed, irrepressible and dead characters (like the socialistic
appetites, would, in a stable world, be preacher). One comes away moved, in-
the stuff of rich folk-comedy. But sud- dignant, protesting, pitying. But one
denly uprooted and harassed, they are comes away dissatisfied, too, aware that

156
The Grapes of Wrath is too unevenly books; writers who abandoned literature
weighted, too uneconomically propor- to go to Hollywood, or to go to Spain, or
tioned, the work of a writer who is still to write plays, or to attend meetings, or
self-indulgent, still undisciplined, still not simply to retire on their earnings; writers
altogether aware of the difference in who exhausted their resources and kept
value of various human emotions. The doing the same book over and overone
picturesqueness of the Joads, for ex- after another they have left their over-
ample, is fine wherever it makes them live excitable discoverers holding the bag: a
more abundantly, but false when simply bag full of words like "genius" and
laid on for effect. Steinbeck's sentimental- "masterpiece," to be taken three times a
ism is good in bringing him close to the day, with meals.
lives of his people, but bad when it blurs Among the novelists of his generation,
his insight. Again, the chapters in which the most notable exception to this state
Steinbeck halts the story to editorialize of things is John Steinbeck. He has never
about American life are sometimes use- yet flashed in the pan. . . . Steinbeck tore
ful, but oftener pretentious and flatulent. up the manuscripts of his first two nov-
But one does not take leave of a book els, and retired the third. Since his first
like this in a captious spirit. One salutes published book, The Cup of Gold, each
it as a fiery document of protest and successive one has revealed a new facet of
compassion, as a story that had to be his ability. Tortilla Flat was the humor-
told, as a book that must be read. It is, I ous and sympathetic story of some at-
think, one of those booksthere are not tractive and disreputable Mexicans. In
very manywhich really do some good. Dubious Battle was a serious labor novel,
remarkable of its kind in presenting the
issues in terms of animate characters,
who had the vitality to take the story
George Stevens. over for themselves. Of Mice and Men
was a miniature tragedy which lost none
"Steinbeck's Uncovered of its effectiveness for being written with
Wagon." an eye on the stage, which was just as
poignant whether you took it straight or
Saturday Review, 19 symbolically. Different as these novels are
(15 April 1939), 3-4. (and Steinbeck's variety is further mani-
fested in the stories in The Long Valley),
there has been a constancy of flavor
It is exciting to watch the steady unfold- which is impossible to define: something
ing of a real writer's talent, to follow his deeper than the "personality" of the au-
development from promise to achieve- thor, which never intrudes; something
ment, with the sense that he knows what more impalpable than "ideas"; some-
he wants and knows what he is doing. It thing in the style, but in a style of which
is particularly exciting because it is rare. one is almost never conscious.
Van Wyck Brooks pointed out long ago For these reasons Steinbeck's reputa-
that the blighted career, the unfulfilled tion is unique. All our reviewers, and
promise, is the rule in American writing, such critics as we have among us, are
and his statement turned out to be as ac- pretty consciously in the "watch Stein-
curate in prophecy as in diagnosis. Writ- beck" movement. If it is turning into a
ers who produced one or two good bandwagon, that is not Steinbeck's fault.

157
He has already survived some fairly in- are a measure of its worth, in that it tri-
discriminate adulation. His activities, umphantly lives them down.
outside of writing novels, have managed The Grapes of Wrath is the story of
to remain his own affairs, to a remark- the new American nomads, of the mi-
able degree in the great American gold- grant farmers who have lost their few
fish bowl; and nothing has interfered acres in the Oklahoma dust bowl to the
with his serious production. The lively onward march of tractors and foreclo-
curiosity which Steinbeck has inspired sures. It is in particular the story of one
is a legitimate curiosity about his work. family, the Joads from a farm near
Because of his variety, nobody can put Sallisaw. You have seen them going west
him in a pigeon-hole; nobody has been through Texas and New Mexico on
able to say, "Steinbeck has done it again," Route 66, or you have seen them in Re-
but rather, "What is Steinbeck going to settlement Administration photographs:
do next?" Since it became known that three generations in a second-hand truck,
Steinbeck had a new novel for spring piled high with everything they own. Car
publication, and that it was by far his after car, from Arkansas to California;
longest and most ambitious production people with no home but the road, no
to date, it is safe to say (for whatever it prospects but hope, no resources but
may mean) that no other book on the courage: the thirty-niners in their uncov-
current lists has been so eagerly looked ered wagons.
forward to by the reviewers. With this material Steinbeck has done
The Grapes of Wrath is worth it, what, according to at least one theory,
worth all the talk, all the anticipation, all cannot be done: he has made a living
the enthusiasm. Here is the epitome of novel out of the news in the paper, out
everything Steinbeck has so far given us. of contemporary social conditions. In
It has the humor and earthiness of Tor- "Land of the Free," Archibald MacLeish
tilla Flat, the social consciousness of In wrote a sound track to the Resettlement
Dubious Battle, the passionate concern Administration's documentary stills. He
for the homeless and uprooted which looked at the pictures of the plowed-
made Of Mice and Men memorable. under farmers and wrote a poet's abstract
These elements, together with a narrative statement, pared down to gaunt mono-
that moves with excitement for its own syllables, of a seemingly insoluble prob-
sake, are not mixed but fused, to produce lem. Steinbeck has looked at the Okla-
the unique quality of The Grapes of homa farmers themselvesthe "Okies"
Wrath. That quality is an understanding in Salinas County, California, driven from
of couragecourage seen with humor camp to camp, finding no work, not al-
and bitterness and without a trace of sen- lowed to settle. What he has written
timentality; courage that exists as the last about them is a narrative: colorful, dra-
affirmation of human dignity. To convey matic, subtle, coarse, comic, and tragic.
that understanding with passionate con- For The Grapes of Wrath is not a social
viction, in human terms and also in terms novel like most social novels. It is instead
of mature intelligence, so that we re- what a social novel ought to be. When
spond integrally and without reservation, you read it, you are in contact not with
is a very considerable thing for a novel to arguments, but with people....
do. That is what The Grapes of Wrath Others will see in it a different and
does. It is by no means perfect, but possi- more immediately sociological value. Un-
bly its faults (one of which is egregious) questionably The Grapes of Wrath states

158
the problem of the southwestern tenant the final episode in the book seems to me
farmer in a form that will bring it home a trick to jar the reader out of the realiza-
to the imaginations of thousands who tion that the story really does not end. It
have hitherto looked on it with compara- takes away a little of the effectiveness,
tive unconcern. Unquestionably, also, and there will be many readers to wish
Steinbeck sees his material both as a nar- Steinbeck hadn't done it.
rative and as a condition calling for ac- But The Grapes of Wrath is good
tion. At regular intervals in the book he enough to live down more than this.
inserts general chapters stating the prob- Mrs. Roosevelt spoke recently of the
lem in terms of pure non-fiction. For need for a novelist who can interpret
my own part, I found these chapters at what is going on in this country among
best superfluous, occasionally senten- the kind of people of whom book readers
tious, and in one instance downright bad in general know littlepeople like the
(this is a very windy passage indeed, in Joads. John Steinbeck is the novelist. He
which the author coins the word "Man- knows what the country is doing to the
self," which I hope no one will ever use Joads, and what goes on in their minds
again). It is not these chapters, but the and emotions.
story of the Joads, that makes you want
to do something about the migratory ten-
ant farmers.
There remain one warning and one Peter Monro Jack.
major criticism. It is only fair to say that "John Steinbeck's New
there are conservative readers whom the
language used by the Joad family will of- Novel Brims with Anger
fend. In my opinion, all the dialogue is and Pity."
necessary and right; Steinbeck's ear is
perfect, and he lets the Joads talk with New York Times Book
uninhibited coarseness. I think this is vi- Review, 88
tal in a serious book like The Grapes of
Wrath, and that it would be obscene to (16 April 1939), 2.
write the dialogue otherwise; but I realize
that some readers will feel differently.
As for the criticisma point on which There are a few novelists writing as well
another group of readers will disagreeI as Steinbeck and perhaps a very few who
think that the last scene of the novel is write better; but it is most interesting to
bathos. It describes a physically possible note how very much alike they are all
but highly unusual event which even if writing. Hemingway, Caldwell, Faulkner,
palatable would be unconvincing; and Dos Passos in the novel, and MacLeish in
even if Steinbeck had made it convincing, poetry are those whom we easily think of
he would have added nothing to the in their similarity of theme and style.
story. The fact is that the story has no Each is writing stories and scenarios of
ending. We are left without knowing America with a curious and sudden in-
what happens to the characters. That is a tensity, almost as if they had never seen
necessary condition of writing about the or understood it before. They are looking
immediate situation of the tenant farm- at it again with revolutionary eyes.
ers' odyssey, and we could put up with Stirred like every other man in the street
the absence of a satisfactory ending. But with news of foreign persecution, they

159
turn to their own land to find seeds of the instructions that their hand-built houses
same destructive hatred. Their themes of are to be razed to the ground.
pity and anger, their styles of sentimental This may read like a disquisition by
elegy and scarifying denunciation may Stuart Chase. There is, in fact, a series of
come to seem representative of our time. essays on the subject running through the
MacLeish's Land of the Free, for in- book, angry and abstractlike the char-
stance, going directly to the matter with acters, "perplexed and figuring." The es-
poetry and picturesthe matter being sayist in Steinbeck alternates with the
that the land is no longer free, having novelist, as it does with Caldwell and the
been mortgaged, bought and finally others. The moralist is as important as
bankrupted by a succession of anony- the story-teller, may possibly outlast him;
mous companies, banks, politicians and but the story at the moment is the impor-
courts, or, for the present instance, Stein- tant thing.
beck's The Grapes of Wrath, as pitiful The most interesting figure of this
and angry a novel ever to be written Oklahoma family is the son who has just
about America. been released from jail. He is on his way
It is a very long novel, the longest home from prison, hitch-hiking across
that Steinbeck has written, and yet it the state in his new cheap prison suit,
reads as if it had been composed in a picking up a preacher who had baptized
flash, ripped off the typewriter and deliv- him when young, and arriving to find
ered to the public as an ultimatum. It is a the family setting out for California. The
long and thoughtful novel as one thinks Bank had come "to tractorin' off the
about it. It is a short and vivid scene as place." The house had been knocked
one feels it. over by the tractor making straight fur-
The opening scene is in Oklahoma, rows for the cotton. The Joad family had
where a change in the land is taking place read handbills promising work for thou-
that no one understands, neither the sands in California, orange picking. They
single families who have pioneered it nor had bought an old car, were on the point
the great owners who have bought it over of leaving, when Tom turned up from
with their banks and lawyers. As plainly prison with the preacher. They can
as it can be put, Mr. Steinbeck puts it. A scarcely wait for this promised land of
man wants to build a wall, a house, a fabulous oranges, grapes and peaches.
dam, and inside that a certain security to Only one stubborn fellow remains on the
raise a family that will continue his work. land where his great-grandfather had
But there is no security for a single fam- shot Indians and built his house. The oth-
ily. The cotton crops have sucked out the ers, with Tom and the preacher, pack
roots of the land and the dust has over- their belongings on the second-hand
laid it. The men from the Bank or the truck, set out for the new land, to start
Company, sitting in their closed cars, try over again in California.. .. Californians
to explain to the squatting farmers what are not going to like this angry novel... .
they scarcely understand themselves: that The beauty and fertility of California
the tenants whose grandfathers settled conceal human fear, hatred and violence.
the land have no longer the title to it, "Scairt" is a Western farmer's word for
that a tractor does more work than a the inhabitants, frightened of the influx
single family of men, women and chil- of workers eager for jobs, and when they
dren put together, that their land is to be are frightened they become vicious and
mechanically plowed under, with special cruel. This part of the story reads like the

160
news from Nazi Germany. Families from that Steinbeck has written a novel from
Oklahoma are known as "Okies." While the depths of his heart with a sincerity
they work they live in what might as well seldom equaled. It may be an exaggera-
be called concentration camps. Only a tion, but it is the exaggeration of an hon-
few hundred are given jobs out of the est and splendid writer.
thousands who traveled West in response
to the handbills. Their pay is cut from 30
cents an hour to 25, to 20. If any one
objects he is a Red, an agitator, a trouble- Joseph Henry Jackson.
maker who had better get out of the "The Finest Book John
country. Deputy sheriffs are around with
guns, legally shooting or clubbing any Steinbeck Has Written."
one from the rest of the Union who ques- New York Herald
tions the law of California. The Joad
family find only one place of order and Tribune, 16 April 1939,
decency in this country of fear and vio- "Books" section, p. 3.
lence, in a government camp, and it is a
pleasure to follow the family as they take
a shower bath and go to the Saturday "You never been called 'Okie' yet? 'Okie'
night dances. But even here the deputy use' ta mean you was from Oklahoma.
sheriffs, hired by the banks who run the Now it means you're scum. Don't mean
Farmers Association, are poking in their nothin' itself; it's the way they say it.
guns, on the pretext of inciting to riot But I can't tell you nothin'. You got to
and the necessity of protective custody. go there. I hear there's three hundred
The Joad family moves on through Cali- thousan' of our people therean' livin'
fornia, hunted by anonymous guns while like hogs, 'cause ever'thing in California
they are picking peaches for 2 1/2 cents a is owned. They ain't nothin' left. And
box, hoping only for a little land free of them people that owns it is gonna hang
guns and dust on which they might settle on to it if they got ta kill ever'body in the
and work as they were accustomed to. worP to do it. An' they're scairt, an' that
The promised grapes of California have makes 'em mad. You got to see it. You
turned into grapes of wrath that might got to hear it. Purtiest god-damn country
come to fruition at any moment. you ever seen, but they ain't nice to you,
How true this may be no reviewer can them folks. They're so scairt an' worried
say. One may very easily point out that a they ain't even nice to each other." . . .
similar message has been read by the Multiply the Joads by thousands and
writers mentioned above, and that Mr. you have a picture of the great modern
Steinbeck has done the same thing be- migration that is the subject of this new
fore. It is easy to add that the novel Steinbeck novel which is far and away
comes to no conclusion, that the preacher the finest book he has yet written. Exam-
is killed because he is a strike-breaker, ine the motives and the forces behind
that Tom disappears as a fugitive from what happened to the Joads and you
California justice, that the novel ends on have a picture of the fantastic social and
a minor and sentimental note; that the economic situation facing America today.
story stops after 600 pages merely be- Cure? Steinbeck suggests none. He puts
cause a story has to stop somewhere. All forward no doctrine, no dogma. But he
this is true enough but the real truth is writes. "In the souls of the people the

161
grapes of wrath are filling and growing children in the back seat, could look at
heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." I the fallow fields which might produce
have no doubt that Steinbeck would not food but not profit, and that man could
enjoy being called a prophet. But this know how a fallow field is a sin and the
novel is something very like prophecy. unused land a crime against the thin chil-
The Joads were only one family to dren." There is the hint. And here again:
learn that a bank was not a man. It was "And the great owners, with eyes to read
made up of men but it was a bigger history, and to know the great fact: when
thing and it controlled them, even though property accumulates in too few hands it
sometimes they hated to do what the is taken away. And that companion fact:
bank-monster said they must. That mon- when a majority of people are hungry
ster moved out the Joads and other thou- and cold they will take by force what
sands. Little farms, even tenant-farming they need. And the little screaming fact
wouldn't work any more on the worn- that sounds through history: repression
out land. Only huge land companies and works only to strengthen and knit the re-
tractors could make it pay. It happened pressed." Prophecy perhaps. Certainly a
all at once, and they had to go some- warning.
where; thousands and tens of thousands For the story itself, it is completely au-
were in the same boat. thentic. Steinbeck knows. He went back
Angry and puzzled, the heads of fami- to Oklahoma and then came West with
lies tried to figure. When the little hand- the migrants, lived in their camps, saw
bills appeared in the lost country, they their pitiful brave highway communities,
thought they saw a way out. If they sold the life of the itinerant beside the road.
everything, they might buy an ancient car He learned what was behind the hand-
and move to California where the hand- bills. And he came back with an enor-
bills said there was a chance for pickers. mous respect for the tenacity of these dis-
The second-hand car dealers cheated possessed, and with the knowledge that
them right and left, but they bought the this migration is no less a forerunner of a
rattletraps; they had to. And they took to new way than was that migration of
the road, headed westward over High- those earlier Americans who took Cali-
way 66.... fornia from another group of landholders
What happened to the Joads is the im- who had grown too soft to hold it.
mediate story of this novel. What hap- It is a rough book, yes. It is an ineffa-
pened and is happening to the thousands bly tender book too. It is the book for
like them is the story behind the story; which everything else that Steinbeck has
the reason Steinbeck wrote The Grapes written was an exercise in preparation.
of Wrath. What may happenmust hap- You'll find in it reminders of Pastures of
pen, he believesin the long run is the Heaven, of In Dubious Battle, of The
implication behind the book. "Whereas Red Pony, even of Tortilla Flat. But here
the wants of the Californians were nebu- there is no mere exploration of a field, no
lous and undefined, the wants of the tentative experimenting with a theme.
Okies were beside the roads, lying there This is the full symphony, Steinbeck's
to be seen and coveted; the good fields declaration of faith. The terrible meek
with water to be dug for, earth to crum- will inherit, he says. They will. They are
ble in the hand, grass to smell... . And a on their way to their inheritance now,
homeless, hungry man, driving the roads and not far from it. And though they are
with his wife behind him and his thin the common people, sometimes dirty

162
people, starved and suppressed and dis- on the side roads, beside the rivers and
appointed people, yet they are good irrigation ditches. Their occupational
people. Steinbeck believes that too. diseases are rickets, pellagra, dysentery,
It is easy to grow lyrical about The typhoid, pneumonia, starvation, sullen
Grapes of Wrath, to become excited hatred exploding periodically in bloody
about it, to be stirred to the shouting- strikes. Old American stock, they are
point by it. Perhaps it is too easy to lose mostly refugee sharecroppers from the
balance in the face of such an extraordi- Dust Bowl of the Southwest and Mid-
narily moving performance. But it is also west. They are called the "Okies." There
true that the effect of the book lasts. The are 250,000 of thema leading U.S. so-
author's employment, for example, of oc- cial problem, and participants in one of
casional chapters in which the undercur- the grimmest migrations of history.
rent of the book is announced, spoken as The Grapes of Wrath is the Okies'
a running accompaniment to the story, saga. It is John Ernst Steinbeck's longest
with something of the effect of the sound novel (619 pages) and more ambitious
track in Pare Lorentz's The Riverthat than all his others combined (Tortilla
lasts also, stays with you, beats rhythmi- Flat, In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and
cally in your mind long after you have Men, et ai). The publishers believe it is
put the book down. No, the reader's in- "perhaps the greatest modern American
stant response is more than quick enthu- novel, perhaps the greatest single creative
siasm, more than surface emotionalism. work this country has ever produced." It
This novel of America's new disinherited is not. But it is Steinbeck's best novel, i.e.,
is a magnificent book. It is, I think for the his toughest and tenderest, his roughest
first time, the whole Steinbeck, the ma- written and most mellifluous, his most re-
ture novelist saying something he must alistic and, in its ending, his most melo-
say and doing it with the sure touch of dramatic, his angriest and most idyllic.
the great artist. It is "great" in the way that Uncle
Tom's Cabin was greatbecause it is in-
spired propaganda, half tract, half human-
interest story, emotionalizing a great
"Okies." theme....
Time, 33 (17 April 1939), Between chapters Author Steinbeck
speaks directly to the reader in pan-
87. oramic essays on the social significance of
the Okies' story. Burning tracts in them-
selves, they are not a successful fiction
On California's highways during the last experiment. In them a "social awareness"
few years a tourist sometimes encounters outruns artistic skill. Steinbeck is a
a mysterious and appalling sightthou- writer, still, of great promise. But this
sands of jalopies, driven by hungry-faced novel's big audience of readers will likely
men, bulging with ragged children, dirty find in it one of the most impassioned
bedding, blackened pots and pans. and exciting books of the year.
Hated, terrorized, necessary, they are mi-
grant workers who harvest the orchards
and vineyards, the cotton and vegetable
fields of the richest valleys on earth.
Their homes are filthy squatters' camps

163
 Covici of Covici-Friede that Steinbeck
Burton Rascoe. was a good investment. Pat was delighted
with the manuscript Ben turned over to
"But... N o t . . . him, saw Tortilla Flat become a best
Ferdinand." seller, published In Dubious Battle
(which also got high praise and became a
Newsweek, 13 best seller), Of Mice and Men (which was
(17 April 1939), 46. a great success both as a novel and as a
play), The Red Pony (issued in a limited,
high-priced edition), and The Long Val-
Many years hence, maybe a new bunch ley (also issued in a limited, high-priced
of Baconians (who think Shakespeare edition). And then Covici-Friede was
wasn't Shakespeare) will rise up with forced to the wall and Pat, an able editor-
learned theses to prove that John Stein- publisher, went over to Viking Press, tak-
beck was not John Steinbeck, but was, in ing Steinbeck with him.
fact, Charlie McCarthy. Viking Press has just issued Stein-
They will have much to go on. If the beck's Grapes of Wrath.... Reports are
Bard of Avon can be called "myriad- that advance orders for the book are
minded" and accused of being two other more than treble the advance orders on
fellows on the available evidence, then all the other Steinbeck books put to-
Steinbeck's chances of being known as gether. It is a book of 619 pages, which is
Steinbeck are certainly slim; for, even if to say, about 195,000 words or about
you wouldn't want to call the man twice the length of both Tortilla Flat and
"myriad-minded" (maybe you wouldn't of Of Mice and Men.
want to call anybody that), you have to It is about tenant farmers in Okla-
admit that not one of his books, except homa, who got pushed off their land by
in the superficies of idiosyncratic ca- the wicked landlords and struck out in a
dence, remotely resembles any of his jalopy for California, where they thought
other books. He is not a school, as you didn't have to work but could just
Hemingway is. . . . He is always different. live on oranges picked from somebody
I know of no top-notch other writer else's trees. They found out different. The
in my time, including Cabell, Dreiser, book has beautiful and, even magnificent,
Anderson, Jeffers, and Robinson, who passages in it; but it is not well orga-
had as many bad breaks at the start of nized; I can't quite see what the book is
his career as Steinbeck. For a long period, about, except that there are "no frontiers
every time he had a new book coming left and no place to go."
out, the publishing house folded up ten The title is from Julia Ward Howe's
minutes after the book was off the press. "Battle Hymn of the Republic" with its
Thus he got no publicity, no advertising, line "He is trampling out the vintage
little distribution of his wares. He earned where the grapes of wrath are stored." In
less in royalties than he earned as a hod chapter 25, he explains what he means
carrier in the construction of Madison by the title, in an impassioned essay
Square Garden. about the California vineyards, which, he
His first big success was Tortilla Flat, says, have fallen into the hands of the
which went begging for months among banks: "The decay spreads over the state,
the publishers until Ben Abramson of the and the sweet smell is a great sorrow in
Argus Book Shop, Chicago, told Pat the land. Men who can graft trees and

164
make the seed fertile and big can find no with us in our valleys and on our high-
way to let the hungry people eat their ways. What is to become of them? . . .
produce . . . The works of the roots of Whether or not we agree with the eco-
the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed nomic views of Steinbeck we must bow
to keep up the price, and this is the to the power of his writing, its force,
saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of sheer beauty and splendid characteriza-
oranges dumped on the ground . . . etc." tion. He is peculiarly our own in Califor-
(Secretary Wallace, please take note: nia, born of the country, steeped in its
Steinbeck is predicting a revolution from beauty and cruelty. He has written a
the vicious circle that has grown up great book about a great people, a people
around crop destruction for price main- who are now, due to circumstances, Cali-
tenance.) fornians. No Californian should disre-
gard this book and its message. It is for
us and it is one of the greatest of Ameri-
can books.
M[arjory] L[loyd]. In the style of the writing, Steinbeck
"Off the Book Shelf." has made a new departure. Lest we
should get a too particularized picture of
Carmel [Calif.] Pine these migrants through only the associa-
Cone, 21 April 1939, tion of the Joad family, he has written in
each alternate chapter a generalized pic-
p. 5. ture. Also in these chapters he has set
forth the views he holds lest the charac-
ters themselves fail to give the message.
. . . It is a powerful novel, written by a No doubt Steinbeck will be criticized
man who for a time lived among these for so strongly presenting this message
migratory workers of our valleys in order but we feel that it is needed. It is no use
that he might himself fully understand shutting our eyes to conditions which
their plight. In an old Ford truck Stein- surround us. There is one thing, however,
beck moved from camp to camp and that this reviewer hopes. We as Califor-
listened to their stories and saw their nians shall and will do something about
plight. They are Americans for six and these conditions and give to a people
seven generations back, Americans who proud and worthy a chance to work out
have lived in pride on their own land and their destiny. Surely we are not heartless
been forced from it by the merciless and surely there is something to be said
forces of nature and the equally remorse- in defence of the picture of the seemingly
less forces of the economic system. In heartless landowners of our state. They,
telling the story of the Joad family who too, have their problems.
left their land and journeyed to Califor-
nia, Steinbeck has written a novel power-
fully strong, strikingly beautiful and full
of human sympathy. The story is intense-
ly gripping and once the family starts on
their way it is almost impossible to leave
them till the end of the book. At the end
their story is unsolved. It is unsolved be-
cause there is no solution. They are still

165
 ized portraits and the customary conver-
Philip Rahv. sions, psychologically false and schematic
as ever, to militant principles. Moreover,
"A Variety of Fiction." the technical cleverness displayed in Of
Partisan Review, 6 Mice and Men is lacking in this novel,
which should be credited with valid po-
(Spring 1939), 111-12. litical observation and sincere feeling, but
which fails on the test of craftsmanship.
Its unconscionable length is out of all
. . . From Mr. John Steinbeckwhose in- proportion to its substance; the "ornery"
spired pulp-story, Of Mice and Men, dialect spoken by its farmers impresses
swept the nation like a plagueone ex- one as being less a form of human speech
pects nothing. It is therefore gratifying to than a facile convention of the local-color
report that in The Grapes of Wrath he schools; and as to problems of character-
appears in a more sympathetic light than ization, Mr. Steinbeck does not so much
in his previous work, not excluding In create character as he apes it. For aping,
Dubious Battle. This writer, it can now too, can be turned into a means of "re-
be seen, is really fired with a passionate creating" life. It would appear from this
faith in the common man. He is the and similar novels that on a sufficiently
hierophant of the innocent and injured; elementary level, and so long as a uni-
and his new book, though it by no means form scheme of behaviorhowever
deserves the ecstatic salutations it has re- simpleis imposed upon characters, all a
ceived in the press, is an authentic and fiction writer requires to make his people
formidable example of the novel of social seem real is the patience to follow them
protest. everywhere, the perseverance to copy
The book is at the same time a de- down everything they say and everything
tailed exposure of dreadful economic they d o . . . .
conditions and a long declaration of love
to the masses. It is an epic of miserya
prodigious, relentless, and often excruci-
ating account of agrarian suffering.... Malcolm Cowley.
Mr. Steinbeck spares us not a single "American Tragedy."
scene, not a single sensation, that could
help to implicate us emotionally. And he New Republic, 98
is so much in earnest that a number of (3 May 1939), 382-3.
times he interrupts his story in order to
grapple directly with his thesis. Thus
several chapters are devoted to outright While keeping our eyes on the cataclysms
political preaching from the standpoint in Europe and Asia, we have lost sight
of a kind of homespun revolutionary of a tragedy nearer home. A hundred
populism. thousand rural households have been up-
But the novel is far too didactic and rooted from the soil, robbed of their pos-
long-winded. In addition to the effects sessionsthough by strictly legal meth-
that are peculiar to his own manner, Mr. odsand turned out on the highways.
Steinbeck has assembled in this one book Friendless, homeless and therefore vote-
all the familiar faults of the "proletarian" less, with fewer rights than medieval
literary mode. There are the usual ideal- serfs, they have wandered in search of a

166
few days' work at miserable wagesnot becomes a Christ-like labor leader and is
in Spain or the Yangtze Valley, but killed by vigilantes. The book ends with
among the vineyards and orchards of an episode that is a mixture of allegory
California, in a setting too commonplace and melodrama. Rose of Sharon, after
for a color story in the Sunday pa- her baby is born dead, saves a man from
pers. . . . The novel, which has just ap- starvation by suckling him at her
peared, is John Steinbeck's longest and breastas if to symbolize the fruitfulness
angriest and most impressive work... . of these people and the bond that unites
The second half of Grapes of Wrath, them in misfortune.
dealing with their adventures in the Val- Yet one soon forgets the faults of the
ley of California, is . . . good but some- story. What one remembers most of all is
what less impressive [than the first]. Until Steinbeck's sympathy for the migrants
that moment the Joads have been moving not pity, for that would mean he was
steadily toward their goal. Now they dis- putting himself above them; not love, for
cover that it is not their goal after all; that would blind him to their faults, but
they must still move on, but no longer in rather a deep fellow feeling. It makes him
one directionthey are harried by vigi- notice everything that sets them apart
lantes, recruited as peach pickers, driven from the rest of the world and sets one
out again by a strike; they don't know migrant apart from all the others. In the
where to go. Instead of being just people, Joad family, everyone from Grampa
as they were at home, they hear them- "Full a' piss an' vinegar," as he says of
selves called Okies"and that means himselfdown to the two brats, Ruthie
you're scum," they tell each other and Winfield, is a distinct and living per-
bewilderedly. "Don't mean nothing itself, son. And the story is living tooit has
it's the way they say it." The story begins the force of the headlong anger that
to suffer a little from their bewilderment drives ahead from the first chapter to the
and lack of direction. last, as if the whole six hundred pages
At this point one begins to notice were written without stopping. The au-
other faults. Interspersed among the thor and the reader are swept along to-
chapters that tell what happened to the gether. I can't agree with those critics
Joads, there have been other chapters who say that The Grapes of Wrath is the
dealing with the general plight of the mi- greatest novel of the last ten years; for
grants. The first half-dozen of these inter- example, it doesn't rank with the best of
ludes have not only broadened the scope Hemingway or Dos Passos. But it belongs
of the novel but have been effective in very high in the category of the great an-
themselves, sorrowful, bitter, intensely gry books like Uncle Tom's Cabin that
moving. But after the Joads reach Cali- have roused a people to fight against in-
fornia, the interludes are spoken in a tolerable wrongs.
shriller voice. The author now has a
thesisthat the migrants will unite and
overthrow their oppressorsand he
wants to argue, as if he weren't quite sure
of it himself. His thesis is also embodied
in one of the characters: Jim Casy, a
preacher who loses his faith but unfortu-
nately for the reader can't stop preach-
ing. In the second half of the novel, Casy

167
 family at the shack of an uncle; but this
L.A.S. place, too, is doomed, and the family is
just moving on toward California.
"Flight from the Dust It is a numerous family. Besides Pa,
Bowl." Ma, Uncle John, and Tom, it includes the
Rabelaisian Grampa and his wife; Tom's
Christian Science Monitor younger brother Al; another brother,
Weekly Magazine Section, Noah, not quite bright; a sister, Rose of
Sharon, and her husband, Connie; two
6 May 1939, p. 13. small children. They take along also the
Preacher, Casy, another unforgettable
character. They all start out, with a dog,
John Steinbeck became known to a con- in an old Ford truck. Grampa and
siderable public with his collection of Granma do not survive the journey. Noah
stories, Tortilla Flat. His public was en- wanders off by himself. Connie deserts.
larged by the story Of Mice and Men, The rest arrive in California, to be met
and by the play that was made from it. by deputies. Thereafter their life is one
The Red Pony and The Long Valley in- disillusionment after another.
creased his reputation. Now, in The So far as surface facts are concerned,
Grapes of Wrath, he seems to have it is a sordid, gloomy story. But under the
achieved the scope and the sweep toward surface it is a saga of high courage and of
which he has been moving. human brotherhood. Those who have al-
This is an epic account of the migra- most nothing share it with those who are
tion of sharecroppers from the Dust Bowl even worse off. There is a fine loyalty to
to the mirage of a free and happy life in the family, and to those others who are
California. The canvas is as big as half a kind. There is always a reaching out for
continent. The rhythm is that of Ameri- something better, a fumbling of untu-
can life. The characters are living people, tored minds to understand the forces that
presented without apology as they appear are pushing them around so mercilessly.
to the author. The language no doubt In the end Tom, having seen Casy slain in
is that of the people portrayed, but its the labor war, and having avenged him,
blasphemousness and indecency may ob- becomes an underground worker for la-
scure the real value of the novel for some bor. The family are left to carry on as
readers. best they can. But there is always striving,
The characters are memorable. Clear- and always hope, and always courage.
ly individualized, they are consistent in
their behavior, and their interaction ap-
pears inevitable to the reader....
The hero of the story, if it has a hero Earle Birney.
other than the downtrodden one third of "A Must Book."
a nation, is Tom, eldest of the children,
who at twenty-six returns home from a
Canadian Forum, 19
four-year prison term for manslaughter. (June 1939), 94-5.
That is, he returns to the site of his home,
only to discover that his people have van-
ished and the place is given over to trac- This is a MUST book. It is not only the
tor-handled cotton raising. He finds his novel by which Steinbeck steps from the

168
fashionable second-raters to the front speaking through the word-drunk Mr.
ranks of living American fictionists. It is Bridle, has already denounced the book,
not only a work of concentrated observa- in consequence, as "the most unblushing
tion, folk humor, and dramatic imagina- parade of naturalistic indecency so far
tion playing over the whole American Nordized since the war," "more elemen-
continent. It is, more importantly, what tal than the worst of Dos Passos," etc.
Milton would call a "deed"the act But the sweep of the book's vision and
of a man out of the pity and wrath of the controlled passion of its style will
his heart. carry away all but the most hardened
It is a rebellious protest, tempered but prudes. In one short sentence, Steinbeck
by no means obscured by art, against the can catch the whole human tragedy of an
gradual murder of a half-million south- abandoned farmhouse: "The wild cats
west farmers by the human instruments crept in from the fields at night, but they
of an inhuman and outworn economy. did not mew at the doorsteps any more."
When the land their grandfathers had This is no "proletarian novel." It is
wrested from the prairie grass is taken rather the only thing a class-conscious
from them by drought and the banking artist can write so long as the working
system, and pooled for tractor cultiva- people of the earthof our Canadian
tion, they pile their goods and kids in pa- prairies toosuffer and die like this un-
thetic jalopies and struggle west to Cali- der their economic overlords. Steinbeck
fornia, lured by lying promises of work has no pseudo-Marxist hero from the
and land. They arrive, as the big Califor- Daily Worker office organizing the farm-
nia ranchers had planned, in such myri- ers along with their bosses into Leagues
ads and in such extremes of need that for Peace and Democracy. These proletar-
they are forced to work for no more than ians of the soil are in the bitter process of
what will keep them half-alive. When the learning for themselves in their own
picking is over, and while unsold fruit is terms what wage-labor and capital mean,
destroyed, they are hounded into the of creating for themselves fire-hardened
highways and left to starve, unprotected leaders and cadres for the coming revolution.
by law, unaided by humanity. "And chil- That the end will be revolution is im-
dren dying of pellagra must die because plicit from the title onwards. Self-interest
profit cannot be taken from an orange." dictates that the Haves will not concede;
The book is not free from Steinbeck's self-preservation and the ultimately supe-
old faults. In the ending especially there rior power of numbers means that the
is theatricality; pain and cruelty are masses will win, so long as they retain
sometimes sensationalized in the manner the will to "turn their fear to wrath."
of Faulkner and Hemingway. There are The inevitable fruit of the system are the
overtones of mysticism and sentimental bitter grapes of wrath, and there will one
individualism which occasionally confuse day be a trampling out of the vintage.
the dominant social philosophy. The feel The book will not, as Clifton Fadiman
of dirt in the farmer's fingers seems at hopes, "effect something like a revolution
times more important than tractors. The in the minds... of overcomfortable
central character, Ma Joad, is too infalli- people," as he assumes Les Miserables
bly heroic and sybilline, the preacher too and Uncle Tom's Cabin did. Les Mise-
shadowy for his important role. The cru- rables did not prevent the Paris Com-
dities of American folk-speech are per- mune nor Uncle Tom's Cabin the Civil
haps exaggerated. Middle-class Toronto, War. Steinbeck is not so much warning

169
the rich, whom he sees cannot help them- is the driving force within The Grapes of
selves, as arousing the poor, who can, to Wrath....
courage, endurance, organization, revolt. You have to go back to Dickens to
find a story which so plays upon your
emotions, which makes you so indignant.
Tom Joad's first meeting with his mother
Edward Weeks. after his parole from prison; Ma as she
"The Bookshelf." strips her room before the departure; the
death of Grampasuch scenes are to me
Atlantic, 163 (June irresistibly moving. Less emotional but
1939), 16. no less vivid are the daily circumstances
of the caravanMa's vigilance, the
rough humor, the tinkering of the old car,
I should like to say why I think The the ominous rumor of what awaits the
Grapes of Wrath is a landmark in Ameri- Okies in California. As a means of relief
can literature. I think it is quite as impor- and objectivity, the author skillfully in-
tant in our time as Sinclair Lewis's Main jects interludes of impersonal description
Street was in the early '20s. I think it is so that our mind travels, as it were, on
an almost perfect illustration of the two planeswestward bound. To tell the
changes which have occurred in our personal story Mr. Steinbeck uses lan-
fiction since the depression. I think it guage unadulterated, words which are
is a story whose charactersif they be profane and which in some companies
not opposed by conventionwill come would be lewd. I submit that he could
nearer the heart than any other family of not have written truthfully of the Joads
Americans I have read of since the war. without them, and that in his hands such
In his novels Mr. Lewis was working words are as sanitary as they are relevant
with characters typical of our middle to the book. I am again reminded of
class: the mediocrity in business, the Dickens as I notice the excessive touches
small-town wife, the doctor and preacher. in The Grapes of Wrathhow the
In his six books Mr. Steinbeck has identi- preachment becomes increasingly intru-
fied himself with the migratory American sive in the second half, and how the book
and the insecure. Tortilla Flat pictured ends on a note of almost mawkish senti-
the luck of the laughing paisano; In Du- ment. I myself would have been better
bious Battle was the story of a strike fer- pleased to see the final period on page
mented for good reasons among the fruit 477. But these are small points.
pickers in California; Of Mice and Men Steinbeck has the common touch, and
showed us the aspiration, humor, and pa- the ability to dramatize it in action and in
thetic dependence of the "hands" in any lingo. His novel is more than the summa-
ranch house. I think this is suggestive of tion of realism: it holds the hunger and
the change which has become increas- the humor, the anger and the poetry
ingly evident in the short stories and nov- wrung from deep feeling, which charac-
els since 1930. Every editor knows that terize our life in the uncertain 1930's.
the sympathy of his writers has extended
downward as the succession of lean years
beat into our conscience the inequalities
in American life. This feeling for injus-
tice, this compassion for the dispossessed,

170
 duty and right of employee and employer.
A[rthur] D. Spearman, SJ. It is a summons to revolution as the
only way out of the complex social prob-
"Steinbeck's Grapes of lem of our time. It points to collectivism
Wrath Branded as Red in its longings, voiced by Ma Joad, and
Casy, and Tom Joad for "our" land,
Propaganda by Father worked by "our" tractors, and enjoy-
A. D. Spearman/5 ment in "our" communal socials and
San Francisco Examiner, civic life.
The book ridicules those who see
4 June 1939, Section 1, "reds" threatening American life. It hon-
p. 12. ors and appeals for the adoption of Com-
munism, but tractfully refuses to use or
accept the name.

The Grapes of Wrath may be summed up

as a brief, written in terms of human mis-
ery, for the adoption of the philosophy of Charles Angoff.
life called Communism. The arguments
are selected from the customary commu-
"In the Great Tradition.55
nistic sources and strategy; a highlighted North American Review,
appeal for the behaviouristic philosophy 247 (Summer 1939),
of sex-indulgence; an animated cartoon
of the useless, discouraging influence of 387-9.
religion upon human welfare, a tincture
saturating the whole book, and made
personal in the warping sin-remorse of There should be rejoicing in that part of
Uncle John, brooding upon his past; a Hell where the souls of great American
portrayal of law enforcement officers as imaginative writers while away their
the tools of the rich with no care or inter- time, for at long last a worthy successor
est in protecting the legal rights or life to them has appeared in their former ter-
and limbs of the poor worker. restrial abode. With his latest novel Mr.
Consistency is not, and any informed Steinbeck at once joins the company of
thinker knows that it can not be, a qual- Hawthorne, Melville, Crane, and Norris,
ity either of the Communistic mind or of and easily leaps to the forefront of all his
Communistic propaganda. It is not found contemporaries. The book has all the ear-
in Steinbeck's portrayal either of problem marks of something momentous, monu-
or solution in The Grapes of Wrath. mental, and memorable: universal com-
Lack of consistency in this book should passion, a sensuousness so honestly and
not, however, blind the reader to the defi- recklessly tender that even the Fathers of
nite trend of the writer's sympathies and the Church would probably have called it
ideology. Grapes of Wrath is a plea for a spiritual; and a moral anger against the
fundamental "change." It does not see entire scheme of things that only the
any possibility of restoration of American highest art possesses. The book also has
life on a basis of the Ten Command- the proper faults: robust looseness and
ments, liberty under law, guidance from lack of narrative definitivenessfaults
true religion, or a relationship of mutual such as can be found in the Bible, Moby

171
Dick, Don Quixote, and Jude the Ob- who served a term in jail; Uncle John,
scure. The greatest artists almost never whose wife died because he couldn't af-
conform to the rules of their art as set ford medical care for her; Preacher Jim
down by those who do not practice it. Casy, who finally saw the folly of his ser-
The critics of Bach's time upbraided him monizing; and daughter Rose of Sharon,
severely for not writing fugues as perfect whose unemployed husband left her in
as those of Georg Philipp Telemann. the middle of her pregnancy.
Apparently nothing much happens in Ma Joad watches over all of them and
Mr. Steinbeck's tale. A poor white family, dozens of others. She has particular fear
the Joads, evicted from their home in the for the men lest they collapse inwardly,
Middle West by the banks, pile into an and she rejoices when she notices rage in
old automobile and head West toward their faces, for she knows that "the break
the land where oranges grow, seeking would never come as long as fear could
work of any kind, finding it occasionally turn to wrath." Her final act of magnifi-
at about five cents an hour, but most of cence comes at the very end of the book,
the time hounded by the police, and in in a barn, where she has taken her shiver-
the end get stuck in thick California mud, ing daughter who had just delivered her-
which looks no more like oranges than self of a dead child. Both notice a man
Kansas mud. Nothing much happens, but not far away, dying of starvation.
before one has gone a hundred pages into "Ma's eyes passed Rose of Sharon's
the book, one finds oneself in a whole eyes, and then came back to them. And
world of stress and strain, love and hate, the two women looked deep into each
charity and cruelty, cowardice and the other. The girl's breath came short and
most sublime heroism. gasping.
The dreadful, almost incredible pov- "She said, 'Yes.'
erty of contemporary American life, "Ma smiled. 'I knowed you would. I
which the New Deal has been trying to knowed!'"
combat, beats mercilessly against the Ma and Pa and Uncle John and the
Joad family, who can't understand why younger Joads leave the barn.
they should be so hungry in a land "Rose of Sharon sat still in the whis-
so rich.. .. pering barn. Then she hoisted her tired
But the people, with the patience of body and drew the comfort about her.
Christ, keep on going, helping one an- She moved slowly to the corner and
other to the last bite of bread and the last stood looking down at the wasted face,
drop of milk. As Ma Joad, one of the into the wide, frightened eyes."
most noble characters in American Rose of Sharon offers him one of her
fiction, says, "I'm learnin' one thing breasts. "'You got to,' she said." And thus
good. Learnin' it all a time, ever' day. If he was saved from a stable rat's grave.
you're in trouble or hurt or needgo to Some of the literary Episcopalians
the poor people. They're the only ones have already complained about such pas-
that'll helpthe only ones." sages, wholly oblivious to the eternal
So the Joads exchange help with their heartbreak in them, as their predecessors
fellow wanderers, and they give suste- complained about similar passages in the
nance and sympathy to one another in works of Flaubert, Zola, and Hardy.
the family, especially to those among Steinbeck need not worry. His book
them whom an indifferent world has offers more praise to God than a dozen
treated harshly and stupidly: son Tom, Cathedrals of St. John the Divine.

172
M. L. Elting. James N. Vaughan.
"Fiction Review.55 "The Grapes of Wrath."
Forum, 102 (July 1939), Commonweal, 30
IV. (28 July 1939), 341-2.

This has been a vintage year for novels, . .. His tale of pain, starvation, wretched-
particularly novels about our nervous, ness, and death Mr. Steinbeck relates
tugging present days. There's a summer's with tenderness and even with detach-
fiction reading at hand that at last meas- ment so far as the mere story is con-
ures up to Personal History and Paul de
cerned. If his realism is at times vulgar to
Kruif's books and Red Star Over China.
a revolting degree, it must be admitted
First on any list comes The Grapes that it offends in this respect on so few
of Wrath, John Steinbeck's magnificent occasions that it may be passed over
story of dispossessed Oklahoma farmers without further mention.
and their search for new beginnings in
Besides being a novel, Grapes of
California.
Wrath is a monograph on rural sociol-
The Joad family, a healthy, lusty,
ogy, a manual of practical wisdom in
cussing lot of Oklahomans came across
times of enormous stress, an assault on
the desert believing that in a little while
individualism, an essay in behalf of a
they could earn enough by picking fruit
rather vague form of pantheism and a
to get an orchard of their own and a little
bitter, ironical attack on that emotional
white house. But they found that two or
evangelistic religion which seems to
three hundred thousand others had the
thrive in the more impoverished rural dis-
same idea. .. . The Joads got hungrier
tricts of this vast country.
and more puzzled. They were pushed
around by cops and deputies, and that The structure of general ideas found
made them mad. And finally they began in the book is for the most part elabo-
to ask whywhy can't seven willing rated by a very effective device consisting
pairs of hands fill seven stomachs in the of interruptions in the story of the Joads
fattest land on earth? for short excursions into the implications
of that story. The argument is this: Here
The answer, large and portentous, is are representatives of the seventh Ameri-
part of the story but not all of it. There is can generation of solid people who are
humor, too, and pathos and love and fine driven to destitution and death by the
yarn-spinning. Mr. Steinbeck has written forces of "capitalism." In the day of their
the kind of novel that touches you with distress no help is extended to them. On
an almost personal pride, because it is so the contrary they are regarded with fear
exactly what you want to see written. and loathing by possessors of property.
The loathing which they inspire in the
Californians on whom they descend
arises from fear that they constitute a
threat to property. Ownership of prop-
erty freezes a person into an "I" which
is incapable of joining with others to

173
constitute a "we." Notwithstanding the terrible plight of the dust bowl tenant
force and terror devices used by the Cali- farmers.
fornians (by property holders) for keep-
ing these migrant starvelings in their
place (in a cowed condition) some day
they will band together to take by vio- "Grapes of Wrath."
lence what will not now be peacefully Collier's, 104
surrendered, viz., some of the owners' su-
perfluity of goods and unneeded acreage. (2 September 1939), 54.
The inevitability of the day of violence is
expressly asserted. Meantime to arm
themselves for the coming struggle, the Some say that John Steinbeck's best-sell-
downtrodden must be spiritually pre- ing novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is a
pared. This preparation will involve the twentieth-century Uncle Tom's Cabin and
creation of a collectivistic mentality which then some. Others call it a despicable
will prize the cause of the "people" and piece of propaganda. The debate is mov-
will view the perils and death of individu- ing a lot of people to read the book, so
als as well as the rights of individuals as we'll tell what we think of it.
of minor significance. For one thing, we think The Grapes of
Some fundamental ideas are over- Wrath is a very moving book, crammed
looked by Mr. Steinbeck. In the first place with human tragedy and comedy (plus
the relief of the conditions he describes considerable dirt), and written in an ex-
does not require violenceas our experi- tremely graphic style. It has to do with
ence of the last six years has shown. In poor, broken Southern share croppers
the next place the doctrine that the spirit forced out of Dust Bowl cotton fields into
of the beehive must supersede a society of a flight to California by drought and
persons who are unique, independent and tumbling cotton prices. You can't help
responsible is the absolute negation of feeling sorry for the poor, harassed devils.
the American way of life viewed in its A social system that can work such hard-
ideal evolution. Moreover, the spread be- ships on any substantial number of people
tween the truly horrible conditions here unquestionably has its rotten spots.
faithfully depicted and the deduction in But we also think that The Grapes of
favor of collectivism is really boundless. Wrath, as charged by many critics, is
Again alternatives in the life of the spirit propaganda for the idea that we ought to
are not even explored when an author trade our system for the Russian system.
contents himself with juxtaposing the It is Mr. Steinbeck's or anybody else's
acrobatical Christianity typified in the privilege to publish such propaganda in
earlier life and doings of his preacher this countrywhich fact is one of the
Casy and the wholly vague kind of pan- glories of America.
theism which is expounded by Casy in But it is also anybody's privilege, of
his post-exodus manifestations. which we here avail ourselves, to point
The impact of this book is very pow- out that a similar novel could be written
erful. Whoever reads it will find he has about Russia.
gained a better total grasp on the need in The locale would be the Ukraine,
this country for rectification of any and Russia's best wheat and farm area; time,
all conditions which now or hereafter winter 1931-32. The characters would
may correspond in any degree with the be salty Russian peasants, in place of

174
Mr. Steinbeck's hymn-roaring, hell-rais- tually than has a country where all power
ing share croppers. resides in one man, and where you are
Instead of American deputy sheriffs shot or tortured or exiled or starved
dusting around to shoo evicted hiders-out to death if you are caught as much as
off foreclosed cotton lands, there would thinking that things might be a little
be droves of Red army soldiers and better run.
OGPU operatives beating up and down
the Ukraine. They would be stripping the
peasants of every movable foodstuff, and
simply leaving the peasants to starve. Se- Wilfrid Gibson.
lected peasants would be sent to Siberia.
The score in the end would be between "Three New Novels.55
three and four million Russian peasants Manchester Guardian,
actually and literally dead of starvation
as against perhaps 300,000 American
8 September 1939, p. 3.
share croppers forced out of the Dust
Bowl and into a California which, while
it didn't welcome them with glad cries, at Although the reading of novels as a re-
least didn't let them starve to death. laxation may help one through a period
Responsible for the Russian tragedy of suspense, when the world is actually
would be the government at Moscow crashing into war it is difficult even for
quite a contrast to the government at the most conscientious reviewer to give
Washington, which strives endlessly to to the consideration of works of fiction
prevent or alleviate such miseries as The the undistracted concentration that is es-
Grapes of Wrath depicts. sential to a just assessment of their val-
The reason for the tragedies in our ues. I, personally, have been all the more
imaginary Russian Grapes of Wrath bothered because I feel that the two
would be that the Moscow government American books which head my list are
had had no luck in selling the peasants both works of remarkable achievement;
the idea of socialized farming, with no- and that more especially the second,
body but the government really owning which is a novel written in verse, I should
anything. Hence, the peasants had gone have liked to have reread, as I must al-
on a sit-down and kill-the-cattle strike, ways hesitate to pronounce judgment on
and were raising nothing beyond their poetry after a single perusal.
own needs. So the government was forced Yet, although I have been unable to
to confiscate everything it could find on give any of these books a wholly undi-
the farms to feed the city populations vided attention, I have no hesitation in
city populations being harder to keep saying that The Grapes of Wrath is one
down than scattered farmers. of the most vital stories that I have read
As we say, we don't defend the flaws for some time, a story that under any
in our system that are to blame for the other circumstances would have held me
share-cropper tragedies. utterly absorbed. It is a tale of immediate
But we do suggest that a country contemporary significance, as it deals
where everybody is free to think, talk, with the present-day ruthless, and possi-
write and act (short of violence) against bly ultimately ruinous, rationalization of
every social ill has a better chance American agriculture. The cottonlands
to work out a just economic system even- of Oklahoma have become gradually

175
exhausted and can now only be made to the dignity of the human spirit under the
yield a margin of profit to their owners, stress of the most desperate conditions.. ..
the banking corporations, if they are
worked on a sufficiently large scalethat
is, if they are cultivated by tractors that
can drive at least four-mile-long furrows; "New Novels."
so that all the small tenant-farmers are London Times,
being turned off the holdings which their
forbears have worked for generations 8 September 1939, p. 6.
even their very homesteads falling before
the onset of the mechanical jugger-
nautsand forced to seek a livelihood Money, which began as a convenience, is
elsewhere. Meanwhile the agony of these now an incubus. This is the thesis of
disinherited farmers is being exploited for Mr. John Steinbeck's long new work,
their own purposes by scoundrelly con- which shows how land in parts of the
tractors who distribute among them United States is gradually coming into the
leaflets extolling the golden opportunities possession of the banks and finance com-
of California and the certainty of finding panies and how a whole population of
work therethough such work, being dispossessed tenant farmers is being
mainly fruit-picking, is at most sea- turned into the agricultural labour mar-
sonal,with the cruelly calculated result ket. Before we look at the story itself,
that the farmers of Oklahoma are trek- here is a quotation from one of the inter-
king there in such vast hordes that they chapters that provide the general scene
must work for starvation wages or per- and circumstances: the reference is to
ish; and rapidly these hitherto respectable banks and companies.
countryfolk are being transformed into "They breathe profits; they eat the in-
homeless vagabonds whose desperate terest on money. If they don't get it, they
condition is already becoming a menace die the way you do without air, without
to American civilisation. side-meat." That is the text, and the ser-
Though Mr. Steinbeck is acutely con- mon is fiery.
scious of the economic and social conse- The Grapes of Wrath has the excite-
quences of this revolution in American ment and the display of character to be
conditions, he tells his tale in terms of the expected of the author of Of Mice and
vicissitudes of a single family, and is Men, Against the general background of
mainly concerned with the destruction of dusty and exhausted fields and a migrat-
the human values. He is a conscientious ing population and the inevitable com-
realist; and if at times, after the fashion mercial crows we have the story of the
of the modish novelist, he would seem to Joads. These are tenant farmers whose
dwell unduly on the description of the grandparents cleared and claimed the
operation of the ordinary bodily func- ground, whose only knowledge of life has
tions, with him this preoccupation is been picked up on this farm and the
seldom offensive because his presentation neighbouring farms, whose whole experi-
of the lives of these primitive people is in ence makes it hard for them to believe
all respects so authentic. This is a terrible that the invisible workings of money
and an indignant book; yet it is not with- have the power to deprive them of the
out passages of lyrical beauty, and the visible land.
ultimate impression conveyed is that of On this land they have grown their

176
crops, begot their children, danced,
fought, seen their parents die, cooked "Victims of Mammon.'
food, observed the ways of animals and
weather, and seen at last the tractor run Times Literary
an impersonal furrow even across the Supplement [London],
farmyards and where the farmhouse
stood. With all their fellows the Joads set 9 September 1939,
out now in a new, unromantic but not p. 525.
less heroic exodus to California, where
advertisements of work for fruit and cot-
ton pickers attract thousands of similar Mr. John Steinbeck's new novel is a cam-
families. They go in a motor-car bought paign, and Mammon is the enemy. While
at an exorbitant price from the scrap- lesser American writers complacently re-
heap, and on the road they find the call their country's past, Mr. Steinbeck is
mixed kindliness and coldness the poor anxiously in touch with its present. He,
have to expect. In California they meet too, describes an exodus to the West, but
with ruthless exploitation and conse- this is made in ramshackle motor-cars in-
quently fear. They face hardship with en- stead of lumbering wagons. Here there
durance and the bewildering tyranny of are no battles to bring glory, and at the
money with an astounding courage. end the land of promise is a bitter disap-
Yet the interest of his sociological pointment. There, sure enough, are the
theme has not betrayed Mr. Steinbeck farms and orchards and well-watered
into neglecting his men and women. In- lands, but others are in possession of
deed, it is from the vigour and variety of them. Yet this the travellers expected: all
these as much as from the angry excite- they hoped for was work; and the inde-
ment of the narrative that the novel takes cent exploitation of their necessity to
life. The JoadsMa, with her fight to work is shown with cold and precise jus-
keep the family together, young Tom, tice. Mr. Steinbeck's theme, indeed, is
whose imprisonment for manslaughter twofold. One part of it is the endurance
has taught him unexpected lessons, the of the common people in conditions of
bickering, impish, and devoted grandpar- great hardship; and the other is con-
ents, the fatuous and pathetic younger cerned with the tyranny over all classes
couple, the preacher whose fanatical of economic laws that were framed only
evangelism has changed into pious study to record certain movements and not, in
of his fellow-menare characters who fact, to be the pretext for compelling
hold an interest for us at least commen- them. When the movements change, the
surate with that of the general theme. laws change with them.
Their history has a rough, humorous ten-
derness that distinguishes it from all the From a background that is stated chiefly
volumes of the second rate. in short interludes wherein the anger only
gives pace to the dramatic rhythms, one
group of people stands out. These are the
Joads, tenant farmers of Oklahoma,
whose land has been mortgaged little by
little and forfeited at last to the bank,
which controls its own farming corpora-
tion. The forty-acre farms are run into

177
one, the tractors plough up the dusty sustained unbroken for the whole course
fields to make a final profit before the of a long book. At their most wretched,
land is ruined, and the tenants are turned these people have the refuge of memory
out to find a living somewhere else. Like and humour, and in their recollections of
all their fellows, the Joads can only fasten past raciness we are enabled to see the
their hopes on the Californian advertise- superior colour and variety of a society in
ments for labour. The memories of several which the owners lived on their land,
generations they must leave behind them worked it themselves and measured their
with the land, but ahead at least is the prosperity directly against its prosperity.
chance of work and a new home. Their There is, besides, the tedium inseparable
implements and beasts go for nothing to from any long work pledged to a single
opportunist buyers; for their wagon they idea; but here the tedium is at its lowest.
get five dollars towards the purchase of a Against such falling off as there is may be
scrapheap car; and into this precarious set those passages in which the author
transport are piled the essential house- makes still more transparent the barrier
hold goods. They have begun to be at the between his mind and our own. We
mercy of opportunists of all kinds. know his mind now for an original one.
Mr. Steinbeck looks beyond his people He has passages in this book that restate
and he sees the universal reverence for the idea of the interlude in To the Light-
profits, but he sees his people first. If he house in terms of another country; but
despises and derides Mammon, he does his just understanding of character, the
so not because he dislikes a theory but candour and forcefulness of his dialogue
because he sees the practical effect in hu- and his mastery of climaxes are all his
man misery. Are not his Joads the victims own and inimitable.
of a system for which no man will take
the responsibility? The Joads are cer-
tainly not the puppets of a theory. Their
essential decency and good citizenship Kate O'Brien.
are evident beneath their various raffish
surfaces, but they are not mere personifi-
"Fiction."
cations of these qualities. The grandpar- Spectator [England], 163
ents whose love for each other shows it- (15 September 1939),
self in continual verbal sparring, the
mother who can endure anything so long 386.
as the family holds together, the son who
has been in prison for manslaughter and
knows that he would defend himself Some weeks ago the whole British public
again, and the young married daughter was counselled emphatically over the air
fussing about the safety of the child she to read a forthcoming American novel
carriesthese are individual men and called The Grapes of Wrath. The gently
women. When they speak, it is not to fill pontifical tones of Mr. Alexander Wooll-
in an extra paragraph but to express or cott, breaking over our Sunday supper
conceal their thoughts. When they act, tables, informed us that, along with
their actions are their own. If they do not Franklin D. Roosevelt's, John Steinbeck's
rebel, it is because money has become a is at present the American voice, the rep-
despot against which rebellion is hopeless. resentative one, through which America
It is not pretended that this passion is should be heard and judged. Here it is,

178
thenimmensely ushered in, and accom- when it was ours. But this tractor does
panied, for the encouragement of review- two thingsit turns the land and it turns
ers at least, by a whole booklet of accla- us off the land. There is little difference
mation of the man behind the voice, to between this tractor and a tank. The
say nothing of a full-length studio por- people are driven, intimidated, hurt by
trait of him. both. We must think about this." And in
All this is very nice, but is the booklet this book we can read about it and see,
necessary, or even advisable? Surely we through the desperate sufferings and ad-
have heard of John Steinbeck, even in ventures of one decent, outcast Okla-
darkest England? Have we not admired homa family, how big business, industri-
Tortilla Flat and The Cup of Gold, and alisation, is destroying the United States.
was not Of Mice and Men a Shaftesbury The Joad family, captained by Tom,
Avenue success until Hitler put out the the elder son, who is a parole man, hav-
town's lights? But Mr. Woollcott's claim ing done time for manslaughter, have to
is that "a young writer who had already flee from their long-held forty acres
written several good books... has now which the inexorable tractor is tearing
written a great one." I do not agree with up. They depart, a large troupe of all
this. I think that "a young writer, &c.," ages, in the shakiest of trucks, perilously
has now written another good book, but loaded. They "aim to" start a new life in
one in which he has had the courage, if California. They have read handbills,
you like, to give fuller rein than formerly have heard of the universal trek West, to
to a sentimentality which for some of us the peach-pickin', orange-pickin' sun,
disfigured his early work. fertility and fortune in the West. Their
The theme of The Grapes of Wrath is journey is heroic, nothing less; and their
quite magnificent; so is its documentary subsequent slow disillusionment, though
informativeness; so are its moral and its immense, actually does not quite use up
desolate warning. It is indeed a vivid, their common stock of fortitude. When
generous sermon on modern misery, on we leave them at the end, somewhat re-
the crassness and savagery of some who duced by death and desertion and with
create it, and the nobility of its victims. their courageous Tom forced on the run
Mr. Steinbeck's heart is passionately fixed again because of another manslaughter,
in the right place, but it would be unfair they and their chance friends of the road
to the great variety of his talents to sug- are more destitute, more weary and
gest that perhaps his trouble, qua writer, directionless than it is easy to convey
is that he is all heart. but in spirit they are "a fambly" still,
The story is of the present-day de- their patient hearts still beat, with "Ma,"
struction of the land of the Western great creature, driving death off, Heaven
States of America, and so of the people knows whysaving the starved, dying
who, in both senses of the word, live on stranger in the wayside shed with the un-
it. "The land companythat's the bank needed milk of her young daughter's
when it has landwants tractors, not breasts.
families, on the land. Is a tractor bad? Is Mr. Steinbeck gives us an enormous,
the power that turns the long furrows vivid setting; he fills it with odd and
wrong? If our tractor turned the long fur- lively characters; he uses an attractive
rows of our land, it would be good. Not Western States patois, and he tells a ter-
my land, but ours. We could love that rible, moving story of universal and im-
tractor then as we have loved this land mediate significance. Why, then, am I not

179
enthralled by his book? Simply because, main crop. The result was that the farm-
right or wrong, I dislike his manner of ers were wholly at the mercy of world
writing, which I think epitomises the in- prices without local standbys, and the
tolerable sentimentality of American "re- consequence of the unending cropping of
wheat was soil exhaustion. After the war
alism." I think he wrecks a beautiful dialect
with false cadences; I think he is fre- a succession of drought years accelerated
quently uncertain about where to end a the slow draining of the fertility of the
sentence; I think his repetitiveness is notsoil, the top soil began to break up into
justified by emotional result; and whereas dust and to blow away. The farmers
the funny, niggling coarseness which he fell into debt and failed to keep up the
jovially imposes on his pathetic migrants payments on their mortgages, the banks
may be true to type, it seemed to me out took over the farms. This is where Mr.
of tone, and to offend against the general Steinbeck's book begins; the Joads, a
conception. But the book is good, inter- family of small Oklahoma farmers, have
esting and generous, and its wide popu- had their notice to quit and have decided
larity would be a beneficial thing. to move on westwards in obedience to
the lemming-like compulsion which is the
vestige of the American pioneer tradition.
Like hundreds of thousands of other
Anthony West. families, they buy an old car and set off
"New Novels." for California; their sufferings on the
road and their situation when they arrive
New Statesman and at the promised land where they find
Nation [England], 18 there is nothing for them but casual
labour on an overstocked market make
(16 September 1939), the story of the book. It is a horrible
404-5. story told with passionate earnestness,
distressing and moving, but completely as
one is compelled to realise the plight of
The story of The Grapes of Wrath is very this human refuse in California the book
simple. Prior to 1820 the smallest acreage has great defects as a novel. It is to be
which the settler could buy from the compared with Upton Sinclair's novel
United States Government was 320, about the Chicago Stockyards, The
which had to be paid for at the rate of Jungle. When Sinclair's book first ap-
two dollars an acre and paid for in four peared it created the same sort of stir that
years. Subsequent to 1820, however, the The Grapes of Wrath has made; the
Government policy changed, and it be- working conditions and the brutalised
came possible to buy lots of as little as lives it described were as shocking, the
eighty acres, and after the Civil War the case against the meat packers was as
policy was further modified and settlers strong as the case against the fruit grow-
were able to take up these small farms ers, and it was made with the same pas-
for nothing. An eighty-acre farm is un- sion, the same earnestness. People were
economic without highly developed local intensely moved by it. Time has stolen
markets and without very skilful farming; away its force, it is as wholly "1906" as
the Middle West never developed any an automobile of that year and as suit-
sort of regional economy and even the able for contemporary use. This old scan-
smallest farmers went in for wheat as a dal has lost its urgency and cannot horrify

180
one into forgetting that the same thing is lishers and public can stand. Pity and
being said over and over again and that sympathy tempt one to suspend purely
the book ends when it does because the artistic standards, but this cannot be
reader cannot be expected to stand any called a good novel. Its virtue lies in the
more. The fact that the sun will look on burning sincerity which has captured the
the puzzled, desperate and utterly de- imagination of the American public and
feated people in Mr. Steinbeck's book a awakened them to the human aspect of
few hours after it has looked on us the dust-bowl disaster. The Jungle is dead
tempts one to overlook similar failings. mutton as literature but it is alive in the
In form The Grapes of Wrath is astonish- American legislation which has amplified
ingly awkward; it combines the novel the Meat Inspection Bill and the Pure
about the Joads with a generalised ac- Food Bill of 1906, which the novel called
count of the experiences of the small into being within a few months of publi-
farmers of whom the Joads are typical. cation. The Grapes of Wrath will take a
These two books run concurrently and in place beside it in the social history of the
such a fashion that a chapter of the gen- United States, but it is its literary fate
eralised account precedes two or three to lie in that honourable vault which
chapters of the novel and forecasts pretty houses the books that have died when
closely what is going to happen. Thus their purpose as propaganda has been
when the Joad family buys its car for the served.. ..
migration first Mr. Steinbeck explains
how the Oklahoma farmers who go to
California buy bad old cars which use
too much oil and go wrong. Then the Paula Snelling.
Joad family buy a car, and they talk
about it and decide that they have prob- "Snow White and the
ably been swindled and that the car is Share-croppers."
going to use too much oil and that they'll
be lucky if it doesn't break down on the Clayton North Georgia
road. Then they set out and the car burns Recruiter,
up too much oil and breaks down on the
road. The Joads, moreover, are slow-
19 November 1939,
thinking people, and they have to hear a pp. 29-30.
thing several times before they believe it,
and when they believe it they don't feel
easy about it until they've told someone. Few readers would fail to concede that
But they can't bring themselves to say Grapes of Wrath is an exceptionally
anything straight out; they work up to it good book. But those who claim that it is
by hints and suggestions, by devious back a masterpiece tread more treacherous
alleys which Mr. Steinbeck follows as en- ground than do those who call it mas-
thusiastically and faithfully on page 535 terly propaganda. The making of which
as on page 35. Mr. Steinbeck makes his distinction may or may not be quibbling.
points with the delicacy of a trip hammer, I think not. The book is definitely written
the book lacks form and ends simply be- with the aim of arousing the reader's
cause the characters have reached the ul- sympathies for a group of people because
timate believable degradation and the of their economic plight. It points the
length has reached the limit which pub- corollary that the group will profit by

181
uniting to meet their enemy. So far so patch threadbare tires and replace
good. For theirs are desperate needs, pro- burned-out bearings. We watch the mi-
longed callousness to which may easily rage, induced by rosy handbills, of a
wreck the civilization in which they oc- white cabin, green shade trees, free-fruit-
cur. And the man whose pen rights these for-all, fade inch by inch into a reality
wrongs may well decide that he has cho- grimmer and more barren than that from
sen the best use to which his talents could which the migrants fled.
be put. Nor can any writer of this genera- Though the book has many points of
tion lay claim to first consideration who superiority over Harriet Beecher Stowe's,
fails to recognize economic maladjust- someone has, with acumen, called it the
ments and their disastrous effects on human Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Dust Bowl.
beings. It is also true that one book can- It is one of the many stories our coun-
not do everything. An artist must select. try needs to be told in these days when
And whether the feeling that no novel America is girding self-righteous loins
can be unequivocally first-rate which fails against the evils overseas; for in each sec-
to give new or deeper insights into hu- tion, each state, each town of our democ-
man emotions and the intricacies of per- racy, man blindly perpetrates against
sonality and personal relationships is bias man, class against class, injustices and
on my part or a fundamental basis of callousnesses which over a period of time
criticism, I do not know. But I am certain are as lethal as the more dramatic imple-
that a novel which, even if only implic- ments of death employed today in Eu-
itly, weights the dice towards the conclu- rope. And these stories need to be told by
sion that when economic evils (or any people who, like Steinbeck, can draw out
other single category of evils) have been of the reader sympathy at the same time
eliminated people will live happily ever as he pours in knowledge. Only propa-
after, thereby proves itself romantic. And gandists who are more concerned with
there is something a little confusing, too, human beings than with a Cause, and
about combining with the premise that who also are talented artists can hope to
poverty is an evil, the thesis that poor open the eyes of a people to those evils
people are better than rich people; if which are a part of its own mores. And
there is truth here, it is truth that needs the texture of America's sins is so varied
meditating on. that a prophet is needed in each geo-
Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the graphic region, each economic sphere,
Joad family, generically derogated in each psychological area of our country.
California today as "Okies." They are Steinbeck's device of using only a por-
one small unit in that west-moving horde tion of the book to tell us about the
of former farmers, later share-croppers, Joads and employing alternate chapters
finally homeless destitutes ejected from to give in poetic prose the broader socio-
the Dust Bowl area of our country by logical current which uproots them and
those impersonal, imponderable forces sweeps them on to destruction, is splen-
which have evolved out of our unplann- did and gives the book its epic quality.
ing and uncaring economy. Their style resembles, in part, that of
We see the farm, including the tenant Lorentz's River. The chapters concerned
house, mowed down by that double-bar- directly with the Joads are good, but not
reled machine, the tractor and the bank. good enough. When a writer deals with a
We take the precarious worn-out-truck group of a lower cultural level than that
trip across the continent. We stop to of the potential reader of his book, there

182
is the temptation to rely too heavily upon duced to ignominy by buttons he can no
their uncouthness, upon their quaintness, longer master; Uncle John, tracked across
upon the tang of their speech and to bait the deserttracked across all the deserts
the reader overmuch with the baldness of of his lifeby Sin, and making for him-
their sexual talk. Though Steinbeck does self intermittent oases of drunkenness;
not capitalize on this in the manner that Pa, haunted by his initial clumsiness with
Caldwell doesthat is, such seducing as Noah. But Steinbeck the propagandist is
he does is employed toward the end of too concerned with showing us the good-
saving our souls, not of exploiting them ness of Ma and Tom and Casey to let
I believe he assumes (along with so many Steinbeck the artist have his way with
of our generation) that there is a basic them. Or, judging by the author's other
incompatibility between hardboiledness and books, it may be a shade nearer the truth
romanticism; that the crustacean is immune to suggest that Steinbeck the almost-artist
to sentimentality; that when an author is not yet wholly freed from those shack-
has depicted the crude manners of his les of sentimentality which make us all
characters he has attained a realistic atti- reluctant to see how inextricably bound
tude toward them. Whereas realism de- together are good and evil at all levels of
mands the probing for and accepting of our lives; that Steinbeck can face truths
truth, palatable or unpalatable, at in minor characters which he cannot also
every level of the human soul and of its concede to those characters that mean
relationships. more to him.
And Steinbeck is so intent on rousing Be that as it may, Steinbeck is as inter-
us to action to save Ma and Tom that he esting a writer as we have in America to-
has made Snow Whites out of them. day. And as talented. He deserves the
They stand forth primarily as symbols of wide reading and acclaim he is getting. It
Goodness-in-Distress;Goodness none- is just that when a writer has as much as
theless that it comes garbed in sharecrop- he has, one wants him to have more. And
per idiom and sharecropper mores, and there is a chance that he has, potentially.
that Tom himself is an unrepentant mur-
derer. The author seems to feel that we
won't want to save them if he reveals
them as having those inner conflicts and Edmund Wilson.
family frictions which we do not yet for- "The Californians: Storm
give our artists for revealing to us in our-
selves, and which he may be justified in and Steinbeck."
assuming would not make more palat- New Republic, 103
able to us beings from another cultural
stratum. It is not that he, like many of (9 December 1940),
our writers, is totally unaware of subter- 784-7.
ranean pressures in his people's lives:
safely distant from his immaculate major
characters are the Seven Dwarfs, who . . . John Steinbeck [like Hans Otto
each contribute a devious phase of hu- Storm] is a native Californian, and he has
man personality: Muley, clinging to the occupied himself more with the life of the
shadows of his old life when the sub- state than any of these other writers. His
stance of it is taken from him; Granpa, exploration in his novels of the Salinas
full of four-letter-words and vinegar, re- Valley has been more thoroughgoing and

183
tenacious than anything of the kind in ologist in the literal sense that he interests
our contemporary fiction except Faulk- himself in biological research. The bio-
ner's intensive cultivation of the state of logical laboratory in the short story
Mississippi. called "The Snake" is obviously some-
And what has Mr. Steinbeck found in thing which he knows at first hand and
this region he knows so well? I believe for which he has a strong special feeling;
that his virtuosity in a purely technical and it is one of the peculiarities of his vo-
way has tended to obscure his themes. cabulary that it runs to biological terms.
He has published eight volumes of But the laboratory described in "The
fiction, which represent a great variety of Snake," the tight little building over the
forms and which have therefore seemed water, where the scientist feeds white rats
to people to be written from a variety of to rattlesnakes and fertilizes starfish ova,
points of view. Tortilla Flat was a comic is also one of the key images of his
idyll, with the simplification almost of a fiction. It is the symbol of his tendency in
folk tale; In Dubious Battle was a strike his stories to present life in animal terms.
novel, centering around Communist or- Mr. Steinbeck almost always in his
ganizers and following a fairly conven- fiction is dealing either with the lower
tional pattern; Of Mice and Men was a animals or with human beings so rudi-
compact little drama, contrived with al- mentary that they are almost on the ani-
most too much cleverness, and a parable mal level; and the close relationship of
which criticized humanity from a non- the people with the animals equals even
political point of view; The Long Valley the zoophilia of D. H. Lawrence and
was a series of short stories, dealing David Garnett. In Tortilla Flat, there are
mostly with animals, in which poetic the Pirate's dogs, with which he lives in a
symbols were presented in realistic set- kennel and which have caused him prac-
tings and built up with concrete detail; tically to forget human relationships. In
The Grapes of Wrath was a propaganda In Dubious Battle, there is another char-
novel, full of preachments and sociologi- acter whose personality is confused with
cal interludes, and developed on an epic that of his dogs. In The Grapes of Wrath,
scale. Thus attention has been diverted the journey of the Joads is figured at the
from the content of Mr. Steinbeck's work beginning by the progress of a turtle, and
by the fact that whenever he appears, he it is accompanied and parodied all the
puts on a different kind of show. He is way by animals, insects and birds. When
such an accomplished performer that he the expropriated sharecroppers are com-
has been able to hold people's interest by pelled to abandon their farm in Okla-
the story he is telling at the moment homa, we get an extended picture of the
without their inquiring what is behind it. invasion of the house by the bats, the
This variability of the form itself is weasels, the owls, the mice, and the pet
probably an indication that Mr. Steinbeck cats that have gone back to the wild.
has never yet found the right artistic me- Lennie in Of Mice and Men likes to carry
dium for what he wants to say. But there around animal pets, toward which as
is in his fiction as a whole a substratum well as toward human beings he has mur-
which does remain constant and which derous animal instincts. The stories in
gives it a certain basic seriousness that The Long Valley are almost entirely about
that of the mere performer does not have. animals and plants; and Mr. Steinbeck
What is constant in Mr. Steinbeck is his does not have the effect, as Lawrence or
preoccupation with biology. He is a bi- Kipling does, of romantically raising the

184
animals to the stature of human beings, preacher in The Grapes of Wrath is disil-
but rather of assimilating the human be- lusioned about the human moralities, and
ings to animals. "The Chrysanthemums," his sermon at the grave of Grampa Joad,
"The White Quail" and "The Snake" so lecherous and mean during his life-
deal with women who identify them- time, evidently gives expression to Mr.
selves with respectively chrysanthemums, Steinbeck's point of view: "This here ol'
a white quail and a snake. In "Flight," a man jus' lived a life an' jus' died out of it.
young Mexican boy, who has killed a I don't know whether he was good or
man and run away into the mountains, is bad, but that don't matter much. He was
finally reduced to a state so close to that alive, an' that's what matters. An' now
of the beasts that he is taken by a moun- he's dead, an' that don't matter. Heard a
tain lion for one of themselves; and in the fella tell a poem one time, an' he says 'All
fantasy of "Saint Katy the Virgin," where that lives is holy.'"
a bad pig is made to repent and become a The subject of The Grapes of Wrath,
saint, the result is not to dignify the ani- which is supposed to deal with human
mal as the "Little Flowers of Saint society, is the same as that of "The Red
Francis" do with the Wolf of Agubbio, Pony," which is supposed to deal with
for example, but to reduce human reli- horses: loyalty to life itself. The men who
gion to absurdity. feel the responsibility for having let the
The chief subject of Mr. Steinbeck's red pony die must retrieve themselves by
fiction has been thus not those aspects of sacrificing the mare in order to bring a
humanity in which it is most thoughtful, new pony into life. And so Rose of
imaginative, constructive, but rather the Sharon Joad, with her undernourished
processes of life itself. In the natural baby born dead, must give her milk, in
course of nature, living organisms are the desolate barn which is all she has left
continually being destroyed, and among for a shelter, to another wretched victim
the principal things that destroy them are of famine and flood, on the point of
the predatory appetite and the competi- death from starvation. To what good that
tive instinct that are necessary for the ponies and Okies should continue to live
very survival of eating and breeding on the earth? "And I wouldn' pray for a
things. This impulse of the killer has been ol' fella that's dead," the preacher goes
preserved in a simpleton like Lennie in a on to say. "He's awright. He got a job to
form in which it is almost innocent; and do, but it's all laid out for 'im an' there's
yet Lennie has learned from his more on'y one way to do it. But us, we got a
highly developed friend that to yield to it job to do, an' they's a thousan' ways, an'
is to do something "bad." In his struggle we don' know which one to take. An' if I
against the instinct, he loses. Is Lennie was to pray, it'd be for the folks that
bad or good? He is betrayed as, Mr. don't know which way to turn."
Steinbeck implies, all our human inten- This preacher who has lost his religion
tions are: by the uncertainties of our ani- does find a way to turn: he becomes a
mal nature. labor agitator; and this theme has already
And it is only, as a rule, on this primi- been dealt with more fully in the earlier
tive level that Mr. Steinbeck deals with novel, In Dubious Battle. But what differ-
moral questions: the virtues like the entiates Mr. Steinbeck's picture of a labor
crimes for Mr. Steinbeck are still a part of movement with radical leadership from
these planless and almost aimless, of these most books on such subjects of its period
almost unconscious, processes of life. The is again the biological point of view. The

185
strike leaders, here as in other novels, are play. Their dialect is well done, but they
Communists, but the book is not really talk stagy; and, in spite of Mr. Steinbeck's
based on the formulas of Communist attempts to make them figure as heroic
ideology. The kind of character produced human symbols, you cannot help feeling
by the Communist movement and the that they, too, do not quite exist seriously
Communist strategy in strikes (of the for him as people. It is as if human senti-
Communism of the day before yesterday) ments and speeches had been assigned to
are described by Mr. Steinbeck, and they a flock of lemmings on their way to
are described with a certain amount of throw themselves into the sea.
admiration; yet the party member of In I do not mean to say, however, that
Dubious Battle does not talk like a this picture of human beings as lemmings
Marxist of even the Stalinist revision. hasn't its partial validity or its pertinence
The cruelty of these self-immolating revo- at the present time. In our time, Shake-
lutionists is not palliated any more than speare's angry ape, drest in his little brief
the cruelty of the half-witted Lennie; and authority, seems to make of all the rest of
we are made to feel throughout that we mankind angry apes or cowering rodents.
are witnessing examples of human behav- The one thing that was imagined with in-
ior from which the only conclusion that tensity in Aldous Huxley's novel of last
the author seems confident in drawing is autumn was the eighteenth-century ex-
that this is how life in our age is behav- ploiter of the slave trade degenerating
ing. There is developed in the course of into a fetal anthropoid. All the world is
the bookespecially by a fellow-traveler today full of people like the Joads de-
doctor who seems to come closer than prived of the dignity of a human society,
the Communist to expressing Mr. as they had previously been deprived of
Steinbeck's own ideasa whole philoso- the dignity of human work, and made to
phy of "group-man" as an "animal." . . . flee from their houses like prairie-dogs
This animalizing tendency of Mr. driven before a prairie fire.
Steinbeck's is, I believe, at the bottom of Huxley has a good deal to say, as our
his relative unsuccess at representing hu- American Humanists did, about the im-
man beings. portance of distinguishing clearly between
The paisanos of Tortilla Flat are really the human and the animal levels; and,
not quite human beings: they are cunning like the Humanists, he has been fright-
little living dolls who amuse us like pet ened back into one of those synthetic
guinea-pigs or rabbits. A special conven- moral cults which do duty for our evapo-
tion has been created to remove them rated religions. The doctor in In Dubious
from kinship with the author and the Battle deprecates even those elements of
reader. In The Grapes of Wrath, on the religion that have entered into the labor
other hand, Mr. Steinbeck has summoned cause; and he takes no stock in the uto-
all his resources to make the reader feel pianism of the Communists.
his human relationship with the family of For myself, I prefer Mr. Steinbeck's
dispossessed farmers; yet the effect of naturalistic point of view toward the ani-
this, too, is not quite real. The characters mal-man to Mr. Huxley's mysticism. We
of The Grapes of Wrath are animated may conceivably learn something and get
and put through their paces rather than somewhere by studying humanity in a
brought to life; they are like excellent biological spirit; I am skeptical about our
character actors giving very conscientious doing either by the methods of self-con-
performances in a fairly well written templation advocated by Mr. Huxley.

186
 For the rest, Mr. Steinbeck has inven- John Selby. "Books." Daytona Beach
tion, observation, a certain color of style [Fla.] News-Journal, 14 April 1939,
which for some reason does not possess p. 10.
what is called magic. I have not read the David H. Appel. "Books." Cleveland
first three of his novels, but none of the News, 15 April 1939, p. 12.
ones that I have read seems to me pre- Charlotte Becker. "Steinbeck Presses
cisely first-rate. Tortilla Flatperhaps by Poison from His Grapes of Wrath."
reason of the very limitations of its con- Buffalo Evening News ("Sunday
ventionseems artistically his most suc- Magazine"), 15 April 1939, p. 7.
cessful production. Yet there is behind "Books and Book Folk." Portland [Me.]
the journalism, the theatricalism and the Evening Express, 15 April 1939, p. 6.
tricks of most of his other books some- "Bookworm Sees a New Steinbeck."
thing that does seem first-rate in its seri- San Francisco Call-Bulletin,
ousness, in its unpanicky questioning of 15 April 1939, p. 3.
life... . Fanny Butcher. "New Steinbeck Novel
Employs an Epic Theme." Chicago
Tribune, 15 April 1939, p. 14.
Jack Conroy. "The Story of a Grim
Pilgrimage." San Francisco People's
Checklist of Additional World, 15 April 1939, Section 2, p. 10.
Reviews "Fiction." Booklist, 35 (15 April 1939),
271.
E. B. Garside. "Steinbeck Reaches the
Mountain Top." Boston Evening
Leslie Moore. "Powerful Tale of Poor Transcript, 15 April 1939, p. 2.
Okies." Worcester [Mass.] Telegram, Marian Murray. "Steinbeck Tells Story
9 April 1939, Section 4, p. 10. of Joads of Oklahoma." Hartford
"The American Bookshelf." Waterbury [Conn.] Times, 15 April 1939, p. 9.
[Conn.] American, 14 April 1939, W.T.S. "In The Grapes of Wrath
p. 4. Steinbeck Writes Vividly." Providence
Randolph Bartlett. "The Book of the [R.I.] Journal, 15 April 1939,
Day." New York Sun, 14 April 1939, Section 6, p. 6.
p. 17. Charles Wagner. "Books." New York
Joseph A. Belloli. "Book Angles." Pacific Daily Mirror, 15 April 1939, p. 10.
Grove [Calif.] Tide, 14 April 1939, p. 8. Ruth Hinman Carter. "A World Without
May Cameron. "Steinbeck Writes Truly Neckties." Atlanta Georgian, 16 April
Great Novel." New York Post, 1939, Section C, p. 7.
14 April 1939, p. 15-A. Bennett Davis. "The Grapes of Wrath."
Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things." Buffalo Courier-Express,
New York Herald Tribune, 16 April 1939, Section 4, p. 4.
14 April 1939, "Books" section, p. 17. "The Grapes of Wrath." Washington
Harry Hansen. "The First Reader." New [D.C.] Evening Star, 16 April 1939,
York World-Telegram, 14 April 1939, Section F, p. 4.
Section 2, p. 27. "Great Novel About Modern Trek
Michael March. "Page after Page." Westward." Akron Beacon
Brooklyn Citizen, 14 April 1939, Journal, 16 April 1939, Section D,
p. 5. p. 9.

187
J[oseph] H[enry] J[ackson]. "Steinbeck Rutland [Vt.] Daily Herald,
Treads 'Grapes of Wrath:" San 18 April 1939, p. 8.
Francisco Chronicle (This World D.K.L. "Brought to Book." New
magazine), 16 April 1939, p. 15. Haven [Conn.] Journal-Courier,
R. Alton Jackson. "John Steinbeck Is at 19 April 1939, p. 6.
His Best in New Novel." Winston- Sterling North. "Book of the Week."
Salem [N.C.] journal-Sentinel, 16 Chicago News, 19 April 1939, p. 25.
April 1939, Section 2, p. 12. Robert Rutson. "It's in the Books."
William Kingsbury. "Fire and Power and Concord Daily Monitor and New
Beauty and Pitiless Reality." Nashville Hampshire Patriot, 21 April 1939,
Tennessean, 16 April 1939, Section D, p. 11.
p. 6. Charles Lee. "The Grapes of Wrath:
Ralston Matheny. "John Steinbeck Turns The Tragedy of the American
Out One of World's Great Books." Sharecropper." Boston Herald,
Knoxville [Tenn.] journal, 16 April 22 April 1939, Section A, p. 7.
1939, Section 4, p. 8. "People From the Dust Bowl." Oakland
Max Miller. "Steinbeck Discusses Influx [Calif.] Post-Enquirer, 22 April 1939,
of Needy." San Diego Union, 16 April p. 14.
1939, Section C, p. 7. Kathryn James Vogel. "Grapes of Wrath
Wilbur Needham. "Steinbeck Tells May Be the Uncle Tom's Cabin of
Inspiring but Tragic Tale of America." Our Day." Milwaukee Post,
Los Angeles Times, 16 April 1939, 22 April 1939, p. 5.
Part 3, p. 8. Albert Goldstein. "Literature and Less."
Louis Nicholas. "Steinbeck Scores a New Orleans Times-Picayune,
Bull's Eye." Philadelphia Record, 23 April 1939, Section 2, p. 11.
16 April 1939, p. 8. S.R. "Steinbeck's Novel." Durham
Alicia Patterson. "The Book of the [N.C.] Morning Herald,
Week." New York Daily News, 23 April 1939, Section 2, p. 2.
16 April 1939, p. 72. Harry Schofield. "Today's Book."
J. S. Pope. "Reviews." Atlanta Journal, Macon [Ga.] Telegraph,
16 April 1939, "Sunday Magazine" 23 April 1939, Section A, p. 4.
section, p. 10. Robert E. McClure. "Books Worth
R.W.N. "John Steinbeck's Grapes of Reading." Santa Monica [Calif.]
Wrath" Springfield [Mass.] Union Evening Outlook, 28 April 1939,
and Republican, 16 April 1939, p. 8.
Section E, p. 7. Wilbur Needham. "The Great American
Kenneth D. Tooil. "Books." Columbus Novel Has Been Written." Hollywood
[Ohio] State Journal, 16 April 1939, Tribune, 28 April 1939, p. 12.
Section B, p. 3. Helen E. Haines. "The Grapes of Wrath,
Virginia H. Trannett. "John Steinbeck's John Steinbeck's Tragic Epic of
Newest Work Is a Fascinating Story." America's Great Migration." Pasadena
Columbus [Ohio] Evening Dispatch, Star-News, 29 April 1939, p. 12.
16 April 1939, "Graphic Section," Pearce Da vies. "The Grapes of Wrath"
p. 6. San Jose [Calif.] Mercury-Herald,
P.G.F. "Latest Books." Jackson [Tenn.] 30 April 1939, Section 2, p. 12.
Sun, 17 April 1939, p. 4. Gladys Solomon. "Steinbeck Writes of
Edith K. Dunton. "Read 'Em or Not." Jobless Vagrants." New Haven

188
 [Conn.] Register, 30 April 1939, J. Homer Caskey. "Letters to the
Section 4, p. 5. Editor." Saturday Review, 20
John Chamberlain. "The New Books." (20 May 1939), 9.
Harper's, 178 (May 1939), Sidney Lindauer. "Book Chatter."
advertisement section, n.p. Red Bluff [Calif.] Daily News,
Vincent McHugh. "John Steinbeck 20 May 1939, p. 3.
Branches Out." American Mercury, 47 Theodore Smith. "Steinbeck Puts Grim
(May 1939), 113-15. Picture in New Book." San Francisco
Edward Weeks. "The Atlantic News, 20 May 1939, p. 8.
Bookshelf." Atlantic, 163 (May 1939), "Library Notes." Belfast [Me.]
33 (separate pagination at back of Republican Journal, 25 May 1939,
issue). p. 7.
Edrie Ann Morse. "Book Review." Olett Levau. "Tale of the Dust Bowl."
Altoona [Pa.] Tribune, 1 May 1939, Atlanta Constitution, 28 May 1939,
p. 5. "Sunday Magazine" section, p. 4.
Burton Rascoe. "Excuse It, Please." Robert Work. "Editorially Speaking."
Newsweek, 13 (1 May 1939), 38. Spartan Daily [San Jose State
Granville Hicks. "Steinbeck's Powerful University], 29 May 1939, p. 2.
New Novel." New Masses, 31 Gertrude Binder. "The Joads." Social
(2 May 1939), 22-4. Work Today, 6 (June 1939), 46-8.
"Bound To Be Read." Westfield Valley Wilbur Needham. "Racketeer Reviewers
[Mass.] Herald, 4 May 1939, p. 4. of John Steinbeck." Black and White,
Anna Mary Smits. "Moving, Forceful, 1 (June 1939), 28-31.
Poetic, Steinbeck Story Appalls." Salt Leon Whipple. "Letters and Life." Survey
Lake [City] Tribune, 7 May 1939, Graphic, 28 (June 1939), 401-2.
Section D, p. 4. "The Grapes of Wrath." Life, 6
Betty Lou McKelvery. "John Steinbeck (5 June 1939), 66-7.
Book Is Strong." Green Bay [Wise] Lewis Gannett. "John Steinbeck's Latest
Press-Gazette, 13 May 1939, p. 11. Tops List of 1939 Novels, in
Willis Bugbee. "Latest Steinbeck Novel Reviewer's Estimation." Oakland
Is Powerful Work." Dayton Journal- [Calif.] Tribune, 11 June 1939,
Herald, 14 May 1939, "Spotlight" Section B, p. 2.
section, p. 7. Evelyn Hart. "Truth Is Uncomfortable."
K.J.M. "At the Library of Hawaii." Dayton Daily News, 11 June 1939,
Honolulu Advertiser, 14 May 1939, "Society" section, p. 7.
p. 8. Arthur D. Spearman, S.J. "Marxist
Emilie C. Keyes. "The Book Nook." Taint in Steinbeck Book." Albany
West Palm Beach [Fla.] Post-Times, [N.Y.] Times-Union, 11 June 1939,
14 May 1939, p. 10. Section D, p. 7.
K.W. "Steinbeck to New Heights in The Charles Lee. "The Grapes of Wrath
Grapes of Wrath." Milwaukee Tops Year's Tales in Heart and Art."
Journal, 14 May 1939, Section 5, Boston Herald, 17 June 1939,
p. 3. Section 1, p. 9.
Rose Loveman Brewer. "The Grapes Hazel Selby. "Books to Talk About."
of Wrath: An American Classic?" Riverside [Calif.] News, 20 June 1939,
Chattanooga News, 20 May 1939, Section 2, p. 8.
p. 4. Donald MacRae. "A Western

189
 Bookshelf." Frontier and Midland, 19 Christopher Isherwood. "The Tragedy of
(Summer 1939), 280. Eldorado." Kenyon Review, 1
Ralph Thompson. "Outstanding (Autumn 1939), 450-53.
Novels." Yale Review, 28 (Summer Helen Cockburn. "Californian Mirage."
1939), viii, x, xii. Burton [England] Observer, 21
Louise Long. "The Grapes of Wrath." September 1939, p. 9.
Southwest Review, 24 (July 1939), John Brophy. "Mr. Steinbeck's Epic
495-8. Story." London Daily Telegraph,
Richard Peters. "Grapes of Wrath Leads 22 September 1939, p. 4.
Vacation Book Lists." Cleveland "A Powerful American Novel."
Press, 8 July 1939, p. 5. Inverness [Scotland] Courier,
W. W. Withington. "Books of the 22 September 1939, p. 3.
Times." Santa Rosa [Calif.] Press- Lettice Cooper. "New Novels." Time
Democrat, 15 July 1939, p. 5. and Tide [England], 20
S. "Farm Tenancy Central Theme of (23 September 1939), 1256-7.
Steinbeck." Greensboro [N.C.] News, V. S. Pritchett. "The Grapes of Wrath."
16 July 1939, Section D, p. 6. Bystander [England], 143
Larry Barretto. "Book Talk." Goshen (27 September 1939), 472.
[N.Y.] Republican, 18 July 1939, p. 3. E.C.H. "Steinbeck's Story of a Great
"KC Libraries Ban Grapes of Trek." South Wales Evening Post,
Wrath" Bakersfield Californian, 30 September 1939, p. 4.
18 August 1939, p. 1. Vernon Fane. "An Oklahoma Farmer's
John Walton Caughey. "Current Fight with Fate." Sphere [England],
Discussion of California's Migrant 153 (30 September 1939), 500.
Labor Problem." Pacific Historical "The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck."
Review, 8 (September 1939), 347-54. Time and Tide [England], 20
"Attempts to Suppress Grapes of (30 September 1939), 1287.
Wrath." Publishers' Weekly, 136 "Literary Calendar." Wilson Library
(2 September 1939), 777. Bulletin, 14 (October 1939), 102.
Philip Jordan. "War or No War, Read SJ.K. "Wine Out of These Grapes."
This Book." London News Chronicle, Wilson Library Bulletin,
8 September 1939, p. 4. 14 (October 1939), 165.
Ralph Straus. "Mr. Steinbeck's Success." "Red Meat and Red Herrings."
London Times, 10 September 1939, Commonweal, 30 (13 October 1939),
p. 5. 562-3.
Frank Swinnerton. "Topical and "Books of the Day." Southport
Timeless." London Observer, [England] Guardian,
10 September 1939, p. 5. 14 October 1939, p. 7.
Phyllis Bentley. "An American Voice." Richard King. "With Silent Friends."
Yorkshire [England] Post, Tatler [England], 154
13 September 1939, p. 2. (18 October 1939), 74.
Charles Poore. "Books of the Times." Edgar Bernstein. "An Epic of the
New York Times, 15 September 1939, Dispossessed." South African Jewish
p. 27. Times, 20 October 1939, p. 10.
Edwin Muir. "New Novels." The "Our Bookshelf." Education [England],
Listener [England], 22 74 (27 October 1939), 366.
(19 September 1939), 543. W. E. Cockburn. "Defeating

190
 Depression." Liverpool [England] [England] Post, 29 December 1939,
Echo, 28 October 1939, p. 3. p. 4.
Art Kuhl. "Mostly of The Grapes of Ralph Straus. "The Year's Fiction." London
Wrath." Catholic World, 150 Times, 31 December 1939, p. 5.
(November 1939), 160-5. Bernard De Voto. "American Novels:
Frank J. Taylor. "California's Grapes of 1939." Atlantic, 165 (January 1940),
Wrath." Forum, 102 66-74.
(November 1939), 232-8. Lyle H. Boren. "The Grapes of
J. H. C. Laker. "Books for Perthshire Wrath." Congressional Record, 85
Readers." Perthshire [Scotland] (10 January 1940), Part 13, 139-40.
Constitutional, 3 November 1939, Horace Westwood. "'The Grapes
pii- of Wrath:" Unity, 124
"Companionship of Novels." Times (5 February 1940), 170-3.
Literary Supplement [England], Thomas Quinn Curtiss. "John
18 November 1939, p. xlix. Steinbeck." New English Weekly
Margaret Marshall. "Writers in the [England], 16 (21 March 1940),
Wilderness: I., John Steinbeck." 331-2.
Nation, 149 (25 November 1939), "Wait For the Other Side of the Story."
576-9. Los Gatos [Calif.] Times, 22 March
Wilfrid Gibson. "Reviewer's 1940, p. 4.
Choice." Manchester Guardian, "Mrs. Roosevelt Tours Mecca of
1 December 1929, "Supplement" Migrants." New York Times,
section, p. iv. 3 April 1940, p. 25.
"Reader's Christmas Signpost." New Samuel Levenson. "The Compassion of
English Weekly [England], 16 John Steinbeck." Canadian Forum, 20
(14 December 1939), 138. (September 1940), 185-6.
W.L.A. "News and Views." Yorkshire

191
THE FORGOTTEN VILLAGE
The F0RG0T1EN VILLAGE

F R O M
WITH 136 PHOTOGRAPHS THE FILM OF THE SAME NAME
BY ROSA HARVAN KLINI
STORY BY JOHN STEINBECK
NEW YORK 1941 THE VIKINO PRESS
Ralph Thompson. Richard F. Crandell.
"Books of the Times.5 "Steinbeck, Not a Bit
New York Times, Hard-boiled.55
26 May 1941, p. 17. New York Herald
Tribune, 1 June 1941,
. . . The Forgotten Village is . . . graphic,
"Books55 section, p. 6.
being in fact 95 per cent stills from a
forthcoming documentary film made in
Mexico by Herbert Kline, Alexander It is difficult to write on the inside of an
Hackensmid and associates. eggshell without breaking the egg. So with
It seems that Mr. Steinbeck wrote the a man's mind. And his heart. The shell
story before anything else was done, and resists men bringing the truth. If a man
that Mr. Kline (who produced Crisis and comes into a small village, one which is
Lights Out in Europe) and a camera everywhere, with the truth, the shell re-
crew then went down across the border, sists and the man, be he a Steinbeck, an
found a village to suit the purposes of the Ibsen, a Schick or a Noguchi, must con-
script, and began taking pictures. The trive cunningly to get into the shell with
film is to be released this Autumn, and if the truth.
it is half as effective on the screen as The John Steinbeck tells us this story, a
Forgotten Village is in print, it will be the simple little story and one of the most
finest thing of its kind since Eisenstein's important in the world, of the fight of the
Thunder Over Mexico. Mexican government to bring sanitation
Magnificent as it was, the Eisenstein into the distant and superstition-ridden
had no particular continuity, or at any villages of our beautiful neighbor of the
rate didn't have much of any by the time south. If it inspires only two, or even one,
it was shown to the public. This one will young American doctor to go down and
be almost wholly "story," with the so- help with this work, it will not have been
called documentary detail minor rather written in vain.
than major, and flag-waving and political First he wrote the text, drawing on his
speech-making left out altogether. In a travels in untouched Mexican villages. In
broad sense, the story is that of Ibsen's the little pueblo of Santiago, where the
Enemy of the People retold in terms of coming of babies and of the corn are the
the Mexican peon. Specifically, it is an thrilling and important things of life, su-
account of a dramatic clash between med- perstition and death lurk. The water
ical superstition and medical science in which brings life to the corn brings death
an isolated mountain town. to the babies. The charms of the Wise
Mr. Steinbeck's sympathetic text runs Woman, all the snakeskins and herbs and
but a few lines to the page, and serves magic, cannot drive the deadly little ani-
as captions for the pictures, of which mals from polluted water. Children writhe
there are 136 in all, reproduced in photo- with the stomach pains; their lips are dry,
gravure. their breath hot. At the funerals mothers
are proud and smile at the birth of a new
angel, yet their bellies are full of dread.

195
 To illustrate Steinbeck's story of this
"Enemy of the People" in the torrid "John Steinbeck's
zone thousands of feet of motion pictures
were made in the mountain towns, with Mexican Village.55
Mexican Indians taking the parts. From New York Times Book
this film 136 still pictures point up the
Steinbeck text in the book. Many of them Review, 91
are superb. Agustin Delgado and Filipe (1 June 1941), 8.
Quintanor took the pictures under the
direction of Mr. Kline and Alexander
Hackensmid. The film itself will be re- This is the book of photographs from
leased in the fall with Burgess Meredith Herbert Kline's motion picture of life in
as the "voice." a Mexican village, with John Steinbeck's
If the stills are indicative of the true story and explanatory foreword. That it
merit of the film, it will have high rank is beautiful and evocative almost goes
in the documentary world. The camera- without saying; but a feature to be pointed
men for this book have brought out out is that, it is a simple transcript of in-
something in these carbon black repro- dividual reality. As Mr. Steinbeck puts it
ductions that give full credence to the in his preface, the film's makers reversed
Steinbeck text. the usual process of documentary pic-
As the camera focuses on Trini, the tures, and set their suggestion of the gen-
Wise Woman, looking with fear at the eral in wholly particular terms. What
coming of the "horse-blood men," you theyand John Steinbeck in his narra-
feel the fear and suspicion of a thousand tiveshow us is one village, one family,
years of ignorance peering out of those one Mexican boy, "who live in the long
heavy-lidded eyes. These actors are genu- moment when the past slips reluctantly
ine and their sorry problems are trans- into the future," and in knowing whom
lated to film as carefully as Steinbeck our own minds can take steps to a wider
fashions his words. knowledge.. ..
Steinbeck of "the hard-boiled school" It is a moving, enlightening story, and
drops his guard again in this gatheringly in its elemental simplicity it shows us,
powerful story. With his pen he has gone too, the daily pattern of the people's
out to rally help for another bewildered lives: work and festival, field and cottage,
and suffering group of the little people. joy and sorrow, and birth and death. And
Increasingly as he calls attention to the as it was photographed in a real village,
Okies, the sufferers of the flats and now among the people who really are the
the ignorant of rural Mexico, it appears "characters" we see, so the pictures are
that, far from being "hard-boiled," this as vitally revealing as they are strong and
writer is a Francis in store-clothes. The beautiful. These are the people to whom,
"muchas gracias!" of the overworked doc- in their natural dignity and friendliness
tors and nurses of the Mexican rural and their unbelievable poverty, the new
health service for this gringo visitor and knowledge is bringing change and hope.
his picture entourage will be more sincere Even if they cling at first to their age-old
than a thousand phony good-will tours. spells and fatalisms, there is their own
Juan Diego to guide them. They are not
forgotten any more.

196
 has managed to remain firmly planted on
Joseph Henry Jackson. that foot throughout.
In a laudable effort to be simple
"The Bookman's Daily like the people about whom he is writ-
Notebook," ing, perhapshe has gone too far. His
mystico-poetical text succeeds only in
San Francisco Chronicle, talking down to the reader. Give it an-
2 June 1941, p. 13. other half inch, and the simple tale would
be outright silly. As it is, it's much too
close to the border-line for the comfort of
Something over a year ago John any reader who has admired Steinbeck's
Steinbeck joined forces with Herbert work in the past.
Kline, who made the picture Lights Out I have a notion, as it happens, about
in Europe, to do a documentary movie the reasons for this. Some day a critic
about Mexico. Steinbeck wrote the story; will take time to analyze the curious, fa-
Kline photographed it. There are other therly-godlike love that Steinbeck mani-
screen credits and so on, but these apply fests for his characters, to examine the
chiefly to the movie when it is released, chastiseth-whom-he-loveth attitude im-
which will be some time this autumn. plicit in so much of Steinbeck's work,
An offshoot of the picture is what the insistent diminishment of his human
concerns us here. From the 8000 or more characters (no, not his turtles) by which
feet, 136 stills have been chosen and the author-creator unconsciously magni-
combined with portions of the Steinbeck fies himself in relation to them.
text to make a book, just published un- That, of course, is another matter. It's
der the title, The Forgotten Village. It is mentioned here because when that job is
not a major Steinbeck work and is not done, this Forgotten Village will be one
presented as that. It is an attempt, merely, of the keys to the puzzle. You have only
to tell the story of how, in today's Mexico, to read it to see the point. Before you're
the mores of yesterday persist in the face done, you wonder how these poor, dear
of the knowledge of today. As Steinbeck idiots Steinbeck describes have managed
puts it, this is a tale of "the long moment to survive at all, let alone to produce
when the past slips reluctantly into the their several great cultures, to absorb the
future." best conquering Spain could send, to con-
The scene of the little story is a forgot- ceive and bear a Juarez, a Cardenas.
ten village somewhere in Mexico's high In the meantime, this picture-book
mountains.... just won't do. You can say that it's fear-
Plainly, this is a very simple tale, told fully well meant, if you like, in a wide-
with a purpose and, naturally, to be writ- eyed sort of way. But that isn't much help.
ten with simplicity and directness. Plainly, My suggestion would be just to clear
too, one's opinion of such a booka your throat politely, look the other way
tour de force of a kindmust be an opin- and pretend that The Forgotten Village
ion on how it is handled rather than a hadn't been published. Steinbeck has a
discussion of the subject matter, which is big book coming this autumn, his Sea of
good enough material in itself. Cortez. Whatever it turns out to be like,
I am sorry to say that it is my opinion there'll be something in it to sink your
that Steinbeck got off on the wrong foot teeth into. And it should be interesting
in approaching this whole business and to see what a late-in-life enthusiasm for

197
marine invertebrates (the reason why Sea
of Cortex came to be written) produces in Edwin Seaver.
a writer of Steinbeck's caliber.
"Books."
Direction, 4
"Spring Books." (Summer 1941), 41.
Time, 37 (2 June 1941),
Presentation of a film, in the form of a
book, this story of one family in a Mexi-
can village comes as near achieving great
A picture-textbook heralding a movie art as any documentary book we have yet
made by Steinbeck. Herbert (Crisis) Kline examined. Stills run through the book as
and others, in rural Mexico. Steinbeck's an organic part of its make-up, bleeding
storymedicine v. magic for sick chil- through each page, the accompanying
drenhas warm beauty; so have the text neither too long nor too short (as is
peasant actors. But his skilfully timed often the case with such treatment). The
script sometimes goes pseudo-Biblical. effect produced transcends the simple
facts of medical servicesfinallyreaching a
village where natives still lived under the
spell of a "medicine" woman. It becomes
"Brief Mention." symbolic of the whole streaming of life,
from the old to the new, from tradition-
New Yorker; 17 bound fear to hope in the future.
(7 June 1941), 77-8.

The Forgotten Village, story by John "The Forgotten Village.'

Steinbeck, photographs by Rosa Harvan Booklist, 37
Kline and Alexander Hackensmid. Mr.
Steinbeck's first book since The Grapes (1 July 1941), 513.
of Wrath [is] a dramatic documentary
narrative in pictures and captions, show-
ing how the conflict between a tradition- The introduction of medical science into
al Indian healer and the government's a remote Mexican village, and the oppo-
men of science impinged on one family sition of frightened, superstitious natives,
during a typhoid epidemic in a remote told in fine photographs and brief text.
Mexican village. With very few excep-
tions, the numerous photographsstills
from a motion picture written by Mr.
Steinbeck, directed by Herbert Kline, and
acted by Mexican villagers against their
own backgroundare lustrous and hand-
somely composed. One of the better pic-
ture books....

198
Margaret Marshall. Philip T. Hartung.
"The Forgotten Village." "The Forgotten Village."
Nation, 153 Commonweal, 34
(12 July 1941), 36. (25 July 1941), 329-30.

The Forgotten Village..., another pic- You can read The Forgotten Village in a
ture book, concentrates on one remote half hour. But for a much longer time you
pueblo in Mexico. It consists of 136 stills will study its 136 photographs and con-
from a motion picture made by Herbert template its message. In the narrow
Kline and Alexander Hackensmid with a sense, it is a tale of the little pueblo of
script by John Steinbeck. A Mexican boy, Santiago in Mexico and the story of a
Juan Diego, is the central character. The boy and his family and people, "who live
story tells of an epidemic that strikes the in the long moment when the past slips
village and of the struggle between old reluctantly into the future." In a broader
magic and new medicine for the minds sense it is the story of modern Mexico
and bodies of the villagers. It is a dra- with the clash between medicine and
matic narrative in pictures with the na- magic used as a symbol. .. .
tives as actors. In the end the doctors are John Steinbeck, temporarily forsaking
driven out by the villagers under the the hard-boiled writing and editorializing
sway of the Wise Woman and her spells. of The Grapes of Wrath, uses a straight-
Juan himself is turned away from his forward, simple narrative style that is an
father's house for going over to the "poi- excellent complement to the beautiful
soners," who have put white powder in photographs of Rosa Harvan Kline and
the well and tried to inject horses' blood Alexander Hackensmid. If the purpose of
into the children, and is taken to Mexico this book is to whet our appetites for the
City by his new friends to go to school forthcoming film, The Forgotten Village,
and learn how to help his people. Mr. for which this Steinbeck prose is the script
Kline has caught the feeling of Mexico, and from which these photographs are
with its thick undergrowth of ignorance taken, it most assuredly succeeds in this
and superstition and its thin layer of mo- intention. However, the evocative book
dernity. He has even managed to convey, stands on its own merits as an interesting
as few photographers of Mexico do or sociological study and as a revealing pic-
care to do, the squalor and dirt. As a re- ture of renascent Mexico.
sult the reality comes throughand the
reality of Mexico is far more moving
than any soap-and-water interpretation.
The writing is typical Steinbeckelo-
quent and sentimental but suited to the
subject.

199
 emancipationrepresented by the pro-
Barker Fairley. gressive young Mexicans who believe in
modern medicine. It all seems not quite
"Books of the Month: contemporary, since this is not, for us, an
Symbolisms." acute phase of the social problem. On the
wholeexcept for holes and corners
Canadian Forum, 21 modern medicine has won out.
(August 1941), 153-4. Nevertheless the final impression of
the book is more actual than its plot sug-
gests. The struggle with the wise woman
It isn't easy to say in a word who is the becomes symbolical of all the struggle
author of this volume. It is made up of and it is made very real by being concen-
one hundred and thirty-six photographs trated in one personJuan Diego, who
from a not yet released motion picture leaves the village for the first time and
directed by Herbert Kline, depicting life goes to the city and sees for himself. It
in a Mexican village and bearing the is above all this "concreteness" which
same name as the book, along with story seems to pull the book over into today. It
or letter-press by John Steinbeck. remains to be seen whether the film will
Thus the authorship is mixed, but the bear out the impression. Certainly the
book will probably rank as another book gives it strongly. . . .
Steinbeck, because Steinbeck is the con- Remembering his use of the Joad fam-
tributor we are most likely to be curious ily in The Grapes of Wrath it begins
about. Those who know Steinbeck well to look, after all, as if Steinbeck had
enough are eager to know in what direc- had a major hand in the bookand the
tion he is travelling as a socialist or film too.
leftish writer. Has he withdrawn or come
further into the open? Is he becoming
more modern or less?
The book leaves you in this respect
where you were before. Reading and Checklist of Additional
looking at its pages the whole thing Reviews
seems at first a bit romantic and makes
you suspect Steinbeck of yielding once
more to his weaker tendencies. The plot
turns on a clash between superstition Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things."
in the form of the local wise woman New York Herald Tribune, 27 May
who "cures" children with charmsand 1941, p. 23.

200
SEA OF CORTEZ
 Sea of Cortez
A LEISURELY JOURNAL OF TRAVEL
AND RESEARCH

WITH A SCIENTIFIC APPENDIX

COMPRISING MATERIALS FOR A SOURCE BOOK
ON THE MARINE ANIMALS
OF THE PANAMIC FAUNAL PROVINCE

BY

John Steinbeck
AND

Edward F. Ricketts

NEW YORK

THE VIKING PRESS

1941
 ratories. Mr. Steinbeck and Mr. Ricketts
Charles Poore. together went on the expedition into
the lonely, treacherous and amazing Gulf
"Books of the Times." of Californiaonce called the Sea of
New York Times, Cortezto study and collect innumerable
specimens of the marine life there, and
5 December 1941, p. 21. together they wrote this book. You aren't
allowed to know who wrote which line,
though you may have your suspicions.
There is an elusive analogy between the Instead, you are told from time to time
work of Steinbeck and the work of that "one of us" had this characteristic
Hemingway that continues this morning and "one of us" did that, which creates a
with the publication of Sea of Cortez. curiously amalgamated joint personality.
It is a matter of linked opposites as This joint personality has a notable
much as it is a matter of similarities. The gift for writing with vigor, relish and pre-
impact of The Grapes of Wrath and For cision on practically any subject you might
Whom the Bell Tolls may have been simi- care to bring up. And a lively diversity of
lar; the contents were different enough. subjectssacred, scientific and profane
Yet both men like to fight for people who were brought up on board the seventy-
need help in their battles. six-foot Western Flyer in the course of
Both turn naturally to Hispanic themes: those six weeks of scientific voyaging in
the one in Mexico, the other in Spain. the Spring 01 1940.
Both have tried their hands at making Marine life was the object of the expe-
what are rather sententiously called dition. Marine life scrupulously studied is
"documentary" films: The Spanish Earth the subject of the book. Marine life
and Forgotten Village. When the Pulitzer seethes through its pages in impressive
laurelers give a prize to one of them, it classifications and compilations whose
causes almost as much excitement as value in filling gaps in the knowledge of
when they withhold it from the other. Gulf fauna is apparent. But there are also
Both like to go on safaris: the one helpful notations on life at large.
for pure science, the other for pure plea- While still emphasizing the primary
sure. Though there are elements of the scientific importance of the book, we
opposite, again, in each case. (Compare might notice a few of these. Speaking
Steinbeck on trying to harpoon a giant of the modern thrill-seeker, theyMr.
manta ray with Hemingway on the Steinbeck and Mr. Rickettssuggest that
picador's technique.) "it is possible that his ancestor, wearying
And both have written books about of the humdrum attacks of the saber-
their expeditions (made "patterns" of them tooth, longed for the good old days of
as both specifically say): The Green Hills pterodactyl and triceratops." Of the mule
of Africa and Sea of Cortez. Which they sagely observe that "he knows he
brings us back to the main subject of can out-think a horse and he is pretty
today's column. sure he can out-think a human. In both
I shouldn't have said that Mr. Steinbeck respects he is correct."
had written Sea of Cortez because he And describing the time that a mem-
didn't write it alone. He wrote it in col- ber of the crew who shirked his part in
laboration with Edward F. Ricketts, who dishwashing was drastically punished by
is director of the Pacific Biological Labo- having all the dirty dishes on the boat

203
piled in his bunk, they say of the broken a flock of general ideas floating in his
man: "Some joyous light had gone out of mind. The result is a book, Sea of Cortez,
him, and he never did get the catsup out a prettier name for the Gulf of Cali-
of his blankets." fornia. The title page says it was written
They go rather weightily into such by Mr. Steinbeck and Mr. Ricketts, but I
matters as teleology, early race memories, think we may safely assume that Mr.
taboos and war. They have interesting Ricketts contributed some of the biology
things to say in condemnation of the mos- and Mr. Steinbeck all of the prose. Like
quito and in praise of beer and laziness. each of the rest of his books (except, I
They make a superb running narrative suppose, the first), it is a complete depar-
out of the day-to-day activities and dis- ture from the previous one.
cussions of the expedition, and while Perhaps, however, it isn't so much of
playing down their own characters make a departure at that. In a brilliant es-
great characters out of the members of say, Edmund Wilson recently interpreted
the crew.... Steinbeck as a biological novelist, one
Mr. Steinbeck and Mr. Ricketts have whose vision of life derives from his sen-
written one of the most unusual books of sitivity to its animal manifestations. This
the year, and their publishers deserve some would explain why Steinbeck writes even
praise for having given it such an effec- better about beasts than about men. It
tive embodiment. Putting all this material also explains that curious detachment
together coherently must have seemed, which, despite the warmth of his social
in the early stages, only slightly less diffi-sympathies, prevents him from being tick-
cult than building Boulder Dam. eted as a propaganda novelist.
Sea of Cortez would seem to drive
home Wilson's thesis to the hilt. It was
obviously written not merely to tell us
Clifton Fadiman. and interestingly, tooabout how the
"Books." marine invertebrates of the Panamic fau-
nal province are killed, preserved, la-
New Yorker, 17 belled, and classified. Nor was it written
(6 December 1941), as a simple narrative of the small adven-
tures, many of them quite comical, that
107-8. befell the crew on the expedition. It was
written primarily to explain Steinbeck's
view of life and mode of thinking.
John Steinbeck, the novelist who doubles Steinbeck is an intellectual anti-isola-
in biology, and Edward F. Ricketts, a sci- tionist. He is interested in interrelation-
entist, chartered the ship Western Flyer ships. His aim, whether as novelist in The
(76 feet, Diesel engine) in March, 1940, Grapes of Wrath or as amateur philoso-
and set out on a six weeks' trip along the pher in Sea of Cortez, is to arrive at the
shores of the Gulf of California. The ob- total patternhe calls it the "design"
jective was to collect, preserve, and clas- of any experience. Anyone interested in
sify as many of the marine invertebrates total pattern is apt to be amoral in his
of the littoral as were amenable to such judgments, for all moral judgments pro-
collection, preservation, and classification. ceed out of the isolation of experience,
Mr. Steinbeck came back not only with the statement "This is more important or
his specimens floating in alcohol but with more valuable than that." Thus, Steinbeck

204
is anti-teleological in his thinking, as all reasons for Steinbeck's literary stature
good biologists should be; his eye is on in The Sea of Cortez. They will find
the thing as it is, not on the thing as it one of them to be his enormous curiosity
should be. This is-thinking, as Steinbeck about everythingfrom sea-life to Will-
calls it, means to him what the killing of iam Randolph Hearstand his thoughts
large animals does to Hemingway. It and reflections on a thousand and one
has religious, even mystical overtones for subjects undoubtedly raise heated argu-
him, overtones that may be inaudible ments from here to Portland, Maine.
to other ears. It makes him aware not Written in collaboration with Edward
only of the ecological connection be- Ricketts of the Pacific Biological Labora-
tween man and the Lightfoot crab but tories in New Monterey, the book is os-
of the evolutionary relationship. His mind tensibly an account of a voyage taken by
is attuned to the survivals in us of previ- the two men and their crew on a chartered
ous existences. He believes in biological purse seiner down the coast to the Gulf
memory (more than a trace of Jung here), of Lower California for the purpose of col-
and some of thefinestpassages in the book lecting and classifying marine specimens.
have to do with atavism in man.. . . But the actual trip, amusingly recounted,
The scientific supplement to the book is merely an excuse to express the com-
contains an annotated phyletic catalogue, bined ideas of two men who for many
eight pages of color plates, sixteen pages years have shared their efforts to find the
of drawings, sixteen pages of photographs, basic truths in all aspects of life.
and two isothermic charts. All very for- The result is one of the most unusual
bidding and scientific, and calculated to books ever published in this country. Its
increase our awe of Mr. Steinbeck. keynote is Ricketts "non-teleological"
thinking, and evolving from that idea
comes a lucid account of the processes of
the minds of two extremely intelligent
Beth Ingels. and sensitive men.
"Sea of Cortex New In the course of the book it becomes
obvious where Steinbeck leaves off and
Picture of Steinbeck." Ricketts begins. Sometimes it is at the be-
Monterey [Calif.] ginning of a chapter, other times in the
middle of a paragraph, but always the
Peninsula Herald, contrast in both the style of writing and
6 December 1941, p. 2. ideas of each is there. Often the change
is so definite as to be startling, almost
shocking. Each man is tops in his own
way, but where one is impulsive, sympa-
Out of the pages of The Sea of Cortez thetic and gloriously human, the other is
slowly emerges a picture of John Steinbeck, a scientist who builds up his ideas in
the man. He has been shown in other cold, mathematical intensity.
works as the novelist, the playwright, the Steinbeck's short chapter on ships and
reformer, but here, for the first time, is a men is one that won't be quickly forgot-
picture of the man who in a few years .. . ten. The beauty of the words and emo-
became one of America's more important tions in that piece of writing make it a
writers, if not the most important. classic of its kind.
Careful readers will find some of the "This strange identification of man with

205
boat is so complete that probably no man runs through the book in surprising fash-
has ever destroyed a boat by bomb or ionsurprising because, almost in the
torpedo or shell without murder in midst of an erudite observation on the
his heart.... Only the trait of murder Madonna in the church at Loreto, will
which our species seems to have could come a tale of the exploits of a crew
allow us the sick, exultant sadness of sink- member, Rabelaisian or otherwise. The
ing a ship, for we can murder the things description and subsequent stories about
we love best, which are, of course, the "Hansen Sea Cow," the perverse out-
ourselves." board motor, cannot fail to delight all
Half of the book is given over to pho- readers, whether or not they are familiar
tograph reproductions and drawings of with the variables of such a piece of
specimens collected on the voyage, and machinery....
[to] a complete indexing of them by
Ricketts. For marine biological students
and scientists, this catalogue should prove
invaluable, for it is the most complete Howard N. Doughty, Jr.
ever attempted for the tidal regions cov- "John Steinbeck's Fine
ered by this expedition.
The sketches of specimens which could Biological Notebook."
not be photographed were done by Al- New York Herald
bert Spratt of Carmel. The unusually
beautiful color photographs are by Russell Tribune, 7 December
Cummings of Pacific Grove, and through 1941, "Books" section,
an unfortunate publisher's oversight, he
was not given by-line credit for them. He p. 3.
is mentioned, however, in the acknowl-
edgment. Other photographs were pro-
vided by professionals. The Sea of Cortez is the Gulf of Cali-
The book, naturally, will cause a great fornia, and John Steinbeck and Edward
deal of comment. What Steinbeck book Ricketts went there on a six weeks' cruise
does not? But all in all, I believe it to be to study the gulf fauna and collect specimens.
one of the most exciting and diverting Their boat, the Western Flyer, was a charted
books, in thought and text, that has ever sardine seiner, manned by a crew of four
come off an American press. Tony, the skipper, quiet, cautious, dry-
Of interest to all, but particularly to witted, a hater of variables; Sparky and
Monterey readers, will be the account of Tiny, inseparable "bad Boys" from Mon-
the trip from the day the charter was terey, whose steering was one of the vari-
signed, the crew assembled, the good- ables Tony most hated; Tex, the engineer,
byes said at the old wharf. The crew con- master mechanic and, recalcitrantly, mas-
sisted of Sparky Enea, Ratzi Colleto, Tex ter dish-washer. Steinbeck (with Ricketts
Travis and Tony Berry. These men are used checking the facts) has recounted the
as characters throughout the book, while voyage of their floating laboratory in a
the principalsthe writersare never book that is at once a biologist's report
mentioned by name. The closest identifi- and a record of impressions and ideas.
cation comes with an account of one of The purely scientific data are relegated to
the experiences of "the bearded one." an appendix, together with 100 black-
Humour, both obvious and subtle, and-white photographs and fifteen col-

206
ored plates. The rest of the book is for guises with which human consciousness
the general reader. clothes it, that for Steinbeck gave ulti-
And an attractive book the general mate meaning to the trip....
reader will find itthe holiday book of a
person doing something he likes and en-
joying it thoroughly. Marine biology is
Steinbeck's hobby; his passion for it is Scott Newhall.
contagious. He liked working till he was "John Steinbeck's
dog tired, collecting all day and sorting
and pickling in the evening. He liked the Chioppino of Biology and
sea creatures whose lives and habits the Philosophy."
expedition had come to study. He liked
the gulf region, isolated, primitive, re- San Francisco Chronicle,
mote from the complexities of industrial 14 December 1941, This
civilization. Of all these things, the day's
work, the people and scenery of the gulf, World magazine, p. 26.
the swarming life of the tide-line, he
writes with sensitive precision. Sea of
Cortex is a fine-flavored sketch of travel John Steinbeck, of course, can write a
and biological field work.. .. great novel. But Sea of Cortez is by no
Steinbeck had a good time. But Sea of means a work of fiction. Rather it is a
Cortez is not only the pleasant record sort of chioppino of travel, biology and
of a scientific outing. It is also the note- philosophy.
book of John Steinbeck, author of In A year and a half ago, Mr. Steinbeck,
Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath, Mr. Ricketts and a crew of fourTony,
and a reading of it gives one a deepened Tiny, Sparky and Texsailed from Mon-
insight into the nature and quality of terey for the Gulf of California. For six
Steinbeck's work as a writer. It is no acci- weeks they were to collect and preserve
dent that Steinbeck is a biologist. As the marine invertebrates which infest the
Edmund Wilson has pointed out, a sub- tidal sands of the Gulf coast.
stratum of biology runs through all his When the party returned they had col-
novels and stories: a reaching down past lected 550 different species, they had con-
human beings to more rudimentary forms sumed 45 cases of beer and the two leaders
of life, a preoccupation with fundamental of the expedition each had enough infor-
life processes as such. He chooses primi- mation to write half a book. Mr. Ricketts
tive or "backward" types for characters was to assemble the biological infor-
in his fiction, not simply out of sympathy mation gathered during the trip; Mr.
for the underdog, but because in them Steinbeck was to help collect and label,
the basic biologic urges are more directly to observe the country, and then after
felt and more directly perceptible. In Sea speculation, to translate the meaning of
of Cortez he is able to dispense with hu- the expedition for the lay mind. This re-
man beings altogether and enter a world view is concerned with the first half of
where life, uncomplicated by thought, is the book, Mr. Steinbeck's.
lived in fullest urgency solely for its own
sake.. .. "Life has one final end, to be Certainly, Sea of Cortez is far from Steinbeck
alive." It is the spectacle of this abound- at his ablest. This is probably because he
ing biological activity, free of the dis- has subordinated his very real ability as a

207
writer to his desire to be first a philoso- times the other. On occasion the swine
pher, and second a naturalist.. .. feel a dynamism and demand Lebensraum,
In attempting to write a book about and in the pride of their species drive the
anything so prosaic as voyaging to the vultures from the decaying offal. And
Gulf of California, or so disciplined as again, when their thousand years of his-
collecting biological specimens, or so con- tory is over, the vultures spring to arms,
fusing as philosophical speculation, John tear up treaties, and flap the pigs from
Steinbeck accepted perhaps a far greater the garbage. And on the beach there are
challenge than even he realized. He may certain skinny dogs, without any dyna-
not have lost the battle, but at least he is misms whatsoever and without racial
badly battered. He becomes inaccurate pride, who nevertheless manage to get
when he dogmatically states that Padre the best snacks."
Clavigero visited the peninsula of Lower
California, he is out of date when he il-
lustrates a scientific principle by referring
to the ancient decommissioned liner Ma- Joel W. Hedgpeth.
jestic and he is simply small-boy vulgar "The Scientific Second
when he reports on Tiny's collection of
Phthirius pubis. Half of the Sea of
Cortez."
It is unfortunate that John Steinbeck should
write anything but a very good book. San Francisco Chronicle,
But, of course, any great writer faces that 14 December 1941,
trap. And it is only fair to report that
parts of Sea of Cortez come much closer This World magazine,
to what the author can really do. p. 26.
Who else could so understand and ad-
mire the small fry of Mexico? Who could
speculate better whether "a nation, gov-
erned by the small boys of Mexico, would To the general reader, lured this far by
not be a better, happier country than the narrative part of the book, the second
those ruled by old men, whose prejudices half of the Sea of Cortez, may seem a wil-
may or may not be conditioned by ulcer- derness of uncouth nomenclature and me-
ous stomachs ..."? ticulous minutiae, leavened somewhat by
Who else could have appreciated the a generous section of photographs and
terrible moral decay eating into the expe- drawings of some of the commoner ani-
dition, when one of the party succumbed mals. To the marine biologist, however,
to the perfidy of stealing slices of lemon this is the important part of the book, for
pie and devouring them in bed after the these seemingly unpronounceable names
lights were out? and the annotated bibliographies which
It's just too bad that the whole of Mr. accompany them are signposts and trav-
Steinbeck's half is not as good. That all eling directions for one of the world's most
of it is not of the same stuff as the follow- interesting faunal provinces, and this ap-
ing communique: pendix will hereafter be indispensable for
"On the beach at San Lucas there is a students of the marine invertebrates of
war between the pigs and the vultures. the Gulf of California.
Sometimes one side dominates and some- The authors make no pretense that

208
this annotated list is complete, but prefer been staple reading fare, but the actual
to call it "a scientific appendix compris- results have too often been lost in the
ing materials for a source book on the dusty tomes of libraries and museum cubby-
marine animals of the Panamic faunal holes. This is the first large-scale attempt
province." The same careful searching of to include both phases of this particular
the literature (as the technical papers are sort of human activity in one volume,
capriciously called) and consultations with and it would be interesting, if it were
specialists which made Between Pacific possible, to learn what influence this
Tides so valuable a book are evident in book may have on the development or
this work, and it may in some ways be formation of coming generations of bi-
considered a complementary volume to ologists. Certainly no reader can look
Between Pacific Tides. Indeed, the revised at this appendix and still entertain the de-
edition of the latter book may include lusion that a scientific expedition is noth-
cross references to Sea of Cortez. It is no ing more than an affair of moonlit nights
reflection upon the authors but upon our and enraptured contemplation of new
incomplete and haphazard knowledge of and strange animals, a delusion that Dr.
the fauna of our own backyard that the Beebe has done little to dispel. Not that
first general account of this fauna is not scientific expeditions are devoid of their
much more than an outline. romantic moments, but such populariza-
tion has all too often prevented the reader
Although restricted principally to the lit- from realizing the vast amount of work
toral fauna of the Gulf of California yet to be done to bring together and cor-
during a period of six weeks, over 500 relate the widely scattered information
species of animals were collected, a far in order that it may assume its proper
better record than that made by several place in our knowledge. Neither John
more formal and handsomely endowed Steinbeck nor Edward Ricketts believe
expeditions which have invaded the re- that the study of biology, especially the
gion. The echinoderms, larger mollusks amazingly varied and complex life of the
and crabs are especially well represented tidal regions, should be the exclusive fare
and a fair collection of shore fishes was of indefatigable museum drones, and that
also made. There are omissions, inevi- conviction is the inspiration of Sea of
table because of the limitations of time Cortez, enlivening even the remoter sec-
and energy as well as the scarcity of good tions of the technical appendix.
papers on certain groups. The limitation
to a single short collecting season may
account for the interesting failure to col-
lect any sea spiders, as well as for other Charles Curtis Munz.
less obvious gaps in the collections. The
sea anemones are omitted entirely from
"Fishing Trip."
the appendix although frequently men- Nation, 153
tioned in the narrative, and several other (20 December 1941), 647.
groups are touched but lightly, yet on the
whole the authors have succeeded in the
intention of producing a source book
rather than a handbook. In the spring of 1940, about the time that
the war was passing from phoniness to
Popular accounts of expeditions have long reality, Mr. Steinbeck and Mr. Ricketts

209
did what practically everybody would The book contains a great number of il-
like to do at one time or anotheras the lustrations, drawings and photographs,
time honored phrase has it, they got and a specific appendix.
away from it all. They chartered a sev-
enty-six-foot fishing boat with a crew of
four and set out for a six weeks' expedi-
tion to the Gulf of California, which was "Artist in Wonderland."
once called by the more romantic name Time, 38
of the Sea of Cortez because the con-
queror of Mexico was instrumental in (22 December 1941), 64.
having it discovered and explored. Natu-
rally no American would dare to set out
on an expedition like this for the pure Novelist John Steinbeck and his biologist
fun of it, and so Messrs. Steinbeck and friend, Director Edward F. Ricketts of the
Ricketts also had a scientific purpose Pacific Biological Laboratories, decided
they would collect marine fauna on the to make an expedition to the Gulf of
gulf's littoral. With becoming modesty, California, Mexico's long Pacific arm which
however, the authors confess that their used to be called the Sea of Cortez. They
expedition was something of a makeshift. wanted to find out all they could about
They collected a great many specimens, the sea creatures, especially the teeming
to be sure, but it would appear that they invertebrates along the shoreshow they
were less interested in the specimens than changed in numbers, size, form from
in the fun of collecting them. place to place, how they lived, loved, ate,
This book is a leisurely journal of the fought, fled, hid, died.
expedition. The authors maintain a rath- Their itinerary lay down a thousand
er curious joint personality; so that it miles of Lower California coast, around
is difficult or impossible to tell when Cape San Lucas and up into the gulf of
Steinbeck leaves off and when Ricketts treacherous repute. They collected fish,
begins. There are a few passages that snails, crabs, sea worms, sea cucumbers,
must be almost pure Steinbeck, and a few sea cradles, sea urchins, sea hares, star-
that are perhaps pure Ricketts, but for fish, octopi, mussels, anemones, shrimps,
the most part the book is written in a limpets, conches, sponges, hundreds of
combination prosepossibly it would be other creatures with fancy Latin names.
more exact to say a compromise prose Although they were not looking for rari-
that throws off few sparks and is hardly ties, about 10% of their 550 species
adequate to the occasion. The expedition proved to be new. They were stung by ur-
must have been more exciting than this chins, morays, anemones, sting-rays, and
account of it would indicate. stinging worms. Their hands, cut by bar-
An important contributing reason for nacles, became first a welter of sores and
the lack of communicated excitement is then horny-callused. They caught and ate
that the authors have seen fit to drag in a tuna, skipjack and sierra, tried unsuccess-
great many Reflections on Life. Thus the fully to eat a turtle; they drank beer and
reader will be enjoying the chase of whiskey; they bathed by jumping over
Tethys the sea-hare when all of a sudden the side; they had a wonderful time.
he will find himself becalmed in a soupy Steinbeck bathed, too, in a heady
discussion of teleology. Most readers, one stream of life-force. At Cape San Lucas
suspects, will prefer Tethys the sea-hare. he observed that the rocks were "fero-

210
cious with life.. .. Perhaps the force of rine biology Between Pacific Tides (which
the great surf which beats on this shore stands on my science reference shelf here
has much to do with the tenacity of the in Santa Barbara), and of boisterous nov-
animals here. It is noteworthy that the elist John Steinbeck, author, if you hap-
animals, rather than deserting such pen to recall, of Tortilla Flat, The Grapes
beaten shores for the safe cove and pro- of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men. And
tected pools, simply increase their tough- presumably it is going to be enjoyed by
ness and fight back at the sea with a kind three sorts of people: first, those who
of joyful survival. This ferocious survival will read anything that Steinbeck writes,
quotient excites us and makes us feel no matter what it's about; secondly, that
good, and from the crawling,fighting,re- more limited group who want to learn
sisting qualities of the animals, it almost more about the tunicates, ascidians, hol-
seems that they are excited too." othurians, arthropods, echinoderms, coe-
The leaping tuna and the frolicking lenterates, porifera, and chordates of
dolphins were beautiful, but to Steinbeck the Gulf of Californiano matter who
all the animals, even the repulsive ones, writes it. To this, add a third class who
were beautiful with life. As he traces the are definitely interested in almost any-
interaction of men and animals there is thing about Mexico and might well pre-
never the slightest hint that men might be fer to have the versatile Mr. Steinbeck
"superior." write it. These will be able to travel, in their
Everywhere Steinbeck finds atavistic arm-chairs, to one of the most unvisited
hints and murmurs which carry men far and inaccessible parts of our nearest Latin-
back into their brute heritage. When he American neighbor, where Steinbeck and
uses such phrases as "the deep black wa- Ricketts went in the modest little fishing
ter of the human spirit" he sounds like boat Western Flyer to collect marine ani-
D. H. Lawrence, as he does in his subhu- mals and new impressions....
man enchantments. Yet Lawrence's ani-
mal-love was a negation, a retreat from As soon as an American discovers such a
human modes of thinking and acting; place, whether in Bali, the Marquesas,
Steinbeck's is an inclusion. Steinbeck also Tibet, or Tepoztlan, he writes a come-
enjoys the syllogisms of philosophers and hither book about it. And next year we
the constructions of theoretical physi- send an Expeditionary Force of our citi-
cistsit is all right, all part of life. zens who want to tread the holy ground
where Americans have never yet set their
heels. . ..
Baja California is definitely doomed,
William Beebe. as of December, 1941, on which date
"Sea of Cortez." Messrs. Ricketts and Steinbeck published
their alluring book. I regard it as a de-
Saturday Review, 24 parture date fateful not only in the soci-
(27 December 1941), 5-7. ology of this state, but in the literary
career of Mr. Steinbeck. For he certainly
never wrote a book like this before. In
fact nobody has done so. In its content
This six-hundred page book is the joint it will stagger the Steinbeck fans. Which
work of the learned Edward F. Ricketts, one of them expected him to indulge
author of that excellent manual of ma- in a long self-argument on teleological

211
thought (heresy to the scientist, ortho- There can't be a doubt, for instance,
doxy to the divinity student) exactly as if that Ricketts has opened Steinbeck's eyes
his habitual admirers were of the mental to the rewards and delights of Natural
stamp of St. Augustine or President History, or that he has earnestly and
Hutchins? The Steinbeck imagined by la- meticulously coached him in scientific
dies who keep bookstores in Connecticut thoughthabits and viewpoints. He has
villages, and by middle-aged men who given his ebullient friend a biological phi-
have to read Esquire in the barber's chair losophythe best kind a man can have,
because they don't dare bring it home, to my way of thinking, the most real-
are going to revise their notions of a man istic, and yet the kindest. Mr. Steinbeck
whose tears for humanity come out as appears to have discovered it only yester-
sweat on his brow, when they find him day, in its full implications and deep per-
floundering in tidal pools of the mys- spectives, and he is wildly excited about
terious Gulf of California, dredging with it. He runs up and down the echoing cor-
bleeding hands in order to capture tropi- ridors, paced by Aristotle, Lucretius,
cal sea worms that sting like hell, and Goethe, and the Huxley boys, each in
turn to ink and stink before you can their day, turning cart-wheels of mental
pop them in mortician's solutions. Those liberation from Final Causes, shouting
who want to hear how many bad words at the marble walls, enchanted by the
this boy from the Lettuce Belt of Salinas, echoes that they throw back of his
California, has learned from the naughty own voice, and stopping, sometimes, to
little Mexican boys born within whiff of whistle through his teeth at the scholastic
the Monterey fish canneries, will find dignitaries... .
here 250 pages or about 100,000 words Ricketts (or is it Steinbeck?) has dis-
of an Annotated Phyletic Catalogue of covered that you can argue along about a
the marine life of this memorable cruise.... school of tuna fish, and the glandular,
But the colleagues of the learned Mr. psychical, evolutionary, or ecological rea-
Ricketts will find out something they sons why sardines, who travel in schools,
didn't know about him, either, I bet. vary so little, even in the normal speed-
They will learn that he and his five com- capacity of their locomotionand then
panions of the six weeks cruise of The suddenly switch over to humans, and see
Western Flyer', consumed 2,160 quarts of why men who go to certain schools, as
beer, and unspecified or uncounted quan- Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, differ so
tities of whisky. They will find that he little from each other "in speech, cloth-
either wrote, or concurred i n . . . reflec- ing, haircuts, posture, or state of mind."
tions on aphrodisiacs.. . . From here it is but a short step to some
.. . The two utterly disparate sections reflections on the Collectivist State and to
of the book are not assigned to separate speculations on the probable effect it will
authorship. The title page claims shared have, through Natural Selection, on the
collaboration between these two unex- human species. There are hundreds of
pected friends, presumably on all parts of pages of this, in fact; the authors find a
the book. I find nothing inconceivable hundred sermons in barnacles, and books
about an artist taking a distinct interest in sea-urchins.
in the niceties of systematic zoology; and Frankly, I would say that about one-
not every scientist is foe to beauty, censor tenth of this rabbit-out-of-hatting would
of nonsense, chaste in all his thoughts, have sufficed this reader. It is done with
and sober on both sides. versatility, with nimbleness, with humor,

212
sometimes eloquence; but we do, some of
us, know how the trick is performed. Checklist of Additional
That to perform it is the chief aim of bio-
logical field work, in the Gulf of Califor- Reviews
nia or elsewhere, or of Nature writing or
popularization, some of us would not ad-
mit. Probably the authors would agree; Eugene D. Hart. "Sea of Cortez."
but they seem to think this is what the Library Journal, 66 (15 October
public expects of them, or of Nature for 1941), 903.
Victorian audiences. John Chamberlain. "The New Books."
Either Steinbeck or Ricketts (or all- Harper's, 184 (December 1941),
two-both-of-them) isare?potentially advertisement section, n.p.
a great poet, or poets, of Nature. The "Voyage for Fun and Fauna."
grandest passages in this strange bargain- Newsweek, 18 (8 December 1941),
buy of two full-length books under one 75-6.
cover (but for the price of two) are some Harry Hansen. "The First Reader."
of the descriptions of the sea, the tide, Norfolk [Va.] Pilot, 9 December 1941,
mirages, wind or dead calm, Indians, p. 6.
tidal pools, or simply night, or dawn, or Sterling North. "Jap Shrimp Fishers
the barking of a dog, or loneliness on Most Dangerous Form of Sea Life,
a hot and empty shore. Style, reality, Steinbeck Reveals." Chicago News,
Stimmung, at these moments, all deepen 10 December 1941, p. 28.
and intone. More of this, and less sheer "Steinbeck Writes of Gulf of
cleverness will make somebody, which- California." Boston Herald,
ever he is, a writer as lasting in the future 10 December 1941, p. 14.
as he is brilliant today. R. L. Duffus. "John Steinbeck Makes an
Excursion." New York Times Book
Review, 91 (28 December 1941), 3.
"Sea of Cortez." Booklist, 38 (1 January
1942), 153-4.
Harold D. Carew. "In the Sea of
Cortez." Pasadena [Calif.] Star-News,
24 January 1942, p. 18.
Stanley Edgar Hyman. "Of Invertebrates
and Men." New Republic, 106
(16 February 1942), 242-4.

213
THE MOON IS DOWN (THE NOVEL)
 THE MOON
IS DOWN
A NOVEL

By John Steinbeck

NEW YORK : THE VIKING PRESS : MCMXLII

 the soldiers tramping mud into her kit-
Frances Alter Boyle. chen; the young widow who avenges her
slain husband; the boys who flee to En-
"The Moon Is Down." gland to carry on the fight.
Library Journal, 67 These on the defenders' side. On the
other no less vivid portraits: the popular
(15 February 1942), 182. storekeeper who turns out to be an en-
emy agent; the invader officers, sharply
differentiated in background and charac-
Quisling has done his fifth column work ter, but all dominated by the totalitarian
so well that the little coal mining seaport philosophy to which they have been bred.
is invaded with the loss of only six lives. Deliberately, inevitably, the denoue-
The insoluble problem for the Nazis is ment comes: It is the invaders, not the in-
to police the village and secure the good vaded, whose morale cracks. In the end
will of the inhabitants, so that the coal the mayor goes out to execution, quoting
can be mined and transported to the Socrates' last words, "Crito, I owe a cock
Reich. Excellent psychological study, rec- to Asclepius; will you remember to pay
ommended for purchase.... the debt?" And the doctor replies, "The
debt shall be paid." If the individual per-
ishes, the people live.
The book is beautifully written, with
L.A.S. restraint, dignity, humor, and calm con-
viction. The style fits the matter in its
"Masters of Their Fate." Apollonian simplicity and purity. The
Christian Science Monitor, drama is in the events, and there is no
6 March 1942, p. 22. theatricalism of language. A masterpiece
in little.

Like Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck's

new book, The Moon Is Down . . . is a Clifton Fadiman.
short novel written in the form of a play. "Two Ways to Win
And like the former book, it will be
transferred to the stage (on March 31) the War."
with little alteration. New Yorker, 18
The Moon Is Down will have a wider
appeal than its predecessor in this form. (7 March 1942), 52.
Its theme is both topical and universal;
dealing with the resistance of the people
of a small invaded country to their con- For all its qualities, John Steinbeck's The
querors, it sings the unconquerable cour- Moon Is Down strikes me as unsatisfac-
age and strength of liberty-loving human tory on two counts. Its form is deceiving
hearts.... and its message is inadequate.
There are some superb character sketch- The publishers, presumably with the
es: the gentle, scholarly mayor of the oc- author's knowledge, call it a novel. At the
cupied town; his friend the doctor; his most lavish estimate, the story hardly
defiant cook who throws hot water over runs beyond forty thousand words, all

217
quite short and simple words, too. Many it: Mr. Steinbeck means the N-zis. The
current novels, it may be argued, would town with which the story deals is deliv-
gain by reduction to forty thousand words, ered up by Fifth Columnists, and the
but it does not follow that forty thousand totalitarians settle down to what they
words make up a current novel. I fear call the "engineering job" of gearing it
The Moon Is Down is a novel only in a into their military-industrial economy. In
Steinbeckian sense. the course of this effort they shoot,
The deception, however, goes deeper. maim, torture, and rape, but to no avail.
The fact is that Mr. Steinbeck's book is They are opposed by subtle sabotage,
not a narrative at all but a play equipped by weapons dropped into the natives'
with a few casual disguises. The entire hands from English planes, by a free
construction is dramatic. The dialogue is spirit which is so much stronger than the
play dialogue, not novel dialogue (and slave spirit of the invaders that in the end
there is a sharp difference); the whole af- it is the conquerors who grow afraid of
fair settles naturally into scenes and acts. the conquered, it is the ruthless soldiers
It reads well but it plays much better who grow neurotic. As the Nazi Colonel
than it reads, and you're apt to find your- Lanser broodingly puts it, "We will shoot
self puzzled, as you turn the pages, by this man and make twenty new enemies.
the absence of footlights. Indeed, I feel It's the only thing we know, the only
strongly that a dramatic critic would be thing we know."
far better equipped to review the book Now, I submit that this is simply too
and that it has strayed into these columns easy, that it is a melodramatic simplifica-
through some error. Come to think of it, tion of the issues involved. The simplifi-
Mr. Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men was cation is based on the notion that in the
also a play disguised as a story, and was end good will triumph because it is good
rather more effective after the false whisk- and evil will fail because it is evil. With
ers had been removed. all our hearts we would like to think this
This lack of candor about the form of true, and that is why melodrama is a pop-
the book may not bother you at all. ular form of literature. But it is hardly
What may well be worrisome, though, is the most elevated form.
the inadequacy of the story's central feel- Many of us perhaps have been won-
ing. The Moon Is Down, like Of Mice dering of late why plays such as Candle
and Men, is a melodrama. It says with in the Wind (of which Mr. Steinbeck's
great dexterity things every one of us book is a more professional version) are,
would love to believe, but for all that for all their splendid sentiment, somehow
it remains a melodrama, which would unsatisfactory. I suppose it is because this
not be to its discredit were it not obvi- war is bigger and more terrible than their
ous that Mr. Steinbeck is aiming at some- authors seem to admit. How shall we put
thing loftier. it? If we cease to love freedom, we are
The Moon Is Down demonstrates, in lost, but the love of freedom alone can-
terms of sound and even momentarily not win for us. That appears to be the
moving action, that the free spirit of man gray truth of the matter, and it is, let us
is unbreakable. The scene is never named confess, not the kind of truth that in-
(I find this annoying; others may find spires exciting plays and novels. Most of
it an effective device), but it seems to be our imaginative anti-Fascist literature has
Norway. The invaders are not named, rested upon the stirring reiteration of sen-
either, but we may as well come out with timents to which our hearts give alle-

218
giance. But it is becoming increasingly
clear that this form of spiritual patriotism Margaret Marshall.
is not only not enough but may even
impede the war effort, because it fills "Notes by the Way."
us with a specious satisfaction, it makes Nation, 154
our victory seem "inevitable," it seduces
us to rest on the oars of our own moral (7 March 1942), 286.
superiority.
I like a fine phrase as well as the next
man. I would like to believe, with Mr. John Steinbeck's latest book, The Moon
Steinbeck, that "it is always the herd men Is Down,... is a fable of the occupied
who win battles and the free men who country cast in the dramatic form he em-
win wars." In the long run perhaps that ployed in Of Mice and Men. The action
is true, but everybody now alive is a takes place in "any conquered country in
short runner, and it is perfectly possible any time," and the theme is the slow un-
for Hitler to annihilate most of us. Once dermining of the morale of the conquer-
we get interested in winning this war for ors. The invaders take over the island
our remote posterity, it is half lost. Why without a struggle, thanks to the expert
not win it for ourselves? And if we are to preparatory work of a local fifth colum-
win it for ourselves, we will, I fear, hardly nistthe popular storekeeper. They try
be helped by the noble message in The to conciliate the people in the person of
Moon Is Down and in dozens of similar Mayor Orden; they see no reason why an
works full of high intentions; we can be orderly people should not remain orderly,
helped only by the blood, toil, tears, and especially since they are unarmed and
sweat of which Mr. Churchill has spoken. helpless, and go on operating the mines
We no longer need to be told we are which made their island important in the
in the right, for we know it. We wish first place. But the islanders, who have
to be told only how we may make that been free for four hundred years, refuse
right prevail. to accept their role. They are helpless, yet
I fear this sermon has obscured the they manage to disrupt the work at the
fact that The Moon Is Down is a tense mines; even worse is their ostracism of
story (or play), written with great the invaders, to whom they deny in innu-
economy and with a certain grim humor, merable and quiet ways the status of hu-
too. Its characters we have met before in man beings. Shootings have no effect,
other anti-Nazi books and dramas, but and in the end it is the invaders who are
here they are more sharply minted and on the defensive.
their dialogue is recorded with precise, if The theme is important, timely, uni-
limited, insight. If you read the book versal. It is closely bound up with pre-
quickly and do not reflect upon it, it vailing emotions. It would seem, therefore,
seems extraordinarily powerful. If you to be the stuff out of which a mod-
read it slowly and with deliberation, it ern fable might emerge. Yet I found
seems merely extraordinarily skillful.. . . the book curiously unmoving despite my
own preoccupation with the subject. The
trouble lies, I think, with the method
Mr. Steinbeck has affectedstudied un-
derstatement, simple, unaccented language,
matter-of-fact tone. Such writing depends

219
for its power on the concentration and He visualizes like a camera: the drawing
maturity of feeling with which it is charged. room of the Mayor's "five-room palace,"
In this case the charge is not sufficient. even to the red-and-gold wallpaper and
The form, therefore, seems contrived, the the "large curly porcelain clock" on the
simplicity becomes pretentious, the un- mantel; the "warm, poor, comfortable
derstatement and matter-of-fact tone sen- room" in which Molly Morden, whose
timental. The sprawling yet effective elo- husband has been shot, awaits and in-
quence of The Grapes of Wrath seems to vites fate; the gestures of a man trying to
me much better suited to Mr. Steinbeck's use a drawing board without a tripod; a
particular gifts. man closing his eyes for a moment as he
braces himself for death; the vision of an
unseen patrol passing by night, in the
snow, along a street of shuttered houses.
R. L. Duffus. This is a novel, a stage play, a motion
picture, a radio drama. It is all those
"John Steinbeck's Heroic things, and merits being all of them.
Tale." For in this story, without hate, with
New York Times utterly no heroics, almost idyllically, in
a tone not less tense and vibrant because
Book Review, 91 it is almost hushed, Mr. Steinbeck has
(8 March 1942), 1, 27. recited the creed that all of us desire
to maintain. "You know, Doctor," says
Mayor Orden, "I am a little man and this
is a little town, but there must be a spark
Wars are fought by people. Nazis are in little men that can burst into flame. I
people. Their victims are people. War am afraid, I am terribly afraid, and I
psychology and Nazi psychology are the thought of all the things I might do to
strange flowers that blossom from the save my own life, and then that went
unchanging, or very slowly changing, away, and sometimes now I feel a kind of
stalk of human nature. In the end it is exultation, as though I were bigger and
human nature that counts. Hate, fear, better than I am." To believe in the vic-
love, lustnone of these can distort it tory of the anti-Axis forces in this war
completely. It has moments when it one has to believe in little men, in what
shines, and is a light that cannot be put they have done, in what they may still
out. These are the truisms, never so badly do, in what they will not tolerate, and
stated (for John Steinbeck is an artist Mr. Steinbeck does make one so believe.
from crown to toe), which are implicit in The complexity of the story is not on
this remarkable novel. the surface. Motives and emotions are re-
So strong, so simple, so true, so dra- duced to their simplest terms. The char-
matic in its values is this story, indeed, acters are not shown in the round. All
that its present form is obviously only that they are, by birth and training, by
one of its phases. It is as plainly destined growth or stuntedness, is applied to the
for the stage as was Of Mice and Men. exigencies of a situation limited in time,
Mr. Steinbeck very carefully composes space and detail. They have no time to
the acting directions for his drama of change. They are revealed. Nevertheless,
a little town (supposedly a Norwegian one perceives within these limitations all
town, but not so stated) under Nazi rule. that the Nazis are doing to conquered

220
Europe and all that conquered Europe . . . There can be no cheerful end to
is doing to the Nazis. One perceives, such a story, but there can be a hopeful
without argument. So economical is Mr. end. The debt to Asclepius will be paid
Steinbeck, so intent on dramatic content the words of Socrates are still good and
and so averse to the theatrical, that a true.
syllable, even a gesture, tells a story.... If the novel were as rigid a literary
Step by step, with the inevitable form as the play it might be proper to ask
march of events in Of Mice and Men, but whether Mr. Steinbeck, in his hurry to get
with far more significance to us in this a play into rehearsal, has actually pro-
day, the drama proceeds. Mr. Corell, the duced a novel. But a novel must probably
popular storekeeper, has been helpful, be defined as any story between covers,
lending his boat to the policeman and and a good novel as a story which sensi-
postman and arranging a picnic for the tive and discriminating people will like
local troops ("all twelve of them") on the to read. Mr. Steinbeck's novel is that,
very day of the invasion. After the first though it is not War and Peace, or any-
regrettable gunfire the invaders are cor- thing like it.
rect. "You are the authority," says Colo- Mr. Steinbeck is making a point. He is
nel Lanser to the Mayor. The Mayor letting off steam. He is providing a com-
smiles. "You won't believe this, but it is posed fury of the sort that seems to be
true: authority is in the town. I don't necessary to win this war. Many a reader
know how or why, but it is so. This may sit down to his book sad with the
means that we cannot act as quickly as news from Burma or Java and get up
you can, but when a direction is set we resolute and confident. For this episode
all act together." in an unnamed village in an unnamed
Little by little the "direction" appears. country is the heart of the matter.
The professionally sophisticated Lanser,
Captain Bentinck, "a family man, a lover
of dogs and pink children and Christ-
mas"; the militant, heel-clicking Captain Wallace Stegner.
Loft; Lieutenant Prackle, "a gay young "Steinbeck's Latest Is an
man who nevertheless could scowl like
the Leader, could brood like the Leader"; 'Idea Novel.555
Lieutenant Tonder, the "bitter poet who Boston Daily Globe,
dreamed of perfect, ideal love of elevated
young men for poor girls"; likewise the 11 March 1942, p. 19.
good, simple Mayor Orden; Dr. Winter
with his sardonic touch; likewise Mrs.
Orden, who tries in vain to keep her hus- Undoubtedly this story of a peaceful
band neatly brushed; the servants, Joseph people overrun, conquered, and eventu-
and Anniestock figures in a way, but ally driven to underground resistance by
true to life in a world chiefly populated an invader will receive both lavishly com-
by stock figures; likewise the anonymous mendatory and inordinately harsh criti-
town from which comes the "author- cism. It deserves neither. It is neither a
ity"these people move toward doom great book nor a bad book, though re-
without any choice. Being what they are, viewers drunk on the timeliness of the
they cannot do otherwise. Thus Mr. theme may call it the first, and review-
Steinbeck sticks to his feeling for fate... . ers holding up The Grapes of Wrath as

221
a measuring stick may call it the last.... if it is to succeed. The wider the headlines
Technically the story is neat, tight, stretch our sympathy for suffering hu-
craftsmanly. Like Of Mice and Men, it is manity, the less we believe that suffering,
designed for immediate conversion to the the more we spring back into our own
stage, and beyond a doubt it will be a personal problems, the more the war be-
successful play. There is a good curtain comes an abstraction.
line for every scene, the chapters group That is the trouble with this careful,
themselves naturally into acts3 the final honest, skillful, and essentially true book.
scene is one calculated to move almost It deals with problems so terrible that our
any audience. mindsyetrepudiate them. And I sus-
Yet for all that, I find The Moon Is pect that those problems are abstractions
Down a rather disappointing book, not even to Mr. Steinbeck. He has never in
because it fails to live up to The Grapes the past evidenced any inability to move
of Wrath, but because it fails to live up to his reader, even if his reader is hard to
itself. The theme of the simple courage move. But this novel will move only the
of simple people is an old one with easy ones. The hard ones will see even in
Steinbeck, and a perennially good one. the technique, even in the writing, signs
But it doesn't come off here as it does in of Mr. Steinbeck's own hesitancy.
The Grapes of Wrath, in In Dubious Steinbeck is an artist, and a fine one,
Battle, or even in Of Mice and Men. I but he is not the infallible artist that
think there is a very sound and recogniz- some critics have called him, and here he
able reason why it does not. makes mistakes. He uses two servants
An embattled novelist who has pro- who are so plainly stock characters that
duced a monumental best seller on a cru- they are almost ham. He cannot resist
cial and timely subject is in a hole. He making Mayor Orden a mouthpiece of
can't go back to writing novels which are the democratic way. He is guilty of hav-
not socially-conscious, for fear of looking ing two men on the verge of death by
like a renegade. He can't repeat himself firing squad hold the stage for minutes
without dropping into the role of mouth- quoting to each other the Apology of
piece for reform. He must go on. But to Socrates, so that the audience will know
what? He must find a problem graver they are dying in the cause of intelligence
and more pressing than the last one. and civilization.
There is no difficulty in finding the The Moon Is Down is not, thank
problem. Any facet of the war problem is God, as talky, emotional and dishonest as
the automatic choice. But in choosing to Robert Sherwood's There Shall Be No
write of the little people being crushed by Night. There are magnificent scenes in it,
and resisting the war, Steinbeck had to go such as the one in which Lieut. Tonder of
out of his own experience. He had to the invaders turns hysterical under the
fake, and he faked very well. Still, the steady, silent hatred of the villagers, and
people haven't the three-dimensional re- the passage (unfortunately impossible on
ality that his other people have had, and the stage) in which the inevitable growth
the horrors through which they live have of that hatred is recreated. But the ending
been so constantly before us in the head- seems to me false and literary, and the
lines and radio reports that, to put it people are not real enough to save the
quite bluntly, we are calloused to that va- book from being exactly what it is, an
riety of pain. War can hardly move us idea novel, about abstractions. And this I
now in the way that fiction must move us say with some sorrow, because Steinbeck

222
is still one of the two or three best novel- effectively that immediate resistance was
ists writing in America, and this book un- impossible.
der any other name would warrant roses. Yet even this early lesson disturbed only
slightly the unstrained quality of their
mercy, nor did it inflame a bitterness meas-
ured in terms of quick violence. They had
Norman Cousins. been speaking one language for centuries,
"The Will to Live and and it was difficult to learn that deceit
could mean deceit; and so they could not
Resist." help it if they tended to see even their en-
Saturday Review, 25 emies in their own image.
Their spokesmanand he was a
(14 March 1942), 6. spokesman in the truest sense of the
wordwas the Mayor, a rather solid
but generally inarticulate character who,
It would be easier to write two separate seemingly, had been Mayor as far back as
reviews of this book than to attempt the anyone could remember, and whose chief
usual single account. Because when you virtue was that his mind and the collec-
put it down (it is a small book, a very tive mind of the people were one. It
small book, and you can read it at a wasn't that he had deep powers of insight
single sitting), you seem to carry away or vision or imagination; it was that an
two distinct sets of impressions. The first affinity existed which enabled him to ex-
is your feeling about the book up until a press better than any other person the
dozen pages from the end. The second is public will. His job was not to create
your feeling about it just after you have public opinion but to feel itsometimes
finished it. In short, the ending, though even before the people themselves.
dramatic enough, seems not of a piece Around the Mayor there were other
with the story itself, and thereby mars as persons as much a part of the town as the
satisfying a novelette as has been pub- Mayor's old mansion. There was the
lished in many seasons. This is why: good doctorfireplace philosopher and
This is a story whose hero is a friend and confidant of the Mayor; there
peoplethe people of a small town, an was the Mayor's wife, a somewhat fussy
honest, reasonable, slow-going people and ceremonious little woman who made
who believed that peace was the language all the decisions except the important
of mankind, that one had only to speak ones; there were the servants, a cook
it anywhere to be understood and re- and a butler, both strongly individualis-
spected. They believed it when the in- tic, whose courage and resourcefulness
vader came, speaking the language of seemed limitless.
fascism. They learned right away that But the Mayor's "palace"once the
part of that language meant treachery, invasion took placealso became the
for they were to discover that a man they headquarters of the occupation forces.
had thought to be one of themselves, The Mayor stayed on in a section of the
the once-popular storekeeper, had proved palace, and retained his nominal author-
himself the wedge which enabled the ity. The officers occupied another section.
small invading force to move into the Off by themselves, the officers were a hu-
town almost unnoticed and to fasten its man and average lot, so human, in fact,
grip on the people so quickly and so that we can understand them and see

223
them as part of a vaster tragedy. But they That is the rough story. As you read
had been trained to speak the language of it, you have the sense of participation.
fascism, and even though some of their You feel the tempo rising in you, even as
number realized that this language must it rises in the spirit of the townsfolk. You
always be unintelligible to a free people, keep preparing yourself for the smashing
theirs was not to question or reason, but climax. You are psychologically attuned
to order. They ordered the people to obey. to an ending of the proportions of For
To work the mines. They even ordered Whom the Bell Tolls.
them to be friendly. But the last dozen pages do not seem
The people are slow and they are rea- to come off. It is not only that the story is
sonable but they are not fools. Orders not resolvedwe may have to wait a
spoken in the language of fascism are not long time until events themselves will jus-
reasonable orders. They will work be- tify stories such as these being resolved in
cause they have always worked but they the way we should like to see them re-
will work out of their own free will and solvedbut that the technique itself of
not because they are slaves. And when the ending seems at odds with the overall
one of them strikes out and murders an pattern. The Mayor is a heroic character,
officer, the others come to understand certainly, but he is not the hero. And
that they have a job to do: the enemy yet the hero's role is thrust upon him
must be destroyed at any cost. This wave suddenly and a hitherto rather inarticu-
of resistance starts as a little stream, late old man goes off at the final curtain
picks up strength and grows and broad- reciting the Apology from Socrates. Such
ens and becomes a flood. There is no mis- a device is obviously better suited to the
taking its force or its size. This is a theatre. In fact, The Moon Is Down
Niagara of resistance let loose. The peo- would make an even better play than it
ple are not armed and open warfare is does a book. It divides itself nicely into
impossible. But in their own way they three acts, and action is described mostly
have come to understand what the lan- in group conversation, rather than by the
guage of fascism means and will have direct method. Then, too, the coming and
none of it. They hold back at work. They going of the characters, the development
sabotage. They communicate with Britain of the dramatic situations, the continuing
and get the ally to drop hundreds of emphasis upon strong, colorful charac-
sticks of dynamite by parachute. tersall this seems to add up to drama
They cannot be stopped. They cannot of the first magnitude.
be stopped even when retaliation strikes But play or no play, as a book The
back swift and deep. The Mayor is or- Moon Is Down is a unique reading expe-
dered to stop them, but he does not, be- rience. Steinbeck tells his story with sim-
cause he knows he cannot, because he plicity, force, dignity, and even beauty. I
knows they are doing what he would do. cannot recall another novel of compa-
But the Mayor is a symbol. He is loved rable size that has achieved so much of
and respected. The people must be pun- the sense of vital suspense, so strong a
ished. They must be hurt. They must pay feeling of reality. Steinbeck's images are
the price of their resistance. That price is strong and closely knit. Except for one or
the life of the Mayor. That is the lan- two slips, he comes as close as any au-
guage of fascism, which twists the knife thor to making himself unobtrusive and
instead of withdrawing it, and yet ex- leaving you free to lose yourself in the
pects the wound somehow to close.... story. Which you do.

224
 but American actors, I will eat the manu-
James Thurber. script of your next play.
The point upon which Mr. Steinbeck
"What Price Conquest?" in these pages has so lovingly and gently
New Republic, brooded is that there are no machines
and no armies mighty enough to conquer
106 (16 March 1942), the people. "The people don't like to be
370. conquered, sir," says Mayor Orden to
Colonel Lanser, "and so they will not
be." This shining theme is restated a
There is, I regret to say, a kind of great many times, principally by one of
lamplight playing over the mood and the invading officers whose nerves have
style, the events and figures, of Mr. been worn thin by the cold eyes and
Steinbeck's new short novel about the the silent faces of the little people of the
people of a small conquered town and little town. Lieutenant Tonder in The
its conquerors. I suspect that if a writer Moon Is Down goes to pieces and raves,
conceives of a war story in terms of a and this scene demands comparison with
title like The Moon Is Down he is likely the going-to-pieces scene of Lieutenant
to get himself into soft and dreamy Moore in What Price Glory} and that of
trouble. Maybe a title like "Guts in the Lieutenant Hibbert in Journey's End. Ap-
Mud" would have produced a more parently Laurence Stallings and Maxwell
convincing reality. Anyway, this little Anderson, who did the scene first (and
book needs more guts and less moon. best), have contributed a convention to
An impatient friend of mine who had the war play of our time. I can only say
read it, too, said to me, "It is probably after reading the three scenes at one sit-
Robert Nathan's best book." Whomever ting that if the German lieutenants of to-
you may be reminded of, the vastly tal- day are really like Lieutenant Tonder,
ented Mr. Steinbeck has definitely taken then the American Moores and the Brit-
on here a new phase and a new temper. ish Hibberts will be able to rout the pus-
One wonders what kind of thing he will sycats merely by shouting "Boo!"
do next. Let us listen to Lieutenant Tonder in
The reader of this book does not have The Moon Is Down:
to be told that the author had a stage ver- "I want a girl. I want to go home. I
sion in mind as he wrote it (the play has want a girl. There's a girl in this town, a
gone into rehearsal as I set this down). pretty girl. I see her all the time. She has
This has had the unfortunate effect of blond hair. She lives beside the old-iron
giving the interiors in the novel the feel of store. I want that girl....
sets. I could not believe that the people "That's it! The enemy's everywhere!
who enter Mayor Orden's living room Every man, every woman, even children!
come from the streets and houses of a The enemy's everywhere! Their faces look
little town. They come from their dress- out of doorways. The white faces behind
ing rooms. The characters and the lan- the curtains, listening. We have beaten
guage they speak are in keeping with the them, we have won everywhere, and they
theatrical atmosphere, from Annie, the wait and obey, and they wait. Half the
irate cook, to Colonel Lanser, the leader world is ours....
of the invaders and his staff. If these are "What do the reports say about us?
German officers, if they are anything else Do they say we are cheered, loved, flow-

225
ers in our paths? Oh, these horrible shoot me, but I won't stand for it. . . . I'll
people waiting in the snow! . . . take 'em out tonight and kill you if you
"Conquered and we're afraid; con- get in my way...."
quered and we're surrounded.... I had a At one point in The Moon Is Down
dreamor a thoughtout in the snow the little people of the little town are
with the black shadows and the faces in aided by the falling of a curious manna
the doorways, the cold faces behind cur- from Heaven: small blue parachutes come
tains. I had a thought or a dream.... drifting to earth, carrying dynamite and
"Conquest after conquest, deeper and chocolate. The little children of the con-
deeper into molasses.... Maybe the Lead- quered town go hunting for the candy
er is crazy. Flies conquer the flypaper. with as much excitement as if they were
Flies capture two hundred miles of new searching for Easter eggs. The Steinbeck
flypaper!" story will make a very pretty movie.
Now listen to Lieutenant Moore in I keep wondering what the people of
What Price Glory?: Poland would make of it all.
"Oh, God, Dave, but they got you.
God, but they got you a beauty, the dirty
swine. God DAMN them for keeping us up
here in this hellish town. Why can't they Charles Duffy.
send in some of the million men they've "The Moon Is Down."
got back there and give us a chance? Men
in my platoon are so hysterical every time Commonweal, 35
I get a message from Flagg, they want to (27 March 1942),
know if they're being relieved. What can
I tell them? They look at me like whipped 569-70.
dogsas if I had just beaten themand
I've had enough of them this time. I've
got to get them out, I tell you. They've Mr. Steinbeck combines something of the
had enough. Every night the same way. technique of the drama with the purpose
(He turns to Flagg.) And since six o'clock of the essay in his new novel. An
there's been a wounded sniper in the tree invading enemy, striking with care and
by that orchard angle crying 'Kamerad! competence, quickly overcomes an un-
Kameradr Just like a big crippled whip- named country. So well-planned and ex-
poorwill. What price glory now? Why in ecuted is the attack that the defenders are
God's name can't we all go home? Who vanquished before they know what has
gives a damn for this lousy, stinking little happened. Mr. Steinbeck is not interested
town but the poor French bastards who in describing the war but in depicting the
live here? God damn it! You talk about plight of the conquered a n d . . . the con-
courage, and all night long you hear a querors. Readers will, of course, identify
man who's bleeding to death on a tree Colonel Lanser and his staff with nazi
calling you 'Kamerad' and asking you to soldiers and Mayor Orden and Doctor
save him. God damn every son of a bitch Winter with civilian Americans. But there
in the world who isn't here! I won't stand is no need to do so, for the occupation of
for it. I won't stand for it! I won't have a once-free country by a hostile force is a
the platoon asking me every minute of timeless situation. The question propounded
the livelong night when they are going to is this: can force overcome freedom?
be relieved.... Flagg, I tell you you can The sullen obedience of the conquered

226
at length breaks into sporadic revolt. The in Norway or hypothetically in northern
familiar devices of oppression such as Britain, but that does not matter, for the
starvation, slavery and the firing squad whole point of the story is the situation
serve only to consolidate the insurrection that arises anywhere when a conquered
of a few, which, toward the end of the people refuses to accept defeat and resorts
book, threatens to become open rebel- to the sullen resistance and whatever
lion. Force, then, does not defeat a free sabotage and terrorism can be devised to
people, it merely goads them to action. make things even more horrible for the
Mr. Steinbeck's faith in the people is conquerors than for the conquered.
deeply intuitive. Mayor Orden, Doctor Beginning with a striking description
Winter, and Annie, the cook, possess some of how the town is betrayed by a fifth
means of communication with those pools columnist, and by bringing the situation
of wisdom lying deep in the conscious- to a head in a group of truly conceived
ness of men and women. In critical mo- and sensitively portrayed characters,
ments they are able to draw upon this Steinbeck succeeds in fashioning pro-
source, confuting the guile of their op- found and moving drama out of the ex-
pressors by means of their simple but perience that is widespread in the Europe
subtle understanding of right. There are of today. It is hard to say which is more
no heroics in their retaliations; there is finely delineatedthe mayor of the town
rather that quiet heroism of Socrates, who not merely symbolizes but embodies
whose noble words to his accusers are the democratic system, or the commander
quoted. About to be led to the wall, of the occupation troops, a toughened
Mayor Orden remembers his school-boy veteran of the last war who in his own
declamation: "'I prophesy to you who way fully realizes the tragic futility of us-
are my murderers that immediately after ing armed force to break the spirit of a
my departure punishment far heavier free people. Excellent too is the portrayal
than you have inflicted on me will surely of the townspeople and the commander's
await you.'" That there will be others to staff officers, one of whom becomes in-
take up the responsibilities of continuing fatuated with the pretty young widow
resistance is covertly suggested in his final of the invader's first victim and is killed
words to Doctor Winter, "Crito, I owe a by her.
cock to Asclepius. . . . Will you remember The commander has no alternative
to pay the debt?" but to carry out his mission, and as the
provocations and reprisals of the defeated
people continue, he is finally compelled
to order the heroic mayor to be shot.
Alvin Adey. Steinbeck's conclusion is indicated by
making the mayor, before he faces the
"Victims of Conquest." firing squad, quote the last words of
Current History, 2 Socrates: "If you think that by killing
men you can prevent someone from cen-
(April 1942), 143-4. suring your evil lives, you are mistaken."
But long before this it has been made
clear that the invaders have been sub-
Steinbeck's new novel presents a picture jected to much more than censure, for
of a small town occupied by a ruthless they suffer as acutely from the oppression
and brutal invader. It might be actually of which they are the instrument as the

227
oppressed people themselves. This is the vader, Colonel Lanser, is not happy: a
psychological situation that gives the veteran of 1917, he knows that the com-
story its unity and significance and in munity will not remain as calm and pas-
the handling of which Steinbeck exhibits sive as his lieutenants imagine. "Defeat,"
his insight and literary power. he says wearily, "is a momentary thing . . .
The style is excellenta well sus- we will shoot this man and make twenty
tained, evenly measured prose that is never new enemies"and the conflict which
trite and yet avoids overwriting and follows proves that he is right. Like Of
melodrama. The form is of interest be- Mice and Men, this narrative obeys the
cause the storyonly about a fourth discipline of the theatre: the timing, the
of the length of the average novelhas telling dialogue, the absence of introspec-
the compactness of a play and has been tion, all accentuate the sharply defined
apparently designed so that it can be scenes. By confining the action to a single
easily dramatized for the stage. What- householdthe mayor'sSteinbeck lo-
ever qualms anyone might have about calizes the immediate feeling of defeat;
Steinbeck's previous work will disappear then in the slow antagonism of the mili-
upon reading this nobly conceived and tary and the conquered he reduces to
deftly handled story of one of the grim- very human terms the terrible vindictive-
mest aspects of war and conquest. The ness that must now be underground in
Moon Is Down is both first-class fiction Europe and Asia.
and a valuable document and, one is in-
clined to think, a little masterpiece.

W. E. Garrison.
"The Unquenchable
Edward Weeks. Spirit."
"First Person Singular." Christian Century,
Atlantic, 169 (April 1942), 29 April 1942, pp. 561-2.
[p. 7 at front of issue].
Cynics and superior persons who find
Last winter I asked Mr. Somerset pleasure in believing that wide popularity
Maugham where he thought the best for a novel is always a sign that there is
writing of this war would come from. It something cheap and nasty about it, and
would come, he replied, from the de- that the public's taste is always wrong,
featedjust as it did in the last war. John are invited to read this chaste miniature
Steinbeck's short novel, The Moon Is Down, masterpiece and then to reflect upon the
tells the story of a tiny little community fact that half a million copies of it were
which has just been overwhelmed by the sold within a month from its date of pub-
Nazis. The village (it could be anywhere) lication, which was March 6.
with its coal mine and its dock has been This is an idyll of the unquenchable
skillfully betrayed by a fifth columnist, human spiritthe indefatigable moral re-
the home guard (of twelve men) wiped sistance of the conquered and, no less, the
out, the mayor, the doctor, and the persistent reassertion of human qualities
people hopelessly confused. But the in- in the conquerors, who cannot reduce

228
themselves to the purely military mechan- and dramatic work, much the best thing
isms they would have to be to carry out Steinbeck has done so far, and written
effectively their ruthless assignment.. . . with a restraint he seemed incapable of in
This is not history; it is prophecy. It is his earlier books....
the affirmation of a high faith in human-
itywhich is the same thing as faith in
the ultimate triumph of freedom over
force. That faith has not been more beau- "The Moon Is Halfway
tifully stated than in this novel. Down."
New Republic, 106
(18 May 1942), 657.
E. M. Butler.
"New Books."
Catholic World, 55 A few weeks ago we predicted that the
(May 1942), 253-4. controversy over John Steinbeck's new
novel would be prolonged and bitter, but
we didn't realize at the time that it was
going to develop into all-out warfare
. . . The Moon Is Down tries to describe on the literary front. Clifton Fadiman
the German war machine as it takes over has assumed command of the Blue, or
a small country and the disintegration of anti-Steinbeck, forces. John Chamberlain
the German mentality subjected to the has lately enlisted in the Green army, so
scorn of a hostile population. No matter called by its opponents because it is de-
how superior a man may feel himself fending Steinbeck's moon, which they
to be, he must have someone to talk to, if insist is really green cheese. Hard names
only to pass the time of day, and these are flying back and forth between the
soldiers read nothing but scorn in the opposing ranks like dumdum bullets.
eyes of their victims. The book's narra- Reading Lewis Gannett's usually even-
tive skill and economy of means are un- tempered column in the New York Her-
deniable, but the art with which the ald Tribune one day last week, we were
rather slight story is told is too self-con- amazed to learn that The New Republic
scious to be convincing. The laughs are has been conducting "a totalitarian cru-
all calculated in advance, "planted," as sade" against the book; that we talk as if
they say in the theater; the characters are we were trying to get it suppressed; and
types, and the whole effort is to poke fun that our logic would lead "to the conclu-
at their simplicity, much as radio com- sion that the whole German nation,
mentators and columnists have poked down to ten-year-old children, must be
fun at Hitler, but Hitler in absentia. annihilated forever. That," Mr. Gannett
Steinbeck has a serious subject and real concludes, "is propaganda gone mad; it
ability in using it; he destroys the validity winds up as a racialist philosophy in re-
of both by introducing elements that verse, as artistic totalitarianism."
throw the story out of key, as his efforts And thatreferring this time to Mr.
to be whimsical, which confuse the mood Gannett's articleis triumphant and to-
of the book and are repeated too often tal nonsense. The New Republic as a
for comfort. Nevertheless this is a vivid magazine has so far taken no stand in the

229
great Steinbeck war; we have been neu- the words that ordinary people would
trals, or at most non-belligerents. It is use to express it and by setting it against
true that the book was unfavorably re- a real background. In The Grapes of
viewed by James Thurber, but like our Wrath he was successful because he knew
other reviewers he was expressing his his people and how they lived. In The
own honest opinion. Many books are Moon Is Down he does not know his
unfavorably reviewed in The New Re- people or his background, and the result
publicincluding a few that the editors is that the literary emotion never be-
admireand so far not one of them has comes quite real. The characters make
been suppressed; the fact is that most of admirable speeches, but they do not talk
them thrive under the treatment. The like human beings.
play fashioned from the novelor was it If Mr. Gannett wants us to go beyond
vice versa?was pretty well liked by these casual comments and really take an
Stark Young. In our correspondence col- editorial stand, we shall be glad to oblige
umns, we printed eight letters about The him. In that case, we should say to our
Moon Is Down, and they happened to be readers, "Pay careful attention to every-
equally divided, four Blue and four Green. thing we say, for we are Taking an Edito-
Does Mr. Gannett really think that we rial Stand. We want you to read The
should have censored the review and sup- Moon Is Down; we want everybody to
pressed the unfavorable letters? Just who read it. But please don't confuse it with
is being totalitarian? Shakespeare or even with The Grapes
On the great question whether Steinbeck of Wrath. And don't think that Mr.
was right in depicting his German officers Steinbeck's Nazis are the people who ac-
as frustrated and rather likable human tually invaded Norway. If they were, the
beings, we occupy a safe middle position. free nations wouldn't need planes, tanks
We believe that he was right to depict and gasoline rationing to defeat them.
some of them in that fashion. On the The job could be done effectively with
other hand, he was wrong not to depict dynamite and bon-bons."
any of them as genuine and therefore
essentially hateful Nazis. Captain Loft
comes nearest to being one of Hitler's
real soldiers, but even Loft is less a Nazi Paul Bixler.
than a simple careerist; his great proto-
type is Lieutenant Alphonse Karlovich "The Moon Is Down .
Berg, in War and Feace. Prackle was in- Is Up . . . Is Down . . .
tended by the author to be a Nazi, but he
didn't work out that way; his adoration Is "
of the Leader remains nothing more than Antioch Review, 2
a stage direction. All in all, Steinbeck pre-
sents a somewhat idealized picture of our (June 1942), 322-3.
enemies.
As for the literary qualities of The Moon
Is Down, we agree with Mr. Thurber's Although there is much in Stanley Edgar
adverse judgment. Steinbeck has always Hyman's article on John Steinbeck in this
been one of those authors who start from issue with which we sharply disagree,
literature instead of life; who try to make with one of his conclusions we are in per-
their literary emotion lifelike by finding fect accordthat the heated controversy

230
raging in the press over The Moon Is ously with an invasion, it can hardly be
Down has been concerned almost wholly said that its story is without indications
with misleading or extraneous issues. Per- of assistance from abroad. If Mr. Stein-
haps fiction published in war time cannot beck's Nazis fit none of the stereotypes
hope to receive a coherent appreciation we now hate, if it is admitted that there
unless it obviously belongs on the one may be something of the stage character
hand to the school of pure escape or on about them, one can hardly contend be-
the other to the school of blood and guts. yond this that they are the central figures
Perhaps the screaming events of a world of the book, or that they are more in
war make of the inventions of serious fact than the stooges for the people Mr.
fiction a pale insignificance. However this Steinbeck is really interested in. As for
may be, the reviewing of Steinbeck's the title, what does it mean beyond the
short novel entered the silly stage almost fact that the night is dark? Let us admit
on the day of publication and with one that the novel is essentially a drama, that
or two exceptions has remained there it is not perfectly contrived, that it does
ever since. not employ Steinbeck's gifts so well as a
Max Gissen's apt phrases, "punch drunk longer, fuller form. There yet remains be-
reviewing" and "an excess of uncritical yond all other considerations the chief
good will" (see his article in this issue) themethe heroism and will to resist of
are mildly descriptive of the sort of thing the people of the invaded town. This last
to come from newspaper row; and with is important enough to bear much more
the exception of Margaret Marshall, who elaboration than we can give it here.
despite a sound critical approach gave The Moon Is Down is Steinbeck's first
the book little more than a lick and a novel since The Grapes of Wrath, and
promise, the liberal press was almost as it is hardly strange that the central theme
bad. One gathered from the newspaper of both is the same. Hundreds of thou-
boys that here was the book of the cen- sands of Americans were awakened to
turyand from the thinkers that by a the humanity and the will to democracy
stroke of the pen John Steinbeck had lost of the common man by the impact of The
us the war. To cap this impasse and to Grapes, and other hundreds of thousands
pile one confusion upon another, letters were reawakened. Though The Moon Is
began to come to the editors pointedly Down does not come with the force of
seeking to re-establish the good charac- first discovery, its belief in the strength of
ter of the denizens of Mr. Steinbeck's the common man is patent and should
"mythical" country; and as a climax too make new converts. The critics may
good to be imagined, articles appeared in say that Steinbeck's central idea is over-
at least two of the "information" sheets laid with mystical talk about "group
put out in America by representatives of men," with an almost religious or meta-
lands now under the Nazi heel heatedly physical fervor; they may note that his
denouncing the Steinbeck opus for tra- common man is predominantly rural. But
ducing the sacred honor of their country- if these overtones do not make for a com-
men. At this point, we believe, criticism pletely clear-cut ideology, they surely
ought to turn the page and begin afresh. make for a very moving novelistper-
If The Moon Is Down is not the typi- haps the most moving of our time. Is it
cally great war story which the critics too much to ask that liberal thinkers who
have been hoping for, surely it cannot have been thumping for the idea of the
help to lose the war. If it deals most obvi- common man these many moons accept

231
in Steinbeck a powerful fellow-advocate piece, a profound and dutiful soul gone
and cease trying to make neurotic a pub- astray. He explains the invader's need
lic already convinced of his humanism by of the coalmine at the edge of the town
suggesting that he is somehow, wittingly and of the local fishing; he deprecates
or unwittingly, playing ball with the Axis? the thought of resistance; he asks for
For the strength and the will of the com- the Mayor's collaboration in maintain-
mon man is the chief idea of our time. It ing order. The Mayor himself doubts
is so big and so important that if the little whether the Colonel knows what to ex-
people of The Moon Is Down have no pect from the townspeople in their own
validity in real life, then there is small va- good time, and these doubts are streng-
lidity in our war. thened when his cook Annie throws boil-
ing water over one of the soldiers observ-
ing her too closely in the kitchen and
bites another who goes to the rescue.
"Invasion." There are neat and suggestive sketches
of the members of the colonel's staff. Ma-
Times Literary jor Hunter is a dry, precise formalist; the
Supplement [London], elderly Captain Bentick is a family man,
20 June 1942, p. 305. a lover of dogs, children and Christmas,
who in the past has always liked to be
mistaken in Paris or Budapest for an Eng-
lishman; Captain Loft clicks his heels as
A short novel or a long short-story, in perfectly as any dancer; and Lieutenants
some sort a fable of contemporary his- Prackle and Tonder are witless and senti-
tory, The Moon Is Down has truth and mental young fire-eaters. Gradually an
dignity of sentiment and a sincere accent invisible net of hatred closes round them
of homage. It is a simple tale, told with all. The colonel knows that to maintain
studied simplicity of phrase.. .. order and discipline it is necessary to
. . . And from it all emerges once more learn what is in the minds of the con-
the idea of freedom, an undying idea, quered. He learns soon enough. Captain
a deathless idea. The one impossible job Bentick is the first and almost innocent
in the world, says Mayor Orden, is to victim, struck down by a blow from a
break man's spirit permanently. It is to miner's pick, and in ordering the man
this statement of belief that Mr. Steinbeck to be shot the colonel realizes that he is
addresses himself, and in the result he raising twenty new enemies. Occupation
is honest, unaffected and full of admira- grows steadily more arduous. The miners
tion for the things men will do in the are clumsy and slow, costly machinery is
cause of freedom. The invention of the broken, there are accidents on the rail-
tale is soberly realistic. The Mayor and way, young men escape to England, there
his old friend, the local historian, receive are bombing raids at night; the defeated
Colonel Lanser, who is grey, hard, tired- wait in slow, silent, watchful hatred. And
looking and who has reason to remember the troops themselves, thinking always of
the military occupation of Belgium and home, their nerves stretched to breaking-
France twenty years earlier. The Colonel point, begin to fear what awaits them
is a curious and perhaps romanticized when they crack. In a fit of hysteria
study; at moments, like Milton's Satan, young Tonder, before the shot miner's
he seems to be the real hero of the wife takes her revenge, protests his loneli-

232
ness in a world already half conquered. explain why the best novel yet produced
So to the arrest of Mayor Orden as a by this war has come from the relative
hostage and his final testimony to the detachment of America.
faith of a free man. Defeat is momentary, As if to disclaim any pretension to the
he says, for even in defeat free men fight particular, Mr. Steinbeck has clothed his
on. "It is always the herd men who win book in a most effective anonymity. "By
battles and the free men who win wars." ten forty-five it was all over. The town
Mr. Steinbeck's tribute is warm and was occupied, the defenders defeated,
sincere, and the slight fiction built round and the war finished. The invader had
it is of nice balance and proportion. prepared for his campaign as carefully as
Whether he gains from the half-hearted he had for larger ones."
anonymity of his narrative is doubtful; This is the opening of The Moon Is
his model, presumably, is the Nazi inva- Down, and there are few occasions
sion of Norway, and in the circumstances where more specific terms are used than
so nameless a rendering of the event gives these. At the same time there is no dream
it a rather hollow character. Worse still, if or fable atmosphere to blur the many
we may say so, there is too little imagina- sharp points and edges. It is soon clear
tion, too complacent a vision in what that this is a Norwegian town and these
seems to be his shock of pride in the re- are German invaders, but we are spared
sistance of the occupied countries of Eu- any exuberance of local colour.
rope. The sentiment of the tale always The story is a short and extremely
rings true, but was it necessary to draw simple one. It is summed up in the hys-
quite so comforting a moral from the op- terical outburst of a young invading
pression and torture of the history, or the officer, driven mad by months of friend-
European history, of our times? less isolation. "Conquest after conquest,
deeper and deeper into molasses . . . Flies
conquer the flypaper. Flies capture two
hundred miles of new flypaper."
Philip Toynbee. One of the unique merits of The
"New Novels." Moon Is Down is that both invaders and
invaded, both flies and flypaper, are pre-
New Statesman and sented intelligibly and sympathetically.
Nation [England], 23 The heroes, in the modern sense, are the
people of the town: the miners who dy-
(20 June 1942), 408-9. namite railway lines, the hostages, and,
above all, the mayor. But in the tragic
sense the heroes are the invading flies.
Novels of the last war suffered from Colonel Lanser, the commanding officer
two besetting faultsself-pity and a de- of the invading battalion, is a conven-
votion to hysterical detail. Many of them tional but beautifully convincing char-
screamed so shrilly that they passed, in acter. His eyes are always tired, his mind
the end, quite beyond the range of hu- struggling perpetually and fruitlessly against
man earshot. Stench, mud, corpses, gas the memories of other wars. He knows
how little that is really moving has re- precisely what he must do, and precisely
mained! The error was that most of these what will happen. His efforts to persuade
books were written in a passion, either of Mayor Orden to co-operate can never
rage, despair, or exhibitionism. This may succeed, and he knows this. The people

233
will resist whatever measures are taken How convincing this is of all the cooks
against them, while his own officers will one knows! Mr. Steinbeck can write au-
quickly disintegrate. He is the man wise thentically about ordinary people with-
by experience, hopeless by situation. out a hint of the abominable Little Man,
The mayor is a contrast. He is the or- London-can-take-it, attitude which has
dinary respectable man, at times pomp- perverted English taste for years.
ous, at times humble, wise by a sort of
bewildered communal instinct. As the
people's elected representative, he becomes
the people. His understanding springs di- "Baying at the Moon."
rectly from the collective knowledge of Time, 39 (22 June 1942),
the community, and his resolution from
the collective will. 88, 90.
Consequently the mayor is never a
tragic figure, for he is never alone. The
Colonel, amused or disgusted by his own John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down
officers, is always alone. His only mo- (Time, March 9) has stirred up (as book
ments of human contact are with the and play) the year's liveliest literary fight.
mayor, whom in the end he is obliged to By now the battle has become a general
shoot. war, involving book reviewers, theater
Mr. Steinbeck rightly pays more atten- critics, editors, people who write letters
tion to the invaders than to the invaded. to the newspapers, diplomats, college pro-
The resistance of the town is made to fessors and Dorothy Thompson. Two
seem inevitable: it is taken for granted. great questions are at issue: 1) Does
But the decay, the terrible galloping con- Steinbeck put too much faith in the
sumption of the conquerors can seldom moral superiority of democracy? 2) Is
have been more vividly described. The Steinbeck wrong in portraying German
young officers hunger for girls, but when soldiers as human beings?
they appeal to the girls of the town for It has even been suggested that The
sympathy, they are murdered as they kiss. Moon is veiled Nazi propaganda. In
They hear music from a cafe, and ea- Manhattan the Belgian Commissioner of
gerly pursue it. But at their appearance Information objected to Colonel Lanser,
the music stops, the couples break apart. one of Steinbeck's Germans who recalls
And all the time comes the desperate how, in World War I, an old Belgian
booming of news from home, of victories woman killed twelve Germans with a
and occupations which make no differ- long black hatpin. Said the Commis-
ence whatever to their plight. sioner: "Mr. Steinbeck .. . does a disser-
In the description of the invaded there vice to the Belgian reputation for dignity
is hardly a moment of false sentiment or and fair play."
adulation. Prominent among those who think
that the Steinbeck moon is made of green
Annie [the cook] was always a little cheese are:
angry, and these soldiers, this occupa-
tion, did not improve her temper. New Yorker Critic Clifton Fadiman
Indeed, what for years had been con- ("It seduces us to rest on the oars of
sidered simply a bad disposition had our own moral superiority").
suddenly become a patriotic emotion. Humorist James Thurber ("This lit-

234
 tie book needs more guts and less the witless, and the luckless, is even-
moon.... If these are German offi- handedly Galsworthian in his fantasy of
cers . . . I will eat the manuscript of freedom The Moon Is Down.... A coal
your next play . .."). harbour, obviously Norwegian, though
The pinko New Republic ("Don't think Norway is never named, is betrayed to
that Mr. Steinbeck's Nazis are the the invaders by the popular Mr. Corell;
people who actually invaded Norway. the protagonists are Colonel Lanser and
If they were, the free nations wouldn't Mayor Orden, and the tolerance of the
need planes, tanks and gasoline ration- colonel is extreme. Orden's cook throws
ing to defeat them. The job could be boiling water over soldiers, and Lanser
done effectively with dynamite and merely removes them. A miner kills an
bonbons."). officer with a pickaxe; he is executed,
but there is no other reprisal. Lanser's
Warmest defenders of The Moon are country wanted coal, and his orders were
Novelist Pearl Buck, Drama Critic Brooks to obtain collaboration. He was not to
Atkinson, Dorothy Thompson, Book Re- be provoked, even by Corell, who re-
viewer Lewis Gannett. Gannett called the sented his mildness, nor by the local peo-
"totalitarian crusade" against the story "a ple, who taught his men what ostracism
depressing example of wartime hysteria." means. He had, however, finally to shoot
Said Dorothy Thompson: "I know Orden. They understood each other per-
dozens of German officers who were thor- fectly, and Orden and the doctor, recol-
oughly mature when last I enjoyed friendly lecting the last words of Socrates, are
relations with them, and they were just assisted by Lanser. A soldier and a gentle-
like [Colonel Lanser].. .. The enormous man obeyed orders, a freeman and a
power in Mr. Steinbeck's drama is that it gentleman obeyed the dictates of convic-
is not an attack on Nazis. It is an attack tion, and both are finely conveyed in this
on Naziism." terse novel, which already has been pro-
Meanwhile The Moon Is Down is duced as a play in New York.. . .
doing quite nicely. As a novel, it has
sold 450,000 copies. As a play, it has en-
tertained when it closed last fortnight,
some 56,000 theatergoers. Producer Darryl Kate O'Brien.
Zanuck, who paid $300,000 for the
film rights, is rushing production of the "Fiction."
movie version. Spectator [England], 169
(10 July 1942), 44.
Harold Brighouse.
"Books of the Day." The first thing to be said of The Moon
Is Down is that it is, for these times, bet-
Manchester Guardian, ter value than most new pieces of fiction,
26 June 1942, p. 3. for it is a deft, well-written, economical
story; it deals with something which must
go straight home at present to all imagi-
.. . Mr. John Steinbeck, previously emo- nations; it is nicely bound and printed,
tional in his advocacy of the inarticulate, and it costs only two half-crowns. Mr.

235
Steinbeck tells of the seizure by a com-
pany of German soldiers of a little town "Pravda Likes Steinbeck."
on the coast of an unnamed country that
clearly is Norway; he shows how easy it New York Times,
was to take the town, and how impos- 22 December 1942, p. 23.
sible to subjugate it; he gives us clean
little character sketches of six German
officers and of a number of simple people
whom they can neither manage nor un- Pravda, the Communist party newspa-
derstand; in particular he gives us the he- per, devotes almost a half page today
roic, modest story of the Mayor, and to a review of the American edition of
shows how thoroughly that humble man John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down.
understood the nature of his office and The reviewer praises the book for its
his duty. It is quiet, ironic and tender, re- universality and the exposition of the ha-
calling somewhat in manner Alphonse tred of the inhabitants of occupied lands
Daudet's tales of the Franco-Prussian for the Germans. He judges the book to
War. Yet somehow it falls short of its op- be of literary and social importance and
portunity. It is as if written at too long a defends the author against criticisms "that
range and too closely to a preconception. he drew the German characters in too
The characters of the German officers are human a light." It is just that combination
differentiated with a crispness which is of human and inhuman features, the re-
too effective to capture life, and which viewer states, that makes the Germans
tends therefore to indicate sentimentality; beasts.
and by an odd use of irony, the author However, the discussions that the book
understates in the wrong places, and in has provoked show that the American in-
unconscious correction of this sometimes telligentsia has a healthy hatred for the
overstates embarrassingly. An example of enemy and desires that the Hitlerites be
the latter kind of lapse is in the awkward described with hatred, the reviewer adds.
straining, in the brave little Mayor's last In Mr. Steinbeck's "objectivity" the re-
hour of life, of his and his old friend's viewer sees not a sign of lack of hatred
recollections from school of Socrates' but solely the effect of his not having per-
Apology. This is taken much too farto sonally witnessed the events described.
make the irresistible but quite untrue cur-
tain. It is a pity, for the Mayor was fine
and simple and needed no high-flown
parallels. Anguish is missed somehow, Checklist of Additional
and what might have been, taken with
entire simplicity, a microcosm of the Reviews
present courage and present woe of mil-
lions of the innocent, is turned by too
many clever graces into a wry little story, John Chamberlain. "Books of the
perilously near to the whimsical.... Times." New York Times, 6 March
1942, p. 19.
Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things."
New York Herald Tribune, 6 March
1942, p. 17.
John Gunther. "'One of the Best Short

236
 Novels I Ever Read.'" New York Angeles Times, 25 March 1942,
Herald Tribune, 8 March 1942, Part 3, p. 5.
"Books" section, p. 1. Clifton Fadiman. "Books." New Yorker,
Joseph Henry Jackson. "Books and 18 (4 April 1942), 63-4.
Their Writers." San Francisco "The Moon Is Down." Life, 12 (6 April
Chronicle (This World magazine), 1942), 32-4.
8 March 1942, p. 12. Corrine Sussman. "Letters to the
"Viewpoint of Victory." Time, 39 Editor." New York Times, 15 April
(9 March 1942), 84, 86-8. 1942, Section 2, p. 18.
"The Moon Is Down." Booklist, 38 "Steinbeck Tells Poignant Tale of an
(15 March 1942), 252. Invasion." Sacramento Bee, 18 April
"A French Quisling Opens the Gate, and 1942, p. 17.
Hate Rises around an Invader." Wolcott Gibbs. "This Wasn't It." New
Youngstown [Oh.] Vindicator, Yorker, 18 (18 April 1942), 33-4.
15 March 1942, p. 8. Edwin Seaver. "Books." Direction, 5
Robert V. Johnson. "The Moon Is (April-May 1942), 18-19.
Down: Steinbeck Writes Story of Free Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things."
People Who Would Not Be Enslaved." New York Herald Tribune, 4 May
Houston Post, 15 March 1942, 1942, p. 11.
"Magazine" section, p. 10. Max Eastman. "The Library." American
"Problem of Conquering Free People Is Mercury, 54 (June 1942), 754-6.
Pictured." Asheville [N.C.] Citizen, Stanley Edgar Hyman. "Some Notes on
15 March 1942, Section B, p. 5. John Steinbeck." Antioch Review, 2
Cara Green Russell. "The Literary (June 1942), 185-200.
Lantern." Greensboro [N.C.] News, "The Controversy over The Moon Is
15 March 1942, Section 4, Down." San Francisco Chronicle,
p. 5. 18 July 1942, p. 7.
Robert Littell. "Outstanding Novels." "The Moon Is Down." Bookmark, 3
Yale Review, 31 (Spring 1942), (May-August 1942), 17.
viii, x. David Daiches. "Fiction and Rhetoric."
Benjamin Howden. "Nazi Conquerors Kenyon Review, 4 (Autumn 1942),
Fall under Steinbeck Pen." Los 416-18.

237
THE MOON IS DOWN (THE PLAY)
 THE

Moon is 'Down
PLAY
IN TWO PARTS

By John Steinbeck

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK

1942
 increases their resistancethat every hos-
Brooks Atkinson. tage shot makes a hundred additional
enemies, that the more ruthless his rule,
"The Moon Is Down." the deeper the grave he digs for himself.
New York Times, Everything he does to strengthen his posi-
tion increases the silent, penetrating resis-
8 April 1942, p. 22. tance that weakens his power and breaks
his nerves until he is the one who is sur-
rounded. All this Mr. Steinbeck tells in
Even if the Broadway theatre had not terms of ordinary people who are face to
been moribund for most of the season, it face with realities.
would be easy to like and respect John Although The Moon Is Down lacks
Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down, which some of the gaudier excitements of the
was acted at the Martin Beck last eve- theatre, it has something better. It has the
ning. For Mr. Steinbeck is telling a calm inner strength of sincerity. As a man of
and reasonable story about the immortal- reason, Mr. Steinbeck believes what he
ity of freedom in terms of a tiny village is saying, for he also believes in the intel-
probably Norwegianthat every one can ligence, tenacity and strength of an en-
understand. lightened humanity. It will be a long time
Since the war has yet to be won in the before the German commanders share
face of terrible and immediate odds, The the misgivings of Colonel Lanser, who
Moon Is Down is not a play to please is as much a man of reason as Mr.
the propagandists of today. It is assured; Steinbeck. At first glance that reasonable
it is not rousing and provocative and it character in the invader's uniform seems
does not remind us of the stupendous job to be the weakness of the play. But per-
that has to be done now and tomorrow. haps Mr. Steinbeck is right even in this
But Mr. Steinbeck apparently feels that a characterization. For the play rings true
free people do not have to be manipu- in every detail, and arrives at an inevi-
lated by half-truths and tactful evasions. table conclusion by an orderly, cumula-
Without raising his voice or playing tive progress of concrete details.
tricks on a plot, he has put down some of Under Chester Erskin's direction it is
the fundamental truths about man's un- acted that way. Otto Kruger's Colonel Lan-
conquerable will to live without a master. ser is lucid and manly without excess de-
It is a remarkably convincing play be- tail. Ralph Morgan's Mayor of the town
cause it is honest in its heart. is plain, earnest and selfless. As the benign
Since he is dealing with basic prin- village doctor, Whitford Kane, one of the
ciples, Mr. Steinbeck has refrained from best pipe-smokers on the stage, presides
defining his town as Norwegian or the in cheerful humor. Among the invaders
invaders as German. But let us assume there are some contrasting qualities that
that this is the story of the German inva- complete the picturethe pedantic offi-
sion of a small Norwegian mining town ciousness of Alan Hewitt's captain, the
after the ground had been prepared by a drawling patience of Russell Collins's
local traitor. Although the young German major and the nervous hysteria of Wil-
officers are flush with victory, their colo- liam Eythe's skeptical lieutenant. And
nel is a mature man who has tried inva- among the villagers there are also some
sion before. If the people do not submit other tonesJoseph Sweeney's fussy ser-
he knows that the rule of terror merely vant, Jane Seymour's sullen cook, Maria

241
Palmer's coldly revengeful widow of a hazards of conquest. "Flies capture two
murdered miner, Leona Powers's bus- hundred more miles of flypaper," he laughs
tling, long-headed wife of the Mayor. As hysterically. Contemplating the irony of
the local traitor, E. J. Ballantine is giving conquering a town that continues furtive
a skillful performance. resistance he bitterly exclaims: "Con-
But the style of both the writing and quered and we are afraid. Conquered and
the acting is unadorned and unimpas- we are surrounded." For the invaders
sioned. Howard Bay's dark-toned settings start losing security the moment they cap-
repeat it. And the effect on the theatre is ture the town; every step they make for-
that of a great truth simply spoken. Mr. ward takes them two steps back. At the
Steinbeck is writing out of a conviction end of the play they are left clinging to
that he can prove by the strength of his the tail of the whirlwind they recklessly
mind, heart and muscle. set in motion when they took over the
mayor's house and started administering
the town.

Brooks Atkinson. Mr. Steinbeck is a realist of genuine in-

"John Steinbeck's Story of tegrity. The Moon Is Down is a small
play, deliberately. Part of the strength it
a Military Invasion has comes from the commonness of the
Appears on the Stage.55 men and women who are in it. The in-
vaders are not supermen; they are human
New York Times, beings, subject to human limitations. De-
12 April 1942, Section 8, spite their armored swank and the omni-
science of their military technique, they
p. 12. covet love and sociability, like any one
else, and their capacity for living in a
state of military correctness is not inex-
Take Mr. Steinbeck on his own terms. In haustible. The ordinary doubts of human
The Moon Is Down, which finally turned beings weaken their bravado. Nor are the
up at the Martin Beck last week, he is people of the town fabulous heroes. They
making a confession of faith in a style of are miners and fishermen with wives and
practicable reality. Using a small mining families, subject to the usual needs. In the
town as his laboratory, he has written the long run the conflict lies between charac-
story of a brilliantly organized military ter. Pit efficient inhumanity against hu-
invasion that gradually breaks down in manity that has tasted freedom and the
the face of elusive resistance by free men inhumanity finally crumbles because it is
who are ingenious and angry. at war with the living universe. That is
The Moon Is Down is not a rhetorical the theme of a quiet and sober drama
play. Using words and phrases sparingly that is well acted by players who are
Mr. Steinbeck underwrites his heroics. To scrupulously refraining from exploiting
him an ounce of conviction is worth a it. To this theatregoer it is an impressive
ton of sound and fury. But he has a talent and heartening play.
for vivid imagery that cuts deep and stays
there. "Flies conquer the flypaper," screams Although no one doubts the high-
one of the invaders who is beginning to mindedness of Mr. Steinbeck's motives,
realize that every victory increases the some people regard The Moon Is Down

242
as a dangerous play for these times. By reprisals. But, soon or late, the result is
implication it is too much like passive re- the same and inevitable. The town re-
sistance, they say. "Give the Axis powers fuses to be mastered.
enough rope," Mr. Steinbeck seems to Take Mr. Steinbeck on his own terms.
think, "and they will hang themselves." Although he is no virtuoso dramatist,
As a matter of fact, Mr. Steinbeck is no he knows what he is doing. Under the cas-
ivory tower prophet. But the reception ual surface of The Moon Is Down there
his play and novel have had poses a is firm tension. It represents the inner se-
troublesome problem in contemporary renity of a man whose mind is clear
writing. The long view toward the war about basic things. He believes in human
and the short view are not identical. beings.

In spite of the grave perils that surround

the United Nations this year, most of us
believe that the ultimate victory will be Mark Van Doren.
ours. That is the long-term faith; we can-
not win without it. But the immediate "Monster Modified."
problem is not the same. We cannot win Nation, 154
the ultimate victory unless we are driven
to action now by the fear of losing the
(18 April 1942), 468.
war this year while the Axis powers are
at the peak of their strength and we are
barely on the threshold of our potential. John Steinbeck's The Moon Is Down...
In short, confidence in ultimate victory gets nowhere with its novelty, which con-
may be the sleeping dram that will lose sists in the suggestion that a Nazi con-
the war before we know i t . . . . queror may be a man with heart and
human memories after all. Its hero-vil-
And this brings us to the character of lain, one Colonel Lanser who is played
Colonel Lanser, commanding officer of by Otto Kruger, is old enough to remem-
the invading detachment. Far from being ber the other war and to know in his in-
a cold-blooded despot, he is tolerant and dividual mind that this one cannot be
forbearing, disillusioned about the mili- won against the odds of universal hatred.
tary science of conquest; and, as a vet- Coming into a town, apparently Norwe-
eran of the last war, he understands the gian, which it has been his duty to in-
psychology of an invaded nation more vade, he encounters in the mayor (Ralph
thoroughly than the people of the town. Morgan) and indeed in every citizen ex-
He is a martyr to a cause in which he cept the Quisling Corell (E. J. Ballantine)
does not believe. Mr. Steinbeck has given the simple and unkillable courage his pri-
his most attractive character to the en- vate experience had schooled him to
emy. Although this sympathetic charac- expect. He knows before he arrives, for
terization of a representative of tyranny instance, what one of his lieutenants will
violates popular expectations, it is justi- go all but mad with learning, namely,
fied by the results. For it proves that the that at the most his army has "conquered
technique of invasion fails even when it flypaper."
is administered humanely. Colonel Lan- Mr. Steinbeck does of course make
ser's reluctance to arouse resistance in the something of this novelty, and the play
townspeople delays sabotage, murder and has its points of interest, one of these

243
furnishing the somewhat ghastly spec- quered country has to do is wait until the
tacle of the Colonel proceeding to order conqueror remembers his humanity. It
executions not only of persons whom he does not matter that much. Were the play
respects and likes more than he does his better than it is, we should simply believe
own people but of persons whose deaths it; were it worse than it is, its effect
he is certain will do no military good. would not matter at all. Just as it is, it
The spectacle is perhaps too ghastly, too seems to me to prove nothing either
inexpressible, to be of use in tragedy, about its own characters, whom I do not
which cannot afford to leave too much of believe, or about Norway in 1942, which
its meaning unspoken. At any rate Mr. it leaves hypothetical and remote.
Steinbeck is unable in the writing to put
his finger on the point of conflict which
will yield him as dramatist the maximum
effect of power. The entire town hates the "New Play in
invader, yes; but the invader is divided
and obscure, so that, at what should be
Manhattan."
the climax, we have the Mayor walking Time, 39 (20 April 1942),
out of his house to be shot as a hostage 36.
by one who is merely bored with shoot-
ing, not to say sick of slaughtering good
friends. The Colonel so far agrees with
the Mayor as to be one who can prompt . .. Primarily intended for the stage, The
him as he rehearses the farewell speech of Moon Is Down was first rigged up as a
Socrates; the conflict is not between them novel... and inside five weeks sold al-
at all, any more than it is in the mind of most half a million copies. Theoretically
the Colonel alone, which remains a mind the tailor-made play should beat the
that Mr. Steinbeck has not concretely or make-shift novel all hollow; actually it
intensely imagined. The Colonel, in other can't come near it. Steinbeck's fable of
words, is no more a man than is the cus- how some unnamed but obviously Nazi
tomary monster of the anti-Nazi drama. invaders take over an unlocalized but ob-
He has been modified in idea only. The viously Norwegian mining town, meet
ingredient added has been added to what with icy resistance and are themselves
is still an abstraction. So with the Mayor, worn down, never really comes to life in
who is nothing whatever in addition to the theater.
what he needs by formula to be; and so Part of the blame lies in the produc-
with all the others who assist in the tion's slow-footed pace, heavy-handed di-
working out of a humanely conceived but rection, weak acting. But part of the
woodenly written play. trouble is the play itself. The dialogue,
The wood is partly in the dialogue, more like subdued rhetoric than human
which rarely sounds natural or is spoken talk, often seems stilted and formal when
with the peculiar personal emphasis we spoken aloud. The play lacks sustained
can miss so much when it is not there. action and commits the dramatic crime
This is probably the reason that so many of having almost everything exciting take
commentators have been free to discuss place offstage. Finally, though the towns-
the tendency or moral of the play; to people's heroic resolution is made clear,
wonder, for example, whether Mr. Steinbeck their flesh-and-blood sufferings are not.
has done well to suggest that all a con- Nevertheless, the play, like the novel,

244
should provoke a hot debate as to how deficient in impact and plausibility. Al-
sound, and how salutary, is Steinbeck's though Steinbeck's heroes are the plain,
thesis: that a free people cannot be con- democratic inhabitants of a Norwegian
quered. Heartening and lofty though this town (the author identifies people and
message may be, right now it can also places only by implication), their heroism
be over-reassuring to a still-too-optimistic is largely an off-stage phenomenon.
U.S. If Steinbeck is civilized enough to Steinbeck feels that Nazism is self-
make his Nazis human beings rather than defeating, and to prove his thesis, con-
monsters, he is naive enough to picture centrates on a small group of invaders
them as weak, unable to stand up to a who are average, unextraordinary human
cold shoulder. In defeat, the Nazis will beings momentarily deluded by their lead-
probably crack up in a hurry; but there ers. The protective coating of Nazi supe-
are no grounds for supposing that they riority is merely ersatz in the face of the
go to pieces in victory. unrelenting hostility and hatred of their
Steinbeck's already famous phrase, victims.
"The flies have conquered the flypaper," Colonel Lanser takes on added charm
is a memorable slogan and, taking a very and civilization as impersonated by Otto
long view, a valid observation. But in terms Kruger. Similarlywith the exception of
of here and now, it has still to be proved. Alan Hewitt's ferocious Captain Loft, and
E. J. Ballantine's local QuislingLanser's
aids are personable and more than a little
pathetic. At the same time, Ralph Mor-
"Steinbeck's Faith." ganmiscast and misguided as Mayor
Newsweek, 19 Ordenprojects the white-haired hero of
the people as a bewildered, sentimental
(20 April 1942), old dodderer.
72-3. While the novel was generally a criti-
cal as well as popular success, there were
readers and reviewers, like James Thurber
in The New Republic and Clifton Fadiman
John Steinbeck's short novel, The Moon in The New Yorker, who questioned the
Is Down, was a best seller almost from wisdom of Steinbeck's lofty tolerance in
the first day it was published early last midwar, and attacked as dangerous the
month. At the time reviewers called it a gratifying conclusion that the Nazis would
play masquerading between covers, and defeat themselves.
many sagely predicted that it would reach With the drama playing to a packed
the peak of its effectiveness behind foot- house nightly, controversy engaged the
lights. That it fails to do so is one of the drama critics. Richard Lockridge of The
major disappointments of a disappoint- New York Sun and Louis Kronenberger
ing theater season. of PM took the view that Steinbeck's
Oscar Serlin's production is a faithful charitable conception of the Nazi super-
transcription, and Steinbeck, the play- man may be the accepted verdict in the
wright, retains the book's warm feeling days to come, but they both said that the
for little people. His faith in the ultimate play would be more credible if Hitler's
triumph of free man over herd men is still men had ever demonstrated, in their con-
touching and inspiring, but the drama, as quests, any spiritual inability to survive
directed by Chester Erskin, is surprisingly a snubbing by their victims. Lockridge

245
termed the author "tolerant to a fault. .. . of the fiction version, the theme of The
Maybe we'd better start forgiving [the Moon Is Down must be already familiar
Nazis] after we have licked them." to most readers of this column.... The
Kronenberger attacked the play as mis- invaders learn that "herd men" may mo-
guided propaganda for "a nation that is mentarily dominate but cannot conquer
still too complacent." free men.
On the other hand, Burns Mantle of I don't intend to enter the controversy
The New York Daily News and Wilella regarding the expediency of Steinbeck's
Waldorf of The New York Post took message. The propagandists object that
comfort in the hope that the drama por- Steinbeck's long view of the power of de-
trays, while Brooks Atkinson of The New mocracy makes for complacency, blinds
York Times tipped his hat to a "calm and us to the need for immediate decisive ag-
reasonable story." Richard Watts, New gression. I delegate this complaint to Mr.
York Herald Tribune, applauded the trib- Archibald MacLeish. It is also objected
ute to gallant Norway, but objected to that Steinbeck's totalitarians aren't suffi-
the nicety of Steinbeck's Nazis which ciently villainous. I object to the motive
"feeds us on the false hope that the Ger- of this complaint, but it touches the
mans are not the strong, determined, ter- play's chief dramatic defect.
ribly powerful people that they are." Steinbeck's thesis postulates a conflict
between "free men" and "herd men."
And yet the herd man is never adequately
represented. Only one minor character is
David Burnham. truly a herd man, and him his own fel-
"The Moon Is Down." lows ridicule. The chief nazi (or whatever
Steinbeck chooses to call them), the com-
Commonweal, 36 manding Colonel, is reasonable, self-dep-
(24 April 1942), recatory, cynical. I don't say that a totali-
tarian colonel might not be so, but as
14-15. such he is an insufficient symbol of what
Steinbeck meant to attack. His reason-
ableness and cynicism preclude dramatic
Like Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is conflict. It might have become a dramatic
Down is a virtually word-for-word tran- situation if this officer had been intro-
script by John Steinbeck of his own short duced flushed with victorious confidence
novel of the same title. The stage version and crusading zeal, and been gradually
of Of Mice and Men was more effective broken down, as several of his subordi-
than the fiction version. The reverse, it nates are, by underground resistance
seems to me, is true of The Moon Is which retaliatory violence only aggra-
Down. For this, the casting and direction vates; but instead of this, he reveals in his
are considerably to blame. But it goes first scene that an experience in Belgium
deeper than that. The core of Of Mice twenty-five years ago, before Hitler was
and Men was emotion, arising directly invented, had already sided him with
out of action. The core of The Moon Is Steinbeck.
Down is aspiration, arising chiefly out of Is it, then, the author's message that
rhetoric. The former is dramatic method; the totalitarian method is not sympa-
the latter, literary. thetic even to its followers? But if there
Judging from the enormous popularity are, when we probe them sympatheti-

246
cally, no herd men, what is the point like the play even more. But the fact re-
in proving that free men cannot be con- mains that what Mr. Steinbeck has to
quered by herd men? One face of say about the good people inheriting the
Steinbeck's message would appear to be earth (eventually) is more convincing on
high-minded tolerance; the other face the printed page than it is heard from
equates heroism with sabotage and, in the stage. This is due partly to the fact
one case, the cold-blooded murder of a that the reader of the book gets more sat-
homesick boy by a lonely young widow. isfaction from his own imagined charac-
To avoid melodrama, Steinbeck has terizations, suggested by Mr. Steinbeck's
located all physical action off stage. And economical and beautiful prose, than the
his dialogue is for the most part studi- casting in the play affords. We did not,
ously anti-heroic. When I spoke above of for example, see Colonel Lanser, head
his rhetoric, I didn't mean the sort of man of the invaders and representative of
purple bombast that word often con- the ruthless Nazi system, the way Otto
notes. Understatement is no less a device Kruger played him. Nor did we visualize
of rhetoric than overstatement. The di- Mayor Orden (Ralph Morgan) as the
rection aims at the same anti-heroic tone, consistently bewildered leader of a group
but the device is more effective on the of people so slow to take fire.
printed page. As I have indicated, the Mr. Steinbeck's long-view thesis, in
casting of the leading roles is not happy. both play and book, that no free people
Otto Kruger's Colonel Lanser is military can be permanently conquered, that "herd
in dress only; his qualities and manner- men may win battles, but free men will
isms are those of a reserved, cultivated win wars," isn't enough for a time like
Englishman. So small a matter as a crisp- ours. It's a comforting thought, something
er accent might have vivified the whole to keep our undying faith pinned to dur-
play. I can't think of a better comment on ing the next terrible months and years,
Ralph Morgan's performance as the local but meantime, freedom-loving people all
Mayor than the remark of a young lady over the world have been, and are being
sitting behind me when at the end he was conquered every day.
led off to be executed: "Isn't he cute?"

John Gassner.
"The Play's the Thing."
"The Moon Is Down as a
Scholastic, 40
Play."
(27 April2 May 1942),
Current History, 2
19.
(May 1942), 228-32,
Those of you who have read John
Steinbeck's new novel, The Moon Is Down, It took John Steinbeck to jog the increas-
have also read his new play, now on view ingly dormant theatre during its first war-
at the Martin Beck Theater in New York, time season. Just as it had settled down
produced by Oscar Serlin. The play is the to nearly uninterrupted somnolence, Mr.
book, almost verbatim... . Steinbeck came along with the produc-
We liked the book, and expected to tion of The Moon Is Down, and instantly

247
the air was filled with controversy, people outrage and oppression, but because both
began to consider again what the art of the Colonel's well-founded doubt as to
theatre really is, and playgoers had, at the efficacy of the force he is ordered to
long last, a play that they could attend apply and the Mayor's stubborn courage
without feeling foolish. signalize the inevitability of defeat for the
The story is by now familiar to both conquerors.
the playgoing and the reading public, for A good deal of the beauty and power
Mr. Steinbeck's novelette has been bought of the novelette translates itself into the
by nearly half a million Americans and theatre. Mayor Orden, played by Ralph
the book reviewers everywhere have dis- Morgan, and Colonel Lanser, by Otto
cussed it. Invaders easily identified as Kruger, invest Steinbeck's leading charac-
Nazi soldiers capture a mining town in a ters with their proper humanity; and it is
country that is unmistakably Norway.... also gratifying to see several other char-
But they are quickly disillusioned, for acters in the flesh, and to hear their
a free people does not lightly accept en- voices. Snow falling, the tramping of a
slavement. . . . Before long, railroad tracks patrol through the dark streets, the lights
are blown up, communications interrupt- going off as sabotage begins, a shot
ed incessantly, and the conquerors are through the window immediately after
harassed continually. The flies, as a hys- the execution of a miner, the infernal
terical officer remarks, have conquered little British parachutes spread on the
the fly-paper. Free men are easily taken Colonel's table, and finally the sound of
unawares, and they are slow to act in distant bombardmentall these give vis-
concert. But their spirit is invincible; for ual and audible reality to the story in the
this reason herd men win all the battles, time-honored manner of the theatre. We
and free men all the wars. learn from this production what we have
That is Steinbeck's affirmation in these always knownthat the stage, which is
days of darkness, and who can fail to so vulnerable to inclement social weather
respond to his good tidings or fail to be and to the fumbling that can arise in a
moved by them? The author's message collaborative art, has been able to hold
is all the more appealing since it is deliv- men's hearts and imagination because in
ered without heroics or fustian. He has it literally the word becomes flesh.
employed the method of understatement, But the stage is a platform, and every-
and the bedrock simplicity of the towns- thing that occurs on it is, so to speak,
people gives justification to his approach, on exhibition. And what an exhibition!
which is notably limpid and restrained. Lights, scenery, costumes, curtains rising
Moreover, he has cast his parable in the and falling, sound, and music attend the
mold of human beings, among whom the spectacle. Therefore, flaws in a work of
two prominentfiguresare the wonderfully art, though occasionally glossed over by
understood Colonel Lanser, a gentleman the magic of theatrical effects, become
and thinker though a relentless soldier in highlighted. The experience resembles
the line of duty, and Mayor Orden, a that of watching a complexion under
mild and simple person whose strength kleig-lights. It is on the stage of the
runs deep and never froths on the sur- Martin Beck Theatre that the potential
face. Out of them emanates Steinbeck's weaknesses of Steinbeck's novelette be-
confident prognosis for civilizationnot come actual.
merely because they remind us that there His dialogue sounds frequently pedes-
are civilized men even in the midst of trian from the platform. His Nazi sol-

248
diery seems painfully unrepresentative, alities are shadowy realities, and the im-
for all but one of the officers seem so pression they leave is invariably second-
mild as to lead one to wonder how they ary to the impression created by what is
could have conquered nation after nation shown on the stage.
and perpetrated the verified brutalities of This, finally, is also true of the resist-
Warsaw. Worse still, our sympathies are ance of the conquered. Not a single case
not only divided, but unequally divided, of such resistance is concretely drama-
so that the issue is beclouded. Although tized for the audience. A miner is brought
we admire Mayor Orden and everything in for a very polite trial; Mayor Orden
he represents, we are compelled to pity refuses to be one of the judges, and later
the fly-paper more than the flies. We are he refuses to tell his people to stop their
constantly made sensible of their pathos sabotage, and in neither instance does his
of bewilderment, longing for home, and action precipitate a climactic scene. It is
desire to be liked and accepted. The most true that he goes out to die after quoting
dramatic situation in the play is the Socrates, but the actual conflict tapers
murder of the lonely Lieutenant Tonder off. Indeed, the concluding scene, though
by the woman whom he has treated touching in its own right, winds up the
with great delicacy, and from whom he dramatic situation with almost perfunc-
wanted a little sympathy. tory brevity.
Colonel Lanser is the most fascinating If Mr. Steinbeck could be charged
character in the drama because it is in with writing the mere outline of a novel
him, and not in his opponent, the Mayor, in his published book, it could be main-
that a genuine dramatic conflict is pro- tained, with greater justification, that he
jected. And as we watch him torn be- created the mere sketch of a play. As
tween his tired wisdom and his sense of a novelette, The Moon Is Down is a dis-
duty we even admire him. We admire the tinguished minor work; minor because
Mayor, too, but in the last analysis we even a novelette can have greater density
expect him to behave as he does, since he of experience, as Edith Wharton showed
is by definition representative of what we in Ethan Frome, Tolsoy in The Death of
consider the spirit of freedom. Colonel Ivan Ilyitch, and Balzac in The Succubus.
Lanser must be regarded as either atypi- As a play, The Moon Is Down is still
cal, in which case the drama becomes a distinguished, because of the penetrative
special case, or as typical, in which case characterization of Colonel Lanser, the
the argument against the Nazis loses noble pathos of Mayor Orden, and the
much of its force. The one personally agony of Lieutenant Tonder; and one
reprehensible character in the invader's must respect the dramatic version for its
camp is Captain Loft, and he is more avoidance of obvious melodrama and py-
comic than sinister. Since, moreover, the rotechnics, and for the occasional positive
veteran Colonel regards him with con- values of understatement, as in the quiet
tempt, we get the impression that the final scene. But the play produces a con-
military leaders of the Nazi war-machine fusing alignment of forces, a divided ef-
dislike the behaviour of their subordi- fect, and a somehow incompletely preci-
nates instead of fostering it with virtually pitated dramatic experience. In the theatre,
machiavellian deliberateness. It is true, of Steinbeck's story is consequently ineffectual.
course, that all oppressive and ruthless The blame, however, must be shared
measures are attributed to some central by the production. The casting of the ac-
office in Berlin, but in a play off-stage re- tors was curiously unintelligent. Instead

249
of compensating for such shortcomings which has suddenly and inexplicably
as the mildness of the minor officers, the been conquered by a murderous, military
director actually brought them to the power. The people are confused, but not
fore. The officers were played by young for long. Little by little, inexorably, with
men whom the feminine portion of the slow, relentless pace, the people learn, the
audience must have wished it could people know. And in their bitter, silent,
mother, and the comportment and bear- devious ways the people become uncon-
ing assigned to them was utterly in- querable. In The Moon Is Down John
nocuous. The pace of the entire produc- Steinbeck unfolds before our eyes the
tion kept the drama crawling along with blind, the almost silent struggle of the
incongruous peacefulness and only the free spirit of man against oppression. His
quiet moments in the text were effectively little mining town is a microcosm of the
staged. Climactic actions were treated as universe. Here the battle of the forces
though the director had been ashamed of that are ripping the earth apart is played
them. When the miner is taken out to be out in miniature and in a minor key, as
shot in the first act, the firing squad though muffled by the cold and snow, but
gets to work without any suggestion of no less epically than in the major battle-
charged suspense in the Mayor's draw- fields of Russia, Burma or Bataan....
ing-room. When immediately after the With an extraordinary economy of
execution, a shot is fired through the means, Mr. Steinbeck has given each of
window, young Lieutenant Prackle re- his "herd men" an individuality that
ceives it in his shoulder as though some- makes them far more convincing than the
body had hit him with a bean-shooter, cardboard figures of the average anti-
and on his next appearance in the play he Nazi play. One young Lieutenant is driv-
gives no indication whatever that he was en to the verge of insanity by the tension
wounded. Most of the real theatrical ef- and horror that slowly invade the snow-
fects that added something to the written locked village, crying out hysterically that
page are to be credited, not to the di- he has had a dreamor a thoughtthat
rector, but to the exigencies of the stage, the leader is insanethat the communi-
to the fact that reality represented on a ques might well read, "the flies have con-
platform acquires dimension and alive- quered the fly-paper!" The fact that Mr.
ness. . . . Steinbeck's invaders are people, not bo-
gies, makes the shooting of hostages, the
starving of children to make their fathers
work, the fear and hate engendered on
Rosamond Gilder. both sides all the more devastating.
Though the Colonel may be a humanist
"Moon Down, and listen and even prompt the Mayor as
Theatre Rises." the latter whiles away his own last mo-
Theatre Arts, 26 ment recalling Socrates' denunciation of
his murderers, he orders the execution of
(May 1942), 287-92. the Mayor just the same.
Mr. Steinbeck's vivid apprehension of
people, as well as his ability to create
"The people are confused and so am I." mood, to set his stage in time and space,
So speaks the Mayor of the little snow- provides the actors who interpret his
embowered town on a northern sea characters with excellent material for per-

250
formance to which they do full justice.
Both the leading roles, the Mayor and Euphemia Wyatt.
the Colonel, sensitively handled by Ralph
Morgan and Otto Kruger, present their "The Drama.55
difficulties. The Mayor, with his early hesi- Catholic World, 155
tancies and uncertainties, must not ap-
pear uncertain as an actor, nor must the (May 1942), 212-14.
Colonel's unorthodox humanity soften
too much the harsher outline of his ruth-
less procedures. The other characters are . .. The most unexpected thrill for Amer-
less complex but equally rewarding in ican History came to me on the little
their various ways. Whitford Kane plays bridge at Concord, Massachusetts. Mr.
the doctor, friend and confidant of the Steinbeck's play gives you the same tingle
Mayor, with his accustomed warmth and of pride. It is the essence of Bataan. The
understanding. Russell Collins as the en- Moon Is Down takes up the story of free
gineer, Alan Hewitt as the complete Nazi, men where Mr. Sherwood left it in There
E. J. Ballantine as the fifth columnist, Shall Be No Night. The invaders have
and William Eythe and Carl Gose as the come. This time the country may prob-
young Lieutenants all give excellent per- ably be Norway but the tragedy is the
formances which carry this quiet play of sametragedy, that is, in its grandest
violent events forward to its heartbreak- sense. It is tragic that men must die for
ing and exultant close. an idea but glorious that the idea survives
The power and the poignancy of them. When a man writes with complete
Steinbeck's play lie in its immediacy, its conviction he can afford to be simple.
ability to express world issues with the The people of Mr. Steinbeck's mining
terrible nearness of little things, its affir- town are commonplace people who are
mation of the dignity and nobility of not ashamed to own that they are fright-
man. This place and these people might ened. The conquerors are no inhuman
be in Norway or New England, China brutes but soldiers obeying harsh orders.
or Australia; on the stage they are our- The lieutenants are boys who look for-
selves: we tremble as they do, our rage ward to peace time. The Captain may be
boils within us, we almost cheer from the thorough party man who swells as
our aisle seats when the little parachutes, a conqueror but the Colonel has lived
sent by friendly planes, drop dynamite through the years of Belgian occupation
(and chocolate bars) to help in the fight and he knows the price exacted by con-
against the invader. Whether or not, poli- quest.
tically speaking, Mr. Steinbeck is over-op- The Assyrians, after all, were the most
timistic about the amount and strength of intelligent world-conquerors. They took
resistance in occupied countries; whether no chances with captive nations but trans-
or not, strategically speaking, his inge- ported them at once to other countries.
nious method of arming the unarmed There was plenty of room in those days
masses, "writhing and starving under the in Mesopotamia and the Assyrian lion
oppressor's heel," is sound, there is no opened his jaws wide enough to digest a
doubt that he has succeeded in expressing great many of them. Only two Jewish
in pure theatric terms an eloquent plea tribes returned to Palestine where they
for democracy, a stirring call-to-arms to found aliens rooted in Samaria who had
all free fighting spirits. already shed their own paganism and ac-

251
quired local customssuch is the pow- and Joseph Sweeney all have parts in-
er of the soil. Lacking world-space the commensurate with their abilities, but do
present conquerors are forced to leave much to strengthen the general picture.
their captives where they are and the The Moon Is Down has been said to
Colonel foresaw only too well the conse- instill a dangerous degree of optimism
quences. Five hostages shot for every sol- but is fear or pictured horror any surer
dier killed would make just five times five incentive to action than an increased
more implacable enemies. The struggle pride in the heritage of freedom? No ac-
began at once. Three months later it is tual act of brutality may be shown but
the defeated people who are stealthily de- for all the people's bravery and determi-
feating the conquerors; hemmed in by the nation, the price that they are paying in
cold and the snow, surrounded by covert their souls for the struggle is made clear
hate, teased by never-ending annoyances: when the unfortunate girl-widow is driv-
broken dynamos, broken rails, bitter cof- en to a cold-blooded murder. Mr. Stein-
fee, constant suspicion.... It is a little beck's play is the fresh wind in a stale
difficult to say whether The Moon Is season.
Down is more a story with the stage di-
rections amplified or a play with the
explanatory paragraphs omitted. Most
likely everyone will like it best in the Stark Young.
form in which they first knew it. Both be-
gin with the first visit of the Colonel to
"Serious Images,"
the Mayor; both end on the Mayor being New Republic, 106
taken out to be shot as the town roars (11 May 1942),
defiance with a new explosion. Many of
the lines common to both versions will be 638-9.
endlessly quoted. "Free men can fight on
in defeat... so it is always the herd men
who win battles and the free men who The theme and situation of the new
win wars." Steinbeck play are by now too well
There has been some criticism about known to dwell on here. The novel has
the officers not being convincing. It may had a vast sale and the play a very con-
be that we have been so used to having siderable amount of attention.... In the
foreign actors play them that an accent end it is the invaders who are surrounded
has become a tradition. It is also against by the village, and broken down emo-
stage tradition to have these "super lead- tionally, the younger officers most of all.
ers" ordinary homesick boys. Personally The point of this theme depends, of
we can find nothing unpatriotic in having course, to a certain extent on the nature
the Colonel an intelligent, broadminded of the colonel heading the invasion; since
soldier who hates his particular j o b . . . . a perhaps younger and more ruthless
Otto Kruger is exceptional in the part. leader might have annihilated the village.
Ralph Morgan's Mayor has for some too This possibility, however, the dramatist
much gentleness but he suggests a back- has partially countered by making the
ground which makes his Socratic quota- Germans dependent on the native miners
tion at the end quite natural. Alan Hewitt for the coal, without which the invasion
has the effective part of the dogmatic would have been a waste of time.
Captain but Whitford Kane, Russell Collins There is, accordingly, implicit in the

252
play no essence of inescapable logic that
would help to make it significant. For "The Moon Is Down."
this final logic it depends a good deal on
the persuasion of the character combi- Library Journal, 67
nations, the acting and the mood estab- (1 September 1942), 739.
lished. But the elevation of the dramatist's
mind and intention and the nobility of
his approach do much to reinforce our Play form of best-selling novel about
conviction toward this thesis he offers re- group of simple people under Nazi yoke.
garding men's souls; so that the play, Judged by some critics the best play of
though it is not the proof, is at least the 1941-42 season. Suitable for little the-
evidence of the truth of its faith and belief. ater production... .
The basic limitation of The Moon Is
Down lies most in the writing itself. A
certain economy, a stripping down and
simplification, is attempted which may go "Steinbeck in Sweden."
well enough in a printed novel but which
on the stage leans too much on the direc-
Time, 41 (19 April 1943),
tor and the players, to whom it gives 42.
very little really to do or say and then ex-
pects them to create something around
and into it. This type of economy in Opening in Stockholm last month, John
writing may come off well in the high Steinbeck's anti-Nazi, inferentially Nor-
epic manner or in writing essentially po- wegian The Moon Is Down proved such
etic and rooted in imagery, like that of a smash that it speedily moved to a
John Synge. But on the realistic plane bigger theater. Swedish critics, speaking
it runs toward monotony; in a style so of ever-growing Norwegian resistance,
close to life and nature we require praised Steinbeck for prophetic insight,
more living rhythms to speak. It would remarked that The Moon Is Down is
seem that many of the situations and truer today than when it was written.
characters could, as the play stands now, Judging by reports which have sifted
be filled out and further developed; through, the widespread U.S. criticism
though to what extent and how this that the Nazis in the play are too weak
would affect the total impression would has not been voiced in Sweden.
remain to be seen. The Moon Is Down
must, nevertheless, be ranked far above
most contemporary plays in its purpose,
its central inner quality, its serious and "Whitehall Theatre.'
quiet application to the world today, and
its hold on us. London Times,
9 June 1943, p. 6C.

The special quality of this moving play

seems to spring from the author's sur-
prise and pleasure in his discovery of
how much ordinary people will do for

253
freedom. "You cannot," says the honest its due. The least plausible episode is that
old mayor, facing the Nazi invaders in his in which the miner's wife takes her re-
tiny palace, "you cannot break man's venge on her husband's executioner. Here
spirit permanently." Mr. Steinbeck seems momentarily to for-
It is as though Mr. Steinbeck had get his enthralling chain of consequences
found in contemporary history proofs he while he writes a conventional and too
hardly expected to find of the truth of protracted love scene.
this statement; and from his sudden new The audience last night included King
pride in the spirit's power of endurance Haakon.
the play draws its freshness and its theat-
rical impetus. Extraordinary as it may
seem, a cook will throw boiling water
over one conqueror who has irritated her James Redfern.
and bite another who goes to the rescue;
a hot-tempered miner ordered to get on "The Theatre."
with his work will strike the foreign fore- Spectator [England], 170
man dead with his pickaxe; and his ex-
ecution will raise 20 new enemies of the (18 June 1943), 567.
occupying forces. In time the triumphant
troops themselves, thinking always of
home, hating the invisible net of hatred . .. Not much need be said here about
they have drawn about themselves, their John Steinbeck's play on his novel The
nerves stretched to breaking-point, will Moon Is Down, which has some excel-
begin to fear what awaits them when lent forceful dramatic scenes marred by
they crack. Then the flies will have con- the unreality and sentimentality of the
quered the fly-paper. women's actingparticularly in the scene
It is this chain of consequences which in the miner's wife's housefor which
fascinates the dramatist. He works it out the producer must be held partly respon-
in the soberly, realistic way of one who is sible. There is some excellent acting by
so sure of his spiritual theme that charac- Lewis Casson as the Mayor and Karel
ter and incident must be made even at the Stepanek as the cleverly drawn German
cost of minor falsifications to explain it. Colonel. .. .
Colonel Lanser, the grey, hard, tired-
looking German officer who has reason
to remember the military occupation of
Belgium, is deliberately romanticized for "The Moon Is Down."
this purpose. He knows how ruinously New Statesman and
wrong are the things he is ordered to do,
and dutifully he does them. The character Nation [England], 25
disturbs the realistic values, but it is the- (19 June 1943), 400.
atrically most effective, and Mr. Karel
Stepanek plays it well enough to suggest
that he might encompass a fascinating
Hamlet. The mayor, on the other hand, is . . . The Russians isn't a satisfactory
no less effectively conceived in terms of play, but its material is authentic and it
realism, and Mr. Lewis Casson gives the kicks to the end, which is more than can
part all the unstrained simplicity which is be said of The Moon Is Down. This

254
Steinbeck piece, a generalised picture of John Steinbeck's American view (stated
the invasion of Norway, was far more before America's entry) and the other
convincing as a novel. On the stage, it M. Konstantin Simonov's Russian view
looks unreal in the extreme; the Nazis ar- (set down when its young author was in
rive in a state of mental breakdown, the the actual field of battle). If these plays
Mayor holds firm, his wife wonders have to be compared one would say that
whether to give them wine, the upstart the first is better art and the second better
business-man has paved the way for melodrama. But both plays are rich in
the invaders, and months of occupation momentous incident, and in both the en-
bring jitters and sabotage in the night. emy is not made to seem improbable.
Lewis Casson gives a dignified perfor- There are, too, some sterling perfor-
mance in the role of the Mayor, but the mances. In the Steinbeck Mr. Lewis
whole production goes at a snail's pace. Casson as a martyred Mayor, Mr. W. E.
Unlike The Russians, this play has no Holloway as his gentle doctor-friend, and
genuine background, and anyone who Mr. Karel Stepanek as a Nazi Colonel
thinks of visiting the Whitehall would do with some hopeful misgivings about him.
better to stay at home and read the ac- In the Simonov Mr. Michael Golden and
count of invasion in The Mountains Wait. Miss Freda Jackson as guerrilla fighters,
Mr. Russell Thorndike as a quisling, Miss
Olga Lindo as his harrowed wife who
feels obliged to betray him, and Mr.
A[lan] D[ent]. Arthur Hambling who walks to certain
death as proudly as Fortinbras's army.
"At the Play."
Punch [England], 204
(23 June 1943), 532. Checklist of Additional
Reviews
. .. Both The Moon Is Down and The
Russians say that there is a tremendous
and thornily complicated war waging, Milton Bracker. "Note on Colonel
and say it with the most lurid and reso- Lanser." New York Times, 19 April
nant effectiveness. The one gives Mr. 1942, Section 8, p. 1.

255
BOMBS AWAY
 - . . :

Bombs Away
THE STORY OF A BOMBER TEAM
Written for the U. S. Army Air Forces by
JOHN STEINBECK
With 60 Photographs by John Swope
NEW YORK THE VIKING PRESS 1942
 executing a carefully thought-out play.
Joseph Henry Jackson. The men that do these jobs are the pi-
lot, the navigator, the bombardier, the
"The Bookman's crew chief, the gunner, the radio man.
Notebook." How are these men selected? How are
they trained? After individual training,
San Francisco Chronicle, how are they welded into the compact,
26 November 1942, hard-hitting, smooth team that they must
be in order to function properly?
p. 11Y. The answers to these questions are the
material of Bombs Away\
To tell his story, Steinbeck selects six
Since the move into Africa, Americans typical Americans, young fellows who
have become more than ever conscious wanted to fly, and tells the story of each,
of the great bombing planes that have from his boyhood up through his selec-
been coming off the production lines for tion for the air forces, his individual
months past. The terms "Fortress" and training, his team practice.
"Liberator" are common words today; Here, step by step, you may follow
we regard those magnificent engines of what's happening, perhaps, to your son,
destruction almost with affection. your nephew, to thousands of young
The fact is, however, that we know Americans, the pick of the Nation.
more about the planes themselves than . .. It's a dramatic, admirably told,
about the men who operate them. There crystal-clear narrative that Steinbeck has
have been magazine articlesa fewand put together, and it will tell Americans
there have been some newspaper stories. for the first time the whole story of that
But until now the whole extraordinary enormously important arm of our fight-
story hasn't been told. ing forces, the thousands of bombers that
John Steinbeck's new book tells that are our spearhead in the kind of war we
story. Bombs Away... is its title. It's no must fight. .. .
romance, no fictionized yarn, but a book
of actualities, written specifically at the
request of the U. S. Air Forces. To write
it, Steinbeck toured for months, visiting Lewis Gannett.
training fields all over the country. With "Books and Things."
him went John Swope, himself a flyer, to
take the 60 fine photographs that illus- New York Herald
trate the book. Text and photographs to- Tribune, 27 November 1942,
gether, this is as completely American a
book as the war has produced. It's the p. 19.
story of something very specially and pe-
culiarly U. S. A. In a way it epitomized
America at waras you'll see the mo- John Steinbeck is half-Irish, and he has a
ment you open it. conscience, perhaps inherited from the
There are six jobs that make up a New England missionary who was his
bomber crew, six tasks that must be per- grandmother on his other side. When an
formed with all the precision, all the elan Irishman gets mad he wants to fight, and
of, for example, a crack basketball team when a New Englander gets mad he

259
begins by preaching. Steinbeck, more- had ever tried more passionately or more
over, started out to be a biologist before thoughtfully to avoid fighting than we
he took to writing stories; in his way did; that it was not to the discredit of the
he is still a biologist. And he is forty depression generation that they did not
years old. Put that all together and you know where they were going; that Pearl
may understand how John Steinbeck Harbor set in motion the most powerful
came to write Bombs Away: The Story of biological drive knownthat of survival;
a Bomber Team.... that air war is a natural channel of ex-
pression for young America; and that the
Bombs Away is the meticulously precise nation is entitled to feel a kind of fierce
life-history of a bomber team: a scientifi- joy in the experience and training of our
cally precise account of what it is, and young aviators. Wandering around the
how it gets that way, written with pas- country, Steinbeck met grumblers and
sion by a man who deeply regrets that he doubters; so he sat down, first to study,
cannot be part of one. It isn't what you biologically, the "greatest team in the
would expect from the author of Tortilla world," the American bomber team, and
Flat, of Grapes of Wrath, or even of then to preach about it. Bombs Away is
Sea of Cortez. But then, nothing that the result....
Steinbeck has written has ever been just The United States Army . . . has devel-
what the readers of his previous books oped some amazing gadgets for perfect-
expected of him, which is one of the ing the training of those lads. Steinbeck
things which proves that he is a writer. It tells about some of themand also about
isn't a story; it is at times more like a the excruciating discipline of "parachute
textbook, and sometimes like a sermon. parades" gayly imposed on the boys
Steinbeck wanted to dp something about when they first go out of bounds. He
this war; Bombs Away is one product of leads you, conscientiously and patiently
that urge.... and proudly, through each stage of that
training. He gives you an extraordinary
I talked with John Steinbeck about this picture of the sensation of first flight,
book early last summer, when the maga- when the little training plane seems bal-
zines were full of stories about bad mo- anced in the air, "tippy as a canoe and as
rale in the training camps. "It isn't true," dependable in the hands of a flyer," and
he said, if I remember him aright. "We've of the mystical sense of brotherhood
never had a better Army. I've been around among flying men. (All Irishmen are part
a little. The officers are good; the men mystics, and Steinbeck is part Irish.) He
are good; the people making weapons are says that these flying men of ours go
good; and they aren't excited. They are through an experience which "has the
doing the job, and it is a good job. The impact of religion, and while most of
young men of today are as good as any them are never able to say it, never want
young men ever wereperhaps better." to say it, they all understand it."
This book is written in that faith, and Navyflyersmay feel that John Steinbeck
in the further faith that the best of them has acquired not only a religion of flying,
are in the bomber teams, whom John but a religion of Army flying, and dispute
Steinbeck watched training, with whom his assertions about the role of land-
he flew over the Gulf of Mexico. It is based bombers. But they will understand
written with a conviction that it was not and respect the spirit in which he wrote
to our discredit that no nation in history this book. The bomber teams, to whom

260
the book is dedicated, will not, Mr. Force, Mr. Steinbeck describes how the
Steinbeck thinks, want or have time to members of the bomber crews are se-
read his book, for to them it would be lected, how they are trained for their
primer work. He wrote it as a primer for various duties and how they are welded
parentsand as a sermon. into the greatest example of team work
in the world. Sixty photographs by John
Swope are closely integrated with the
text. The author's and photographer's roy-
Orville Prescott. alties and the publishing profits will all
"Books of the Times." go to the Air Forces Aid Society Trust Fund
Bombs Away is a book to stir you to
New York Times, the core with a warm glow of patriotism.
27 November 1942, p. 21. With men and machines like these our
country can look forward to the future as
boldly as when similar men with no ma-
"The nation is at war. There isn't time chines were conquering the wilderness. It
for ceremony and parade. This isn't a war is a book of clear, clean, exact expository
of flags and marching. It is a war of writing, with only occasional traces of
finding the target in the cross-hairs of the manner to suggest that it is written by the
bombsight and setting the release, and it author of The Grapes of Wrath. It has
isn't a war of speeches and frothy hatred. as little use for the more creative literary
It is a technical job, a surgeon's job. There virtues as a purely factual article in a
is only time for hatred among civilians. trade journal. With no pretensions of do-
Hatred does not operate a bombsight." ing anything else, Bombs Away offers
In this mechanized war, dependent "the story of a bomber team" to all those
for its successful conclusion on many who are interested in just such timely in-
men's professional mastery of many com- formation. Their number undoubtedly
plex techniques, the supreme example will be enormous.
of just such a scientific, objective manner
of waging war is to be found in the
United States Army Air Force Flying For-
tress and Liberator bomber crews. As Clifton Fadiman.
war can be fought rationally, coolly and "Books."
precisely, so can books about it be writ-
ten in the same manner. John Steinbeck New Yorker, 18
has done so in his Bombs Away: The (28 November 1942),
Story of a Bomber Team, which is out
today and from which the above opening 80-2.
lines are taken.
As a nation we are intensely proud of
our Air Force. Mr. Steinbeck shows how . . . The Army Air Forces did a smart
well justified that pride is. The finest young thing when they got John Steinbeck to
men in this country, physically, mentally write Bombs Away. They are a first-rate
and morally, are in it. Their training and outfit and there is no reason in the world
their equipment are the best in the why a first-rate writer should not handle
world.... In this book, written as a pub- their recruiting propaganda. For that is
lic service at the request of the Army Air essentially what Bombs Away isan

261
extraordinarily fine job of recruiting pro-
paganda which achieves its effect by tell- Harry Hansen.
ing the truth in words that have life
in them. "The First Reader."
It's pointless to say that Steinbeck has New York World-
written better books than this. This is not
a "book" in the book-reviewer's narrow
Telegram, 28 November
sense at all. It aims "to set down in 1942, p. 11.
simple terms the nature and mission of
a bomber crew and the technique and
training of it." This clear, useful aim Among books on military training those
Steinbeck accomplishes by telling the com- dealing with aircraft and flying lead all
plete story of a hypothetical crew from others two to one, and the public interest
the moment six young men from various holds out in the same proportion. The
corners of the land shamble tiredly into latest author to describe a phase of this
an induction centre as Army Air Forces fighting arm is John Steinbeck, whose
candidates to that superb moment when story of a bomber team, Bombs Away, is
"the greatest team in the world" takes to a labor of love and the result of many
the vast night air to accomplish its first visits to United States Army airfields all
true mission. over the country. Illustrated with excel-
The whole story is told by personal- lent photographs of men in training by
izing the six-man team (navigator, pilot, John Swope, the book is intended to aug-
bombardier, gunner, crew chief, radio en- ment the Air Forces Aid Society Trust
gineer), by sketching their conceivable Fund, which provides emergency aid for
backgrounds,fillingin their probable tem- families of fliers lost in action: hence no
peraments, describing in as full detail as royalties or profits are accepted by au-
possible their exact regime of training. In thor, photographer or publisher. . ..
the course of his exposition, Steinbeck
quietly demolishes a number of civilian The outstanding merit of Steinbeck's book
myths: that the average survival time of a is its emphasis on the human factor. He
pilot is twenty minutes of combat, that knows how reluctantly we adopted the
the gunner's job is suicidally dangerous, idea of the big bomber, which means de-
that the pilot is the most important man struction. But when its use was forced,
in the outfit. we recognized it as the backbone of air
If you have a son in the Army Air power. "The puncher is the heavy bom-
Forces or preparing to enter, this is the ber." And even though factories turn out
book for you and for him to read. If you bombers on the assembly line, each ship
haven't, read it in any case and get the has its own eccentricity and becomes inti-
lowdown on the young men who, with- mately known to its crew, which gives it
out much talk about it, with their hands such names as Little Eva, Elsie and Alice.
at the controls, their eyes on the bomb To describe the training and the atti-
sights, touch and glimpse the future. tude of the men Steinbeck takes individu-
John Swope contributes sixty honest, als, putting them through their paces,
unspectacular photographs. All his royal- and showing not only what they accom-
ties, like those of the author, and all pub- plish but how they feel. The pilot also
lishing profits will go to the U.S. Army has a co-pilot. Pilots, navigators, bom-
Air Forces Aid Society Trust Fund.. .. bardiers and gunners are commissioned

262
officers. Aerial engineers (crew chiefs) tween the hairlines of his bombsight. The
and radio operators are technical ser- navigator must know in three dimensions
geants. Steinbeck says the nation has a the way from here to there and back here
great reservoir of men who are familiar again. The chief mechanic knows each
with gasoline engines: "It is not nearly so one of his four motors better than he
great a jump from Ford engines to the knows any living being. The radio man is
great power plants of the B24 as it is the human link between the frontier of
from no engine to Ford engine. . . . We the sky and land and home. And three
have a wealth of partly trained men, ga- bantam-weight, gimlet-eyed gunners are
rage mechanics who know gas engines the aerial inheritors of the American
inside out, high school graduates who dead-shot tradition of Dan'l Boone and
have kept the motor running when it Buffalo Bill.
should have been dead." He also empha- What a team this is, drawn from col-
sizes the co-operation of the ground lege classrooms, repair garages, store
crews, who also are carefully trained. counters and the fields of America! And
When these airships go out to bomb the given such material, what a theme for
Nazis or the Japs, they are formidable John Steinbeck, master molder of the sen-
engines, manned by intelligent, highly sitive and the hard-boiled and of intricate
trained young men who know exactly detail into rhythmic prose. A new form
what is at stake. of dialogue fills the mouthpieces and ear-
phones of our warplanes' communica-
tions systemsall of which should be
Steinbeck meat.
S. T. Williamson. The idea appealed to the Army Air
"The Crews of the Big Force. It asked Mr. Steinbeck to report to
prospective airmen, to their families and
Bombers." to the rest of us upon the quality and
New York Times Book training of the men and the excellence of
the equipment of the Air Force, and it ar-
Review, 92 ranged for special visits to training camps
(29 November 1942), and flying fields to enable him to gather
the fullest material. . ..
1,30. All royalties and publishers' profits on
this book go to the Air Forces Aid Soci-
ety Trust Fund, and motion-picture rights
One of those four-engine bombers which sold for $250,000 also go to the fund.
occasionally fly overhead with motors Since he was asked to do this job and re-
singing in the deep tones of a basso sponded handsomely, the question arises:
profundo choir costs a quarter of a mil- Shall Mr. Steinbeck's work be judged
lion dollars to build and carries a crew of as charitably? His last book, the moving
nine men. That crew is really a team with novel The Moon Is Down, apparently
human coordination as delicate and as dealt with the German invasion of Nor-
sturdy and as dependable as the bomber's way, and among its characters were one
complex mechanism. Pilot and co-pilot or two Herrenvolk who showed consider-
have cool yet hair-trigger minds. The able distaste for the dirty work they
bombardier must be right the first time; were ordered to perform. And because
he may never again get the target be- he depicted some Nazis who were not

263
thoroughgoing beasts some critics, who suggested to a cadet that he be trained
should have behaved better because they for a bombardier, the cadet's face fell al-
had been loudest guardians of artistic in- most to the floor.
tegrity, did their worst to make Mr. Into this psychological breach stepped
Steinbeck out as a near fifth columnist. John Steinbeck with his talents, and
Now that he has undertaken an unre- when you havefinishedBombs Away you
warded assignment to publicize the Army will know that the nine men who operate
Air Forces, Mr. Steinbeck employs types a big bomber are a team"an associa-
for which he was given the devil for tion of experts each dependent on the
not doing in his novel. If such a device other." Indeed, as I read the chapters de-
seems mechanical and artificial, then here voted to the various crew members, I
is the best answer to those who got such concluded that the gunners, the bombar-
high blood pressure over The Moon Is dier, the navigator, the engineer, and the
Down.... radio operator are the really important,
[Steinbeck provides] an enormous glamorous figures and the pilots are only
amount of detail. For when the text is the "truck drivers."
read without reference to the capital ac- Mr. Steinbeck, who handles words and
tion photographs by John Swope it seems paragraphs like a stone-cutter handles
as if War Department training schedules fine marble, must have been deeply af-
and recruiting pamphlets had been re- fected by the clear-eyed, firm-handed
phrased in John Steinbeck prose. The ex- young Americans of our Air Force during
cellent, distinctive prose is there, but at the weeks he spent with them. His book
few points does Mr. Steinbeck let himself is a labor of love and duty, since all
go. He is informative, he gives a careful, royalties and publishing profits are to
fulsome reporta polite report, if you go to the Air Forces Aid Society Trust
pleasebut only the style is Steinbeck. Fund....
Mr. Steinbeck makes us remember
that we are a nation with mechanical
know-how; that if our sons are not born
William Bradford Huie. with steering wheels in hand they soon
"Executioners of the Air." acquire them; and that our enemies have
made the mistake of choosing weapons
Saturday Review, 25 with which we are most proficient. If the
(5 December 1942), 22. energy to defeat Napoleon came from the
playing fields of Eton, it seems likely that
the genius to defeat Hitler will have come
from the Model-T Ford....
When the Army Air Force began building During his weeks with the boys of
crews for our clouds of big bombers, the the Air Force, Mr. Steinbeck apparently
most persistent difficulty was that every found confirmation for some of the con-
boy wanted to be a pilot. The pilot was clusions expressed in The Moon Is Down.
the glamor boy, and the public thought He says: "This isn't a war of flags and
of the Air Force as "a group of lordly pi- marching. It is a war of finding the target
lots with valets to service their planes." in the cross hairs of the bombsight and
The rumor got around that a bombardier setting the release, and it isn't a war of
or a navigator was always a frustrated, speeches and frothy hatred. It is a techni-
washed-out pilot, and when an officer cal job, a surgeon's job. There is only

264
time for hatred among civilians. Hatred novelist to work and creates the persons
does not operate a bombsight." There are of six boys who are to be a bomber crew.
some who will decry his refusal to give Without any fictional story-complications
emotion a proper place in this war, but, but with all the sympathetic insight of
in my opinion, Mr. Steinbeck has all the the Grapes of Wrath, he follows these
better of the argument. boys from their civilian life through sev-
Bombs Away is illustrated with sixty eral training schools, describes how they
photographs taken by John Swope, him- become airmen and soldiers. Finally they
self a flier. Royalties from the photo- come together, assigned to one big bomber.
graphs have also been contributed to the He tells of the further training which
Air Force Trust Fund. welds them together into a team, and
In its simplicity, restraint, and superb how finally one dark night they take
workmanship, I found Bombs Away as off for distant parts of the world, and
exciting as any Steinbeck novel. The char- action. . . .
acters are Al and Abner and Joe and Bill It is not, of course, a new story.
and other Americans who make up a Most magazines have recently run sto-
bomber team. They are men who know ries, slanted to time-tested formulae, on
what they are doing, and thus they "are the various phases of air crew training.
the bestfightinginstruments in the world." Even the point that Steinbeck stresses
They learn to handle a great soaring (or that the Air Forces stress through
product of American genius called "Baby, Steinbeck), that all air crew members are
Baby" and, with no trumpets blowing, go equally important members of a team
roaring off into the distance to make the and that the pilot is not the fair-haired
world safe for the things dear to a free boy, has been clearly brought out. What
race of men. distinguishes this book is the author's su-
perior insight. At last this process down
here at the training fields is described as
the men to whom it is happening might
Wolfgang Langewiesche. describe i t . . . .
"John Steinbeck's Manual What there is in this book is simply a
truthful statement of what happens to a
for Bombers." man, what air training feels like. Stein-
New York Herald beck has sensed the one thing which ac-
tually does take up two-thirds of the
Tribune, 6 December mind of the boys down here at these
1942, "Books" section, training schools.. . .
It is a moving book: at least down
p. 3. here at the training fields it is moving.
Perhaps rather inexplicably so. It may be
that Steinbeck uses tricks of the writing
This is an unusual type of book. It is a trade that we don't notice, but more
little like those flossy airline advertise- likely it is that truth of any kind has an
ments recently in magazines, signed by electric quality, and a book that assays as
philosophers and archbishops: a recruit- high in truth as this one does is bound to
ing pamphlet which is at the same time a be moving.
genuine Steinbeck! .. . It certainly is an important book. The
Steinbeck puts his great skill as a process which it describes alone would

265
make it important. Steinbeck has much him went John Swope, flier-photogra-
to say about the things in the American pher, whose pictures illustrate the book.
culture that make this country produce Viking Press published it. It is a demo-
great bomber crews.... cratic work, democratically produced: all
royalties and profits go to the Air Forces
Aid Society Trust Fund.
Everything about this book is fine and
A. C. Spectorsky. encouraging. The writing isn't superar-
"John Steinbeck's Stirring tistic but it is a superb professional job of
explanationexplanation of a technical
Portrait of a and intricate kind of work and training.
Bomber Team.55 It's interesting and often inspiring; some
of the most painstakingly detailed pas-
Chicago Sun, sages have the same appeal as Hemingway's
13 December 1942, best (and earlier) meticulous descriptions
of bullfighting, or his story of Nick's
Section 5, p. 1. fishing trip in In Our Time....
It is hard not to sound fulsome about
this book which, considered purely as lit-
To John Steinbeck the teamwork of the erature, might not warrant so much
bomber crew is the salient fact with praise. But another aspect of the demo-
which he emerged from his study of our cratic life is the emergence of books from
Army bombers and the crews that man their ivory tower. Books are a part of life
them. These men, Steinbeck tells us, func- today; we don't judge Bombs Away on
tion as a highly integrated, complex, pre- its literary merits alone, but neither do
cision unit; the crewman's is a trained we approach it from an exclusively es-
brain and a trained body; he is a thinking thetic point of view. To every American it
and smoothly working member of a team will appeal in many different ways; it will
made up of men like himself, not a brain- surely make all its readers feel proud
less cog that runs true but merely as and more determined than ever that
an automaton. The team is symbolic of when the bomber crews come home for
the democracy for which the bombers good, at last, we here will have a better
fight; the conscious controlled working- world for them to come home to, a world
together toward a common goal within rebuilt within the safety they have pre-
the bomber is democracy in microcosm. served for us.
To me, one of the most impressive
things about Bombs Away is that its au-
thor, too, engaged as a team member in a
democratic act when he wrote the book. ""Bombs Away."
Steinbeck the artist, the cerebral lone New Republic, 108
performer, the dreamer of The Moon Is
Down, the angry, articulate critic of (18 January 1943), 94.
our American scene in The Grapes of
Wrath, responded to the call of the U.S.
Army Air Forces, toured the country for . . . In this book, Steinbeck is frequently
weeks and studied the way in which our eloquent and always clear in describing
bomber crews live, learn and work. With technical stuff, but his passion for writing

266
down to his presumed readers (prospec- the Pacific. After visiting the training corps
tive fliers and their parents) has simplified and flying fields of the United States, he
his style to the point where it reads like tells us how our government educates for
a parody of Hemingway; reduces his action the pilot, navigator, bombardier,
characters, the hypothetical fliers, to the crew chief, gunner and radio operator,
baldest stock types; and debased his ideas who make up a bomber crew. . . .
to a rather dangerous level, as when he
says of the bomber team: "They had no
patriotic sentiments. Those were for poli-
ticians." The book will probably raise a Checklist of Additional
great deal of money for the Air Forces Reviews
Trust Fund, but it bears about the same
relationship to literature that a recruiting
poster does to art. "Books." Newsweek, 20 (30 November
1942), 68.
Fanny Butcher. "John Steinbeck Makes
Worthy Contribution to War Effort in
Richard Graef. His New Book." Chicago Daily
"New Books: Shorter Tribune, 2 December 1942, p. 21.
Beth Ingels. "Steinbeck Writes Another
Notices." Fine Book." Monterey [Calif.]
Catholic World, 156 Peninsula Herald, 3 December 1942,
p. 2.
(February 1943), 635. Raymond Krank. "Bomber Crews of
America Dump War in Enemy's Lap;
Steinbeck Tells the Story." Brooklyn
. .. More interesting than any of his nov- Citizen, 7 December 1942, p. 9-B.
els is this story of John Steinbeck, telling "Bombs Away." Booklist, 39
us how our boys from every state are be- (15 December 1942), 132.
ing trained into the bomber teams that "Bombs Away" Library Journal, 68
are fighting in Europe, the Near East and (1 January 1943), 37.

267
CANNERY ROW
 BY

JOHN STEINBECK

t94S
THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK
 people and place, into a vital organism,
Nathan L. Rothman. Cannery Row. We have seen Steinbeck do
just this at least once before, with his
"A Small Miracle." Tortilla Flat, but it is still a revelation to
Saturday Review, 27 see it done again, in the strictest, easiest,
and most beautiful economy of line.
(30 December 1944), 5. In the presence of this craftsmanship,
of what I have termed a small miracle, it
must seem irrelevant, certainly ungrate-
When you have finished reading Cannery ful, to point out that it is not a great one.
Row you know that John Steinbeck has Yet there must be some accounting for
passed another of his small miracles. It the gnawing dissatisfaction that one may
is the best thing he has done since The feel along with admiration for the finesse
Grapes of Wrath, although it is not quite of this little book. There is something
like that, in ways that we shall discover. Steinbeck is doing, consciously, with his
This goes back in style and substance to power, that seems to point him, I hope
those other brilliant little tales he wrote, tentatively, in the wrong direction. I can
to Monterey County in California again, show this best by quoting a few lines
where once we met Lennie and George, from one or two places and making what
and Danny and the paisanos. Add to these I can of them. Chapter Two is a kind of
the people of Cannery Row: Doc, and Mack, rhapsodic interpolation, of which there
and the boys, and the bright-haired Dora, are a few. He is speaking of the Row and
for they are likely to seem as memorable. what it means to him. He says:
They are caught up alive for us, stirring
and functioning, in the whole, integral at- The Word is a symbol and a delight
mosphere of their shacks along the shore which sucks up men and scenes, trees,
line, the canneries, and the flophouse, Lee plants, factories, and Pekinese. Then
Chong's store, Doc's marine laboratory, the Thing becomes the Word and back
Dora's Bear Flag Restaurant. to Thing again, but warped and wo-
There is one fairly consistent thread ven into a fantastic pattern. The Word
of plot that runs tenuously through the sucks up Cannery Row, digests it and
book. It will seem trifling when it is men- spews it out, and the Row has taken
tioned: the blundering and fantastic at- the shimmer of the green world.. . .
tempts of the other inhabitants of the
Row to show their love for... Doc, to Steinbeck is explaining the wonderful
throw him a party, to serve him in their thing that happens when he looks upon
untutored ways, like the fabled Juggler at his materials and feels stirring within him
the altar. But more important is the series the power to transmute them into the
of individual and group portraits re- evocative word. It is the intoxication of a
vealed along the way, and most impor- god looking upon his handiwork, and of
tant of all the spiritual correspondence a good writer in the realization of his re-
between place and people. Lines of force creative talents. This kind of conscious-
and sentiment run between them; the ness is a natural prelude to the work to
places breathe and suffer changes of be done, yet we expect the work itself to
mood, the humans assume the gnarled blot it out. We do not expect to see the
dualities of salt air and rickety structure, writer rear up among the pages to watch
and the whole thing runs together fluidly, himself functioning, lift his people up and

271
turn them over before our eyes like a they are supernumeraries very much like
conjuror. He can write an essay on how the starfish, the anemones, and the oc-
he wrote his novelas Wolfe didbut he topi in Doc's marine lab, upon which
cannot do both simultaneously without Steinbeck lavishes, similarly, some of his
casting a film of self-consciousness over easiest and finest pages. It is Doc, the
some of the bright and natural and sin- central figure, whose bearded face is de-
cere qualities of immediacy. scribed as "half Christ and half satyr,"
In the very presence of the contriving and you can see the trouble with that
god, some of the art will become artifice. right away, the masking and contrivance
(Was he not aware of this, writing, that will go into making this man inter-
"warped and woven into a fantastic pat- esting and mystical and complex, at the
tern"?) Here is an example. In one epi- expense of simple reality. The story will
sode, William, the doorman at Dora's focus upon Doc, yet some of the simple
Bear Flag, falls prey to melancholy, con- things at the periphery, the way an
templates suicide, and actually performs anemone expands or the way Mary Tal-
it. The chapter ends as follows: bot talks to her husband, will come out
with the most clarity and freshness, be-
His hand rose and the ice pick snapped cause Steinbeck wasn't toying with trans-
into his heart. It was amazing how mutation and the Word, wasn't trying to
easily it went in. William was the do anything but give them to us unal-
watchman before Alfred came. Every- tered, with original vision.
body liked Alfred. He could sit on the We don't have to have The Grapes of
pipes with Mack and the boys any Wrath every time, but we do need the
time. He could even visit up at the original vision, and the loving, intimate
Palace Flophouse. identity of author and subject that made
Tortilla Flat and some of the short stories
Now this is cold, cold as a puppet- and the parts of this book that are best.
master. This is reaching for insouciance. Cannery Row is exciting for the way in
Seethe man dies, and we slip away which this key problem in a writer's de-
at once on an oblique angle, to Alfred, velopment is spread before us visible
for effect. But Steinbeck's powers have in its workings, like a tinted cross-section
not sprung from angles and effects, from of one of Doc's specimens, as well as for
being a contriving literary god. They the characteristic, lusty excitement of a
sprang out of love and pity and under- Steinbeck narrative.
standing of the men he knew, Danny, Jim
Nolan, Tom Joad. He is using William,
effectually, without sympathy, and this is
the measure of our discomfort about
Cannery Row.
The Grapes of Wrath was a big book
because it was big with love for its
people. There is much of that here too, in
such chapters as the tenth, about Frankie,
and the twenty-fourth, about Mary Tal-
bot, each of them compressed and poi-
gnant with unimaginable tenderness. But
they seem hardly to belong to the tale;

272
 we make due allowance for the change
Joseph Wood Krutch. in our literary manners, in mood more
than a little like Mrs. Wiggs of the Cab-
"In an Atmosphere of bage Patch.
Good Will toward Men." The community in question is de-
scribed as "a poem, a stink, a grating
New York Herald Tribune noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a
Weekly Book Review, 21 nostalgia, a dream." It is "the gathered
and scattered, tin and iron and rust and
(31 December 1944), 1. splintered wood, chipped pavement and
weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine can-
neries of corrugated iron, honky tonks,
Perhaps Mr. Steinbeck's new sketches of restaurants and whorehouses, and little
life among the lowly and disreputable crowded groceries, and laboratories and
were definitely planned as a "Christmas flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the
book." If they were not then publication man once said, 'whores, pimps, gamblers,
at this particular moment is a lucky acci- and sons of bitches,' by which he meant
dent indeed, for despite the very thin ve- Everybody. Had the man looked through
neer of "realism" and "toughness" his another peep-hole he might have said,
Cannery Row ought to be read in an at- 'Saints and angels and martyrs and holy
mosphere favorable to that good will men,' and he would have meant the same
toward men which it is calculated still things." .. .
further to promote. Inevitably reviewers Cannery Row has no plot in any ordi-
will say that he here returns to the nary sense of the word. It is lyric almost
manner of Tortilla Flat, but that will be as much as it is narrative and the inci-
something of an understatement. He has dents which fill the two hundred brief
passed that manner by to go on in a di- pages have no unity except that of tone
rection which takes him still farther away and that supplied by the repeated appear-
from The Grapes of Wrath and brings ance of the same dramatis personal. A
him close to an unexpected convergence male employee at the whorehouse kills
with William Saroyan who would find himself when the other members of the
himself reasonably at home among the community make their dislike of his char-
people of good will in Cannery Row. acter an excuse for calling him pimp
Possibly Steinbeck never really be- though they have no real feeling about
longed by nature or inclination among the profession which he practices; "the
the hard-boiled writers. Perhaps his love girls" make themselves useful in an unac-
for people was always more vivid than customed way when they sit up nights
his hatred of that Society which he has with the victims of an epidemic; the bums
denounced in his turn. But in any event stage so successful a party to celebrate a
he now lets himself go in delightfully gro- frog-hunting expedition in the interests of
tesque humor, grotesque sentiment, and Doc that they let all the frogs get away.
grotesque pathos. Despite the four letter And so it goes. Mr. Steinbeck writes viv-
words which appear with some frequency idly, breathlessly and with great gusto.
this one reader at least found himself re- Some of the incidents are genuinely pa-
minded at times not only of Saroyan but thetic; some are genuinely funny. And
of books written before the latter was over the whole broods so boundless an
born. Cannery Row, I kept thinking, is, if enthusiasm for human nature and the

273
individuals in whom it is embodied that ness are actually more commonly met
the reader who resists it is in danger of with among prostitutes and drunkards
considering himself a Scrooge or worse. than among respectable people is, I be-
Most, I predict, will not resist. lieve, a romantic delusion. But that a
In what I have long thought the most novelist like Mr. Steinbeck can find them
entertaining book of criticism I ever met anywhere at all will probably be cheering
with, G. K. Chesterton discusses the fact to those who assume that serious novel-
that the contemporaries of Charles Dickens ists are of necessity concerned only with
found "realistic" those same passages in total depravity. It would not be too sur-
his novels which our own generation is prising if the virtues of the middle class
inclined to dismiss as exaggerated and were rediscovered before too long.
"cheap" optimism. The explanation, he
says, lies in a consideration of the differ-
ence between what is customary for us
and what they were accustomed to. We R O. Matthiessen.
are thoroughly used to writers who make
everything out a great deal worse than it
"Some Philosophers in
is. When a gloomy Russian or an exas- the Sun."
perated Anglo-Saxon exaggerates the de- New York Times Book
pravity of human nature or the unhappi-
ness of most people's lives we do not call Review, 94
it exaggeration. We call it Art. But when (31 December 1944),
we find Dickens presenting characters
rather more benevolent than people gen- 1, 18.
erally are and insisting that life is an as-
tonishingly jolly affair, we not only ac-
cuse him of exaggeration but go on to If you picked this book up without the
call his optimism "cheap," despite the author's name on the title page you might
fact that there is no obvious reason why guess that it was by someone who had
exaggerated optimism should be any read Tortilla Flat and had decided to
"cheaper" than exaggerated gloom. "Re- write a Steinbeck novel. The scene this
alism," one may add, is a tricky term. time is along the waterfront at Monterey,
To accuse an author of not being true where the chief points of interest are
to life is to imply that one knows what Lee Chong's grocery, Dora's "stern and
life is really like and that is a staggering stately" brothel, Doc's one-man marine
implication. biological laboratory and the Palace Flop-
I think that Mr. Steinbeck "exagger- house and Grill. This last had served as a
ates." But I can only think so; and I warehouse for fish meal until it was
very seriously doubt that he exaggerates taken over by Mack and the boys, who
any more in one direction than many act the roles formerly played by Steinbeck's
of the tough-talking pessimists, hailed slap-happy paisanos. They are lovable
as truth-telling realists, have exaggerated bums encumbered with no money and no
in the other. I am also reasonably sure ambitionand not much characteriza-
that the public is about ready for a bit tion beyond their names and a fondness
of exaggeration in the direction which for getting a skinful. The author uses
Mr. Steinbeck has taken. That benevo- them for his now familiar reversal of val-
lence, self-sacrifice, heroism and kindli- ues. In a cash-ridden society where "the

274
sale of souls to gain the whole world" is read[s] aloud "Black Marigolds," a trans-
almost unanimous, Mack and the boys lation of a Sanskrit love poem, and Mack,
are shining exceptions. They work only exclaiming, says, " . . . that's pretty. Re-
when it's absolutely necessary. They are minds me of a dame."
"the Beauties, the Virtues, the Graces" of James T. Farrell found Of Mice and
the "hurried, mangled craziness of Monte- Men to have "all the mannerism and
rey," and our only wonder is that they none of the substance of genuine real-
seem entirely free of lice or cirrhosis of istic writing," and thus to occupy a sort
the liver or other occupational diseases. of intermediate position between serious
Steinbeck has always been at his best fiction and slick entertainment. There
when he has had a powerful narrative to is no battle between kinds here, since
command his energies, as that of the the ever-increasing influence upon our
strike in In Dubious Battle, or of the trek novelists of Hollywood conceptions of
to California in The Grapes of Wrath. oversimplified situation and character has
The story here is as simple as a Grade-B won in this novel a complete victory.
scenario. The boys are warmed by the Steinbeck remarks in his foreword that
desire to give a party for Doc, since he is when you collect certain delicate marine
"the nicest fella" you ever knew. First animals you have to ease them gently
they must make enough money by catch- into your bottle of sea water, and adds:
ing and selling to him the four or five "perhaps that might be the way to write
hundred frogs that he needs. Then, since this bookto open the page and to let
it is to be a surprise party for him in his the stories crawl in by themselves." He
own place, they have to plan it while he's thus provides a frame for several in-
away on an overnight expedition down terchapters apart from his main theme,
the coast. They collect the liquor and the for a series of further grotesques, such as
decorations and the guests, but unfortu- an adolescent Lennie, the man and his
nately Doc doesn't get back when they ex- wife who live in a boiler, and a bogus
pected him. With the laboratory all lighted painter who works chicken feathers into
up, some strangers mistake it for Dora's. his medium. But these sketches, instead
In the fight that repels this insult, Doc's of possessing any of the tender life that
place is pretty well wrecked, and even the Sherwood Anderson, say, might have en-
frogs get away from the packing case into dowed them with, fall inertly on the
which Mack had knocked one intruder. pages. Many of them, like the specula-
tions as to how the Monterey flagpole sit-
Such is the beginning and the middle, but ter satisfied the needs of nature, are cheap
the end turns, of course, upon another without even being robustly coarse.
reversal. The boys are under a cloud for
weeks, but when their pup, Darling, The best pages are the coarsest, those in
catches distemper and Doc consents to which Steinbeck enjoys Mack's animal
tell them how to cure her, they feel them- heartiness and his gift for blarney. The
selves pariahs no longer. They plan an- repeated assertion of how wonderful all
other party. This time Doc gets wind of the boys are soon runs very thin, since it
it and manages to be there. About the is backed up with no more evidence than
same things happen again. Everybody a similar strain in Saroyanfrom whom
gets drunk, and the fights start. But now Steinbeck now seems to be borrowing.
everybody enjoys them, and the evening The only other one of the boys who has
has reached its happy climax when Doc anything like a distinct individuality is

275
Gay, the handy man, "the little mechanic Is Down. But he has not returned from
of God, the St. Francis of all things that an all too imaginary Norway and from
turn and twist and explode." Such a char- the actual Italian beach-heads to the Cali-
acter provides Steinbeck with a chance fornia he once examined with so much
for a soliloquy on the Model-T, how vitality. His most integrated book, In Du-
most of the babies of its period "were bious Battle, appeared almost a decade
conceived in Model-T Fords and not a ago, in 1936, the same year as Dos
few were born in them. The theory of the Passos' last successful novel, The Big
Anglo-Saxon home became so warped Money. Such a lapse of time and of talent
that it never quite recovered." Such lively on the part of our two most influential
folklore was one of Steinbeck's chief de- social novelists of the Thirties suggests
lights in The Grapes of Wrath, but here it again that the novel of social protest can
is crowded out by the succession of noble be written only so long as the writer
sons of nature and madams with hearts is responding deeply to the forces and
of gold. And when we recognize in wily movements of his time.
Lee Chong no other than the Heathen That has proved to be particularly dif-
Chinee, we realize that, in spite of the ficult in a decade as rapidly changing and
whiff of Saroyan, we are really back in confused as the past one. The most no-
the bright and false realm of Bret Harte. table social novels of the current year
But the most revealing evidence of have been produced by less gifted writers
the author's tastes and intentions in this than Steinbeck or Dos Passos, but they
book is provided by Doc, the philosophic have gained their strength by concentrat-
scientist who has appeared in one ideal- ing on our most pressing issues, which
ized guise or another in several Steinbeck are no longer quite those of the depres-
novels. He has not grown more real through sion. They are the issues of racial in-
repetition. His face is "half Christ and equality as Lillian Smith handled some of
half satyr," and his nature accords with them in Strange Fruit, and of our own
it. He is a sufferer over humanity, and his threatened brand of fascism, as John
lonely love of truth is balanced only by Hersey touched on it more briefly in
his love of girls and music. Steinbeck ad- A Bell for Adanoa novel greatly in-
mires him as a spokesman for the mind, debted to the earlier Steinbeck.
as Mack is a spokesman for the body.
But when Doc plays Gregorian chants on
the phonograph to entertain one of his
sleeping companions, or reads aloud at Orville Prescott.
the end that poem about "the citron-
breasted fair one," he seems as arty as "Books of the Times."
any half-baked "intellectual" of Carmel. New York Times,
It's a puzzler why Steinbeck should have
2 January 1945, p. 17.
wanted to write or publish such a book
at this point in his career. Some of his
pieces as a war correspondent had a fresh- There was a heat wave last summer in
ness of observation which seemed to New York. The sidewalks felt hot
promise that he was growing beyond the through the soles of your shoes; the sub-
streamlined view of anti-Fascism that ways were like ovens where passengers
bothered so many readers of The Moon baked slowly; the air-conditioning units

276
worked at full blast and the citizens bums of Cannery Row are just bums....
sighed for January. Each bright, swelter- Cannery Row, because John Steinbeck
ing morning for six weeks a tall Califor- wrote it, is greater than the sum of its
nian took refuge from New York's cli- parts. If its characters have no personal-
mate in the air-conditioned offices of the ity, Cannery Row itself has some of its
Viking Press. He would arrive about 10 author's personality. One feels in it Mr.
o'clock and settle down in the sanctum of Steinbeck's scientific interest in marine
one of the Viking executives then absent fauna, his love of life in its simplest mani-
on urgent military business. With occa- festations, his mastery of words. But this
sional time out for coffee and contempla- is John Steinbeck in an off moment.
tion, he would pound the office type- There is no driving idea, no creative en-
writer until 3 in the afternoon and then ergy, no living juice in Cannery Row. It
depart. After six weeks a novel was com- may be an accurate picture of one block
pleted, as far as I know the first novel in Monterey, but it doesn't seem as if it
ever to be written in a publisher's office could be. The real block would be more
by a refugee from a heat wave. The novel interesting.
is published today, Cannery Row, by John John Steinbeck has gone back to Cali-
Steinbeck. fornia, where they don't have heat waves
Ever since his triumph with The Grapes like ours of last summer. The man who
of Wrath Mr. Steinbeck has been coast- could create the magnificent and pitiful
ing. He still is. This little tribute to a Joad family, who could tell the wonderful
waterfront block in Monterey and its in- story of Jody and his pony, is one of our
decorous inhabitants has some of the Stein- ablest living writers. Perhaps in his own
beck mannerisms, much of the Steinbeck country he will find again the power and
charm and simple felicity of expression, passion of his best books and escape the
but it is as transparent as a cobweb. For confusion of thought and artistic futility
all its 208 pages it is less substantial than that weaken Cannery Row.
a short story. There just isn't much here,
no real characters, no "story," no pur-
pose. Instead, with considerable pointless
vulgarity and occasional mildly humor- Frank Daniel.
ous scenes, a series of loosely connected
incidents is thrown casually together.
"New Books.55
The general atmosphere is one of bio- Atlanta journal,
logical benevolence, a sort of beaming 3 January 1945, p. 6.
approbation for human activities conducted
on an unthinking level far below the de-
marcation line of pride, honesty, self-re-
spect and accomplishment. Mr. Steinbeck John Steinbeck has returned to the scene
has always shown a great love and sym- and the mood of Tortilla Flat to tell, with
pathy for ordinary, run-of-the-mill people affection and gusto and abundant suavity,
without necessarily respecting their intel- a story entirely foreign to his famous
ligence. In Cannery Row he has allowed news accounts of American men during
his affection to boil over into sentimen- the Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy.
tality, into pathos and even into whimsy. Cannery Row may be the means by
The paisanos of Tortilla Flat were men which Mr. Steinbeck, after witnessing
of charm and individual flavor, but the war, turned his mind from the impact of

277
new scenes and withdrew to gain per- related in any direct way... . But there is
spective on those experiences and emo- a central interest in Cannery Row: it is
tions. He has cast over his story the that of the relations of Doc, who runs the
special light of reflection and reminis- biological laboratory, with the other,
cence which gives its timelessness and re- more rudimentary members of the com-
moves it from the harsh lights of today's munity. The man of science, living alone
events. It is in that case escape literature with his phonograph and his books,
for both writer and reader. .. . takes his neighbors for what they are and
as they come....
This is the fable: a dramatization of
the point of view already implicit in most
Edmund Wilson. of Steinbeck's fiction. A curious and per-
"Books.55 ceptive mind is situated among simple
human beings and scrutinizes their activi-
New Yorker, 20 ties with the same kind of interest that
(6 January 1945), 62-3. it finds in the habits of baby octopi,
sea anemones, and hermit crabs. It is ca-
pable of sentimentalizing about them but
John Steinbeck's new novel, Cannery it has difficulty convincing itself or us
Row . . . is one of the least pretentious of that it accepts them on its own level. It
his books, but I believe that it is the one I may let them climb all over it, but it
have most enjoyed reading. It deals with always brushes them off. Doc does, as
a community a little like that of the same I have said above, feel some genuine
author's Tortilla Flat: a cannery neigh- warmth of contact with his neighbors,
borhood in Monterey, with a biological and it may be that Cannery Row is
laboratory, a brothel, a Chinaman's gen- Steinbeck's most satisfactory book be-
eral store, and a scattering of shacks and cause it attempts to objectify and exploit
old boilers, in which various nondescript the author's own relation to his charac-
characters live. Cannery Row is amusing ters; but it is characteristic of the author
and attractive in the same way as Tortilla as well as of his protagonist Doc that
Flat: here again Mr. Steinbeck has created the moments when Doc feels emotion are
a sun-soaked Californian atmosphere of the moments that are least well done.
laziness, naivete, good nature, satisfac- When Doc finds the dead girl in the surf,
tion in the pleasures of the senses and he can only hear imaginary music, and
indifference to property rights, in which this music is none too well described;
the periodical failures and suicides hardly when the loafers and the trollops of Can-
disturb the surface with a momentary nery Row give him their bang-up party,
eruption of bubbles. But the new book is the author must rely, like Doc, on long
more complex than the earlier one, in passages of quoted verse. It is hard to
which the characters were mostly "Mexi- put one's finger on the coarseness that
cans," "paisanos," all on the same level. tends to spoil Mr. Steinbeck as an artist.
The characters in Cannery Row represent When one considers the brilliance of his
a mixture of races and a variety of social gifts and the philosophic cast of his mind,
levels. It would be impossible to give an one keeps feeling that it should not be so.
account of the book by disengaging and Yet it is so: when this watcher of life
retelling a "story": it is a series of little should exalt us to the vision of art, he
pictures and incidents that are often not simply sings "Mother Machree." .. .

278
 books you'll ever have the fortune to read.
A. C. Spectorsky. Steinbeck has taken as his locale a
place called Cannery Row, a few blocks
"Steinbeck Reaches New of buildings and vacant lots on the
Heights in His Best Southern California coast. It's a tawdry,
ugly, wonderful, bawdy and luminous
Earlier Manner." place, as Steinbeck paints it, especially in
Chicago Sun Book Week, the hours just before dawn and just be-
fore dark.
2 (7 January 1945), 6. You will find yourself exulting with
Steinbeck in the stench of fish meal, the
sight of wild weeds growing up over
I don't say it did happen this way, but it rusted boilers discarded by the cannery,
could have. A group of people were sit- the smells of "kelp and barnacles when
ting around discussing books and such. the tide is out and the smell of salt and
Said one, in a nostalgic mood, "What I'd spray when the tide is in."
like to read now is a book that has noth- For his characters Steinbeck has cho-
ing of the war and yet is modern; some- sen as motley and human a crew, collected
thing full of fun, life, warmth and just a from the nether rungs of the economic
touch of philosophy to round it out. ladder, as you'd ever be scared by if you
Something maybe a little like Steinbeck's met them in real life....
Tortilla Flat." Doc is a character complex and simple;
Said another: "That would be swell, complex as a sensitive highly organized
but Steinbeck couldn't write it. It would personality; simple in a philosophy of life
need the unreal reality of Saroyan...." which is easy-going, yet rigidly ethical;
A third member of the group inter- ethical, yet never coldly so. He is the fa-
rupted; "That's true," he said, "but you'd ther confessor, beer supplier, voice of au-
want some of the native American tough- thority and guardian to Cannery Row.
ness of the earlier Hemingway, and...." Doc's relationship with Mack, and the
A fourth chimed in: "Personally, I'd two parties Mack organizes for Doc, hold
like some Mark Twain in it, too; some of the book together. Within these confines
his fabulous folklore quality...." you will find: A restful and lively attitude
And so the conversation went, each toward life and the earning of money;
person adding a touch of his favorite au- more impressively artistic, seemingly ef-
thor, until the last speaker said, "Well, fortless writing than occurs in most books
it's a nice idea, but no one man could do five times as long; humor to send you
it, especially today." into gales of audible laughter. Priceless
Now, it so happened that John Stein- in this last category are the episodes sur-
beck was listening to the whole thing, rounding a frog hunt, a beer milkshake
though no one knew he was there. He and the question everyone wanted to ask
smiled to himself, went home and sat the flagpole roller skater.
down at his typewriter. The name of the Some critics will, no doubt, accuse
book is Cannery Row. It has all the ele- Steinbecksurely one of the major lumi-
ments the speakers wanted, plus a score naries in the writingfirmamentofretro-
more. It's somewhat slight, quite short, grade motion, claiming his preoccupation
episodic, inconclusivebut it's one of the with the prewar lower strata (economi-
most thoroughly enjoyable and delicious cally speaking for his characters and

279
biologically for his protagonist's speci- I'm afraid Cannery Row won't have
mens) reveals him to be fugitive from a even the considerable incidental value
world he couldn't come to grips with in that three of his earlier books hadof
The Moon Is Down. But Cannery Row is providing the fable for the fine movies:
a fine small art, a miniature gem, a verbal The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford), Of
minuetand who is there to tell Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone) and
Steinbeck he should have composed a The Forgotten Village (Herbert Kline).
symphony?

Margaret Marshall.
George Mayberry. "Notes by the Way.55
55
"Reading and Writing. Nation, 160
New Republic, 112 (20 January 1945), 75-6.
(15 January 1945), 89-90.
Intrinsically it is unfair to subject John
.. . The non-book club, or independent, Steinbeck's latest book, Cannery Row . . .
first big-seller of the year is John Stein- to the standards of serious (I do not
beck's Cannery Row, in which the race mean unhumorous) literature, as unfair
between the author's admitted talents and as it would be to judge glass jewelry, or
his undoubted meretriciousness finishes what the department stores call simulated
another lap with the latter taking a long gems, by the standards that apply to pre-
lead this time around. As even the Boston cious stones. But the responsible critic,
Booksellers' and Bookburners' Association who is presumably jealous of the good
knows by now, this is an episodic ramble name of art and whose function, if he has
along the Monterey waterfront and an any at all, is to engender discrimination
examination, but not a very deep or in the reading public, is forced to under-
meaningful one, of its "whores, pimps, take the thankless exercise of demon-
gamblers and sons of bitches" and/or strating that Cannery Row is the chaff
"saints and angels and martyrs and holy and not the wheat of literature because
men." Mostly it is about Doc, "a hell of the book is being talked about as if it
a nice fella" who runs a marine labora- were, a priori, an authentic work of art.
tory, and a bunch of bums (read saints Let it be said at the start that the sub-
and holy men) who try to throw a swell ject of Cannery Rowthe life and the
party for him and keep tripping up on attitude toward life of a group of ne'er-
their failings. It is a readable book, and do-wells in Californiaseems to me a
there are moments when Steinbeck re- perfectly good subject for literature; and I
moves his beer-colored glasses to write don't think it's "too bad" that Steinbeck
savagely and truly and with love, as he doesn't write about the war.
has done intermittently before in In Du- A good book, even a great book could
bious Battle, The Grapes of Wrath and in be fashioned from the materials Mr. Stein-
some of the stories. But technical arch- beck has used. I say could be; I should
ness, superficial characterization and boozy say has been, by a writer named Mark
metaphysics are seldom absent. Twain. For, unhappily for Mr. Steinbeck,

280
this book reminds one of Mark Twain proof were needed that sentimentality
as fake jewels remind one of real onesif and cruelty are the two sides of the
only because it is essentially a string of same coin, it may be found in this book.
anecdotes, some of them all [tall?] tales, The unpleasant pleasure with which
of the sort Mark Twain delighted in. Steinbeck describes the killing of a mouse
The writing, to begin with, is facti- by a cat, the "murder" of a crab by an
tiously simple, after the fashion of the octopus, the sadism of a small boy to-
moment; it is at the same time highflown ward a smaller boy, is disturbing, to say
and flyblown, cheap, fancy, and false. . . . the least. As for the vulgarity which is
The whole book is written in this day- a by-product of sentimentality, it is all
dream prose which devitalizes everything too manifest here. Steinbeck's maudlin
it touches and has the same relation to celebration of the automobile leads him
the force of life, and of good writing, as to speak of one of his characters as "the
the iridescent foam on the edge of a river little mechanic of God," the St. Francis
has to the main current.. . . of coils and armatures and gears. It
The first defect of the characters is not also leads him to the "philosophical"
that they are "typed" but that Steinbeck statement that "two generations of Amer-
endows them with no motive power of icans knew more about the Ford coil
their own. They do not move but are than the clitoris."
moved about. Often he achieves a good His social criticism in general is of this
imitation of the behavior and speech of stripe. For Cannery Row has "social sig-
bums and ne'er-do-wellsbut at fatal nificance" of a curious kind. It seems to
moments the hand and voice of Steinbeck be written out of a violent hatred of
become all too apparent. As a result Can- modern life, particularly of our money
nery Row lacks realityeither the reality civilization. Mr. Steinbeck uses strong
of a fairy tale, which can be devastating, language on this score. "What can it
or the reality of straight fiction. profit a man to gain the whole world and
The great defect grows out of Steinbeck's to come to his property with a gastric
attitude toward the people he has chosen ulcer, a blown prostate, and bifocals?"
to portray. He professes to love them; he " . . . a generation of trapped, poisoned,
probably thinks he does. But his real atti- and trussed-up men...." He calls the
tude, except in the case of Doc, is nine parties given by professional hostesses
parts condescension and one part senti- "about as spontaneous as peristalsis and
mentality. In Cannery Row Mr. Steinbeck as interesting as its end product."
handles human beings as if they were a Hatred can be creative. Steinbeck's is
species of small animal life. They exist not. And in the end it defeats itself. His
and have their being on the same level as picture of Monterey is certainly meant to
the frogs and dogs, the cats and octo- be a protest against the futile busy-ness,
puses he is so fond of watching. Their the greed and ugliness of modern life. If
"happiness" is that of insects, and his he had captured the reality of Cannery
"love" for them is that of a collector. Row, in fantasy or otherwise, it would
Conversely, and significantly, he human- have constituted a protest, and might
izes frogs and dogs, cats and octopuses in have been far more hilarious than it is.
a way that becomes at times repellent as What he has actually accomplished, by
well as embarrassing.. .. turning his characters into happy and in-
Aside from its negative failures, Can- ferior creatures who live in a non-existent
nery Row also has its positive vices. If Monterey, is an irrelevant and rather

281
smug escape from modern life. Bankers a platform on top of a pole; there is a sui-
will love it. cide, and the story of how the bums man-
Cannery Row is a "simulated gem" age to live in a sort of community house
which has neither intrinsic luster nor per- of their own, and how they get enough to
manent worth. It would not be worth the drink, and how a man takes pride in his
space I have given it if it were not, along house whenever he can feel that his house
with many another of the same sort, be- is his own; there is the story of how the
ing currently passed and accepted, as the brothel functions and this includes the
genuine article. sad story of how sometimes a man can be
very unhappy if he is the bouncer in a
brothel, but even this is not a hopeless
story because after this bouncer has
C. G. Paulding. killed himself there is another bouncer
who is very happy and makes many
"Cannery Row." friends. This sounds as if the plot had
Commonweal, 41 been lost sight of, and it would sound
(26 January 1945), even more so if some more of the stories
were here recapitulated, but the plot is all
378-80. right and so Mack and the bums plan
another party for the kindest man in the
world and, this time, they are very much
. . . Cannery Row has a plot: the bums more careful about it, and it works out
think that "Doc" is the kindest man they fine. The laboratory is wrecked again but
have ever heard of and they try to give this time "Doc" thinks it is fine because
him a party, but they get it started too he has been right in on the party all the
soon and it wrecks the laboratory and all time. Dora and her girls are at the party,
the beautiful disks which play Gregorian everybody in the book is at the party, un-
and the "Pavane" and "Daphnis," and less he killed himself before the party;
"Doc," when he gets home and finds the "Doc" reads out loud a long and beauti-
mess, smashes the kindest of the bums in ful poem from the Sanskritno less
the mouth and then everybody is very sad and everybody weeps, but all this is so
about human misery. After this there is a wonderful that there must be a "release"
great deal about the life, murders and vo- somehow for this wonderful purity of the
racities of the little animals that hide in moment and fortunately the crew of a
the rocks and are discoverable when the San Pedro tuna boat who are looking for
tide is low; there are several short stories Dora's girls try to break in and so there
complete in themselves; again the tide re- is a lot of wonderful fighting in which
cedes and this time there is the body of everyone fights to save everyone else's
a young girl caught in the rocks, and feelings or honor, and in the morning ev-
"Doc" is very sad again about human eryone is strewn round everywhere.
misery; there is the story about Henri the Then comes the sad story about a go-
painter and the girls who never can live pher who builds a wonderful home and
with him for long because it is too un- cannot find a mate so that he has to
comfortable in the boat he has built to move to a less wonderful home.
live in on shore because he does not like It all smells of fish and reeks with
a boat on water; there is a story about kindness.
the man who roller-skates to a record on Is there any use in reading this book?

282
It is as sentimental as a book can be. It
oozes sentiment. And of course the con- Mark Longaker.
fusion comes in because it is written in
the technique of realism. The tripes are "New Books: Shorter
described. (Literally. A small boy and a Notices."
dog find them in a gulch. They are sup-
posed to be those of the late Josh Bill- Catholic World, 160
ings.) So that one might make a mistake; (March 1945), 570-1.
one might take this book for a scientific,
true and complete picture of life. But that
would be a false impression produced by
the sound of the words, the hard, harsh This bookfor really tough and strictly
words, and the sound of the cursing, also sophisticated readerscomes from a man
by the sound of broken bottles. But all who is a skillful weaver of words, gifted
this method, all the technique is not used with more than an ordinary share of
for description or employed in a realistic poetic fancy and deeply, sincerely sympa-
search for the truth; it is used to make us thetic with the little people. His tale cen-
weep. Read it and weep. The technique ters in a group living among the sardine
of realism is used by an impressionist. fisheries which give the book its title. The
As for Mr. Steinbeck's philosophical scenes are laid in the grocery store of
interests they are not usable for anything. Lee Chong; in the Palace Flophouse and
There is something about "Our Father Grill of Mack and his friends; in the ma-
who art in nature" in a passage in which rine laboratory of the overdrawn Doc,
"The Thing becomes the Word," but this and in other less reputable establishments.
is not usable even for blasphemy because Steinbeck's characteristic powers of ob-
it seems so obviously well-intentioned servation and description justify, at least
and so certainly is stupid. in part, the ballyhoo which has greeted
So that the realism is false, the think- the appearance of his latest contribution
ing unimportant, and all that is left is the to the amusement of the "emancipated."
weeping all over everything. Tears through But the critical-minded will still perceive
joy or the other way round. Well, what is his unfortunate tendency to let himself be
it worth? It is not worth much for any- carried along a single trackhuman na-
one who has seen man's pity for man ex- ture is much too complex to be summed
pressed by any of the great and honest up in the formula that there is good in
writers of world literature. Or for anyone the worst and bad in the best of us. Mr.
who through God's grace knows that the Steinbeck moreover suffers from an ap-
prostitute, the miserable and the lost remain parently irresistible urge to exaggerate
for ever inseparably bound to him in the general statements and to draw upon the
brotherhood of man. But for those who medical dictionary for his vocabulary.
have tried to break that link considering His admirers, invited to take part in a
the prostitute an animal, the miserable sort of treasure hunt for unsuspected
remote, and the lost for ever irrecover- beauty and unappreciated goodness, run
able, then anything which may bring the risk of being suddenly pushed into a
them to tears would be worth reading. bog or over a precipice. He would be a
Maudlin tears are better than no tears at greater writer if his originality and cour-
all. The trouble is that such people would age were balanced by decent restraint
think that Cannery Row is funny. and a good sense of proportion.

283
 him a liberal allowance because of his
N[orman] C[ousins]. perquisites as a novelist. But there comes
a point where you are certain that his
"Who Are the Real technique represents an authentic and
People?" precise vehicle for his own convictions.
At such a point, it is both legitimate and
Saturday Review, 28 pertinent to ask questions.
(17 March 1945), 14. In particular, we should like to ask
questions about Mr. Steinbeck's obses-
sion with what he likes to call "real
John Steinbeck likes to get a rise out of people." It is not a solitary obsession, to
his readers. He likes to ruffle them and be sure: other writers in what has been
startle them with the unexpected and the termed the school of modern realist writ-
bizarre. He likes to write, for example, of ing share it. Ernest Hemingway, particu-
a brothel as a "decent, clean, honest, larly in his novel of thugs, rum runners,
wholesome" place (as in Cannery Row), and murderers, To Have and Have Not,
where the customers get their money's and in many of his other novels and short
worth and where the working girls are stories, demonstrates a predilection, if
decent, clean, honest, wholesome, etc., in not an admiration, for his own brand of
contrast to the "twisted and lascivious real people.
sisterhood of married spinsters whose But who are these real people, what
husbands respect the home but don't like are they like, that they should thus com-
it very much." mand the attention and affection of these
Our purpose here is not to take issue writers? In Steinbeck's case, the answers
with Mr. Steinbeck's high regard for de- are both available and explicit in Can-
cent, clean, honest, wholesome persons nery Roweven more, perhaps, than
or institutions. After all, he isn't the first in its atmospheric predecessor, Tortilla
to call attention to or glorify the career Flat. Steinbeck's "real people" are the
bed. It was pretty much of a literary well-meaning, big-hearted, coarse, igno-
chestnut even when DeMaupassant wrote rant bums, boobs, castoffs, and misfits of
about it in "Madame Tellier's Establish- both sexes. "They survive in this particu-
ment." It is pertinent only as it illustrates lar world better than other people. In a
Mr. Steinbeck's unfailing devotion to the time when people tear themselves to
reverse twist under any circumstances. pieces with ambition and nervousness
So much so that his unpredictableness and covetousness, they [the castoffs, etc.]
becomes almost predictable. It is a famil- are relaxed. All of our so-called success-
iar literary device having a certain effec- ful men are sick men, with bad stomachs,
tiveness but sometimes it wears thin and and bad souls, but Mack and the boys
shows through. When it does, it has all are healthy and curiously clean. They
the charm and winsomeness of an old can do what they want. They can satisfy
hangnail. their appetites without calling them some-
If you grant that Steinbeck's own thing else."
ideas or beliefs may frequently be subor- These "real people" of Steinbeck's are
dinated to the requirements of his literary amusing enough and make good copy,
devices or technique, you can avoid ei- but we are neither impressed nor con-
ther the bother or the pleasure of rising vinced. Mr. Steinbeck has made special
to his bait; that is, you are willing to give pets of them, and exhibits them as though

284
they were anything but real. They are Apart from the ludicrous, there is some-
big, rough, and tough, and know how thing both curious and perilous about
to guzzle pot likker, even if they don't Mr. Steinbeck's preoccupation with and
know the difference between drinking worship of these "real people," as dis-
and soaking. They're innocent as babes tinct from all others. Curious, because he
and delightfully dumb, and they have himself treats them more as phenomena
an instinct for kindness and gratitude than as the substance of reality; perilous,
that is as touching as it is menacing. Be- because there are inevitable concomitants
ware that gratitude as you would a bear- of anti-culturalism and anti-intellectual-
trap. The "real people" get tied into ism that cannot be separated from the
knots and they slide unsuspectingly into original obsession. These by-products are
the gol-durndest brawls you ever saw, more than vaguely reminiscent of a re-
with split heads, bashed faces, and bro- mark by an incipient hasbeen who once
ken ribs as common as frogs in a pond at said that when he heard the word culture
midnight. F'rinstance, they want to do he reached for his gun. Maybe Adolf H.
something nice for a friend, whom they never actually said it; maybe it was
all love and respect, so they throw him a Hermann or Little Joseph or one of the
party while he is away and smash up his others. But whoever said it, everyone
laboratory until the place looks like a knows or should know what it meant.
heap of broken glass. The highspot of the We admit the urgency for a novelist
evening is a "long, happy, and bloody to break away from the stuffy and syn-
battle that took out the front door and thetic atmosphere of penthouse cocktail
broke two windows." parties, and to associate himself with the
Now this is all very stirring and re- more valid feel of large numbers of
freshing. It is good to see decent, clean, people living a less glorified life. But there
honest, wholesome human beings acting is also a danger that he may lose his bal-
in such a natural and unrepressed man- ance in going in the other directionthe
ner. They don't "tear themselves to pieces danger that he may become patronizing
with ambition and nervousness and cov- and try to turn people into something
etousness," and they know how to relax. special or freakish. It should be at least
There is no point in bringing Freud into possible to write about the mainstream of
all this, but you can't help admiring their humanity without putting a halo on the
magnificent lack of self-restraintthe half-wit, deifying the drunk, or canoniz-
real tonic for the real psyches of real ing the castoff.
people. Consider, too, their superb con- We are not saying that Mr. Steinbeck's
stitutional equipment. Contrast them gallery is not filled with real people. They
with the unreal people who have stomach may be real enough, but we'll be hanged
ulcers and various other disorders as the if we will genuflect before them or regard
result of nervous living. Mr. Steinbeck's them as a master race. Besides, we have
people are invariably healthy. Not an in- devised our own test for determining
stance of cirrhosis of the liver, delirium whether people are real. It is infallible.
tremens, polyneuritis, Korsakoff psycho- You take a long, sharp pin and jab it into
ses, or Saturday-night-paralyses in the the arm. If blood comes out, and if the
carload. Doubtless, all his castoffs, bums, blood is red, then the person is real.
procurers, deadbeats, sporting girls, and
madams die in the sublime beauty of
their old age. But don't bet on it.

285
 dogs look up and smile at him." Mr.
John Hampson. Steinbeck is an iconoclast, who conceals
his sentimentality under a snappy husk of
"Fiction.55 toughness, which may explain why he is
Spectator [England], 175 so highly esteemed by a large section of
the fiction-reading public. Perhaps they
(2 November 1945), will enjoy, too, his recently developed
418, 420. streak of whimsey, which, if less refined
than the average English variety, is not
the less nauseating: "Mary Talbot gave a
. . . What is to be said about Cannery pregnancy party that year. And everyone
Row} On both sides of the Atlantic all said: 'God! a kid of hers is going to have
sorts of people, including some who fun.'" Lush mush.
should know better have shouted themselves
hoarse in cracking up Mr. Steinbeck. He,
they have told us, is a "classic," a "poet,"
and a "genius." Their views about his "The Dickensian
short new novel may be a little more Flavour.55
guarded, since the tale is not merely slick
but also very thin, and has to be bol- Times Literary
stered up with a few anecdotes, sentimen- Supplement [London],
tal character studies and quite a few
chunks of very flabby padding: "Doc had 3 November 1945,
driven slowly. It was late afternoon when p. 521.
he stopped in Ventura, so late in fact that
when he stopped in Carpentaria he only
had a cheese sandwich and went to the "Cannery Row in Monterey in California
toilet. Besides, he intended to get a good is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a qual-
dinner in Los Angeles, and it was dark ity of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a
when he got there. He drove on through dream." Thus Mr. Steinbeck in the first
and stopped at a big Chicken-in-the- sentence of a short novel of an artifi-
Rough place he knew about. And there cially boisterous and somewhat rhetori-
he had fried chicken, julienne potatoes, cal character, so sketchy and episodic
hot biscuits and honey, and a piece of in plan as to seem not much more than
pineapple pie and blue cheese. And here a hasty improvisation. The poem, the
he rilled his thermos-bottle with hot cof- stink, the grating noise to which he refers
fee, had them make up six ham sand- leave one, indeed, unimpressed; they
wiches and bought two quarts of beer seem to have little connexion with the
for breakfast." sardine fleet in the background of the pic-
The puff on the jacket urges: "Go to ture he has drawn on this occasion or
the party which the boys and girls of with the collection of stock types of the
Cannery Row give that quaint old phi- American comic and picaresque in the
losopher Doc...." "The boys" are ho- foreground.
boes and "the girls" are from the local . . . Mr. Steinbeck has a shrewd popu-
brothel. "Doc has the hands of a brain lar touch here and there in this short
surgeon, and a cool warm mind. Doc tips book, but his feeling for the grotesquely
his hat to dogs as he drives by and the human or the humanly grotesque has fre-

286
quently landed him in a sort of perverse
prettiness and sometimes in a fling of dis- Rintaro Fukuhara.
appointingly cheap philosophy.
"Steinbeck's Kanzume
Yokocho [Cannery
Hugh FA. Fausset. Row]."
"Books of the Day.55 Eigo Seinen [The Rising
Manchester Guardian, Generation] [Japan], 92
9 November 1945, p. 3. (1 February 1946), 35-7.

[Review translated by Kiyoshi Nakayama.]

. . . Miss Meredith is a good story-teller, The setting seems to be a fishing port
and composes a character as carefully as in California. There is a street called
she does a period [in The Beautiful Miss Kanzume Yokocho [Cannery Row] in
Burroughes]. What she rather lacks is Monterey. Cannery Rowthis is the title
"the hot taste of life," to quote from John of Steinbeck's novel published by Viking
Steinbeck's new story, Cannery Row,... Press in 1945.
which abounds in just this quality. This is One of the inhabitants of this street is,
a riotous comedy, at once coarse and first of all, a Chinaman by the name of
kindly, staged in a small town where fish Lee Chong. He sells groceriesalcoholic
is tinned on the Californian coast. A beverages, foods, and so forth. Once he
group of genial reprobates who have sets the price of a commodity at 20 cents,
learnt the trick of living easy on others he never changes the price even 10 years
cause most of the fun, and an odd old later, when it is covered with dust. He is
collector of frogs and starfish, who is a solid merchant. He never declines what
both philosopher and philanthropist, is others offer or request, and he looks like
in his original way the one moral figure what one would expect a Chinese mer-
in a world in which vice and virtue have chant in California to be. Lee Chong's is
come to the happiest terms with one a long-established store.
another. . . . Another Chinese appears. He walks
by with a basket every evening, and goes
back at dawn holding the basket with
water dripping from it. He looks as if he
has been gathering something from the
sea. He wears heavy shoes, one sole of
which is loose, and passes with clocklike
regularity. Nobody ever approaches, and
even children keep away from him in
fear. When a boy who comes from an-
other town taunts him, singing: "Ching-
Chong Chinaman sitting on a rail," he
has a vision of a lonely countryside. In an
instant, however, the vision disappears
and he finds himself in Cannery Row.

287
Although this old Chinaman is not a epidemic comes to the whole town, they
main character, he walks by from time to run about the town with pots of soup
time in the novel. and sit with the families. There is a va-
The Palace Flophouse and Grill, the cant lot nearby in which large pipes lie
name of which makes it sound like a abandoned. People living in the pipes are
gorgeous place, is nothing but a tene- also respected citizens. A boiler has been
ment house. Mack, the elder and the abandoned among the pipes as well. In
leader, draws five oblongs on the floor it lives a couple. The entrance is low
with a piece of chalk to indicate the and narrow, so they enter it on their
simulated beds for the boys. These five knees, but once inside there is room
boys play the leading roles. Mack keeps a enough for them. One day, when the hus-
puppy, and one day she gets distemper. band comes home and enters through the
The boys quit their jobs to take care of narrow door, the wife says, "Holman's
her. Finally they ask Doc, the central are having a sale of curtains." His reply,
character of the novel, to take a look at " . . . for Christ's sake what are we going
her. Doc is the owner of the Western Bio- to do with curtains? We got no win-
logical Laboratory, which sells small ani- dows," seals his fate. The wife cries and
mals for students' experiments. He exam- cries: "Men just don't understand how a
ines the dog, says, "You'll have to force woman feels." Later, when the husband
feed her," and returns home. And the reappears in a different chapter, he simply
puppy gets well. says to Mack, "You know any kind of
Doc is respected and loved by every- glue that you can stick cloth to iron?"
one; they all think, "I really must do This careful ground-laying on the part of
something nice for Doc." He lives to- the writer is worthy of admiration.
gether with mice, rattlesnakes, frogs, and It seems that this novelist's world is
octopi in the big house, and is celibate. composed of the heart-warming stories of
He graduated from college, but is not at these lower-class people. I found Of Mice
all puffed up. He is kind and humane, and Men a story of the subtleties in hu-
and like a wise hermit. He likes music, man nature that could be played by such
and his hobby is listening to masterpieces Kabuki actors as the late Hikosaburo and
on a big electric phonograph. He himself his brother Kikugoro, and it surely has
collects marine animals to sell. Once he two major characters. The story develops
gets an order for hundreds of frogs. The via the two heroes' dramatic conflicts.
boys of the Palace Flophouse promise to But Cannery Row has no similarly com-
collect frogs, drive out into the moun- plicated plot, although, as mentioned, it
tains, and catch a thousand of them. has as protagonists Doc, Mack, and the
The story, as it develops, basically boys. It is a story of the whole Row, in-
centers on Doc, Mack, and the boys. It is cluding the whores, the Chinamen, and
not, however, the ordinary kind of novel the couple living in the boiler. In short, it
one usually comes across. Rather, Can- is a story of a world of good-natured
nery Row itself is a leading character. people. No evil-minded people appear in
The novel, portraying the various aspects it. Everyone is good-natured. When
of the life in the Row, conveys the breath drinking, they drink heartily. When an-
of humanity prevailing in it. gry, they readily start a fight. But they are
There is a whorehouse called the Bear simply happy-go-lucky, and good by na-
Flag Restaurant. The girls are also inhab- ture. No one strives for success in life,
itants of the Row. When the influenza and there is no competition. Just leading

288
a life without much trouble is sufficient That Mack and the boys go out col-
for them. Their lifestyle seems to be lead- lecting frogs comes from their goodwill,
ing a happy life by living together, and as they want to do something nice for
getting along with one another. Doc. They plan to have a party for him,
The writer portrays these people in bringing the frogs as gifts. They go into
brief cuts, scene by scene, as if Cannery Doc's place with wine and a thousand
Row were a movie. As the scenes change frogs while Doc is away from town col-
without any interrelations at all, the lecting octopi. Doc's lab has never been
reader understands the life of these locked. Unfortunately Doc does not come
people, develops an intimacy with them, home that night. Mack and the boys get
and keeps reading quite naturally. This drunk, and break the phonograph and
might be a technique of the new novel. the windows until the whole place is dev-
A painter lives in a boat that is never astated. To make matters worse, the
completed, even after a ten-year work frogs crawl out one by one, and pour out
of building. He lives in the cabin, in in growing numbers onto the stairs and
which he bumps his head when he stands into the street. Cars pass by, and run over
up. Sometimes he gets drunk to be mel- many of them. It is a somewhat pleasing
low. Once he saw with drunken eyes a and agreeable scene.
vision of the ghosts of a young man and In spite of this failure, once again they
a baby sitting together in the cabin. The try to throw a party for Doc. It is a birth-
young man cut the baby's throat with a day party. Everyone comes over, as in the
razor, and the baby went on laughing. finale of a play: Lee Chong, the painter,
The drawback of this boat is that it has the girls of the Bear Flag, and of course
no toilet. Mack and the boys, who are the organiz-
I wonder if the novelist has a particu- ers. And Mack says a few words to
lar interest in depicting illusions. Doc open the party. Everyone brings a gift for
also feels astonished to find a floating young Doc. The gifts from Mack and the boys
girl's face looking up at him among are 21 cats, and there is a patchwork
the rocks on the shore where he goes out quilt from the girls. This party is a great
collecting little octopi. Do these lower- success. The dancing starts. After the
class people generally believe in super- pleasant moments, Doc reads aloud stan-
natural things? In Mokuami Kawatake's zas from a poem called "Black Mari-
Kabuki play, one has the same kind of golds," translated from Sanskrit. When
feeling. In Tomoji Abe's Fusetsu [Wind the party gets mellow in sweet sadness,
and Snow], there is a scene in which an there is a tramp of feet on the stairs. The
old statesman happens to see a vision. It group, shouting, "Ain't this a whore
seems to be an abrupt appearance of ro- house?" turns out to be the crew of a
mance in a novel dealing with social and tuna boat. In an instant, a big fight starts.
political issues. I wonder what the nov- Each girl slips off a shoe and holds it
elists think of these problems. In Can- by the toe, and Dora grasps a meat
nery Row the scenes are incorporated grinder she finds in the kitchen. By and
in so natural a way that none will feel by the fight ends. The crew comes hum-
them strange. One might speculate that bly back and joins the party. The next
the supernatural suggests the depth of in- morning Doc awakens to find himself un-
tuition of such men of simplicity in the der the brilliantly colored quilt. He gets
world, a depth lacking in intellectual up slowly and picks up a book. It is the
people. one he read the previous night.

289
 Even now Joseph Henry Jackson. "Assorted
I know that I have savored the hot Orphans of the Storm in a Kind of
taste of life Near-Fantasy." San Francisco
Lifting green cups and gold at the Chronicle, 7 January 1945,
great feast. p. 14.
Just for a small and a forgotten time Ted Robinson. "Steinbeck's Cannery
I have had full in my eyes from off Row Dissects a California Slum."
my girl Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7 January
The whitest pouring of eternal light 1945, p. 12.
Josephine Gardner. "Book Angles."
Pacific Grove [Calif.] Tribune,
12 January 1945, p. 6.
Checklist of Additional J. Donald Adams. "Speaking of Books."
New York Times Book Review, 94
Reviews (14 January 1945), 2.
Malcolm Cowley. "Steinbeck Delivers a
Mixture of Farce and Freud." PM,
"The Bowery of Monterey." Time, 45 14 January 1945, p. 15.
(1 January 1945), 62. John Chamberlain. "The New Books."
"Cannery Row." Booklist, 41 (1 January Harper's, 190 (February 1945),
1945), 140. advertisement section, n.p.
"Steinbeck Straight." Newsweek, 25 Margaret Marshall. "Notes by the
(1 January 1945), 78-9. Way." Nation, 160 (3 February 1945),
Harold A. Wooster. "Cannery Row." 131-2, 134.
Library Journal, 70 (1 January 1945), W. F. Cody. "Steinbeck Will Get You If
32. You Don't Watch Out." Saturday
David Appel. "Turning a New Leaf." Review, 28 (7 July 1945),
Chicago News, 3 January 1945, p. 13. 18-19.
Ritch Lovejoy. "Cannery Row Is Philip Toynbee. "New Novels and
Monterey's." Monterey [Calif.] Stories." New Statesman and Nation
Peninsula Herald, 3 January 1945, [England], 30 (24 November 1945),
p. 9. 356-7.

290
THE WAYWARD BUS
 The
Wayward
Bus
JOHN STEINBECK

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK 1947

 the natural woman, in glaring contrast
Harrison Smith. to the artificial and glazed products of
middle-class civilization. This theme has
"John Steinbeck Does It fascinated writers since Rousseau and a
Again." hundred devices have been used to illus-
trate it: the single man or whole families
Saturday Review, 30 cast away on desert islands, the enthrone-
(15 February 1947), ment of the noble savage, the love battle
between primitive man (homo erectus)
14-15. and sensitive, cultured woman; what else,
indeed, is Tarzan but a crude attempt to
glorify the vestigial animal in man, for
In the new novel we have all been wait- the more extravagantly complicated civi-
ing for John Steinbeck has abandoned the lization becomes the more we will yearn
familiar, odorous waterfront of Monterey for the man creature that nature designed
with its cannery row. Gone are the doc- to walk erect and dangerous over the
tor and the docks, the warm-hearted girls earth. Not that Juan Chicoy, half Irish-
who were all whores, and the drunks and man, half Mexican, is by any means an
the bums who were all more delightfully animal, or dangerous, except to women.
human than any man could possibly be He is the free man, the man who cannot
who has money in his pockets and a bal- be held in bonds of any sort, the man
ance in the bank. who will at any moment leave a woman
The setting for The Wayward Bus is a who loves him too jealously, or an enter-
neat and shining little lunch room, ga- prise in which after toil and frugality he
rage, and gas station set down under a has succeeded, who will walk away with
clump of lofty trees forty-two miles be- only the clothes on his back, to begin
low San Ysidro, where the highway meets again anywhere else. The natural man
a lesser road that rambles for forty-nine and the free man have been constant in
miles across the farms or mountainous Steinbeck's work, from the abysmal brute
landscape to meet the great coastal thor- in Of Mice and Men, to the simple and
oughfare. From the beginning Steinbeck gentle heart and mind of the peasants in
creates the illusion of complete reality. Tortilla Flat, who are as incapable of un-
The little establishment of Juan Chicoy derstanding what civilization is doing to
and his wife stands four-square and solid, them as the ape riding a bicycle in a
the battered old bus he shuttles from one vaudeville show.
highway to the other is real, the landscape If it has sometimes seemed possible to
is the good earth itself, the drenching satirize John Steinbeck for sentimentaliz-
rain is wet. Mr. Steinbeck had expected ing the underdog, though never so grossly
to have the book ready for publication or ludicrously as Saroyan, there is no
many months ago, for the scene and the trace of this weakness in The Wayward
nine characters who play their parts have Bus. Juan is all man, sturdy, passionate,
lived in his mind for several years, and capable, a fine mechanic, loving and un-
have, according to Lewis Gannett, excited derstanding people, as magnetic to women
and stirred him as they developed. as nectar to a bee. His wife knows his vir-
What he has attempted and has ac- tues, but the tension under which she
complished is to present the natural man, lives with the knowledge that she may
homo simplicimus, and to a lesser extent some day lose him is a rasp to her temper

293
and often when he is away she has to customer is a sprightly little man who
drink herself into a stupor. sells tricks, gadgets, and mildly obscene
Two very human underdogs live with devices to amuse people with a perverse
them, an anemic, homely girlmadly in sense of humor. Perhaps he represents the
love with a picture of Clark Gablewho pixies and malign sprites of ancient folk-
looks after the customers in the lunch lore among this collection of straight,
room, and a youthful mechanic called twisted, or thwarted human beings.
Pimples to whom adolescence had given And so eight of them wait through a
itching sensuality and the mottled and rainstorm that is like a cloudburst for the
pustulate mask of a bad case of acne. bus to start. Mrs. Chicoy has to stay to
Four customers arrive and wait through a look after the business, and Juan knows
rainstorm for Juan to drive them in the well that her nerves are on edge because
old bus to the western highway. One of he has been eyeing the Pritchards' daugh-
them is an honest girl so luxuriantly se- ter and knows too that she will be blind
ductive that her days are cursed by every drunk when he gets back home. At the
man she meets, so that it is impossible for end of the journey a bridge is down so
her to hold a job or to find a man who Juan recklessly takes the lumbering bus
would not prefer to rape her than to over an unused and dangerous road into
marry her. She earns her living by offer- the mountains. Why Juan does not aban-
ing her naked body at stag parties to the don everyone and walk straight down
stares of respectable businessmen, ending into Mexico, why Mrs. Pritchard tears at
her act by sitting in and rising from an her baby face with bloody nails, how her
enormous glass filled with red wine. You daughter finds that she loves the way a
can make what you want of the ancient free and natural man makes love, and
role in society of this depressed bacchante, how Mr. Pritchard gets what is coming to
for Mr. Steinbeck likes to play with sym- him from the girl he had once seen na-
bols. There is a second honest girl, healthy ked, her thighs dripping with wine like
and unfulfilled, who sometimes hopefully purple blood, all of this must be left for
dreams that her parents have suddenly the reader to discover.
died. The wealthy Pritchards, with their The Wayward Bus cannot be coupled
daughter, are on their way to Mexico with any of Mr. Steinbeck's previous nov-
so that when they get back home they els. It has not the tenderness of The Pas-
can boast of their little adventures. The tures of Heaven and Tortilla Flat, or the
N.A.M. should sue the author for this fierce brutality in Of Mice and Men, and
portrait of an American manufacturer it is not a novel of bitter social strife like
and the Association of Women's Clubs In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of
must protest the description of his wife in Wrath. But every page of it carries the
the sacred name of the American woman unmistakable seal and signature of John
and of motherhood. A more poisonous Steinbeck's mind and style. Nor can one
and mean couple have rarely been say that it is better or worse than this
achieved in fiction. Mr. Pritchard is dirty- book or that book of his. It stands by it-
minded, boastful, dishonest, and hag-rid- self, the work of a writer as distinctively
den by his wife; she has remained an American as Mark Twain, who has de-
aging little girl who has doubtless by im- veloped in power and dramatic talent for
maculate conception produced a child, almost twenty years, and who is deeply
and who brings her family to heel by concerned with the second greatest prob-
imaginary illnesses. The fourth paying lem of our day, how to preserve the es-

294
sential simple virtues of human beings in recent years the subject has rarely
from the catastrophe that mechanized received so searching a treatment as
civilization is bringing upon all of us. Steinbeck gives it. Both because of the
richness of its texture and the solidity of
its structure, this new novel, unlike many
parables, makes good reading. And it
Carlos Baker. might even be good for one's soul.
The wayward bus is an ancient, alu-
"Mr. Steinbeck's Cross- minum-colored conveyance which serves
Section." the public as connecting link between two
great arterial highways in central Califor-
New York Times Book nia. But its chief importance is that it
Review, 96 serves Steinbeck as a vehicle of thought
and action. He assembles in it eight mem-
(16 February 1947), bers of his cast, carefully graded as to age
1,31. and sex, and sends them talking and fight-
ing across the forty-nine miles of rain-
sodden and flood-swept country which
Five hundred years ago Englishmen used lies between Juan Chicoy's lunchroom-
to gather round a rough outdoor plat- filling station at a crossroads named (per-
form to watch, both for amusement and haps significantly) Rebel Corners and a
the good of their souls, the enactment of point within eye-shot of the lights of a
a simple allegorical drama called Every- town called (perhaps significantly) San
man. Facing the title-page of Steinbeck's Juan de la Cruz.
first full-length novel since The Grapes of
Wrath is a quotation from this medieval The device of assembling a number of di-
morality play: vergent characters and making their mu-
tual attractions and repulsions produce
/ pray you all gyve audyence, the inner tensions of a book is as old as
Here this mater with reverence, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and as new
By fygure a morall playe. as The Iceman Cometh, with both of
The Wayward Bus may confidently be which The Wayward Bus could be profit-
taken as a twentieth-century parable on ably compared. Steinbeck makes the bus
the state of man. Although Steinbeck is ride an excuse for a long look at the in-
not quite so insistent on his moral as ternal substance of his characters. What
Jonathan Swift, the underlying concep- he finds beneath the skin will not cause
tion in what he has to say was succinctly members of the Book-of-the-Month-Club
summarized by the King of Brobdingnag to jump out of theirs, but it may well
in Gulliver's Travels: "I cannot but con- cause them to squirm in their chairs at
clude the bulk of your natives to be the the partial but painful truth of Steinbeck's
most pernicious race of little odious ver- implied conclusions.
min that nature ever suffered to crawl The passengers in the bus are none
upon the surface of the earth." Stein- of the pleasantest, possibly because
beck's moral is therefore hardly new, and Steinbeck examines their respective con-
it has been occasionally exploited in our stitutions with such meticulous care and
own day by such artists as John O'Hara clinical exhaustiveness that one gets to
and such polemicists as Philip Wylie. But know them from the inside out.... If the

295
reader sniffs closely between the lines he In Dubious Battle. The long build-up
may catch from time to time a gamy odor to the bus ride begins before dawn at
which will recall that of the Yahoos in the lunchroom, and the darkness of eve-
the last book of Gulliver's Travels. ning settles over the bus as it nears its
destination. Those harrowing tensions
What prevents Steinbeck from swinging which develop in the course of the ride
completely over into a savage indignation are established during the breakfast hour,
like Swift's is, however, a saving sense of heightened at mid-day by the dangers of
humor and a deep strain of pity.. .. the flood-racked bridge, and brought
to climactic explosion in mid-afternoon
Yet readers will do well to handle this when Juan skids the bus into a ditch and
parable with care. It is loadedwith the vanishes up the road. But in the end, with
powder of longing and the lead of vice. their passions spent and Juan as their
Norma, the waitress, aspires to Holly- conductor, the passengers arrive. The novel
wood stardom, and adopts, as her un- has as subtle and neat a horizontal struc-
willing idol, Camille, the stag-dinner girl. ture as Steinbeck has ever evolved.
Camille dreams of a peaceful apartment Of equal interest, though less for for-
where predatory males will let her alone. mal than for philosophical reasons, is
Bernice Pritchard wants an orchid house what may be called the vertical struc-
and the admiration of her friends; her ture. The route of the bus is through a
daughter Mildred wants a husband, and clean and rain-washed countryside, and
her husband Elliott would like noth- Steinbeck often, though quietly, draws
ing better than to out-Babbitt his most the reader's eyes outward to the rich,
Babbitt-like business associates. Kit Car- calm beauties of the springtime land.
son, when he is not eating pie, dreams of Across the scene chugs the vehicle with
a career in radar, and the gadget sales- its mundane human freight, while above
man of a money-making patent. Alice its dashboard, like an unheeded and
Chicoy would like to arrest the fading enigmatic guardian angel, hangs Juan's
of her looks, and even Juan grows nostal- "connection with eternity," a small metal
gic for the old days in Mexico when he Virgin of Guadalupe painted in brilliant
was free of a wife and of responsibility. colors of gold and blue. The vertical
The vices are equally typical. Gluttony structure of God, man and nature is not
and sloth gnaw at Pimples Carson, envy the less powerfully effective for being un-
and hate and covetousness at the Pritchards, derplayed.
and lechery at all the males and some of Among the hints by which Steinbeck
the females. "My little friend," says the enlightens his audience, readers may ob-
King of Brobdingnag ironically to Gulliver, serve the bumpers of the wayward bus,
"you have made a most admirable panegy- where its modern name, Sweetheart, is
ric upon your country." Steinbeck's pan- boldly painted. Still dimly visible beneath
egyric carries a heavy charge of buckshot. the newer lettering is an older and far
Those who were mildly troubled that more serious inscription: El Gran Poder
so good a book as The Grapes of Wrath de Jesusthe great power of Jesus. This
should have been marred by structural modern version of a medieval palimpsest
defects may take heart in the assurance will provide, for the thoughtful, one
that The Wayward Bus has an even more more handle to Steinbeck's parable of
solid unity than that which distinguished Everyman.

296
Ralph Habas. Howard Moria.
"Steinbeck's People "Latest Novel Tells
Wayward as His Bus." Ability of Steinbeck."
Chicago Times, Los Angeles Times,
16 February 1947, p. 55. 16 February 1947, Part 3,
p. 4.
Here is John Steinbeck's first full length
novel in eight years. And it is too bad he Steinbeck is always an event but this is
wrote it; it is so inferior to his previous something specialhis first full-length
creations, such as Grapes of Wrath, Of novel since 1939 was topped by The
Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Grapes of Wrath.
Row. Those stories were accomplishful, It will disappoint social-minded read-
revealing. This is nothing but a report of ers who expect Steinbeck to do a Grapes
the thoughts and actions of a small group every year but it is not without signifi-
of peoplepretty low class, most of cance and it brings back the depth and
themin a bus.... richness so largely missing from his work
All of these characters except Juan's while the turmoil of war and his war
wifeshe stays behind at the lunch room work threw him off stride as a major
and gets drunkboard Juan's old bus for novelist.
the trip to San Juan de la Cruz. A heavy
storm had swept the valley and bridges Right at the start, Steinbeck's bus passen-
are unsafe. A detour is taken and the bus gers begin to live with you, even the ones
gets stuck. Juan, who is extremely attrac- you don't like; and the owner of the way-
tive to women and well liked by men, side garage, lunchroom and bus station
seizes the opportunity and walks off, de- and his people live with even greater vitality.
termined to return to Mexico and a new Except for Proprietor Juan Chicoy of
life. He gets only as far as a barn a mile Rebel Corners, where the bus drops north
distant and stops for a nap in the hay. and south passengers to take Juan's vehi-
Mildred catches up with him there. cle across to the California coast, the novel's
All of the action of the novel takes place characters are frustrated, some to the
in one day. There is no plot, and not point of madnessas we are today. And
much action. A good portion of the story Juan himself has anger lurking beneath.
deals with the thoughts of the characters, Mishaps overtake the bus travelers;
who are portrayed in typical Steinbeck rage and madness leap out of their po-
manner; no holds barred, life stories, de- litely restraining cages. In the midst of all
sires, habits and appetites laid bare. The this excitement John Steinbeck loses nei-
descriptionscharacter and landscape ther his head nor his slyly uproarious
are excellent. sense of humor.

297
 provide the only climax, or conclusion,
Orville Prescott. that there is to The Wayward Bus.
So the general atmosphere of The Way-
"Books of the Times." ward Bus is sordid, petty and vulgar. If
New York Times, this were one of those relentless studies
of the super-naturalistic school in which
17 February 1947, p. 17. every dark corner of character and envi-
ronment is exposed its insistence on bio-
logical urges would be justified as part of
Eight years ago John Steinbeck's The the general philosophy of the book. But
Grapes of Wrath established its author as Mr. Steinbeck has not written a social
one of the most powerful and interesting document, or even a serious study of char-
of living American writers. Since then acter, as he did so magnificently in The
Mr. Steinbeck has written nothing wor- Grapes of Wrath. He has only provided a
thy of comparison with his one major scenario, which, after scrupulous clean-
triumph. None of his earlier books has ing up, might make a passable Grade B
anything like its stature either. Is it pos- movie.
sible that Mr. Steinbeck is a one-book There are two characters in The Way-
author whose reputation has been so ward Bus who are credited with strength
inflated that it has intimidated critics and and courage. "The Blonde" is one. She is
readers alike into a mood of respectful bitterly resigned to her lot, but she is no
admiration which his books do not de- dummy and no weakling. Juan is the
serve? On the evidence supplied by his other. Capable, kindly, bursting with ani-
new novel, The Wayward Bus, the answer mal vitality, he puts up with his hysteri-
must be an emphatic if reluctant yes. cal, drunken wife because he knows that
This is a tired and tiresome reworking he can always find other women when-
of a shopworn formula, the arbitrary ever he wants to. Is there a conclusion to
throwing together of a group of strangers be drawn from Mr. Steinbeck's choice of
into one common danger so that each of these two as his superior characters? Is
them may reveal his character under he suggesting that intelligence and cour-
stress. Fires, floods, hurricanes and bliz- age are dependent on physical strength?
zards have been used times without num- Sandow rather than Keats?
ber to isolate ill-assorted groups on ships, One can't be certain. But The Way-
trains, mountain peaks, islands and in ward Bus at least raises such a question.
caves and grand hotels. Mr. Steinbeck Since it is a Book-of-the-Month Club se-
uses a flood and a bus.... lection, quite a few people may be trying
The characters in The Wayward Bus are to find the answer in the next few weeks.
socially several cuts above the worthless
riffraff of Cannery Row. But Mr. Steinbeck
doesn't seem to admire them as much.
His fond affection for the social pariahs
of his last book has been replaced by a
sort of contemptuous pity. Weak, frustrated,
bitterly unhappy, most of his characters
are haunted by the biological aspects of
nature. Sex itself is always preying on
their minds. And two sexual episodes

298
 blonde, the youth for the waitress and
George E. Helmer. the b.m.'s daughter for the bus driver.
And the author provides adequate op-
"Aboard a Buswith portunity for each of these amorous pur-
Steinbeck." suits to reach a climax of a more or less
dramatic sort.
Sacramento Bee,
22 February 1947, p. 15.
J. M. Lalley.
In his first full-length novel in eight years, "Books."
John Steinbeck takes you for another
auto ride. But apart from the ride and New Yorker, 23
distinctive Steinbeck style, there's not (22 February 1947),
much similarity between Grapes of Wrath
and The Wayward Bus.... For one thing 87-90.
Steinbeck's dominant concern in his new
opus isn't sociology.
His major interest here is the busi- A half-dozen lines from Everyman cho-
ness of how men make fools of them- sen by Mr. Steinbeck as the motto of his
selves over women and vice versa. Nearly new novel, The Wayward Bus,.. . warn
all of his latest batch of characters carry us that the book is intended to be a kind
on in such a way as to bring this point of allegory. Indeed, the author has put
home to you. aside his favorite role of Prometheus for
These carryings-on begin when an old that of moralist; here is no defiant lover
bus operating between two small Califor- of mankind, in agony on the Caucasian
nia towns breaks down, marooning its crag of compassion, but an inverted Puri-
passengers overnight at a dinky cross- tan, wrestling grimly with the mysteries
roads restaurant-garage-service station. of Grace. Of the ten characters Mr. Stein-
And they continue for less than 24 hours. beck has brought together, after the ex-
But that's time enough for you to get ample of the Canterbury pilgrims and the
thoroughly acquainted with the dark, hand- famous fugitives from the Florentine
some, good-natured, half-Mexican and plague, only one has the marks of sanc-
half-Irish owner-driver of the bus and tity; the others are reprobate and damned
proprietor of the crossroads place; his by his strange, priapic deity.
wide-hipped, loose-lipped, insanely jea- . . . And now, perhaps, we should ask
lous wife; the pathetically homely and self- ourselves why there need have been any
conscious youth who helps around the of it. I have already said that The Wayward
garage; the restaurant's shy daydreaming Bus is clearly intended as an allegory.
waitress; and the passengers including a The characters are not definite individu-
Babbitt-like businessman; his too-sweet als, like Ma Joad, for example, or Casy
wife; their sensuous 21-year-old daugh- the Preacher, but personified generalities,
ter; a smoothie novelties salesman; and a or, if you prefer, types. They are pre-
blonde tart who earns her living as a stag sented with an accuracy that testifies to
party stripper. the acuteness of Mr. Steinbeck's obser-
It's also time enough for the business vation, but you can observe them for
man and salesman to make a play for the yourself on buses almost anywhere. You

299
might while away your journey by at- This is Mr. Steinbeck's first full-length
tempting to guess what lies behind these novel since The Grapes of Wrath. In the
familiar masks, but you would have to be intervening eight years he served as a war
a particularly apt disciple of Krafft-Ebing correspondent with the American troops
or of D. H. Lawrence to see what Mr. in Europe. He has been decorated by the
Steinbeck sees in a busload of travellers. King of Norway for the writing of his
I'm very much afraid that Juan Chicoy is war book and play, The Moon Is Down,
simply the projection of Mr. Steinbeck's and he has published a novelette loosely
notion of the Righteous Man in an evil tied together with the title of Cannery
society, a man who is nevertheless enough Row. But The Wayward Bus is a novel
of a primitive to be free of the mortal of much the same architecture as The
neuroses of his civilized passengers, Bridge of San Luis Rey, and to those of
enough of an animal to enjoy his women us who admire Mr. Steinbeck, it is re-
when he wants to, enough of a man to let freshing to see the warm flow of vitality
them alone when he doesn't. This makes which surges up in his pages, and to
for a sermonizing book, which those who mark such changes as have occurred in
are not of Mr. Steinbeck's priapic persua- his style and in his philosophy since he
sion may find fairly tedious. For many wrote his great story of the Okies... .
readers, no doubt, the moralizing will Juan sets the keynote of sex, and to it
be well compensated for by the wayward- Alice, his blowsy wife, and the passengers
ness of Mr. Steinbeck's vocabulary and respond or recoil. The adventure of these
by his cheery touches of naturalism, such people as they intermingle and feel each
as a little scene in the ladies' comfort other out is told with a close perspiring
station. But even these are veins that intimacy which may seem repellent to
others have already worked, I suspect, al- nice readers, but it is only fair to suggest
most to exhaustion. that with such sharp anatomical details
the novelist is cutting away the gloss, the
hypocrisy, the over-advertised glamour of
American daily life. He is indeed using
Edward Weeks. the very details which advertising stress-
"California Bus Ride.55 es, but with a sharp knife instead of soft
soap. He is vulgarly intent on identifying
Atlantic, 179 (March human nature for what it is. To Mr.
1947), 126, 128. Steinbeck feminine beauty is no deeper
than the make-up. His portraits of Mil-
dred Pritchard and Camille are a repudia-
In The Wayward Bus, John Steinbeck is tion of "those bright, improbable girls
writing about a busload of assorted Amer- with pumped-up breasts and no hips,"
icans who are marooned overnight at a those Hollywood visions of mediocrity.
California crossroads. The driver and his There arefivenoticeable women in this
pimply mechanic patch up the rear end in book: Alice, Juan's wife, with her rage ("the
the early dawn, but as day breaks and the uncontrolled pleasure rising in her chest
rain comes down, the journey is further and throat"), her jealousy, and her alco-
imperiled by a spring flood which deluges holic self-pity; Bernice Pritchard ("one of
the San Juan valley, threatening the the sweetest, most unselfish people you
bridges and turning the old stagecoach will ever meet"), as pretty and as untouch-
road into a slithery morass. able as dry ice; Mildred, her myopic,

300
man-hungry daughter; Norma, the pa- argument concerning Mr. Steinbeck's in-
thetic infatuate of Hollywood; and, last tentions. Is the novel allegory or isn't it?
of all, Camille, a wise, defiant tramp with Several reviewers, including our own, have
her musky heritage. To Camille, as to said that it is; they see in it an artful and
Mrs. Pritchard, sex is repellent, though commanding attempt to point to the
for quite opposite reasons. To the reader greatest tyranny of allthe self-torture of
the intensification of this instinct among self-inflicted restraints, the surface adher-
this jostled and confined company may ence to artificial values of morality, the
seem forced and a little tedious. Are we inevitable disintegration of the individual
all really so possessed? Would we too when exposed to the corrosive acids of a
have caught the contagion of that bus? Is fabulously complicated social organism.
there no motive, no gratification, more Other reviewers, equally persuasive,
compelling in a California spring? I claim to have found no more than meets
sound like a rock-bound Puritan, but the the reading eye. Whatever the merits of
question persists in my mind. the book may beand there is consider-
Very lovely, very sensuous the country able disagreement herethese reviewers
is in Mr. Steinbeck's rippling prose. . .. profess to have penetrated through to
Very natural and funny, and at times no subterranean allegorical vaults; they
very candid, is the talk, as when, for in- seem to regard it as nothing more com-
stance, Camille turns down Mr. Pritchard plex than a theme ideally suited to the
with the remark that she "is not going to Steinbeck method. (By way of parentheti-
be nibbled to death by ducks," or when cal substantiation, we are reminded of his
Alice exclaims that Pimples "could eat peculiar fondness for people trying to get
pies standing on his head in a washtub of from one place to another, especially as it
flat beer on Palm Sunday." But, for all may involve automobile museum pieces
this animal magnetism and photographic and their inevitable but literarily conve-
reality, one ends by wondering if Ameri- nient breakdowns.)
can life is actually so empty, so devoid of The controversy on this first level is
meaning, so lonely for the Juans, the pleasant but largely academic, since it can
Pritchards, and the Camilles of today. only be resolved by Mr. Steinbeck him-
God help us if it is. self, who of course will not tell. But there
is no reason why both groups should not
have the satisfaction of their own impres-
sions. Allegory, like gold, is where you
N[orman] C[ousins]. find it, and any reader who is prospecting
for a shiny Message should feel rewarded
"Bankrupt Realism." whenever and wherever he recognizes a
Saturday Review, 30 glint. Similarly, those who take the book
at face value need not feel they are show-
(8 March 1947), 22-3. ing symptoms of arrested mental devel-
opment if their senses fail to detect any
profound allegorical implications.
Unless we miss all the signs, John Stein- But there is a second and more fruit-
beck's new novel, The Wayward Bus, will ful level of controversy over the Stein-
touch off some enlivened literary con- beck book. John Steinbeck, if he is not
troversy on at least two separate levels. the superintendent of the modern school
On the first level, there is already some of literary realism, is at least in joint

301
possession of the keys with Ernest today. Realism is being divorced from pur-
Hemingway, although Faulkner, Farrell, pose. The attempt is being made to re-
and Dos Passos are able to get in and out gard realism as an end in itself. It makes
without knocking. And if that particular no difference, apparently, where the nov-
school seems to be fading, then it is not elist holds his mirror so long as he can be
inappropriate if the superintendent him- pungent and graphic about what he
self should furnish us with indications of wants the reader to see. Thus we have
significant weakness. had a weird procession of literary curiosa
Our contention, then, is that the domi- and erotica. It is not fooling anyone to
nant mood of American fiction is due for reply to this by raising the cry of prudery.
an important change. "Realistic writing," What is offensive is not the use of a word,
which has prevailed so emphatically for but the strained, artless, and unrelated
more than twenty years, is now revealing nature of extraneous situations brought
points of critical insufficiency. in to capture the snicker market. Realism
Before examining this insufficiency, it of this sort is about as appealing as an
may be in order to review some of the old goat emerging from a wet thicket.
principal characteristics of the realistic Now, John Steinbeck is not to be con-
school. A relentless and frequently ruth- fused with the more glaring examples of
less frankness was combined with a sharp bankrupt realism. In terms of sheer liter-
ear for dialogue and a still sharper eye ary talent and command of his materials,
for strong off-colors. The tempered-steel he is excelled by few if any living Amer-
hardness of the images contrasted vio- ican writers. We had looked forward
lently with, and was indeed a bitter reac- to The Wayward Bus, hoping that he
tion away from, the lavender-pillowed would get back on the track again after
softness of much of American fiction in his amusing burlesque in Cannery Row,
the generation before World War I. Real- and after his long recess following The
ism in writing involved much more than Grapes of Wrath. We had looked to him
technique: it was fiercely purposeful. Ev- to put realistic writing back into busi-
ery line, every image, had to carry an as- ness, to restore its validity, to prove, as
signed payload of social purpose. Which he did in The Grapes of Wrath, that real-
was all to the good. War, slums, un- ism can be an effective tool but must not
employment, sharecroppers, Okies, the master the writer himself.
proletarian artistthese were among the Despite all the good things that have
more favored subjects to be dramatized. been and can be said about The Way-
More recently, however, realistic writ- ward Bus; despite its sustained brilliance,
ing has gradually lost in strength and the striking power of its images, its grasp
vitality, even as it has enlarged on its de- of situations, the complete credibility and
fectsdefects which were inherent in the vividness of its characters, its dramatic
technique to begin with but which were staging and effectsdespite all this, there
heavily overshadowed by the drive and are sizable indications that Steinbeck has
flavor of the medium itself. The writers been infected with what is at least extra-
of the realistic school took a calculated neous realism. He has a passion for item-
risk: if they failed to tie realism to pur- ization, and you marvel at the awareness
pose, tie it clearly and definitely, then of detail which enables him to walk into
they stood in danger of robbing their a lunchroom and take a descriptive
work of its very validity. inventory of every item over or under
And that is just what is happening the counter, down to the last box of

302
Wheaties. But this passion has become an consulted, then the job of the writer is
undisciplined obsession unrelated to all clear: let him first restore his respect for
reasonable purpose. When, for example, the craft of writing. Let him pour all
he takes the reader inside a ladies' toilet, his talents into the handling of a theme
minutely describing the fixtures and the much more fundamental and dramatic
postures and conversations of the occu- and challenging than any problem human
pants, you have not the slightest doubt evolution has yet knownthe need for
that he is being realistic, but you are not individual man to find a way of changing
impressed. Instead, you wonder why a the general direction of his mind so that
mature writer should parade his ability to it turns primarily outward rather than
satisfy the curiosities and compulsions of inward. Such a change would automa-
an adolescent. tically fulfill what all through the ages
A Steinbeck supporter may object that was the dream of the philosophers and
such evidence as this is much too slight the poets, but what is today the very
for a general indictment. What we are specific and crystallized prerequisite for
describing, however, is not an example continuation of the human species on
but a characteristic. It is a symptomatic this particular planetthe creation of a
indication of the recent general trend of Group Conscience.
his worka work that shows signs of
undiscipline and unevenness, so much so
that the book as a whole, with or with-
out its ascribed allegorical significance, Richard Watts, Jr.
fails by far to measure up to the ability of
The Grapes of Wrath to equate realism "The Wayward
with purpose. By that much, too, does it Steinbeck."
fit in with and lend momentum to the
present drift towards corrupted naturalism. New Republic, 116
Why does a fashion or a period or a (10 March 1947), 37-8.
school of writing die out? Sometimes
the writers just become too tired; some-
times the public mood changes and only . . . This is not, it may be remembered,
the new writers are sensitive enough to the first time that a Steinbeck work has
anticipate it and respond with proper en- caused vigorous disagreement among
ergy at the propitious moment; some- critics. In the case of The Moon Is Down,
times the books slide into patterns falsely however, the controversy was based rath-
created by the best-seller lists; sometimes er more on war issues than on literary
the public itself is fed up and a reaction merit, and involved reviewers of both
sets in. Sometimes, a combination of all books and plays. On the whole, the
these and more is responsible, which is novel about the Nazi invasion of Norway
what seems to be happening today. We was first received with praise and only a
are in a transition period, but it is too few violent dissenters like James Thurber
early to tell what will take the place of and Clifton Fadiman objected to its po-
the pioneering realism of the twenties, litical aspects. But by the time it had
the radical realism of the thirties, and the reached Broadway as a play, the majority
stilted realism of the forties. critical comment was against it, consider-
But if the needs of America in particu- ing its German officers too susceptible to
lar and humanity in general are to be human feelings and the passive resistance

303
in it too glowing, and it was soon a indicate that the more unfriendly critics
theatrical failure. are wrong about his latest novel. It merely
The matter of the varied and fre- means that one of the qualities which
quently unfriendly critical attitude to- makes his fiction important is its capacity
ward Steinbeck's works is of importance for taking the ordinary struggles of ordi-
because it supplies one clue to his stand- nary people in some period of modern
ing as an American writer. It is certainly emotional and social strain, giving them
not remarkable to find novels that have moral import and significance and, with-
been roundly condemned achieving tre- out losing their realistic simplicity, cap-
mendous popular success, but it is a little turing a quality that makes them at once
more striking to find books and plays symbolic, poetic and, at best, of an al-
that are critically pilloried for soggy sen- most epic nature. Thus his most signifi-
timentality later accepted, by the public cant works, The Grapes of Wrath, In
and a fair section of the critics, as some- Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, be-
thing close to classics in their field. come, among other things, symbolic epics
It is an impressive accomplishment of characteristic phases of American so-
for an author, and the Steinbeck record cial maladjustment. They are set down
in this respect is clear: The Moon Is with such emotional forcefulness that de-
Down, which was often regarded as a fects of sentimentality, untidiness and
shallowly sentimental libel on the Nor- extravagance cannot interfere with their
wegian resistance movement, became a essential integrity. If these books are
treasured document among resistance more successful than The Moon Is Down,
movements throughout Nazi-occupied it is in part because the essential Steinbeck
Europe. Steinbeck was officially honored quality is so indigenously American, in
in Norway for his tribute to the national characterization, physical setting and mind
heroism, while Tortilla Flat, In Dubious and emotion, that anything of his which
Battle, The Grapes of Wrath and The strives to deal with other lands suffers
Red Pony, which were received with from absence of the soil that nourishes
hearty charges of immature sentimental- his writing and gives it its spirit.
ity mixed with the majority critical praise, Yet The Wayward Bus, which is com-
are now recognized additions to modern pletely indigenous, lacks something of the
American literature. And the dramatic quality of his major works, although in
version of Of Mice and Men is one of the one way it probably marks an advance:
realistic masterpieces of the American the sentimentality is missing. The new
theatre, as well as one of the few motion novel possesses many characteristic vir-
pictures of genuine quality. This reviewer tues. Its prose is as lean, vigorous and di-
can attest that during the recent war rect as ever; its dialogue, its descriptions
Steinbeck was one of the three or four of people, places and things and its rev-
American authors, along with O'Neill elation of a great natural gift for narra-
and Hemingway, that the intellectuals of tion are as distinctive and impressive as
embattled Chungking and neutral Dublin before. The perhaps less important, but
wanted most to find out about. not-to-be-ignored, quality of being im-
mensely readable is always present. The
Of course, the fact that some of physical feeling for America is there, as
Steinbeck's earlier books have come to be well as the rootlessness, inner loneliness
regarded as approaching classic status in and neurotic discontent which Steinbeck
theirfield,despite their detractors, doesn't sees as melancholy symptoms of a national

304
ailment. The plot device about widely bination of narrative skill and dishonesty
disparate people, unexpectedly thrown of mind involved in this triumph. Of
together on an adventure, has been a fa- the most obvious aspect of the dishonesty
miliar one from the time of Boccaccio a good deal has been said already, and
and Chaucer to Vicki Baum and Thorn- more will be for Steinbeck's various falsi-
ton Wilder, but it is purposely familiar fications of the "lower depths" of this
and effectively handled. And the charac- countryswinging from one social senti-
ters are interestingly assorted; Camille, mentality to another that cancels it out,
the girl with the fatal lure for men, is one and back againhave to do with more
of the author's most engaging creations. than the faulty vision that shows up in
If the final effect, although it makes any ten pages of The Grapes of Wrath, how-
for a striking novel, is less than com- ever effective the tear-jerking of which he
pletely satisfying, it is in great part be- is a master. There is also a will to irre-
cause we had come to expect another sponsibility which is never missing in this
major Steinbeck advance in breadth and author's work, though it takes many
power, such as was marked in turn by In forms, literal idiocy and immersion in the
Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath, Communist Party being only two of
while The Wayward Bus does not reveal them, and in which lies the root of more
such development. Furthermore, the cen- political troubles than Steinbeck will ever
tral character of Juan Chicoy, the Irish- dramatize. But there is another aspect of
Mexican "natural man," does not quite this infantilism, and of its appeal in some
come off, and the climax somehow lacks quarters, too, no doubt, that is not so
the expected dramatic force. But there is easy to stop and that bears more directly
enough in the novel to make one antici- on The Wayward Bus. That is the ques-
pate Steinbeck's next book as hopefully tion of sex and the relations between men
and eagerly as this was awaited. His is a and women in general, and it is relevant
notable American talent. because the only conceivable purpose of
this otherwise trite and meaningless book
is to express an eruption of sexual inter-
est so crude and obsessive as nearly to
Eleanor Clark. swamp even the technical talent that
Steinbeck has usually had at his command.
"Infantilism and This seems surprising only because the
Steinbeck." nature of his subjects until now has
drawn attention chiefly to his social
Nation, 164 meanings, such as they are, and some-
(29 March 1947), what obscured the much deeper escapism
370, 372-3. in his treatment of adult human relations.
But the process is embarrassingly clear,
even to the glorification of the mother.
From the popular practice of honoring His other women are the merest sex ob-
the makers of half-truths in order to stay jects, usually rather comical and the stu-
clear of whole ones probably no living pider the better; and when he speaks of
writer has profited more than John "love" he is referring to an association of
Steinbeck; and probably as good a way men, at least two of his books being quite
as any to indicate the diseases of the time literal fantasies of escape into a world
would be to analyze the particular com- without women, that is, a world without

305
the main component of adult responsibil- causes all men to lick their lips and say
ity. This was the childish charm of Tortil- "Whew!" and who makes her living sit-
la Flat as well as the basic distortion in ting in large wineglasses at stag conven-
Of Mice and Men, in which he made it tions, and the half-Mexican bus-driver
quite plain that he was not even retreat- Juan, representing what is perhaps the
ing into homosexuality but was simply noblest effort Steinbeck has ever made to
abandoning the problem of sex as an in- create a grown-up man. But he is spoiled,
tegral part of life altogether. It is a sepa- too, by being paired off in the crisis with
rate, biological matter, so desperately a stereotyped college girl, who felt "swol-
kept apart from Steinbeck's thoughts of len and itchy" at her first sight of him,
human beings in general that if women and who when she feels sexually rebuffed
are capable of any personality or intelli- says to herself, "Basket-ball... that's the
gence aside from bed and motherhood, stuff"; so that the D. H. Lawrence epi-
no one would know it from his books, as sode we have been led up to through 200
witness the young moron who passes for pages turns out to have more the quality
a woman, and even an admirable one, of peanut brittle. Other figures in the pa-
among the male Communist heroes of In rade are an unattractive waitress dream-
Dubious Battle; and even she is kept ing, of all things, of Clark Gable; an ado-
apart by having just had a baby. It is also lescent youth with acne, called Pimples; a
suggestive that a writer so concerned well-off business man borrowed whole
with social injustice should never, as far from Sinclair Lewis"Wherever he went
as I can remember, have spoken of prosti- he was not one man but a unit in a cor-
tution as anything but amusing. poration, a unit in a club, in a lodge, in a
All this adds up to one of the com- church, in a political party"and his
monest, and saddest, maladies of the wife, who provides what ought to be-
time, and it expresses itself in The Way- come some kind of classic among writ-
ward Bus in a fashion that will be equally ings on the female mind: "Bernice too
recognizable, especially to anyone who could draw a magic circle around herself,
has ever traveled in a club car. This time with motherhood, or, say, menstruation,
the social implications, if there are any, a subject like that, and no man could or
are lost in the hay; the contrivance of would try to get in."
throwing an assortment of characters to- This extraordinary performance is by
gether in a public vehicle has an air of be- the man who is reported to be one of the
ing a stock one. Even if it is not, the char- two or three modern American writers
acters have the same air, and the only most highly regarded in Europe and Rus-
overt motivation of the whole business is sia, and who has been praised at length
to show, as the blurb says and with no by some of the most astute critics in
more irony, that we all have our heart- France. It is also a current Book-of-the-
aches, etc. But the real purpose is to lead Month Club selection; if it were not, at
up to the moment toward the end when least if it were not by Steinbeck, it is
the bus breaks down on a lonely moun- doubtful whether anyone would have re-
tain road, and all its occupants except viewed it. And yet though its cheapness is
one old man who is having a stroke can easier to see, not being hidden behind
scamper or be dragged off into the picturesque personalities or a righteous
bushes. It is a story of sexual polarity, the cause, essentially it is of a piece with the
two main forces in which are a kind- rest of his work, and ought to inspire a
hearted "cookie" named Camille, who little sober questioning of the nature of

306
the author's popularity. For the reputa- meaningless than any man anywhere has
tion he enjoys in Europe, aside from the ever taken.
French respect for some of the technical Steinbeck appears to have been affect-
equipment he shares with and may have ed somewhat by the D. H. Lawrence idea
learned from Hemingway, there are pre- of the Natural Man. At least I think that
sumably some extra-literary reasons such he attempts to realize it in the figure of
as curiosity about American life, because, Juan, the bus driver. But the wisdom,
unlike Saroyan, Steinbeck has known dignity and strength of the primitive of
how to make the most of his California D. H. Lawrence are not in Steinbeck.
surroundings. To some extent the same Juan is just a satyr. And a good deal of
curiosity probably operates here. But it is Steinbeck's writing about him is ridiculous,
not on those grounds that he is most dis- stereotyped, hardly a cut above the sleazy
cussed, and this latest book makes one sentimentalizing of the passion magazines.
wonder again whether the Steinbeck phe- There is also Pimples, a kind of las-
nomenon may not represent above all an civious idiot, conceivably patterned after
increasing yearning in people to be either some of the odd, unnerved inhabitants of
morally incapacitated or, what amounts William Faulkner's wonderful jungle. But
to the same thing, the victims of some the authentic symbolism, the insight of
insuperable force. Faulkner as well as the greatness of his
art are missing from Steinbeck's drawing.
There is also Mr. Pritchard, a vapid, busy
hypocrite. But Sinclair Lewis has given
Frank O'Malley. this sort of man-of-affairs his best, warm-
est and most thorough embodiment. And
"The Wayward Bus" Steinbeck, in this characterization, does
Commonweal, 46 only a feeble imitation of the achieve-
ment of Lewis. A scrutiny of other char-
(25 April 1947), 43-4. acters: Juan's vulgar, distracted, alcoholic
wife, the stupid waitress, both presented
without a vestige of subtlety, the gadget
By this time everybody knows about salesman, very much like something out
John Steinbeck. Some of the more forth- of the comic strips or possibly William
right reviewers have dismissed the hap- Saroyan, and Camille, the decoy, whose
lessness of The Wayward Bus without mysterious attraction Steinbeck is unable
any words of assuagement. Other critics, to make very balefulsuch a scrutiny
although disturbed by the novel's aston- would only repeat the judgments already
ishing weaknesses, have still tried to find passed and prolong the not especially
in it the allegorical significance which pleasant task of assessing this book.
Steinbeck's epigraph from Everyman would The publication of this latest work of
impose on the work. I think that this ef- Steinbeck does raise a very grave ques-
fort, stimulated perhaps by Steinbeck's tion: why do so many of our serious
reputation, by the remembrance of past American writers deteriorate? Is it the
glory, has been wasted. For Steinbeck's lure of Hollywood or the submission to
dreary, prurient pilgrimage has no real the point-of-view, the literary fascism
human or universal significance. It is of the New York dictators over litera-
nothing more than an unusually dismal ture that vulgarizes and enfeebles them?
bus ridemore dismal, depraved and Certainly there is a depressing lack of

307
distinction, a dead-leveling in current ple as they intermingle and feel each
American fiction. And one cannot help other out is told with a close, perspiring
wondering why our free citizensthe intimacy." The Wayward Bus is not defi-
writers of talent and the literate reading cient in entertainment. But to what ex-
publicdo not resist the sinister attempt tent Steinbeck has been successful in
to exploit them. Banal and venal influ- reproducing an intelligible and authentic
ences upon our culture and literature microcosm of our culture is another question.
have, of course, entrenched themselves.
Gorging themselves upon our souls, they
have grown rich, fat, big and powerful.
But it may not be too late for honest men Harold Brighouse.
to go to war against them. "Novels and Stories."
Manchester Guardian,
28 November 1947, p. 3.
Samuel Roddan.
"The Wayward Bus."
Canadian Forum, 27 . . . A now familiar device is used by Mr.
John Steinbeck in The Wayward Bus ...;
(May 1947), 45-6. persons, ordinarily unconnected, are thrown
together for a few hours when, in Cali-
fornia, a cross-country bus breaks down.
This is John Steinbeck's first full length Among the passengers inconvenienced by
novel since the publication of The Grapes the stoppage and, later, by a flooded river
of Wrath eight years ago. The old are a Babbitt; his repressed wife and his
Steinbeck craftsmanship is still very much uninhibited daughter; a man who after
in evidencein fact, his work now is so doing well in the war is proud to be a
beautifully refined that it comes danger- commercial traveller in "novelties"
ously close to being synthetic, perhaps small, offensively silly adult toys; a wait-
even cunning. ress infatuated with Clark Gable; an
In The Wayward Bus Steinbeck pre- amorous, pimply youth; and Camille, a
sents us with an assorted group of Ameri- professional of "strip-tease." And either
cans marooned overnight at a San Juan Mr. Steinbeck, persuasively, is sentimen-
Valley crossroad. The bus is nicknamed tal about Camille or she was naturally,
"Sweetheart" and its driver Juan Chicoy inevitably, philosophically, and through
is that uncomplicated, intelligent type of no fault of her own an incitement to
personality who through sex or initiative men. She and the owner-driver of the
can usually dominate most situations. It bus, Mexican-Irish by origin, are ac-
is really not important what happens corded chief attention in an ugly, if an
in the bus for it is simply a "vehicle" able, novel... .
through which Steinbeck can explore and
identify human nature. Naked and un-
abashed portraits of each of the passen-
gers are skillfully manoeuvred into a tiny
mosaic of American life. As one writer
has put it, "the adventures of these peo-

308
 Truman," with his wife and bespectacled
"Insufficient People." Left-Wing daughter, who "also knew her-
self to be a young girl of strong sexual
Times Literary potential"; a young man travelling in
Supplement [London], tricks and novelties; Camille, almost irre-
sistible to men (also treated fairly kindly);
29 November 1947, and some others, all frustrated to a
p. 613. greater or lesser degree.
Mr. Steinbeck sometimes seems inclined
to rag American sentimentality about, for
Americans are sometimes critical of man- example, the Chinese or the Mexicans,
ners and customs of other countries, but and to ridicule the standards expressed
it cannot be said that their own writers by, "And what a guy at parties! He knows
are, on the whole, any less severe in their more dames, he's got more phone num-
attitude towards representative American bers than you ever saw. A big thick black
failings. Mrs. Trollope, Dickens and the book full of phone numbers"; but he
rest who did not find the United States to never succeeds for long in achieving an
their liking never managed to be so dam- objectivity that might set these matters in
aging from the outside as Mr. H. L. some perspective. "The road ran straight
Mencken or Mr. Sinclair Lewis have been towards the little foothills of the first
from the inside, and for the last thirty range," he writes, "rounded, woman-like
years, at least, there has been a steady hills, soft and sexual as flesh. And the
flow of American books which depict in green clinging grass had the bloom of
no uncertain terms the disagreeable as- young skin." After this we can feel no
pects of American life. surprise at Miss Pritchard's pursuit and
The theme of The Wayward Bus, for seduction of Chicoy, her father's unbe-
example, is the emotional, social and intel- coming conduct vis-a-vis Camille and his
lectual barrenness of a group of persons own wife, and the uncontrolled, or un-
who find themselves thrown together controllable, antics of the remaining pas-
during twenty-four hours in a little ser- sengers of the motor-coach which brings
vice-station-cwra-restaurant in California, them all together.
kept by Juan Chicoy, who also drives a The Wayward Bus will not add greatly
motor-coach. Half Mexican, half Irish to Mr. John Steinbeck's reputation. In
(with Indian blood) Chicoy is treated by earlier novels he has shown his ability for
the author with more respect than the describing the lives and preoccupations
rest of the characters, and "because he of the half-baked, a subject he treats with
was a man, and there aren't very many of zest and confidence though without much
them," he plays a role familiarized by humour. Here something more seems re-
D. H. Lawrence. In contrast with Chicoy quired; the book, although readable and
are various examples of a commercialized competently put together, never rises
civilization: his wife, Alice, eaten up with above the level of the better sort of film
hatred; his employees, Pimples and Norma, to which some uplift has been added.
the former a garage hand with a taste for
sweet cakes, the latter a "hired girl"
whose sole interest is her love for Mr.
Clark Gable; afifty-year-oldcompany di-
rector called Pritchard who "looked like

309
 assaults Norma by means of a trick appeal
Robin King. to her maternal sympathies; Mr. Van Brunt
falls fatally ill; and Juan seduces the Prit-
"Fiction." chards' daughter Mildred. "Aren't they
Spectator [England], 173 hell?" Mr. Steinbeck seems to say again,
with a scornful laugh, and to do him jus-
(19 December 1947), tice we see that they are hell and suspect
782-4. that we ourselves stand equally condemned.

. . . Mr. John Steinbeck's new book comes

as something of a surprise. Here again is Jules Strachey.
technical brilliance of a high order; here "New Novels."
too is excitement; here, in fact, is almost
everything that made Mr. Steinbeck so New Statesman and
popular a writer. The characters in The Nation [England], 34
Wayward Bus come to life with a facility
and an aptness that one can only admire
(20 December 1947),
and enjoy.... They are all allegedly 496-7.
American types and they are brought to-
gether, rather artificially and slenderly, by
means of a bus. The bus is lovingly de- In the case of Mr. Steinbeck I must admit
scribed (Mr. Steinbeck has a passion for that it is a sort of technicolour unity that
vehicles as well as for animals and in- is achieved, of the kind one sees in Amer-
sects), and the journey these people take, ican advertisements for tobacco, cigarettes,
each one wrapped up in his own world, or silver spoons. His eight characters that
sealed off from one another by their meet on a Californian highway, at the
selfishness as effectively as though they little restaurant-garage called "Rebel's
were behind prison bars, can be taken as Corner," and who all finally jump into
an allegory of the journey through life. the "wayward bus" together, certainly have
Here comes the cynicism and here, I sus- just that glossy, simplified, crudely tinted,
pect, comes the flaw. Mr. Steinbeck sexy, and bouncingly animal look. The
plunges his characters into danger and setting toothe lunch room with every
boredom and he shows them at their physical detail, every hamburger, ice-
worst. He is quite ruthless in ferreting cream unit and glass of coca-cola so de-
out the despicable quality in each. In the fined that it fairly bludgeons one in all its
end one hates the people in the "way- sterile, stolid prose; and the Californian
ward bus," if not for the same reason macadamized highway outside with its
that Mr. Steinbeck hates them. He de- petrol pumps and garage accoutrements,
spairs of human motives and he expresses all done in three block process.
his despair under a surface of flashy cyni- This is a highly professional picture that
cism. "What do I care?" he seems to say. Steinbeck paints. What a firm hand! What
"Life is hell, people are greater hells, but an eye! The latter like a telescope show-
there you arethere isn't much choice." ing us a scene of unnatural clarity, where
All this comes to the surface when the all the middle distances, and all the mys-
bus breaks down. Mr. Pritchard brutally terious chiarioscuro of a living landscape
outrages his wife in a cave; Pimples are eliminated for our convenience.

310
 What are we shown? Eight types. The Back under Glass." PM, 16 February
American business man, goggling side- 1947, pp. 12-13M.
ways at the silk-stockinged thighs of the Bernard De Voto. "John Steinbeck's Bus
blonde at the next table, where her tight Ride into the Hills." New York
skirt has wrinkled up. The fat and ageing Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review,
proprietor's wife behind the counter, who 16 February 1947, pp. 1-2.
has taken to drink. The college girl, lust- Robert Halsband. "Steinbeck Turns
ing after the proprietor. The drab servant Back to a Serious Theme." Chicago Sun,
Norma, dreaming of marrying Clark 16 February 1947, Section 5,
Gable, the spotty young garage help who p. 3.
thinks only of one thing. And now I Joseph Henry Jackson. "John Steinbeck
come to think of it, everybody here Writes His First Long Novel in Eight
thinks only of "one thing." Except the Years with the Story of a Bus Ride."
salesman of Novelties, who concentrates San Francisco Chronicle, 16 February
on earning his bread-and-butter. Anyway, 1947, pp. 17-18.
after they've all lusted and fed, they hop Daphne Alloway McVicker. "Book
into the bus together (which is appositely Mark." Columbus [Ohio] Citizen
named "sweetheart") and drive off. On (Citizen magazine), 16 February 1947,
the high roadbut I won't reveal the p. 6.
plot. If only for the reason that I haven't Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things."
been able to make it out myself. I only New York Herald Tribune,
know that this is a very skilful, randy, 17 February 1947, p. 15.
wonderfully easy book to whisk through. "Steinbeck on a Bus." Newsweek, 29
(17 February 1947), 104, 106.
Samuel Sillen. "Steinbeck Skids
Downhill in The Wayward Bus" Daily
Checklist of Additional Worker, 21 February 1947, p. 11.
Reviews Theodore Smith. "Of Making Many
Books There." San Francisco News,
22 February 1947, p. 10.
"Repent!" Time, 49 (24 February 1947),
H. Gilbert Kelley. "The Wayward Bus." 118, 120.
Library Journal, 72 (15 February J. Donald Adams. "Speaking of Books."
1947), 321. New York Times Book Review, 96
"The Wayward Bus." Booklist, 43 (2 March 1947), 2.
(15 February 1947), 186. Frances Baker. "Turns with the Book
Fanny Butcher. "Intensified Emotions in Worm." Jackson [Miss.] News,
New Steinbeck." Chicago Tribune, 2 March 1947, Section 5, p. 2.
16 February 1947, pp. 3, 15. John Mason Brown. "Seeing Things."
Annie Calhoun. "They Got Stranded at Saturday Review, 30 (19 April 1947),
Rebel Corners." Dallas Times Herald, 24-7.
16 February 1947, Section 6, p. 7. Orville Prescott. "Outstanding Novels."
Malcolm Cowley. "Steinbeck Brings 'Em Yale Review, 36 (June 1947), 765-8.

311
THE PEARL
 The Pearl
JOHN STEINBECK
WITH DRAWINGS BY JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK

194 7
 white doctor refuses to treat it. Kino dis-
Robert E. Kingery. covered a huge pearl, the greatest pearl
in the world according to his Mexican
"The Pearl." neighbors. The doctor tries to steal it, the
Library Journal, 72 pearl merchants (also white) try to cheat
him out of it, and Kino is forced, in what
(1 November 1947), 1540. is apparently an inevitable sequence of
tragic consequences, to flee from his vil-
lage and to murder the "trackers" who
Retelling of an old Mexican folk tale come after him. In the end he has lost his
the finding of the Great Pearl by Kino, a home, his child, and his happiness, and
fisherman and what then happened to he flings the pearl back into the sea.
him, his wife Juana and their baby Coyotito, "If this story is a parable," Steinbeck
before Kino threw the pearl into the sea says, "perhaps everyone takes his own
again. Within that simple frame, Steinbeck meaning from it and reads his own life
achieves a major artistic triumph full of into it," and indeed, as in most of Steinbeck's
subtle overtones, large fundamentals and allegories, there are several meanings
universal significance. This is Steinbeck in implicit in The Pearl, not all of which,
full stature and in culmination, and is, perhaps, are what the author consciously
therefore, without reservation, absolutely intended.
essential in all collections.... The writing is very good, as are the
descriptions of village life and Mexican
types, and the Gulf scene itself: the land,
the climate, even the various hours of the
Maxwell Geismar. day. There is less of Steinbeck's romantic
"Fable Retold." whimsicality, too, although one still could
do without quite so many of his Mexican
Saturday Review, 30 "songs." And what one notices again is
(22 November 1947), how much more interested Steinbeck re-
ally is in the natural scene, and in animal
14-15. life, than in the people or the human
emotions of his narratives.
It is not particularly important that
This is an old Mexican folk tale which the "whites" of his primitive tales are al-
John Steinbeck has recast in his familiar ways complete villains. "As with all re-
paisano vein. It originally appeared in told tales," Steinbeck also tells us, "there
The Woman's Home Companion under are only good and bad things and black
the title of "The Pearl of the World" and and white things . . . and no in-between
now, with full-page original drawings by anywhere." But the quality that has marked
Orozco, it forms a modest and attractive Steinbeck's work as a whole is precisely
little volume. But it also raises some seri- the sense of black and white things, and
ous questions about almost all Steinbeck's good and bad thingsthat is to say, the
recent books and his work as a whole. sense of a fabulist or a propagandist rather
The story deals with a Mexican fisher- than the insight of an artist. Moreover,
man named Kino who is devoted to his we have now come to understand that even
wife, Juana, and his child, Coyotito. The primitive souls are highly complicatedit
child is bitten by a scorpion and the is probably harder for a modern writer to

315
understand a man of his own time and
place. The doctor of The Pearl speaks to Ralph Habas.
all of Kino's race "as though they were
simple animals." But the doctor's main "Steinbeck at Top of
fault is that he apparently considers all Form in Old Mexican
Mexican Indians bad, while Steinbeck
considers all Mexican Indians good.
Folk Tale-55
In the climax of this fable, too, it is Chicago Sun Book Week,
interesting to notice that Steinbeck de- 7 (23 November 1947),
scribes his native fisherman as "a terrible
machine"in Kino's moment of anger he Section 2, 7.
becomes "as cold and deadly as steel."
One has only to compare Steinbeck's prim-
itive types with those of D. H. Lawrence, As unpredictable as he is versatile, John
say, or his studies of peasant character Steinbeck has sprung more than one
with those of the Italian writer Silone, surprise in his writing career. Now, with
to realize his limits. Of all the ranking his present offering, he springs another.
modern writers who have gone back to This time he tries his hand at retelling
primitive material as a protest against an old Mexican folk tale he picked up
and a solace for contemporary society, around the Gulf of California.
Steinbeck is, as a matter of fact, the least The story, actually, is a parable. Hence
well-endowed; what he usually does is it's rather short. But it's long enough to
to ascribe a peculiar sort of suburban give Steinbeck an opportunity to bring
American romanticism to these native into play some of his most distinctive
types. "Go with God," Juana says to her talents, notably his knack for infusing a
husband as he prepares to murder the kind of dynamic rhythm and lyric quality
trackers, but one wonders just which God into his prose, his dramatic use of the
Kino is supposed to go with. vernacular, and rare ability to convey di-
The most important point in Steinbeck's rect sensuous impressions.
earlier career was the change, around The narrative is of a sort, moreover,
1935, from such pagan excursions as that gives him a beautiful chance to ex-
To a God Unknown or Tortilla Flat to press his well-known sympathy for soci-
the novels of social criticism, In Dubious ety's underdogs and indulge his fondness
Battle and The Grapes of Wrath. It is in- for primitive and symbolical characters
teresting to speculate on the reasons why Despite its rather rudimentary plot,
Steinbeck has now returned to this earlier The Pearl succeeds in stirring the emo-
and less satisfactory vein of his work. tions profoundly. It succeeds, too, in giv-
And, without stressing the fact that our ing eloquent testimony with regard to
national history did not end with the Sec- Steinbeck's integrity and maturity as a lit-
ond World War, one would like to re- erary artist.
mind this gifted and volatile American
novelist that his recent works do mark a
sort of reversionary tendency in his career.
One might say that the artist, too,
must discover and cherish his own pearl
he cannot reject it for a state of false
innocence.

316
 the decadence and cruelty and stupidity
Orville Prescott. which have been so prevalent in this cen-
tury among so-called civilized peoples. So
"Books of the Times.' when Mr. Steinbeck wrote of the gay, ir-
New York Times, responsible and charming paisanos of
Tortilla Flat, he struck a note which ap-
24 November 1947, pealed greatly to many readers. But when
p. 21. he glorified the worthless and debased
riff-raff of Cannery Row, he seemed per-
versely to be denying the essential human
Two years ago a novelette by John decenciespride and honor and loyalty
Steinbeck was published in The Woman's and self-respectto be finding life best at
Home Companion. It was a good novel- its lowest biological level.
ette, infinitely superior to the wretched In The Pearl Mr. Steinbeck has written
novels which Mr. Steinbeck was writing about people who are primitive but who
at about the same time and which have are admirable. The Indian fishermen of
done so much to damage his literary La Paz, on the Gulf of California, whom
reputation. It was called "The Pearl of he describes are ignorant, illiterate, super-
the World" and it seems to have been stitious and brutalized. They live in brush
written after Cannery Row and before houses little better than those in an
The Wayward Bus. Now, after a long de- African kraal. They subsist on an inad-
lay during which Mr. Steinbeck wrote a equate diet of corn meal and fish. But
movie version of his story which will they know love and loyalty, pride and
soon be released with an all-Mexican ambition, hope and fear. Their sufferings
cast, his novelette is finally published as are of the spirit, not just of the flesh, and
The Pearl. so their misfortunes are tragic as well
This is a Mexican folk tale which Mr. as pitiful.
Steinbeck heard on the Lower California With an artful simplicity exactly suit-
peninsula when he was down that way a able to his theme, Mr. Steinbeck has told
few years ago on the scientific expedition the story of Kino and his wife, Juana,
studying marine life which he described and their baby son, Coyotito, and what
in Sea of Cortez. It is as stark and simple happened to them after a scorpion stung
as folk literature generally is. But it is the baby....
permeated with the special sort of impo- Like all folk tales, The Pearl is simple
tent and sullen bitterness which only an and direct. It is not concerned with
oppressed and subject people know. subtleties of characterization or profundi-
There is no cheerful, nursery atmosphere ties of thought. Yet its emotional impact
to this tragic folk story, as there is to so is powerful. Kino, who fought that his
many European tales of equally pathetic son might have a chance, by which he
circumstances ("Hansel and Gretel," for meant a chance to rise so far in the world
instance). And that may be why it at- that he might learn to read, is a heroic
tracted Mr. Steinbeck. figure. His devotion to his family and his
For much of his writing career Mr. courage in the face of death are deeply
Steinbeck has devoted his attention to moving. They give The Pearl a univer-
simple, childlike and fairly primitive sally human quality, for they are the vir-
people. His admiration for them seems tues which men everywhere have always
to have been a conscious protest against admired above all others.

317
 It is interesting to note the resem- The Moon Is Down have been drama-
blance of The Pearl to Kipling's wonder- tized. The Pearl has been filmed with an
ful Mowgli story, "The King's Ankus." all-Mexican cast and is to be released in
Both stories concern symbols of fabulous this country. The 30,000-word version
wealth, the evil they loose on the world appeared in magazine form in December,
and the decision to return them whence 1945, and now first becomes a book.
they came made by primitive persons. In turning from the background of
Kipling's is the more exotic, colorful and this story to what the Middle Ages would
dramatic. But since Mowgli was only an have called its "mystery," one is chiefly
observer, not a victim, of the evil the jew- struck by the number of points at which
eled ankus caused, it lacks the poignancy the tale impinges, through Steinbeck's
of Mr. Steinbeck's pitiful story of Kino artfully simple rendering of it, on the
and the unholy treasure he found in the unkillable folklore of Palestine, Greece,
depths of the sea. Rome, China, India and the whole sweep
The Pearl, I believe, is much the best of western Europe from the Scandinavian
book which Mr. Steinbeck has written since to the Iberian peninsula. For the pearl
The Red Pony and The Grapes of Wrath. which the Mexican fisherman Kino dug
from the Gulf of California was con-
cealed in the center of the golden fruit
of the Hesperides, and its seeds were
Carlos Baker. at the core of another apple in a fair
"Steinbeck at the Top of Mesopotamian garden called Eden. Its
death-dealing luster glinted in certain
His Form." fabulous gold coins in the hands of beg-
New York Times Book gars in ancient Baghdad; King Midas
knew its power and felt its pain. It was
Review, 97 guarded by fire-spewing dragons in the
(30 November 1947), 4, 52. lonely stone cairns of the Norsemen; cer-
tain German princes found its prototype
in the treasure boxes of bewhiskered can-
Seven years ago, during a trip to the Gulf nibalistic giants; and one heard of some-
of California (the same which provided thing like it in the smoky longhouses of
materials for his Sea of Cortex), John the Algonquin Indians. In a hundred
Steinbeck heard a Mexican folk tale metamorphoses it nestled among the foli-
about a pearl as big as a gull's egg and age on Frazer's Golden Bough. One of its
the woe it worked in the lives of those names is the power of good and evil.
who found it. A mature and skilled
writer, whose tastes had always run to- With such a ubiquitous associational po-
ward the fable and the parable, needed tential at the center of his fable, Steinbeck
no more than time and the broad outlines needed only the developmental skills which
of this folk tale to fashion a work which his long experience had taught him how
fits as neatly into the list of Steinbeck's to supply. He found the setting where he
books as the last gem in a carefully heard the storyamong the brush huts
matched necklace. When the substance of of the Mexican fishermen near the town
the tale had settled into that limpid prose of La Paz on the shores of the Gulf of
of which Steinbeck is a notable master, he California. His protagonists were in his
dramatized it, as Of Mice and Men and mind and in his other books already,

318
needing only new names; Kino the fisher-
man, Juana his wife, Coyotito the baby. Edward Weeks.
He found simple antagonists in the glut-
tonous village doctor who dreamed of re- "The Peripatetic
turning to a life of ease in Paris, in the Reviewer."
scheming pearl brokers who fleeced the
Indian pearl divers as a matter of profes- Atlantic, 180 (December
sional pride, in the nameless night crawl- 1947), 138.
ers who came to rob Kino of his pearl of
great price, and in the impersonal, relent-
less trackers who hunted the man, the . . . To the short novel John Steinbeck
woman, the child and the pearl across the brings simplicity, the power of sugges-
desert and into the stone mountains tion, and naturalness, which convey a
north and east of the Gulf. great deal within a limited space. To his
He had in the fable itself a rough fine trio, Of Mice and Men, The Moon Is
structural blueprint: the finding, hiding, Down, and The Red Pony, we now add
defending and casting away of the pearl. The Pearl, the story of Kino, a Mexican
He knew how to employ, as his story fisherman, his wife Juana, and their baby
shifted from low to high gear, the ancient Coyotito; the story of how the baby was
formula of the chase, and the climactic bitten by a scorpion and of how Kino
moment of the overtaking. He knew how to pay the doctor's billdived for and
to elicit the reader's sympathy for his brought to the surface a pearl beyond
protagonists by showing the growing price. What happens thereafter is for you
threat of the innocent joys of family life, to read.
the loved child at its center who may die Within the lineaments of this Mexican
of the bite of a scorpion, as the parents folk tale and with silk-smooth, deceptive
may die from the bite of the Pearl. simplicity Mr. Steinbeck is doing what he
Whether because his story was to ap- most enjoys: laying bare the human na-
pear first in a woman's magazine or be- ture of primitive people, showing us their
cause he really wished it to be that way, capacity for endurance, their resistance to
Steinbeck made no allusions offensive to domination (the supercilious doctor, and
the taste and carefully measured in cer- the pearl dealers who try to cheat); show-
tain proportions of sentiment. He knew ing us the peasants' instinctive love and
how to keep his little family in the central protectiveness, their wisdom (as in the
spotlight. He was lucky to have his book old beggars), and the songs which best
adorned with five powerful myopic line express their emotion. One can take this
drawings by the Mexican muralist Orozco. as a parable or as an active and limpid
And he had long trained his prose style narrative whose depth, like that of the
for such a task as this: that supple, tropical waters which Steinbeck so beau-
unstrained, muscular power, responsive tifully describes, is far more than one
to the slightest pull on the reins, easily would suspect.
moving from walk to trot to canter, never
breaking through to gallop.

319
 child by the scorpion, or scarab, signifies
Thomas Sugrue. the entrance of the divine nature into the
mind; the pearl of great price, the knowl-
"Steinbeck's Mexican edge of spiritual growth, must then be
Folk-Tale.55 found so that eventually the divine nature
can be set free). The white doctor would
New York Herald Tribune not treat the child, so Kino and Juana
Weekly Book Review, 24 and Coyotito got into Kino's canoe and
went to the oyster bed, hoping to find a
(7 December 1947), 4. pearl that would pay for the medicine
that was needed. Kino stepped into the
water and let his diving rock carry him to
In the Gnostic fragment known as the the bottom; he filled his basket with oys-
"Acts of Judas Thomas" there is a pas- ters; under a lip of rock he found a very
sage called the "Hymn of the Soul," large oyster, and he carried this up in his
which says that "If thou goest down into hand. When he opened it he found that it
Egypt, and bringest the one pearl, which contained the great pearl, the pearl of the
is in the midst of the sea, hard by the world, the pearl of great price.
loud-breathing serpent, then shalt thou Almost before Kino's canoe was
put on thy toga, which is laid over it, and beached every one in the town knew of
with thy brother, our next in rank, thou his find, and by nightfall ninety per cent
shalt be heir in our kingdom." Among of the population were scheming to get
the Indians of Mexico the story is that the pearl away from him. The doctor
Kino, a fisherman, found the pearl, and came to Kino's hut and insisted on treat-
that Juana, his wife, and Coyotito, his in- ing Coyotito, who had been saved ten
fant son, were with them [him?] when hours before by his mother, who sucked
the discovery was made. John Steinbeck, the unbearable portion of the poison
hearing the tale while on an expedition to from him (in the black and white of folk-
the Gulf of California in 1940, decided to lore Juana, or woman, is the emotion na-
write it. His story was published in The ture). Kino was attacked in the night.
Woman's Home Companion. It was also When he tried to sell the pearl next day
made into a movie, as yet unreleased, and prices were rigged against him. He told
now it is a book. Juana that he would go into the moun-
. . . Mr. Steinbeck, faithfully re-telling tains, to the capital, t o . . . bring its true
what he heard, left the ending as it was. price, so that Coyotito could be sent to
Had he not done so he would be writing school (the mind must be trained and
yet, and the incident of an Indian fisher- filled with wisdom).
man's surrender to the challenge of expe- Juana made the classic gesture of the
rience would be growing into the saga of emotion [al] nature; she tried to throw the
man's search for a soul. As it is, the ac- pearl into the sea. Kino restrained her,
tion of the story is brief, and in it, as in and then, after he had again been at-
all folk tales, there are, as Mr. Steinbeck tacked, and after his house had been
says, "only good and bad things and burned and his canoe wrecked (his assail-
black and white things and good and evil ants were nameless shadows; he recog-
things and no in-between anywhere." nized none of them), he set out in flight
It began one morning when a scorpion with Kino, Coyotito and the pearl. But he
bit the baby Coyotito (the biting of the did not strike for the city in the hills; he

320
did not face his dream and attempt to re- of a man who turned his back and
alize it. He followed the coast, and even- walked away when his name was called
tually he was found by a man on horse- and he was told to bring up out of Egypt,
back; he killed the man and the two which is the mind of the world, the pearl
trackers who were with him, but Coyo- whose price redeems the soul. Kino has
tito was shot and died. Kino and Juana many brothers.
returned to the town, and Kino threw the
pearl into the sea.
That is the end of the story as Mr.
Steinbeck heard it; the horseman is easy "The Pearl."
to identify as the Spaniard who conquered Booklist, 44
the Indian, though horsemen representing
desires of the lower mind normally in (15 December 1947), 152.
folklore pursue the ego in quest of the
soul. Kino, refusing the adventure of the
spirit, renouncing his opportunity for re- A short, somber tale about a Mexican
alization and understanding and identity, pearl fisher who finds a fantastically large
returns to the rim of the unconscious, the pearl. Instead of being the means to a
primitive state wherein responsibility re- better life for the fisherman, the pearl
sides in nature and wherein man nurses, arouses envy and greed, leads to murder
like a tree, at the breast of earth. He and the death of the fisherman's child,
thought once of the city in the hills, and is at last given back to the sea. Sup-
shook briefly with the dream of the grail, posedly a folk tale, the story may be in-
then gave up in fear and ran away. terpreted as a parable....
In the past Mr. Steinbeck has demon-
strated an affection for this acceptance of
defeat, this philosophy of rejected realiza-
tion, this refusal to face up to ownership "Counterfeit Jewel."
of the pearl of great price; two of his
novels, Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Time, 50
were concerned with it. He has also writ- (22 December 1947),
ten of those who keep the pearl and who
fight for it, those who strike out for the
90, 92.
city in the hills and who, if they are cut
down on the way, fall forward. This pre-
sent reversion to the theme of negation is "It was as large as a sea-gull's egg. It was
a simple task of tale-telling, complete the greatest pearl in the world," and Kino
with biblical rhythms and repeated pat- had found it. How the pearl brought
terns of prose melody; it probably indi- grief to its finder is a Mexican legend
cates, on Mr. Steinbeck's part, no more which Novelist John Steinbeck first heard
than the average man's recurrent inner wish on a trip to Mexico in 1940. Seldom has
that he had let well enough alone and an old tale been made to pay off so richly.
never begun the lonely journey through Steinbeck expanded it into a long short
awareness toward the crest of identity. story for the Woman's Home Compan-
ion, has adapted it as a Hollywood movie
The Pearl, as distinguished from the script to be released next spring, and now
Gnostic "Hymn of the Soul," is the story has issued The Pearl between covers with

321
powerful but hurried illustrations by famed As a seasonal item, it is in a familiar
Mexican Painter Orozco.... pattern: a rewritten Mexican folk tale,
Steinbeck has a field day with this complete with all the stock elements of
simple tale. "Kino squatted by the fire pit the genre....
and rolled a hot corncake and dipped it An appropriate solemnity is supported
in sauce and ate it. And he drank a little by a lackluster, almost iambic, prose,
pulque and that was breakfast.... Kino which suggests, more than anything else,
sighed with satisfactionand that was the boredom of the writer. The characters
conversation." The style is simple and speak in that kind of monumental grunt
effective when Steinbeck is describing which has become, in our fiction, the
things; turned on people it acquires a conventional patois of the noble savage
stickiness that is rapidly becoming the and the proletariat. And finally, if he
trademark of Steinbeck's prose: "And the needs it, the reader receives his cue in
baby was weary and petulant, and he Steinbeck's instructions to "take his own
cried softly until Juana gave him her meaning from it and read his own life
breast, and then he gurgled and clucked into it."
against her." Steinbeck's Pearl will seem a
little jewel only to those readers who find
important meanings in calculated ambi-
guities, and mistake manipulated senti- "Briefly Noted."
mentality for emotion. New Yorker, 23
(27 December 1947), 59.
John Farrelly.
. . . A parable of Mexico, told in the
"Fiction Parade." humble, almost Biblical manner that Mr.
New Republic, 117 Steinbeck habitually employs when deal-
(22 December 1947), 28. ing with the Mexicans. There is nothing
extraordinary about this story of a poor
Indian fisherman who finds a magnificent
pearl and is thereafter driven by the forces
John Steinbeck's latest novel, The Pearl... of evil and avarice to a tragic end (which
was first published two years ago in the you can see coming on the first page);
Woman's Home Companion. Since then, some such tale is in the folklore of every
it has been worked into a motion-picture land. Mr. Steinbeck's version of it, however,
script. Its first appearance in book form has the distinction and sincerity that are
serves very well as Steinbeck's bid for a evident in everything he writes. Illustra-
position on the Christmas list. Although tive drawings by Jose Clemente Orozco.
it would be doing him a disservice to sup-
pose that he took The Pearl seriously, its
publication is not without significance in
his career. For when the public will buy
this story under Steinbeck's name, his
reputation has achieved that immunity in
which an author may be said to endorse,
rather than to write, his book.

322
Anne Hunter. Stevie Smith.
"The Pearl." "Short Stories."
Commonweal, 47 Spectator [England], 181
(23 January 1948), 377. (29 October 1948), 570.

. . . The tale is of a Mexican diver who ... Mr. Steinbeck is not quite at home with
found a pearl of great size and of how it his old Mexican "folk" story"fake"
brought him calamity and perhaps wis- would be betterof Kino, his wife Juana
dom. It is a legend of simple people, a and their child Coyotito. Kino finds a
piece of folk music which Steinbeck great pearl, tries to sell it, learns that
transformed into an art song. merchants cheat, keeps the pearl, com-
Form is the most important thing mits murder, runs away with his family,
about him (Steinbeck). It is at its best in is hunted and when the baby is killed
this work. The story moves with simplic- comes home and throws the pearl away.
ity and direction, with ease and polish. Mr. Steinbeck tries hard to be simple,
Because of the writing there is a remote- but he only manages to be embarrassing:
ness, a pearl-like quality in it. It comes "Coyotito whimpered and Juana mut-
between the characters and the reader. tered little magics over him to make him
Kino and Juana, his wife, are figures on a silent." The book is really a fine example
tapestry, fitting into a pattern. In this tale of what the Germans call erstklassiger
it is suitable. One wishes sometimes that Kitsch. It is difficult to find an adequate
the people in Steinbeck could take over English translation for these withering
as people. So often they are Steinbeck's words and kinder perhaps not to try.
people before they are people, and then
they lack complete authority. But in this
tale it is fitting.
And besides his form what else is "At Home and Abroad.55
there in Steinbeck? And why is there not
more? There is much else in him. He is a Times Literary
man of many arts and causes, and some- Supplement [London],
how there is no whole greater than these
parts. But he does write well. Maybe too
6 November 1948, p. 621.
well. This is a very good story; not a
great story.
The drawings by Orozco are dramatic A Pacific Coast Indian finds a giant pearl
but not very good. More interesting are and everyone tries to rob him of it. The
Peggy Worthington's illustrations of Vi- dealers tell him it is a monstrosity worth
king's recent edition of Tortilla Flat. only a thousand pesos as a museum ex-
hibit. Thieves, spurred on by an avari-
cious French doctor, break into his little
hut. He kills one and takes to the moun-
tains with his wife and child. He am-
bushes his pursuers, but the child is shot.

323
He and his wife return to the sea and strange than Henry Wallace's picture of
throw the pearl away. That is the story of an imperialist England. Having without
Mr. Steinbeck's short novel. The Pearl is knowing it already cured Coyotito by their
written with studied simplicity and some simple native remedy, a seaweed poultice,
quasi-biblical touches intended to rein- the fisherman and his wife go out pearl-
force its allegorical effect. The exact loca- fishing, in the hope of luck bringing them
tion and the nationality of the exploiters enough to pay the doctor's fees.
except that of the doctor, are left indefi- But their luck is too good. The father
nite. Mr. Steinbeck makes a strenuous at- finds a pearl of fabulous size and beauty.
tempt to get right inside the mind of At once evil closes in upon them; thieves
Kino, the finder of the pearl, and pro- burn their house, drive the fisherman to
duces a vivid, touching little picture of murder; the unfortunate, fortunate couple
his humble family life. The result is a taut fly with Coyotito by night in an attempt
and, on the whole, very effective piece of to reach Mexico City, and there sell the
story-telling even if it leaves the impres- pearl. They are followed by trackers and
sion of being a story told to a prearranged killersthis is the best part of the book.
pattern rather than one that grows, pearl- The fisherman kills all three of his tor-
wise, out of its own material.... mentors, but in the struggle Coyotito also
dies. The mother carrying the bloody
bundle of their little son on her head, the
couple return to their town, and throw
"New Novels." the jewel, now grown odious even for the
fisherman, back into the sea.
New Statesman and An effective, if not entirely original,
Nation [England], 36 theme. But three-quarters of one's pleas-
(6 November 1948), ure in it is offset by the desperate archa-
ism and the portentous reflections of his
400-1. prose. The continued misuse of the con-
junction "and" with which to start a sen-
tence: phrases such as: "a town is a thing
. . . No doubt, Mr. Steinbeck is one of the like a colonial animal," "a school of
most accomplished narrators in our time; great fishes dove i n . . . . " Why must so
and these days the dying gift of narrative sensitive an artist as Mr. Steinbeck, just
is not to be despised. His latest work, a because he writes of peasants, employ
short parable called The Pearl is a com- this patronizing, semi-Biblical jargon? He
mendably spare piece of storytelling. Re- is not, after all, Miss Pearl Buck.
turning to the world approximately of
Tortilla Flat, it recounts the misfortunes
of a Mexican peon when faced with the
prospect of wealth. A pearl-fisher living
on the Gulf is quietly eating his breakfast
when he sees a scorpion bite his baby,
Coyotito. The distracted couple appeal
vainly for aid to the local doctorthe
usual portrait of a heartless Mexican capi-
talist which seemed all right in Eisenstein's
day, but now strikes one as hardly less

324
 Allegory." Brooklyn Eagle,
Checklist of Additional 30 November 1947, "Christmas
Book Number," p. 3.
Reviews Ritch Love joy. "Round and About."
Monterey [Calif.] Peninsula Herald,
9 December 1947, p. 4.
John Hersey. "Books and Things." New Donald Weeks. "Steinbeck's Slightly
York Herald Tribune, 24 November Tarnished Pearl." San Francisco
1947, p. 19. Chronicle, This World magazine,
Sterling North. "He Likes the Common 14 December 1947, p. 16.
Man." Washington Post, Bill Bedell. "John Steinbeck, Story-
30 November 1947, p. 7B. Teller." Houston Post, 19 September
R. C. Whitford. "Avarice and Love in 1948, Section 4, p. 16.

325
A RUSSIAN JOURNAL
A RUSSIAN
OURNAL
WITH PICTURES BY Robert Capa

1948
The Viking Press NEW YORK
 Russian told the hulking, hearty Steinbeck,
"Russian Journal." "seems to us cynical." Steinbeck explained
the job of a writer was to set down his
Time, 51 (26 January 1948), time as he understood it. He tried to
58-9. make clear the unofficial standing of
writers in America: "They are considered
just below acrobats and just above seals."
Eventually, Capa and Steinbeck were given
In London's Savoy Hotel, John Steinbeck an interpreter and approval to go to the
overheard a Chicago Tribune man snort: Ukraine, Stalingrad and Georgia, where
"Capa, you have absolutely no integrity!" the interpreter himself needed an inter-
That wartime remark, says Steinbeck, preter. They went by air, always in U.S.-
"intrigued meI was fascinated that built C-47s, and never found a stewardess
anybody could get so low that a Chicago who did anything but carry pink soda
Tribune man could say such a thing. I water and beer to the pilots. In restau-
investigated Capa, and I found out it rants, of all places, they found red tape as
was perfectly true." Photographer Robert endless as spaghetti.
Capa and Author Steinbeck became great
friends. Amid the ruins of Kiev, they found Ger-
Last March, in a Manhattan bar, they man prisoners helping clear up the rubble.
met again. Over two drinks they decided "One of the few justices in the world,"
to go to Russia to record, not the politi- wrote Steinbeck. "And the Ukrainian
cal news, but the private life of private people do not look at them. They turn
Russians. Last week, in the New York away...." At the museum there were
Herald Tribune (which had jumped at crowds staring wistfully at plaster models
the chance to pay their way) and in of the future Kiev. "In Russia it is always
twoscore other U.S. and foreign papers, the future that is thought of. It is the
the first chapters of their Russian Journal crops next year . . . the clothes that will
appeared. According to plan, they had be made very soon. If ever a people took
brought back no headlines but an un- energy from hope. . . . "
excited (and sometimes unexciting) report In the fields around shell-pocked
that, like any proof that the Russians are Shevchenko, they found cheerful bands
people after all, would make the brazen of women picking cucumbers. They were
voice of the Kremlin all the more dis- barefoot, "for shoes are still too precious
heartening. to use in the fields." Everywhere, they
found dogged, friendly people, willing to
The Soviets admitted themwith some share their bread and cabbage, anxious
misgivings about Capa (who, in any coun- to hear about America and full of mis-
try, talks and looks like an enemy alien) conceptions about it, instilled by the Rus-
and his cameras. "The camera is one of sian press. Again and again they were
the most frightening of modern weap- asked: "Will the U.S. attack us?" Again
ons," says Steinbeck, "and a man with a and again they had to explain why the
camera is suspected and watched." To a U.S. does not believe in controlling its
polite, but suspicious young man at VOKS, press or regimenting its people.
the cultural relations office in Moscow, Capa was refused permission to shoot
they tried to explain their mission. the antlike activity at the Stalingrad trac-
"Your own most recent work," the tor plant (and later had 100 of his 4,000

329
negatives confiscated). They came home to take care of them or even admit that
convinced that the Soviets, who keep the they had arrived. Steinbeck and Capa be-
permanent foreign correspondents cooped gan to doubt their own existence. It be-
up in Moscow, have the world's worst gan to seem as if they had dreamed they
sense of public relations. "The Embassy were in Russia.
people and the [regular] correspondents They found a little distrust at first
feel alone, feel cut off. They are island among the Russian officials, in spite of
people in the midst of Russia, and it is no the nonpolitical nature of their assign-
wonder that they become lonely and bit- ment. Karaganov, the head of Voks, the
ter," Steinbeck wrote. "But if it had been cultural relations bureau, explained that
part of our job to report news as they a number of Americans had come to Rus-
must, then... we too could never have sia, and after praising Russia to the Rus-
left Moscow." sians, had gone home and written what
he regarded as anti-Russian books. Even-
tually, after interrogating Steinbeck and
his photographer, he cleared them and
William McFee. gave them an interpreter, a young lady
named Svetlana, which the Americans in-
"Book Reviews.55 stantly converted into "Sweet Lana."
New York Sun, It will be seen that Steinbeck and Capa
16 April 1948, p. 24. had their tongues in their cheeks. They
refused to be stuffy. Steinbeck mentions,
with disarming candor, that he uses the
personal pronoun "I" by special arrange-
"It is our belief," says John Steinbeck in ment with John Gunther. He pokes a lot
his A Russian Journal, illustrated with of fun at Capa's personal habits and as-
photographs by Robert Capa . . . "that the signs him a chapter, in which Capa does
Russians are the worst propagandists, the a nice job on Steinbeck. But make no
worst public relations people, in the world." mistake. This is one of the best books
This is not an encouraging statement about Russia since Maurice Baring wrote
at the beginning of a book about the his Puppet Show of Memory in 1922.
Russian people, but Steinbeck, of course, We can only regret that Steinbeck lacks
is speaking not of the common people Baring's command of the Russian lan-
but of the Russian bureaucracy. What he guage. But he has a most observant eye,
went to Russia to report on was the a deadpan humor and a command of
people in the towns and villages, Capa the English language unsurpassed by any
assisting with some of the most magnifi- American of our time. The Steinbeck
cent photography we have had of late. In style is one of the marvels of the age. It is
this they succeeded. Steinbeck has drilled entirely unpretentious; it would seem
a few holes in the Iron Curtain and given anybody could write like that. But it is an
us a glimpse of Russia's working classes. instrument of the greatest delicacy and of
He found that Russia was full of Rus- extraordinary versatility. It can be used
sians, and the Russians were human be- for any purpose.
ings. He got on very well. Steinbeck has fun with Simenov's play,
At first Steinbeck and Capa, instead of The Russian Question. It is the most
being shadowed by suspicious police, popular play in Russia. It is a grotesque
could not find anybody who was willing caricature of American life which is ac-

330
cepted as literally true. Steinbeck wrote a Steinbeck has written it in a smooth, cas-
synopsis of a play called The American ual, informal manner that always is read-
Question, which was a travesty of Rus- able and frequently entertaining (in spite
sian life. of several lapses into a clumsy and forced
Fear of the camera is a psychopathic jocularity at Mr. Capa's expense). With
symptom of Russian bureaucracy. Capa a keen eye for pictorial detail and a
wanted to photograph the interior of warm friendliness for individual Russians,
the Stalingrad tractor plant, which the Mr. Steinbeck has described people, places
Americans were permitted to go through, and travel adventures. Like a letter from
but no pictures were allowed. All the ma- a traveling friend, A Russian Journal is
chinery was American and the assembly pleasant reading, but it doesn't add up
lines had been designed by American en- to much....
gineers. It had been a tank plant while
the Germans bombed the city and the
tanks were being turned out under fire.
Capa wanted to show the faces of the Ben Clare.
people. Permission refused.
Steinbeck thinks Russia's secret weap-
"Iron Curtain Penetrated
on is hospitality. The Americans were by Steinbeck."
nearly fed to death with immense ban- Los Angeles Times,
quets wherever they went in the country.
They visited Georgia, and speak with rev- 18 April 1948, Part 3,
erence of the Georgian wines and cakes. p. 5.
The people do not fear the atom bomb.
Stalin has told them it will not be used
and will not do any harm, and Stalin, ac-
cording to the Russians, has never been Steinbeck saw more of Russia, and Capa
wrong. The Russian people do not want photographed more of the land and
war, Steinbeck insists. They want to be people than anyone who has gone behind
friends with Americans. He has no solu- the so-called Iron Curtain. That was be-
tion for this paradox. He went to Russia cause they went to Russia with only one
on a nonpolitical mission and he suc- thing in mind: to see the country and talk
ceeded brilliantly. with the people and watch them at their
herculean tasks of rebuilding, and to
have no thought of politics.
They took with them no preconceived
Orville Prescott. notions, favorable or unfavorable, and
they convinced the Russian official who
"Books of the Times." handled their request that they would re-
New York Times, port only what they observed, not what
16 April 1948, p. 21. they might imagine.

In the book, there is very little about

Communism or officialdom, and some of
. . . As books about Russia go, A Russian that is favorable, some angry or puz-
Journal is a lot better written than most, zledbut it is all understanding, for they
but it is more superficial than many. Mr. tried to put themselves in Russian caps

331
and figure out how they would feel to- the censorship, bureaucracy, inefficiency
ward foreigners in the land, and they also and the regimenting of writers are sharp
knew that we do some things in America and outspoken.
to exasperate visitors. Steinbeck frankly prefers the unregu-
There is a great deal about the Rus- lated confusion of American life to the
sian people, living in rubble and yet austere and moralistic Russian planning.
able to smile in the towns and villages But he is a warm and friendly man, as
smashed so wantonly by Nazis; rebuild- well as a charming writer, and he loved
ing houses, public buildings and apart- the exuberance and vitality, the expansive
ment houses; working with millions of hospitality and the hopeful dreams of the
willing hands to plant and harvest crops, Russian people. His book is filled with
to replace and tend orchards cut down by genuine, if far from uncritical, affection
Nazis, to erect farmhouses, to save the for them and a complete belief in their
children from starvationworking, man, essential goodwill and desire for peace.
woman and child, with crude farm imple-
ments and with what hands, arms, legs, In a world less filled with passions, his
eyes the war did not rob them of, even travel record would be liked in both
the small youngsters... . the US and the USSR. As it is, he has al-
ready been justified in his melancholy
Steinbeck's companion, famed Photog- foresight that "this journal will not be
rapher Capa, has illustrated the book satisfactory either to the ecclesiastical
with splendid shots of the country and Left, nor the lumpen Right. The first will
the rugged, good-natured people. And say it is anti-Russian, and the second that
Steinbeck makes his story always read- it is pro-Russian. Surely it is superficial,
able because he loves real people and be- and how could it be otherwise? We have
cause he has a sense of humor that never no conclusions to draw, except that Rus-
lets him down. sian people are like all other people in
the world. Some bad ones there are
surely, but by far the greater number are
very good." It does not seem a sensa-
Richard Watts, Jr. tional statement to make, but, in the cur-
rent state of violent tempers, it could well
"The Eye of the be one.
Observer.55 The need for a greater understanding
New Republic, 118 of the Russian people being what it is, it
may not be the highest praise to say that
(19 April 1948), 22-3. the outstanding quality of A Russian
Journal is its friendliness and its refusal
to take itself too seriously. It happens,
It is another small but ugly symptom of however, that these qualities arise, not
the sensitive state of Russian-American from any triviality or determined jocular-
relations that John Steinbeck's sympa- ity on Steinbeck's part, but from a frank
thetic account of his recent travels in the and cheerful admission of his limitations
Soviet Union should be denounced so vio- of opportunity and personal equipment.
lently by Moscow commentators. A Rus- He set down what he observed and no
sian Journal... certainly is not rhapsodic more, and he admitted his own short-
about the USSR; some of its criticisms of comings as a commentator. Steinbeck had

332
been in Moscow only once before, for a the Russians "had a hatred of war, they
few days in 1936he notes that the wanted the same things all people want
physical improvements since then have good lives, increased comfort, security
been tremendousand his traveling com- and peace."
panion, the brilliant Robert Capa, who
took the superb photographs which ac- Like all travelers in the USSR, Steinbeck
company the text, had never been in and Capa found that they were happier
Russia at all. They did not speak the outside of Moscow and in the Russian
language, although Capa speaks almost countryside. Moscow seemed to them a
every language in some form or other, somber city, with a sense of strain about
and their visit was a brief one which it and even the jokes were sharp and
took them only to Moscow, Stalingrad, critical, with no warmth in them. In the
the Ukraine and down into ideally beau- Ukraine and in Georgia they found gay-
tiful Georgia. ety and high spirits. They were least com-
fortable with the intellectuals, whom
They might have pretended to the omni- they found individually engaging, but as
science which comes so easily to travelers a group excessively earnest and intense.
in the Soviet Union, no matter how brief The Russian literary man may be, as
their sojourn. A Russian Journal is the Stalin desired, the architect of the soul,
more interesting as reading and the more and his contribution to the task of build-
valuable as a report because they did ing the new Soviet society has been a
not. It is clearly of the first importance tremendous one; but it was made at the
today to understand the Russians emo- sacrifice of his racial high spirits and
tionally, to see them as human beings his creative independence. Steinbeck did
not very different from ourselves, and the not like the extreme artistic conservatism
Steinbeck book, in its modest way, makes which caused the abstractionists and ex-
a definite contribution to just that sort of perimenters to be regarded with disdain
understanding. and moved their girl interpreter in Mos-
In setting down the reasons why A cow to say that Picasso "nauseated her."
Russian Journal offers no startling inside The author found a prevailing puritan-
revelations or new material, it should be ism, which made him at times almost sus-
stated immediately that Soviet guile and pect that the Russians, despite cheering
deception are not responsible. If there evidence to the contrary, were becoming
was anything Steinbeck and Capa failed a "stuffy, non-alcoholic, non-lecherous
to see, it was not because Kremlin agents people." Nor was he happy about the
were keeping it from them or were deceiving virtual worship of Stalin that he found
them by elaborate window-dressing. everywhere.
Steinbeck found that the Russians are As such comments suggest, A Russian
the worst propagandists in the world Journal does not flatter the Soviet Union
and the people the least skilled at the art and its people. The important thing is
of window-dressing. The travelers saw that the criticisms are made without the
good things, friendly people and the hope captious and snarling scorn character-
of a peaceful future in the USSR, because istic of books on Russia by hostile ob-
they were there to be seen. It was the indi- servers. If Steinbeck sees great flaws in
vidual Soviet citizen, in Moscow, Stalin- the Soviet picture, it is not in contrast to
grad, Tiflis, Batum and the collective farms an ideal and dreamy US, which never ex-
of the Ukraine who convinced them that isted, but against the reasonable back-

333
ground of the suffering, the struggles and think, disguised as a fur buyer and limited
the triumphs of a great, once backward, to the confines of Moscow and Leningrad.
essentially friendly people, who have made John Steinbeck is too good at his trade
amazing progress against vast odds in a not to recognize a failure. In the closing
brief period of history. And even in the paragraph, he calls his book "superficial"
short time they stayed in the USSR, they and says its only conclusion is "that Rus-
noted signs of physical progress in the sian people are like all other people in the
achievement of a better life for a land world." But it's doubtful if he proves
that had suffered to an unparalleled de- even that conclusion. For he saw and
gree from the ravages of war. learned so little of the Russian people.
Most of the weeks he had in the Soviet
Union, he passed among Ukrainians and
Georgians.
Irving Pflaum. (It's interesting that another recent
"Book Day,55 book, Russia and the Russians which was
highly praised in these columns by Prof.
Chicago Sun, Frederick Schumann, is based on a theory
that Russian people are NOT like all
26 April 1948, p. 48. other people in the world.)
Capa's contribution to A Russian
Journal is particularly disappointing. But
As their Russian journey was to Steinbeck the book contains only a few of the
and Capa, this book was for me an 3,000 photos he took in Russia and of
amusing disappointment. the somewhat less than 3,000 he was al-
I don't know what I expected. But be- lowed to take out. Surely he has better
cause Steinbeck is unquestionably a very work to show for his journey.
great writer and Capa a talented photog- The book's errors are innocent, amus-
rapher, I expected more than this. ing and not importantly misleading. It
Through the years, I have had the idea contains much pleasant writing and hon-
that a liberal American poet or writer est reporting and an occasional Capa
should visit Russia and report to our shot with just the right shadow and light.
people. I had in mind Carl Sandburg but Those who want to find the final an-
he always refused the assignment, beg- swer about the Russians will want this
ging old age, which is obvious nonsense. book as another piece of the Russian
For Carl can out-sing and out-drink even puzzle. But they won't find in it the com-
Stalin's Georgians who beat Steinbeck plete answer.
and Capa at both activities.
After reading what Steinbeck brought
back from Russia, I agree with Sandburg.
Perhaps no famous American, whose
writings are known in the U.S.S.R., could
get next to the Russian people. Soviet
officialdom stands in the way. He would
be shielded from the people by guides,
interpreters, officials, receptions and liter-
ary societies.
Steinbeck would have done better, I

334
 Ukraine and the Ukrainian people are
Oriana Atkinson. illuminating and extremely interesting.
They visited Kiev, mother of Russian cit-
"John Steinbeck and ies, and saw life and hope struggling up
Robert Capa Record a through the appalling ruins. They visited
two collective farms there, Svenchenko 1
Russian Journey." and Svenchenko 2, and found the workers
New York Times Book well fed and well housed. Although there
Review, 97 is a pitiful lack of farm machinery, the
work goes on, the harvests are garnered.
(9 May 1948), 3. "They are not a sad people," Mr.
Steinbeck says. "They are full of laughter,
jokes and songs." Mr. Capa's photo-
John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes graphs bear him out. The farm people
of Wrath, The Red Pony, Of Mice and look sturdy, merry and determined....
Men, and a number of other stories and Everywhere they went the Americans
novels which have become American were asked whether they thought there
classics, met the famous photographer, would be another war. "Will the United
Robert Capa, in a bar one day. After a States attack us?" the Russians asked.
few drinks, they decided to collaborate "Will we have to defend ourselves again
on a book on Russia.... The result of in our lifetime?" At Svenchenko 1, Mr.
the collaboration is A Russian Journal. Steinbeck found: "They knew no more
Pictures and text were originally pub- about their foreign policy than we know
lished in the New York Herald Tribune about ours. There was no animosity in
and elsewhere. their questions, only wonder. . . . Our
As a reporting job the book is superb. host said, 'Somewhere in all of this there
What they saw, they have presented sim- must be an answer and there must be
ply and honestly. Nobody can say that an answer quickly. Let us drink to the
they carried chips on their shoulders. But hope that an answer may be found,
they did find it a little difficult always to for the world needs peace, needs peace
remain calm when they met simon-pure very badly.'"
examples of Russian bureaucracy; and Since Mr. Steinbeck did not meet any
before they left the U.S.S.R., like every- members of the Politburo, he naturally
body else who gets the opportunity, they does not record their opinion on this sub-
visited the Kremlin. ject. As Mr. Steinbeck himself would say,
This book could only have been writ- "This we do not know." . . .
ten by an American. Although it bears Misery, despair, degradation of the
throughout the stamp of Mr. Steinbeck's human spirit? The author of The Grapes
sincerity, he sometimes breaks into the ir- of Wrath saw none of these. Within the
repressible American nonsense that al- narrow circumference of his journey, no
ways baffles the Russians. And it is nice political prisoners, no slave laborers, no
to know that even so high-minded an ob- fear, no poverty-stricken people broken
server as Mr. Steinbeck found some of on the wheel of totalitarianism made him
the aspects of Moscow life as comic and pause and reflect. Careful analysis of the
difficult as other Americans who have trip brings the thoughtful reader to one
had to end i t . . . . inescapable conclusion: The farther one
[Mr. Steinbeck's] descriptions of the gets from Moscow, even within the U.S.S.R.,

335
the freer the people, the brighter the dred instead of only seventy) and limited
outlook. himself to a few lines of text for each pic-
As far as this book goes, it is forth- ture. This book was conceived in cock-
right, simple and direct. There is, how- tails and nurtured prenatally with a
ever, a reverse side to the medal which ghastly volume of vodka and wine and
Mr. Steinbeck did not examine. And just an indecent amount of food. I do not
as he traveled in accustomed paths while know what stimulated the actual writing
in Russia, so, since his return, has he but it certainly wasn't loyalty to the
been accorded the usual, automatic treat- original intention of reporting on the
ment by the Russian press. He has been "private life of the Russian people."
denounced as bourgeois, and he has been Under the influence of several green
accused of misrepresentation, with free suisses served by Willy at the bar of
use of the usual odorous adjectives al- the New Bedford hotel in New York,
ways applied to foreign observers. Ex- Steinbeck and Capa decided that too
cept, of course, the Dean of Canterbury. much had been printed about what the
As for Mr. Capa's part in the collabo- Soviet leaders were thinking and doing
ration, he took "thousands of flash bulbs, and too little about the "private life of
hundreds of rolls of film, masses of cam- the Russian people." "No one wrote
eras and a tangle of flashlight wires," about it," Steinbeck complained. Well, in
with him from America. It would seem all these 220 big pages there is not a
that these supplies, plus the virgin terri- single private conversation between the
tory of Soviet Russia, plus Mr. Capa, author and a plain, private Soviet citizen.
would produce more distinguished pic- On the rare occasions he went into a
tures. However, since all the film had to home it was always crowded with visi-
be developed in Moscow by unloving tors who had come for a feast.
hands before being granted clearance, no Of course, Steinbeck and Capa do
doubt Mr. Capa thinks so, too. not speak Russian so they had to talk
through a Soviet government translator,
and no Soviet citizen would speak freely
in such circumstances. But the book con-
Louis Fischer. tains no evidence that Steinbeck even
tried, despite the interpreter, to get a So-
"Conducted USSR Tour." viet workingman or peasant or intellec-
Saturday Review, 31 tual to express himself on the problems
of private life in the Soviet Union. Most
(15 May 1948), 13-14. conversations recorded in the book were
at public dinners or in groups and then
the Russians all orated like Vravda edito-
Has anybody the right to write a book? rials. So did officials and prominent au-
Is an author justified in turning out a thors he met individually. In cases where
book simply because he is sure his pub- they spoke English, Steinbeck did not
lisher will publish it? I am inclined to probe at all into matters like friendship,
think that this volume should have been family relations between persons under a
suppressed by Steinbeck. Or perhaps he dictatorship, relations of persons to the
should have surrendered all the excellent dictatorship, relations of the artist to the
heavy paper to Capa's marvelous photo- state, freedom of speech, of movement,
graphs (one would have liked three hun- of conscience, etc. Usually they talked

336
about the danger of war and then Stein- it (but not to Stalin's dictatorship), and
beck elicited nice Kremlin cliches. it would have been satisfied with some-
Steinbeck writes that the American thing that was informative, that had
journalists resident in Moscow cannot facts, opinions, insights, interpretations.
travel outside the city without special They are wanting in this book.
permission, which is rarely if ever Steinbeck wished to be fair, and with
granted. Now some of these correspon- the exception of very few lapses he is
dents are consistently pro-Soviet. Did it fair. My objection is not that the book is
occur to Steinbeck why he was allowed too pro-Russian or too anti-Russian. It
to travel through the country though they just isn't Russian enough. I haven't taken
are not? They could, since they know the trouble to count the lines, but my
Russian, establish direct contact with guess is that more space is devoted to
Russians and look into their hearts and Steinbeck's intake of liquor and food and
minds and really study their private lives. to his teasing of Capa than to any aspect
Therefore, they are forbidden to move of Soviet life. These personal angles high-
from Moscow or to maintain friendly light the great Steinbeck's Russian Jour-
contacts with Moscovites. nal. I suspect that a Russian would be of-
Steinbeck received permission to go fended by the treatment his wonderful
about the country because the authorities country received at the hands of this
knew he couldn't learn anything, sur- American celebrity. And the cynics who
rounded as he was by translators, offi- directed Steinbeck's tour will laugh. But
cials, and big-shot writers who knew they should cry. For this is the chaff
what to tell him. This being the case, Russia will get as long as those who
Steinbeck might have come back to New could do better are denied access to the
York and said, "I went to do a really im- Soviet population.
portant and revealing book, but I didn't Soviet citizens would be charmed to
get enough material, so I'll just write a learn of Steinbeck's main conclusion:
few newspaper articles and pay back the he discovered that people are people.
publishers' advance, if any, from the roy- STEINBECK REVEALS RUSSIANS ARE
alties of my next novel." HUMAN BEINGS. That's the big story
"Surely it is superficial," Steinbeck ad- of the book. Terrific. But what goes on in-
mits in his last paragraph, "and how side them he never attempted to ascertain.
could it be otherwise?" Correct. "We A Russian Journal is not a portrait of
know that this journal will not be satis- the Russian people. It is merely a portrait
factory either to the ecclesiastical Left, of the American artist turned police re-
nor to the lumpen Right. The first will porter in a police state. The only thing
say it is anti-Russian, and the second that added is the daily banquet.
it is pro-Russian." This statement reflects
the grave error of many fellow-travellers
who think that America is either Left or
Right. As a matter of fact, neither the
Communists nor the Fascists count for
much without dupes from the Center,
which constitutes the political bulk of the
nation. The Center in the United States
has a healthy curiosity about the Russian
people and, I think, a friendly attitude to

337
 tremendous feasting commonly reserved
"Double Vodka." for eminent foreign authors. Interviewed
by the editor of a Ukrainian literary mag-
Times Literary azine, however, he was somewhat taken
Supplement [London], aback when he discovered that "the an-
swers I was supposed to have given did
23 April 1949, p. 259. not very closely approximate what I had
said." This, he hastens to explain, was
not done on purpose; the trouble was not
It is a rather trivial aspect of the journal- a matter of language but of "translation
ist in Mr. Steinbeck that is represented in from one kind of thinking to another."
this volume. He and Mr. Capa spent two From Kiev he proceeded to Stalingrad,
summer months in Russia some little on to Tiflisthat is, Tbilisiand thence
while ago; there is nothing to indicate the to the Stalin birthplace and museum at
precise year of their visit, but it seems Gori. He describes the birthplace, cov-
probable that they went in 1946. Mr. ered by an enormous canopy of stained
Steinbeck went with the no doubt laud- glass supported on square golden marble
able but not very original idea of ignor- columns and set in a vast rose garden.
ing politics and reporting on the "private This, perhaps, is his most serious effort of
life" of the Soviet citizen. Such a mission, description and interpretation, though
unfortunately, undertaken with a limited scarcely of private life in the Soviet
equipment of historical or other relevant Union; the feasting and drinking pre-
knowledge, argues a certain naivety on dominate in what follows. Mr. Capa
his part. And the evidence of a marked suffered agonies of uncertainty before his
innocence of mind accumulates rapidly films, after marvels of official obstruc-
from the point where Mr. Steinbeck ac- tion, precaution and inspection, were
cepts the explanation offered him by the eventually returned to him (most of them,
Soviet Consular authorities in New York anyhow) in a sealed box at the airport
for their reluctance to grant a visa to Mr. just as he was about to leave. The anxiety
Capa in the latter's capacity of camera- of the Soviet authorities seems to have
man. "Why do you have to take a cam- been just a little excessive in the circum-
eraman? We have lots of cameramen in stances. The photographs, reproduced by
the Soviet Union." lithography, have come out well and are
But the truth is that Mr. Steinbeck for the most part expertly composed, but
easily lost sight of the private life of a great many merely present the usual
the Soviet citizen in his preoccupation scenes of idyllic happiness and few of the
with drinking parties and the ways of others are intrinsically interesting.
American foreign correspondents at the
Metropole and the Savoy in Moscow. Of
such familiar matters there is a deal too
much in this book. Not that it entirely
lacks interest. Having been encouraged
by a carefully spoken Voks official to
be entirely "objective," provided with a
pretty young interpreter and shown some
of the sights in Moscow, Mr. Steinbeck
went off to Kiev and was regaled with the

338
 needed, that the Russians have lost none
Richard Chancellor. of the skill in such matters that has served
them so well since the days of "Tsar
"Americans in Russia." Boris" Godunov.
Spectator [England], 183 It is tiresome, but inevitable in the cir-
cumstances, that even in a book of 200
(29 July 1949), 152. pages, covering six weeks and many
thousands of miles of travelling through
Russia, far too much space is taken up by
In these days, when the Russian obses- "padding." It is equally irritating to have
sion for secrecy has reached such a pitch names such as "Svietlana" americanised
that Pravda itself is on occasions withdrawn into "Sweet Lana," and this is typical
from foreign circulation, any book, how- of a jarring facetiousness which extends
ever superficial, from an actual observer throughout the book but which may, of
of that enigmatic country has a value out course, be due simply to the author's in-
of all proportion to its intrinsic merits. A ward realization of his lack of any real
Russian Journal, by John Steinbeck, illus- comprehension of a great and ancient race.
trated with photographs taken on the spot How else could John Steinbeck have
by Robert Capa, can be forgiven on these written as he does about the world-fa-
grounds alone for the thinness of its con- mous Lavra and Cathedral of St. Sophia
tents, but, in addition, it gives us an op- in Kiev, and have coupled his few lines
portunity to understand something of the on one of the greatest of Russia's war
bewilderment which is the chief impres- tragedies with remarks like this of Capa's,
sion produced by Soviet Russia on two "All good churches are gloomy. That's
well-known and perhaps typical Ameri- what makes them good"? John Steinbeck
cans during their first visit to the U.S.S.R. found the Sword of Stalingrad "a little
Before the war an important weap- absurd in the poverty of its imagination,"
on in the armoury of the Propaganda and it is to be hoped that the ladies of
and Agitation Directorate of the Central Coventry will disregard his reference to
Committee of the Communist Party for "the tablecloth with the embroidered names
conveying to a sceptical world the desired of fifteen hundred women in a small
impression of the Soviet Utopia was the British town." But when the Georgian
"Intourist" organization, which catered queen Tamara is compared with "the
efficiently for the needs of foreigners vis- fairy queens of the world, like Elizabeth,
iting the Soviet Union. Since 1945, how- and Catherine of Aragon and Eleanor of
ever, the system has for various reasons Aquitaine," one may be forgiven for wish-
remained in abeyance. It may be that in ing that some of John Steinbeck's "borscht"
John Steinbeck the Russians saw a useful [sic] had disagreed with him. However,
means of cutting their Intourist propa- the Russians have time-honoured meth-
ganda losses at second-hand, so to speak, ods of coping with Western philistines,
and it can only have been some such con- and the description of their final depar-
sideration as this which impelled them ture from Tiflis airport is a joy to read,
to give an entry visa at the same time to and the best thing in the book.
the photographer, Robert Capa, with a The authors (for Robert Capa has
mountain of films and equipment. Their contributed a short chapter and all the il-
choice of men, and the final outcome, lustrations) were able in six weeks to
should be sufficient proof, if proof were cover an itinerary which included Moscow,

339
Kiev, Moscow, Stalingrad, Moscow, Tiflis
and back again to Moscow, with a train Checklist of Additional
trip from Tiflis to Batum thrown in. The
whole period was spent under the auspices Reviews
of V.O.K.S., the Soviet Society for Cul-
tural Relations, and it was an inevitable
consequence of the peculiarities of the Scott Adams. "Subject Books." Library
Russian air-transport system that most journal, 73 (15 April 1948),
of their time should have been spent in 650.
the Russian capital. Within their limita- Iris Barry. "Sprightly Report on Russia."
tions they have faithfully recorded what New York Herald Tribune Weekly
they saw and heard, and many of Robert Book Review, 24 (18 April 1948), 3.
Capa's photographs are excellent. It was Victor H. Bernstein. "Family Album of
only when they had suffered the full im- the Russian People." PM, 18 April
pact of Georgian and Ukrainian hospital- 1948, pp. 12-13M.
ity that honesty impelled them to record: "Briefly Noted." New Yorker, 24
"We had the feeling that we were not see- (1 May 1948), 107.
ing things sharply any more," and it is "A Russian Journal." Booklist, 44
perhaps for this reason that they could (15 May 1948), 311.
not do full justice to the celebrations in James Doull. "For Readers of Varied
honour of Moscow's three-hundredth an- Tastes." Sacramento Bee, 12 June
niversary, nor to the invitation to the 1948, p. 19.
Kremlin with which they were honoured Geoffrey Gorer. "Press Gang." New
before they left. And as they were ush- Statesman and Nation [England], 37
ered dazedly into their final aeroplane (25 June 1949), 683.
they came to this conclusion: "We found, Arthur L. Simpson, Jr. "A Russian
as we had suspected, that the Russian Journal" Steinbeck Quarterly, 5
people are people, and as with other (Spring 1972), 53-4.
people, that they are very nice." Most of
us who have had the same experience
will agree with them.

340
BURNING BRIGHT (THE NOVEL)
 JOHN STEINBECK

A PLAY IN STORY FORM

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK 1950

 as a play by J. M. Synge or Lord
Orville Prescott. Dunsany. It is a moral lesson celebrating
the virtues of love and loyalty and cour-
"Books of the Times." age, nearly as far removed from the de-
New York Times, based human riff-raff of Cannery Row
and The Wayward Bus as Pilgrim's
20 October 1950, p. 25. Progress. It is nearer in spirit to Mr.
Steinbeck's Indian folk legend, The Pearl,
than to anything else he has written. The
For the first time on record a book by a two books together are evidence that
celebrated author is being published in John Steinbeck has outgrown his tempo-
the same week as the production of a rary obsession with human worthlessness
play derived from it. Book and play are and enrolled, if not on the side of the an-
John Steinbeck's Burning Bright. Its mer- gels, at least on the side of individual
its as a play behind footlights with actors worth and human dignity.
adding the illusion of flesh-and-blood re- And it is because of its message of
ality to Mr. Steinbeck's symbolical char- affirmation, its declaration of faith in
acters were discussed yesterday by Mr. people and life, that Burning Bright de-
Atkinson on the theatre page. It is the serves respect. A philosophy of life is im-
book, to be read by thousands of persons plicit in all fiction, explicit in much. All
who will not be able to see the play, art is didactic to a certain extent, whether
which concerns us here. As a book, then, for good or for ill. If the didacticism is
Burning Bright is artificial and peculiar, clumsy, the art is damaged. If it is deft as
but moderately effective. well as sincere, there can be small room
This is the third example of a literary for complaint. In Burning Bright it seems
form of Mr. Steinbeck's own invention, completely sincere; but it is superficial
the "play-novelette" as he calls it. The and awkward.
others were Of Mice and Men and The Burning Bright is the story of a man
Moon Is Down. A play-novelette, says who passionately desired a son to carry
Mr. Steinbeck, "is a play that is easy to on his family tradition and be his link
read or a short novel that can be played with immortality. Unfortunately, Joel
simply by lifting out the dialogue." It has Saul was sterile. His young second wife,
two justifications in Mr. Steinbeck's Mordeen, loved Joel so devotedly that
mind: "to provide a play that will be she was unfaithful to him to provide him
more widely read because it is presented with the happiness for which he desper-
as ordinary fiction, which is a more fa- ately yearned. The father of the son was
miliar medium," and to augment "the a young and mindless brute, the eternal
play for the actor, the director and the interloper. Joel's best friend, always
producer, as well as the reader." It gives called Friend Ed, was loyal, patient and
theatre people "the fullest sense of the in- understanding. These four starkly sym-
tention of the writer." bolical characters act out Mr. Steinbeck's
Burning Bright is not only an example morality play.
of an experimental form; it is a radical As individuals they are unbelievable.
departure from all Mr. Steinbeck's previ- The dialogue they are forced to speak is
ous work. This is a legend, a parable and rigidly stylized and painfully artificial,
a folk poem, as far removed from the sometimes sounding like something out
brawny realism of The Grapes of Wrath of Hiawatha"strong in your wife-loss,"

343
"friend-right to ask a question." To make
them as obviously universal symbols as Maxwell Geismar.
possible Mr. Steinbeck has changed the
setting and background for the sections "Cosmic Mother and the
of his novel which correspond with the Gift of Life."
three acts of the version in the theatre.
In the first Joel, Mordeen and Victor,
Saturday Review, 33
the lover, are circus acrobats and Friend (21 October 1950), 14.
Ed is a clown. In the second Joel and
Friend Ed are farmers and Victor is a
hired man. In the third they are sea cap- John Steinbeck's new "play-novelette" is
tains and Victor is a first mate. But the a flat failure as a novelette at least, and I
story goes on in each section from where think it is correct to add that he has not
it left off in its predecessor. written an important work of fiction
It is astonishing in view of all these since The Grapes of Wrath, more than
artificialities that Burning Bright is inter- ten years ago.
esting. But the reading mind can adjust What has happened to the career of
itself to the most bizarre literary conven- this writer who was, along with Tom
tions quickly. And when they are used to Wolfe, one of the major figures to emerge
tell as simple and universally human a during the 1930's? Burning Bright, as
story as this they do not distract so much you might guess, is actually a play in
as one might expect. Mr. Steinbeck's four three actsa play that is "easy to read,"
characters may not be interesting individ- as Steinbeck says, or a short novel that
uals; but they are involved in a painfully can be played simply by "lifting out the
human situation and they are concerned dialogue," and something of this facile
with the most important of human emo- and mechanical approach pervades the
tions: love, friendship, pride, self-pity, whole tone of the writing. It is practically
selfishness, loyalty and self-sacrifice. a gadget, and you can also lift out any of
These are emotions which matter, the central characters without doing great
which can make an inept and mediocre harm to the script.
story or play capable of holding serious Another feature: the main characters
attention. Mr. Steinbeck's novel is neither are a group of circus acrobats in the first
inept nor mediocre. It is adequate within act, and remain as the same personages
the limitations he has seen fit to impose throughout the story. In the second act,
upon it. The cloud of darkness which sur- however, they are farmers; in the third,
rounded Joel, which he finally threw off sailors. This is symbolic, and at a quick
to face life with a generosity and courage guess the shift in scene from air to land
he had never previously known, hangs to sea involves the three main areas of
over us all. Mr. Steinbeck's sermon is not human or animal existence in the evolu-
without eloquence of a sentimental sort. tionary process.
But I am still trying to work out the
connection of this symbolism with the
story, and why Steinbeck's characters
should start out as birds and end up as
fish. The hero, Joe Saul, is starvingly in
love with his wife, Mordeen, who is, as
we are also told, a burning flower in his

344
heart. But he craves a son to carry on his important," he says, "just a face," and
bloodline. Mordeen, who knows that he here perhaps, in the revealing uncon-
is sterile, is determined to give him a scious which so often tells the truth
child by any means, and for this purpose about a writer's work, is the clue to the
selects Joe Saul's assistant, Victor, an- deterioration of Steinbeck's work in the
other acrobat, who represents animal vi- last decade. For the whole purpose of art,
tality and complete sterility of spirit. if not of evolution, is to create human
The drama is now under way, and faces which are important, and which
from this point on everything drops into cannot, as they are here, be lifted off and
place with a nice sharp, clean click. There on in the interests of the loftiest message
is no attempt to define any of these char- or the most startling stage effect.
acters beyond their symbolic roles in the That voice, indeed, and that "white
playwhatever happens to them is for- facelessness" are symptomatic of a writer
mulated by the plot and not by tempera- who is concerned only with grandilo-
ment or character. Mordeen is, of course, quent themes and mechanical people.
one of Steinbeck's recurrent fantasies Steinbeck's work has always been uneven,
of the Eternal Woman or the Cosmic and one had to measure such an excellent
Mothera type I myself have never per- early book as The Pastures of Heaven
sonally met. Even Victor, the brute-man, against such poor works as Cup of Gold
is affected by the aura of supreme love or To a God Unknown. The success of
that radiates from her; so much so that his later works was due primarily to the
he quite naturally wants to claim his own essential force and vitality of the writing
son. Jealous, frustrated, and in human which often obscured the false, sentimen-
terms the only credible character in the tal, or banal concepts of life which
play, he has to be murdered, of course, to Steinbeck still carried along with him.
preserve Mordeen's secret. And this "success" in terms of the
What is one to make, incidentally, of commercial stage, the movie scenario, the
this episode in which an innocent human best seller, has apparently led Steinbeck
being, however unpleasant, is bumped off to develop the least satisfactory elements
so casuallyan episode that has under- of his previous work. One can still hope
tones of the California vigilantes as well that he will throw off the adolescent phi-
as of maternal bliss? It is good stage, losophy, the facile emotions, the final
probably, but is it nice? Are the peculiar subordination of any genuine interest in
means of Mordeen really justified by the human beings as such to a tricky theme
altruistic climax of the drama, in which or a theatrical climaxthese typical char-
Joe Saul discovers (in another improbable acteristics, in short, of the California
episode) that what counts is not his own school of writing from Jack London and
son, but, as it were, anybody's child, or Frank Norris to Steinbeck himself, and of
the gift of life itself, which Mordeen in a cultural atmosphere in which writers
her infinite, if witless compassion has somehow never seem quite to grow up.
granted to him. But this is, judging from the present
In the final "big scene" of the drama work, a poor and desperate hope.
Joe Saul appears in the hospital, next to
Mordeen and the new child, as only a
voice and a white facelessness. "Where is
your face?" Mordeen asks, "What's hap-
pened to your face, Joe Saul?" "It's not

345
 I must give you Mr. Steinbeck's own
Richard Lockridge. words. He learns that
"Every man is father to all children
"Swan Dive into the and every child must have all men as fa-
Heart of the Matter." ther. This is not a little piece of private
property, registered and fenced and sepa-
New York Herald Tribune rated. This is the Child."
Weekly Book Review, 27 Joe Saul also learns that the human
(22 October 1950), 4. race must go "staggering on" because, if
there is nothing else to say for people,
"somewhere in us there is a shining."
("What animal has made beauty, created
As he did in Of Mice and Men, John it, save only we?")
Steinbeck has here written a play in the Throughout the language is stately, as
form of a novel, relying chiefly on dia- it so often is when a writer Sums Up.
logue to reveal character and keeping the There is hardly a page without its Affir-
action largely within the limits available mation. It is all so Universal it hurts. At
to the stage, but amplifying stage direc- any rate, remembering some of the things
tions into narrative. That has been, at Mr. Steinbeck has done in the past, it
any rate, his intention; now and then we hurts me.
read such novelistic passages as "Victor's If schedules have held, a play named
unfortunate choice it was always to mis- Burning Bright is now at the Broadhurst,
see, to mis-hear, to misjudge," an idio- brought there by accomplished people of
syncrasy of character perhaps a little the theater. Perhaps they will have found
difficult to reveal in pantomime or by in it something more than appears on the
facial expression. Now and then, too, ac- page. I find it, however, pretty hard to
tion takes place off-stage, but that hap- guess what.
pens in the theater also, or used to. By
and large, I guess, Mr. Steinbeck has
done what he wanted to, technically.
He has also made one of those swan Alice S. Morris.
dives into what he believes to be the "Inheritance for a Child."
heart of the matter which now and then
tempt even good writers, particularly New York Times Book
when they are thinking in dramatic Review, 100
terms. If Mr. Steinbeck has found his
conception too shallow and so bumped (22 October 1950), 4, 34.
his head, that is no more than Sean
O'Casey did when, in Within the Gates,
he made a similar leap into meanings John Steinbeck's brief new work is scaled
which turned out to be not so deep as he to the heroic dimension. Its theme is
had imagined. The idea, of course, is to timeless and touching: the dilemma of a
tell a simple little story which Sums Up heredity-possessed man who discovers
Everything... . that he is sterile and must embrace as his
What is Summed Up is, more or less, own another man's child. Its four solitary
man's desire for continuity of life. What characters are neither flesh-and-blood
Joe Saul learnswell, a little reluctantly. nor stock figures: husband, wife, friend,

346
outsider, they are the legendary arch- knowledge. The genes and chromosomes
types of folklore, speaking a spare, bare- be damned! "Every man is father to all
boned language salted with colora kind children and every child must have all
of abstract of folk speech that is stilted, men as father," he says to his wife. "This
poetic and moving. [child] is not a little piece of private prop-
What it all comes to is a full-scale erty, registered and fenced and separated.
flight on Mr. Steinbeck's part into the up- Mordee! This is the Child"
per air of the O'Neill genre of morality Two things, it strikes this reviewer,
play; and while he navigates his craft weaken and thin Mr. Steinbeck's moral
with virtuosity, one returns to earth not drama. The crucial whim that brings Joe
quite convinced that one has ever cleared Saul face to face with the knowledge
the treetops. of his sterility is implausible. The shabby
In describing the "play-novelette" and contemptuous use of the outsider
form in which his new book is cast (a Victor (Joe Saul's circus partner, farm
form which Mr. Steinbeck used more hand, First Mate) by the insiders shakes
loosely in Of Mice and Men and The the framework of the whole morality.
Moon Is Down), the author writes: "It is (Wasn't he, also, once the Child}) To
a play that is easy to read or a short justify this high-minded sacrifice of a
novel that can be played simply by lifting fellowman, even if a handsome and lout-
out the dialogue." ish one, the essential goodness and supe-
Actually, Burning Bright in its struc- riority of Saul would have to be proved
ture, strictures, tensions and impact is all more guilefully than it is in Mr. Stein-
play and no novel. The embodiment into beck's characterization.
the "novel" of descriptions usually tele-
scoped and parenthesized as stage direc-
tions in a play; the substitution of "she
said huskily" for "Mordeen (huskily)": Harrison Smith.
do not alter the case. "A New Form of
Mr. Steinbeck's most interesting in-
novation is also strictly of the theatre. Literature."
Though from first to last there is an un- Washington Post,
broken continuity of action and charac-
ter, there is an absolute discontinuity 22 October 1950, p. 5B.
of milieu from one act to the next, from
The Circus to The Farm to The Sea.
These shifts are something more than a Burning Bright is a drama published con-
vivid and refreshing piece of theatre; they currently with its opening in New York.
serve to deepen and extend Joe Saul's For the reading public, Steinbeck has pre-
tragedy and heroism, since they show sented it as a novelette in three acts.
him in three guises (acrobat, farmer, sea "It is a combination of many old
captain) in which the handing down from forms," he writes in his prologue, "a play
father to son of an ancient heritage, of that is easy to read or a short novel that
something "in the blood," has a powerful can be played simply by lifting out the
precedent... . dialogue." It is true that the average man
It is Joe Saul's hard lesson to learn finds it difficult to read a play; the brief
that it is not the survival of inherited descriptions of scenes and characters in-
blood lines that matters, but of inherited tended for the guidance of producer and

347
actor, the hints of changes in the mood or that Mr. Steinbeck has used frequently in
action, require an imaginative awareness his later novels....
that the reader may be incapable of giv-
ing, so that unless the dialogue is com- Symbolism in his characters and his plots
manding and brilliant it is like finding a may be vital to the growth or the decline
path through a dark field. of Mr. Steinbeck as a creative writer, but
After reading Burning Bright, it would his rudimentary philosophy, his feverish
appear that there is also something lack- climaxes and the story as he has told it,
ing and unsatisfactory in the play-novel- in whole or in part, are neither credible
ette, or at least in this particular attempt to the reader nor successful as the ele-
at a new form of literature. The charac- ments of a short novel.
ters are more vivid, the scenes sharper,
but on the whole the book is a failure be-
cause the reader is often bewildered, as if
Mr. Steinbeck's four characters were pup- Joseph Henry Jackson.
pets moved by strings, using words put
into their mouths by a ventriloquist.
"A Bookman's
If the author were writing as a novel- Notebook."
ist and not primarily as a playwright, you San Francisco Chronicle,
might sense the background for the mo-
tives of his people; you would certainly 27 October 1950, p. 16.
know them better, for the novelist is com-
pelled to tell you a great deal more about
them, how they live, where they came Experimenting with the idea of telling a
from, what their families and friends are story in something very close to play
like, something of their childhood and of form is nothing new with John Steinbeck.
their habits and tastes. All one needs to do is to remember Of
There is a feeling of unreality in Burn- Mice and Men, for example, or The
ing Bright that may come from his Moon Is Down.
method of handling the story itself. The In his new Burning Bright, a play-nov-
four characters in the first act are circus elette (as he prefers to call it), Mr.
people, three men and a woman, who are Steinbeck tries this for the third time. The
seen in the dressing room tent of Joe Saul result is closer to a play than his other
and his beautiful young wife, Mordeen. two experiments in this direction, yet it
In the second act the same characters are may be read exactly as fiction is read.
farmers in a Midwestern farmhouse; in What Mr. Steinbeck is saying here is
the third act they are in the captain's that love as a force is, or can be, a greater
cabin of a cargo ship docked in New matter than people have heretofore made
York Harbor. it, relying for definition and understand-
During these three incarnations of the ing, as they always have, on standard
same people, they do not change their conceptslove of a parent, love of a
way of speaking to suit the scene; they marriage-partner, love of one's own child,
never speak as would sailors, farmers or, and so on. All these and other aspects of
doubtless, circus performers. The book is life, Mr. Steinbeck suggests, are no more
literally a morality play, and the charac- than parts of the whole. The discovery is
ters can be labeled as if they were sym- made by his central character, Joe Saul,
bols of human virtues and vices, a device when he comes to see that "every man is

348
father to all children and every child A third reason is that although the
must have all men as father. This is not a play-novelette is difficult for the au-
little piece of private property, registered thor to write, since the restrictions of the
and fenced and separated. This is The theater remain, these same restrictions
Child." And again: "It is the race, the operate as a challenge, stimulating the
species, the spark continues." author to keep his action close built, to
Mr. Steinbeck's central situation in- make his dialogue constantly carry the
volves an older man, Joe Saul with a story forward, as has to be the case in the
young wife, Mordeen, who loves him play proper, and to be sure that by the
though he cannot give her a child. Seeing time the piece has ended, something has
him greatly troubled about this, even actually happened to the characters and
beginning to doubt himself as a man, to the problem.
she makes her decision, allows a young Steinbeck, however, writes that despite
man, Victor, to have his way with her. its difficulties the play-novelette form is
If there is a child, as she is sure there highly rewarding to the author. Here he
will be, then it must be old Joe Saul's demonstrates that it can be highly re-
child, to make his life right again for him. warding to the reader as well.
No one must know. Particularly interesting are one or two
But Joe Saul's friend, Ed, does know. of the borrowings from stage techniques
The young man, Victor, knows. And with which Steinbeck uses hereeffects to
Joe Saul's happiness threatenedfor which the theater audience is in some de-
Mordeen thinks of this and not herself gree accustomed but which the fiction
the play-novelette draws to its strong cli- reader may find startling for a moment.
max, a resolution of the problem which it One such effect is his shift of scene
would not be fair to give away here. and background, his characters being cir-
Mr. Steinbeck has his reasons for cus performers in Act 1, farmers in Act 2,
choosing to develop the form of the play- and sailors in Act 3, yet remaining the
novelette, and in a brief introduction he same people throughout, faced with the
states some of them. same situation which develops in a
For one thing, he believes that many straight line independent of the setting.
people do not like to read plays as such, What Steinbeck is after here, I should
and he believes that the play-novelette suppose, is simply to show that his theme
will provide a "play that will be more is universal.
widely read because it is presented as Another deliberate effect is the au-
ordinary fiction." thor's use of language. As is often the
He has another reason also. The play- case with the drama, he does not attempt
novelette "augments the play for the ac- strict or literal realism; he avoids building
tor, the director and the producer as well up sharp distinctions among his charac-
as the reader." This is quite true. In a ters through choosing distinct styles of
play, a character is described only briefly speech for them. Instead, all of them talk
by the author: "A businessman, aged 40," the "language of the play"a carefully
or something of the sort. By the method worked-out, somewhat mannered dia-
that Mr. Steinbeck is developing, those logue, which Steinbeck must have felt
who bring the play before the audience best suited to the theme and to his pur-
may know far more of how the author pose. Whatever you may think of this
thinks about the characters and setting idea, it is consistent, poetic often, and
than the standard play form permits. always effective.

349
 Once the reader allows for both these death. He is a pathetic and oafish stud
adaptations from the theater, then, Burn- whose typically twisted ego makes it
ing Bright can be read easily and with impossible for him to understand that
full enjoyment of Mr. Steinbeck's devel- virility alone does not automatically en-
opment of his fundamental theme. That title him to the love of a desirable and
he has added, as secondary themes, jeal- understanding woman. No man is a real
ousy, friendship and hatethe unthink- man, says Steinbeck, unless he is first of
ing, automatic hate of Victor, who does all a real human being.
not know whether he hates or lovesis Joe Saul, in Burning Bright, becomes
something else, and so much to the good. this real human being. He discovers that
As this is written, no reports on the love has higher dimensions than he had
play are available here, though it opened realized, and that identification with the
in New York on the 13th. It will be inter- human family is purpose and fulfillment
esting to see what the theater-wise critics in life. He can look at a childany
found in the performance. Meantime, childand feel the pride of a father re-
this experiment in the play-novelette is lationship. He has, in short, broken
not only successful in print, but a very through the limitations of mechanical mas-
interesting move in the direction of some- culinity. What he eats, whom he sleeps
thing fresh in fiction. with, and how he punches are of less
consequence than what he does to justify
the gift of compassion and conscience.
But it is unfair to Mr. Steinbeck to cite
N[orman] C[ousins]. aspects of his book before describing his
"Hemingway and full stage. Burning Bright is a play-novel-
ette: it can be used directly as a play script
Steinbeck." but the story is handled descriptively. In-
Saturday Review, 33 stead of chapters, the book is divided
into three acts, each one of which is set
(28 October 1950), 26-7. against a contrasting background. The
book is not to be read, nor is the play to
be seen, as a conventional or specific plot
. . . John Steinbeck's new book, Burning with conventional or specific characters.
Bright, seems to have been written al- The story, for example, is not to be re-
most in direct refutation of Hemingway. garded a tragedy because one of the cen-
It, too, is a philosophical summation, but tral characters is murdered. The murder
it shows pluses where Hemingway shows is non-violent in its symbolic presentation.
minuses. It reveals moral values where In fact, the characters, story, and setting
Hemingway reveals monomaniac meander- are used as part of a symbolic whole.
ings. It tries to meet deep inner conflicts Steinbeck is dealing with universal
instead of pampering them. types and universal situations and makes
The truculent, arrogant, prize-fight- no effort to invest his people with indi-
conscious, sperm-ridden, perennial sol- vidual color or substance. To accentuate
dier-boy of Hemingway's book dies a this purpose his story unwinds through
heroic and glamorous death. The man three separate and contrasting back-
who meets death in Steinbeck's book is grounds. The characters and their story
also a pompous and self-willed brute, but names remain constant though they are
there is nothing heroic about him or his seen as circus folk in the first act, as

350
farmers in the second, and as mariners in
the third. Milton Crane.
What does all this symbolism lead up
to? It is far from obscure; what it tries to "Steinbeck's 'Play-
do is to penetrate through to the an- Novelet' Is Soap Opera."
chored positions of the human ego, and
to release them. It tries to emancipate Chicago Sunday Tribune
men from the tyranny of the personal Magazine of Books,
self. It tries to develop an aspect of man's
nature, too often hidden, which hungers
29 October 1950, p. 8.
truly for larger understanding and mutu-
ality in life. It demolishes the supposed
importance of a continuing biological im- [We find here] a theme of soap opera, or-
mortality, revealing the blazing truth that chestrated for the carriage trade by the
so long as human beings exist anywhere addition of devices which do not enlist
every man is immortal. my wholehearted admiration. Thus, for
All this has been said before. The example, in Act I all the principals are
greatest literature in all languages has re- circus performers; in Act II they are farm-
flected the fundamental reality that all ers; in Act III they are sailors. One can
men are brothers. But it hasn't been said see how these transformations are in-
with any real skill or frequency in Ameri- tended to emphasize the universality of
can literature in recent years. Too many the theme, and they certainly must have
of our writers, like Hemingway in his seemed like a good idea at the timethe
current book, have written thinly of life kind of idea that might have engaged Eu-
precisely because they have been too gene O'Neill's attention for about a half
close to the ego and not close enough to hour in 1928.
the human heart. Too many of them have Mr. Steinbeck has yet other innova-
been engaged in thematic trivia instead of tions. He complains that the typical play
with great ideas and the struggle for is unreadable in published form, and that
higher values. the typical novel can gain clarity and
Steinbeck himself, in many of his ear- concision from the discipline of dramatic
lier books, has been victimized by this writing. So we have the "play-novelet,"
obsession with marginal themes. For a which uses dialog more dramatically than
long time, it appeared that he had lost or does the novel, and which supplies back-
abandoned the gift of inspirationwhich ground and characterization lacking in
comes close to being the worst that can the ordinary published play.
happen to a writer. But in Burning
Bright, he is restored to his full stature as It is a great ideal that Mr. Steinbeck of-
a major American novelist. He has writ- fers us, or it might seem so if we did not
ten his most mature book, a book which, have such works as the published plays
if carefully and slowly read, can be as re- of George Bernard Shaw, who certainly
warding a literary experience as any of us has mastered the art of making plays
is likely to have for a long time. As a vital come alive for the reader. And the "play-
corrective to the new Hemingway book, novelet" that Mr. Steinbeck has written
it couldn't have been better timed. (he explains that Of Mice and Men and
The Moon Is Down are earlier efforts in
the same form) is hardly more than a

351
truncated novel. One is tempted to tell isn't a play, it's a "play-novelette," what-
him: don't look now, but your screen- ever that bastard form is. It shows no
play is showing. sign of any talent, it has no form, not one
word that sounds real or has any excite-
ment. As I read I kept thinking this
sounds like a parody of a bad O'Neill
Stephen Longstreet. playdone by a rather dull college boy.
"Steinbeck Goes Arty in No one is real in it, every one is a sym-
bol, and talks in that stilted language
Play-Novelette." found only in people who can not think,
Los Angeles News, feel, taste, or enjoy anything....
I can not think of any important
11 November 1950, writer of our time who had slipped so
pp. 10, 12. badly. The dialogue is frankly so arty,
overdrawn and so full of fake aches and
pains that I felt maybe this is a gag, the
California was fertile earth. It grew big whole thing is some bad bit of humor
sons and they burst on the world shining that didn't come off. But under it all I can
and full of meat and talent. Jack London see Steinbeck grunting and twisting, try-
pouring out life, Bret Harte inventing ing to make something cosmic out of a
new forms, Frank Norris making the plot Faith Baldwin wouldn't touch.
color and sound of things part of the big- One can only hope that the book
ger world, beyond the black mountains. (these short pages aren't really a book) is
And there was John Steinbeck. It was only a mistake, that the vitality that
not easy for him and he had the long Steinbeck showed in his early work will
darkness of being alone and unknown. come again. But looking back at London,
For a long time he waited. I remember and Harte, and Norris, I doubt it. They
long ago finding a book by an unknown too failed after great beginnings; but they
author, To a God Unknown, and finding never sank as low as Burning Bright.
in the rather bad D. H. Lawrence enough
of promise to think this man would be
great. In Dubious Battle was a touch of
life, a man at grip with the shape of Carol H. Weiss.
things as they are. Then came Grapes of "Burning Bright."
Wrath, and the first half was the best
modern novel yet written by an American Commonweal, 53
(the second half was trash mixed up with (24 November 1950),
a Message). At this high water mark John
Steinbeck stopped and it's been the jour- 178.
ney down, and fast. The nonsense about
fascism in The Moon Is Down, the hot
foot humor of Cannery Row, the maud- As a play, Burning Bright lasted eleven
lin symbolism of The Wayward Bus. And days on Broadway. The critics found it
now Burning Bright. artificial, pretentious, and filled with
Steinbeck is a little ashamed of this pseudo-poetic dialogue that hit the ears
159 pages of large print. He writes a long with the effect of "chalk squealing on a
foreword explaining it isn't a novel and it slate." As Walter Kerr noted in his drama

352
review, Mr. Steinbeck had junked reality symbolism. Another guy named Joe, con-
and flown off, rather shakily, into the un- sumed with a passion for fertilityfer-
rewarding abstract. tility of the land rather than his own
Burning Bright has also been pub- fertilitywas loaded down with the re-
lished as a novel, or in Mr. Steinbeck's sponsibility of being "a repository for a
term, a play-novelette. The novel was little piece of each man's soul, and more
written first, with the intention of trans- than that, a symbol of the earth's soul."
forming it into a play simply by lifting Mr. Steinbeck recovered to write Grapes
out the dialogue and turning the descrip- of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.
tive passages into stage directions. Some
minor line-changes were made in re-
hearsalone of them, Mr. Steinbeck re-
lates, with the help of some Yale students L. A. G. Strong.
who saw the try-out in New Haven and "Fiction."
left a note at the box officebut the
book remains substantially the novel ver- Spectator [England], 187
sion of the play. The same flaws that the (10 August 1951), 196.
drama critics hopped on so vigorously
are of course presentthe arty dialogue,
the removal from reality, the shallowness
of characterization reminiscent of an Ar- . . . Mr. Steinbeck is at pains to justify
bor Day pageant. what he calls a play-novelette, a short
But in novel form, some of these faults novel of which the dialogue makes a
are less disquieting. The reader, more play, since each act, or chapter, keeps to
than the playgoer, is used to poetic lan- one scene. No justification is needed, pro-
guage and artificial constructions. He ac- vided the result succeeds. Burning Bright
cepts phrases like "I've got a rustle in has a strong theme, the realisation that
me" or "the loneliness we wear like icy none of us can claim to possess a living
clothes" or "we were the only gay in that soul. A child is not yours or mine. It is its
laughter-starving time." And without the own, or all men's. Life is sacred. The
painful sound of the play, Mr. Steinbeck's most we can do is free it, make a home
dramatized idea is almost moving. Joe for it. This lesson, which a great many
Saul, who is unable to have the child he parents have yet to learn ("I have decided
passionately craves to carry on his line, to make my boy a lawyer," etc., etc.) is
comes to accept as his son his wife's child not made easier or more acceptable by
by another man; he learns that a child is the dialogue in which Mr. Steinbeck's
not "a piece of private property, registered characters indulge. Its embodiment is
and fenced and separated," but a shining clear enough. The widower Joe Saul, a
being, a part of indestructible humanity. circus clown in Act One, a farmer in Act
Nevertheless, with all the grandeur of Two, a seaman in Act Three, has married
the idea, and the greater tolerance of the a young wife but has no child. This so
eye than the ear, the book is hung up on distresses him that she is moved to show
the same basic flawthe morality-play her love by conceiving someone else's. He
abstractness of the characters. In one of finds out, is distraught, but at least ac-
his earliest novels, the little noted and cepts with gladness the fact that a child
long forgotten To a God Unknown, Mr. has come. Unfortunately some of the lan-
Steinbeck had a previous whirl at heavy guage in which these illuminations are

353
recorded is on a different level from the works out is the theme of the book,
rest. Friend Ed, fellow clown in Act One, which fallslike a playinto three acts.
has some odd things to say: "Three years There is a further point. In the First Act,
it is since Cathy died. You were strong in the characters are set against the back-
your wife-loss." . . . Oddity is not con- ground of a circus; in the Second Act, a
fined to Ed. Mordeen, the young wife, farm; and in the Third Act, the dramatis
has her share: "Without that trick you'll personae are on board ship. These
go screaming silently in loss." changes merely show the action going
Have I, I wonder, the admirer-right to forward, different circumstances illustrat-
tell Mr. Steinbeck that this trick has set ing its different stages of development.
me screaming silently in my reader-loss? Mr. Steinbeck, by adopting this form
of writing begs the whole question posed
at the beginning of this review; and it is
hard to see how the method can really be
"Staging a Story." justified, at least in the form before us.
Times Literary The storyas a novelis perhaps pos-
sible, the characters on the other hand
Supplement [London], are not very convincing and the changes
17 August 1951, p. 513. of scene appearin a novelwithout
any point at all. As a play, on the other
hand, the effect might be different. Im-
It has always been clear from Mr. John probability in drama stands or falls by
Steinbeck's writing that the theatreand the conviction of the moment. It is pos-
perhaps, equally, the filmis rarely far sible, therefore, that Burning Bright
from his thoughts. This is perhaps a dan- might convince a theatre audience. As a
gerous state of mind for a novelist, be- play, it seems to suggest the influence of
cause the arts concerned are of a very Molnar; and the changes of setting might
different kind; and, although there have fall into place, just as re-dressing an act
certainly been novels that turned into can help a show along visually.
good plays, there have also been many
unsuccessful experiments in that line;
while at least a few good novelists have
shown a tendency to overdramatize their Checklist of Additional
novels by too keen a grasp of purely dra-
matic technique. In the case of the work
Reviews
under review there is no question of the
"influence" of one technique on another.
The book has been, admittedly, written ""Burning Bright." Booklist, 47
simultaneously as a play. (1 September 1950), 3.
Burning Bright contains four charac- Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things."
tershusband, wife, lover, and raison- New York Herald Tribune,
neur. Husband and wife are getting on in 20 October 1950, p. 23.
years, and, in spite of passionate desire to Charles Poore. "New Books." Harper's,
have a child, are childless. Accordingly, 201 (December 1950), 102-12.
the woman decides to bear a child to the Maurice Dunbar. "Burning Bright."
lover in order to satisfy this lifelong wish Steinbeck Quarterly, 13 (Winter-
of her husband. How this situation Spring 1980), 44-5.

354
BURNING BRIGHT (THE PLAY)
 BU1INING
IIUIGIIT
ACTING EDITION

PLAY IN THREE ACTS

BY JOHN STEINBECK

DRAMATISTS
PLAY SERVICE
INC.
 ing these are the elemental professions.
Brooks Atkinson. And to rise above the literary sphere of
naturalism, Mr. Steinbeck writes in an
"At the Theatre." impersonal, conscious style.
New York Times, But somehow the grandeur escapes him;
and, despite its admirable intentions, Burn-
19 October 1950, p. 40. ing Bright is an earthbound play. For Mr.
Steinbeck has not demonstrated that he is
a poet with his pen, however rhapsodic
Credit John Steinbeck with having the his dreams may be. The play is cramped,
courage to try something that is difficult. literal and elementary. . ..
Credit four actors and a director with a
superb performance. For Burning Bright,
which opened at the Broadhurst last eve-
ning, is written in the form of an epic and Sam Zolotow.
acted like a poem. "Burning Bright Quits
But there is always a "but" at the end
of such salutations. Although Mr. Steinbeck Tomorrow."
is a man of faith, he does not write with New York Times,
the majesty of a prophet and Burning
Bright does not have much eloquence in 27 October 1950, p. 24.
the theatre. Mr. Steinbeck has been hap-
pier when he has been closer to mice and
men and the itinerant Okies. Abstract A for Effort: Burning Bright flickers
ideas do not appear to be his medium. out after its thirteenth performance to-
morrow night. The sudden departure of
Like the preacher in Ecclesiastes, he says John Steinbeck's "play-novelette" makes
that the earth abideth forever. The human the Broadhurst available for another at-
race must go on, though the method does traction, thereby easing the booking jam
not matter. To illustrate his thesis he offers slightly.
a middle-aged husband, a young wife, a Everything connected with Burning
friend of the family and a young lover. Bright, except the script, evoked general
Although the husband is sterile, he longs commendation, e. g., the four-character
for children to continue the inheritance cast (Kent Smith, Barbara Bel Geddes,
he has had from his forebears. Descend- Howard da Silva and Martin Brooks),
ants are a religious obligation to him. the sympathetic direction of Guthrie
To gratify his vanity, the wife secretly McClintic, the inspired lighting and scen-
takes a lover and pretends that the child ery of Jo Mielziner, and last, but by no
is her husband's. When he discovers that stretch of the imagination least, the ten-
he has been deceived, he is crushed and der and loving care bestowed upon the
horrified. But in the end, Mr. Steinbeck offering by Richard Rodgers and Oscar
shows the husband as resigned to any Hammerstein 2d, the producers.
method that keeps the chain of life unbroken. If it weren't for the inordinately high
To give his theme a universal signifi- weekly overhead of $18,000, with which
cance Mr. Steinbeck presents his charac- the $60,000 venture is shackled, efforts
ters first as circus folk, second as farmers would have been made to prolong the en-
and third as sailors. To his way of think- gagement. Here's another instance where

357
a healthy advance doesn't mean a thing book form at about the same time it
unless there's a comfortable window sale. opened as a play. In a foreword to the
Commenting on the quick withdraw- book, the author explains that a play-
al, Mr. Hammerstein said yesterday: "We novelette "is a play that is easy to read or
are very proud to have produced it be- a short novel that can be played simply
cause it's a play that should have been by lifting out the dialogue." Earlier ex-
done. Few plays of that type are written amples by Mr. Steinbeck were Of Mice
or presented." .. . and Men and The Moon Is Down. A
thing he failed to say in the foreword is
that the piece ought to beor so I would
figurepretty nearly equally suitable for
John Lardner. print and the stage; otherwise, why not
write it in one form or the other and let
"The Theatre." it go at that? The printed version of
New Yorker, 26 Burning Bright is not a very good book,
(28 October 1950), 52, 54. especially for a Steinbeck book, but it is
digestible. We're accustomed, in reading
books, to coming across lyric tales, ser-
mons, or fantasies in which the speech of
John Steinbeck's new play, Burning Bright, modern people is written in poetic lan-
which opened at the Broadhurst last week, guage, though in prose form. So, whether
is full of noble thoughts, beautiful human we like the device or not, a book like
emotions, and poetic speech. In the cir- Burning Bright goes down quite easily; it
cumstances, it may sound flippant to say is not disconcerting. But on the stage the
that it seems to me that Mr. Steinbeck did talk of Mr. Steinbeck's characters occa-
himself a disservice by putting it on the sionally hits the ear with the effect of
stage. His readers know that he has al- chalk squealing on a slate. Granted, the
ways tended to see a goodness, a shining time of the action is described as "any
quality, in man. This view is stated ex- time;" still, it's a contemporary back-
plicitly in the last scene of Burning ground, with modern details and trim-
Bright, when an Everyman sort of char- mings, against which Mr. Steinbeck has
acter named Joe Saul says, "What animal asked the players to speak such lines as
has made beauty, created it, save only "When he is tired past wakefulness, take
we? With all our horrors and our faults, him to the sleeping car," "It's time we
somewhere in us is a shining. That is the sing this trouble out into the air and
most important of all facts. There is a light," "A poisoned thought, lying con-
shining" No one can quarrel with the cealed but toxic," and "You were strong
author's right to insist on that shining- in your wife-loss." It might be interesting
ness, but I think it's legitimate to object, to know by what plan Mr. Steinbeck con-
in his behalf as much as anyone else's, structed his poetry, or what sources he
when he goes about it in terms that are went to for the archaic tone of some of it.
sometimes arty, often absurd, and gener- I would guess that there is a good deal of
ally misplaced. planning in it, aside from the obvious in-
The question of misplacing is con- tention to show that the theme and the
nected with Mr. Steinbeck's theory of the characters are timeless. In Elizabethan
technique of what he calls the "play- plays, poetry in a person's speech indi-
novelette." Burning Bright appeared in cated high rank or education. In Burning

358
Bright, it seems to indicate goodness, or, the evening, the sight of Mr. Steinbeck's
at any rate, moral progress. The story's Everyman (infecund model) in different
one ignoble character, as soon as he professions and places, always being
comes to know true love, turns on like a called Joe Saul rather than Joe, began to
light and acquires a brand-new tendency fuddle me a little, and I heard erratic ech-
to speak of the lashing branches of the oes of the old song about Joe Hill, the
pear trees or wild duck driving south labor martyr:
over the burning sumac.
The chief figure of the play, Joe Saul, From San Diego up to Maine,
is a sterile husband. Unknown to him, his In any place at all
wife arranges, with the most selfless and Where fathers haven't got no kids,
loving motives, to give him a child by an- That's where you'll find Joe Saul.
other man. In the end, after an emotional
ordeal complicated by his ideas about his Barbara Bel Geddes, Kent Smith, Howard
own "blood" and the importance of re- Da Silva, and Martin Brooks do valiant
producing it, he comes to appreciate the jobs of acting, especially Miss Bel Geddes.
fact that, as Mr. Steinbeck writes, "every They all seem embarrassed at times by
man is father to all children and every what they have to say, but that won't do
child must have all men as father." It is them any permanent harm. As for Mr.
impossible to deny the dignity and gran- Steinbeck, he can afford to miss a shot
deur of this thought. However, the play now and then, if any writer can.
suffers not only from its inconvenient
rhetoric but from over-concisenessit is
too tight and jerky for the size of its mes-
sageand a couple of creaking hinges in Margaret Marshall.
the plot. A young man with plenty of
other things to be doing is lured into am- "Drama."
bush by one of the season's most abrupt Nation, 171
ruses, as follows: "Will you come on
deck with me? I have a message for you." (28 October 1950), 396.
"Say it here." "No, it's a secret." Joe Saul
learns of his sterility when his rival sells
him, in a few seconds' time, the unusual Sterility, no doubt, is a "folk" concern
idea of going to his doctor and getting and has been a source of tragedy and
a clean bill of health to hang on the dramatic conflict in the lives of individu-
Christmas tree as a present for his un- als. But as John Steinbeck presents it in
born son. (In the book, Joe Saul thinks Burning Bright (Broadhurst Theater) it
of the idea himself, which makes the has no reality either as a primal folk con-
scene more convincing.) In each act of cern or as a factor in individual human
Burning Bright, Joe Saul is a different lives. His handling of the theme is preten-
personfirst a circus acrobat, then a tious and crude; his appeal to the univer-
farmer, then a merchant mariner. The sal is forced and false; as for the "poetic
same formula was used a few seasons prose" in which the piece is written, it is
ago, with the same object of achieving an so fancy and bad that its only effect is
Everymannish, timeless mood, and with one of acute embarrassment.
at least equal success, in a musical show Steinbeck universalizes his play by
called Love Life. Toward the end of presenting his four characters as circus

359
folk in Act I, farm folk in Act II, and
sailor folk in Act III. And then there Brooks Atkinson.
are the names he has given themJoe
Saul the husband (and don't think he's "Burning Bright."
ever called Joe), Friend Ed (who is always New York Times,
called Friend Ed), Mordeen, the ever-lov-
ing wife, and Victor, who supplies the 29 October 1950,
child the husband can't provide. Section 2, p. 1.
The characterizations are rather vague
of course one of the presumed advan-
tages of "folk" writing is that character- There is a cant critical phrase that applies
ization isn't necessaryexcept that Joe to John Steinbeck's Burning Bright. The
Saul, as the evening wears on, becomes experiment does not "come off." For
so intolerable with his folk-whining Burning Bright is an experiment, avail-
about his blood and his line that you able as a "play-novelette" in the text
wonder how even a folk-wife could go on published by Viking and as an allegorical
loving him. drama which has just concluded a brief
The cast does far better than you'd engagement on Broadway. It is the third
expect, given their assignmentsparticu- of Mr. Steinbeck's attempts at an art
larly Barbara Bel Geddes, who manages form equally useful in book form or on
to impart an air of flesh and blood to the the stage. Both Of Mice and Men and
part of Mordeen and thereby demon- The Moon Is Down were published to be
strates her abilities as an actress. Kent read, and produced to be seen and heard
Smith as the sterile husband can't quite on the stage.
overcome the hazards of his role, and As an art form the "play-novelette" is
Howard Da Silva is hard put to it to sound enough. It may have less signifi-
make palatable the unrelieved sweetness cance than Mr. Steinbeck imagines, but it
and kindness of Friend Ed. Martin Brooks is a useful medium of expression. In the
has the easiest part, that of Victor, which case of Of Mice and Men it resulted si-
at least has a touch of reality, though it multaneously in a taut, sentient novel
becomes pretty attenuated toward the end. and a vivid drama that made history un-
The settings are nice. der the masterly direction of George S.
The title is taken from William Blake's Kaufman. Although The Moon Is Down
"Tiger, tiger, burning bright," and the came directly out of Mr. Steinbeck's per-
poem is printed in the program. I have sonal convictions in the early stages of
not yet worked out its connection with the war, he was not so intimately ac-
the play. quainted with the Norwegian characters
as he was with the ranch rag-tag and
bobtail of Of Mice and Men. His first ex-
periment with the "play-novelette" re-
mains his most successful.
To judge by the literary as well as the
drama reviews, Burning Bright dissatis-
fies both camps. Those who read and
those who look and listen are equally
unhappy with it. And this is not because
the form is inept but because the mate-

360
rial is commonplace. Everything else Mr. Pony, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row,
Steinbeck has written has been saturated Tortilla Flat and The Grapes of Wrath,
in the sweat of human beings. In Burning it has been easy enough to draw some
Bright he has made a conscious attempt general philosophical conclusions from
to write in a new style and to argue a them. Mr. Steinbeck does not have to
philosophical thesis. He is saying that the tell us what they mean. Grapes of Wrath
individual ego is less important than the proves eloquently that the human race
species and that nothing matters except has a genius for survival. Nothing about
the continuance of the human race. Burning Bright comes anywhere near as
close to the point.
After a writer has devoted a lot of hard
work to trying to say something useful If Burning Bright "came off" in the the-
and important, it is all too easy for atre or in book form, the symbolic de-
a critic to come along at the end of the vices Mr. Steinbeck has invented would
line and denigrate the attempt and the be saluted as poetic inspirations; and if
achievement. There is something a little his dialogue made music in the theatre,
supercilious about saying "no" so casu- the liberties he takes with words would
ally. From that point of view, the follow- be admired. To give his theme universal
ing comments are probably supercilious. scope Mr. Steinbeck offers his characters
But they are set down with respect for successively as circus people in the first
Mr. Steinbeck's high-mindedness and also act, farmers in the second and sailors in
with admiration for the courage of an es- the thirdthese being, in his opinion, the
tablished author who tries something fundamental, timeless professions. And
new and difficult. to give his play the stature of an allegory,
But after seeing Burning Bright in a he writes in a formalistic style that in-
sensitive and pulsing performance on the cludes a number of factitious phrases
stage and after reading it in book form, "Strong in your wife-loss," "I am harsh-
one cannot shake off the conviction that breathing," "Do I have the friend-right to
Mr. Steinbeck has no ability for express- ask a question?" etc.
ing abstract ideas in the imaginative form But, since Burning Bright does not
of play or story. To judge by this one in- "come off," the dogmatic change of scene
stance, he throws away his greatest talent from one profession to another seems
when he abandons the villages, boarding pretentious, and the self-conscious style,
houses and highroads for the library. sophomoric. Burning Bright emerges as a
There is nothing wrong with his argu- rather monotonous, and at times a clini-
ment that the race is more important cally literal story about a sterile man
than the individual, though a sound ar- whose wife secretly takes another man to
gument could be developed on the other give her a child. It is a humorless play
side. But Mr. Steinbeck is one of the last not merely because it is not funny, but
men to argue from the general to the par- because it lacks the sense of proportion
ticular. He has enormous skill in express- that humor instills in normal people.
ing the particularthe racy, pungent, Mr. Steinbeck would not be so solemn if
rather pathetic men and women who he were among friends on the home
drift through the pages of his novels. The grounds.
particular is his natural bailiwick. When To judge by his previous work, he is a
he has written about specific people with warm, humorous, independent, sympa-
gusto or compassion, as in The Red thetic member of the human race with a

361
faith in people. In Burning Bright he has son by another; the arrogant young lover;
tried to escape his real talent by putting and an all-wise friend of the family.
on the robes of a prophet. Since the play Steinbeck attempts to give his theme a
does not "come off," the prophet's robes universal significance by garbing his char-
may as well come off, too. There is a acters as circus folk in the first act, as
good man underneath. farmers in the second, and as sailors in
It remains to be said that the perfor- the third. He has also written in a poetic
mance, under Guthrie McClintic's evoca- mood, avoiding personal distinctions in
tive direction, was an extraordinarily fine the dialogue to keep his parable rigidly in
piece of theatre, and that Barbara Bel the realm of the abstract and the sym-
Geddes' performance as the woman had bolic. The result is to deprive his drama
the fearful symmetry and the passion of of its emotional substance and leave only
the William Blake verse from which Mr. the insistent iteration of faith in life and
Steinbeck chose his title. the stubborn survival of mankind.
For Steinbeck the play is summed up
as the monumentally self-conscious hus-
band finally overcomes his great vanity to
"Burning Bright." accept the new child as his own: "I had
Newsweek, 36 to walk into the black to knowto know
that every man is father to all children
(30 October 1950), 78. and every child must have all men as fa-
ther. This is not a little piece of private
property, registered and fenced and sepa-
John Steinbeck's new drama, which pre- rated . . . This is the Child."
ceded by two days the appearance of the Despite the repetitiousness and the ex-
same story in novel form, is his third ex- cessive exaltation of its elementary con-
periment in what he calls the play-novel- cept, Burning Bright is too courageous to
ette technique. The first two were Of be brushed off for its sins. . ..
Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down.
This time, however, Steinbeck makes the
experiment doubly hazardous by writing
an allegory within an unusual dramatic "New Play in
framework that is superficially intriguing
but ultimately appears to defeat his ends. Manhattan."
Burning Bright is a clinical and morbid Time, 56
play written in a triumphant innocence.
It is passionate with sincerity and fre- (30 October 1950), 58.
quently eloquent; but, inexplicably, it
fails to come to life on stage.
At ground level Steinbeck's plot is a Burning Bright... suggests that misused
straightforward and simple one that in- talent can be more distressing than none
volves only four characters: a proud and at all. In this reversible raincoat of a
physically powerful husband who is ster- "play-novelette,"1 Steinbeck tells of a
ile but obsessed with the desire to have a sterile husband (Kent Smith) with a fierce
child to carry on his heritage; a young yearning for parenthood. His wife (Bar-
wife who loves her husband so much that bara Bel Geddes), out of love for him,
she sacrifices her own pride to give him a conspires to have a child by another man.

362
At first crushed and incensed when he
learns the truth, he is at length comforted Walter Kerr.
with a transcendental sense of being the
father not of one child but of all children. "The Stage."
Steinbeck has chosen for this theme Commonweal, 53
the sort of treatment that must succeed
splendidly or not at all. In an effort to
(10 November 1950),
universalize his characters, he has made 120-1.
them successively circus folk, farmers, sea-
farers. To exalt them further, he has made
them as full of mysticism as philosophers, The title of John Steinbeck's new play,
as lavish with metaphor as poets. Burning Bright, is derived from William
The result is a jumble of the interstel- Blake's "Tiger, Tiger," and serves notice
lar and the folksy. Characters who are on us at once that Mr. Steinbeck has
neither living people nor vivid symbols something weighty to say and is going to
traffic in blown-up emotions and rouged- say it on a pretty elevated level. Appar-
up words. Besides being high-pitched and ently convinced that the realistic observa-
mawkish, Burning Bright is frequently tion and prose style with which he is
dull. Steinbeck might have done far bet- identified are inadequate to his new and
ter with a few people talking simple lofty purposes, Mr. Steinbeck has cast his
prose in a suburb, might have remem- lot with symbolism and a formality of
bered that writers best achieve the univer- diction many times removed from the
sal through the particular. Blake, who concrete characterization and living speech
gave him his title (Tyger, tyger, burning of Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, and
bright) could also have given him a good The Grapes of Wrath.
cue: To see the world in a grain of sand. Mr. Steinbeck is determined that his
new play shall be universal. Its story is
not that of one man's struggle with steril-
Note ity and failure, but of every man's. Its
characters are not persons, but ideas
1 Also published last week in book form. about personsthe Responsible but Im-
Steinbeck's theory: a short, meaty novel
potent Man, the Irresponsible but Cre-
{e.g., Of Mice and Men) can be trans-
formed into a play by simply treating de-
ative Man, the Eternal Woman, and the
scriptive passages as stage directions and Eternal Friend. They address each other
dialogue as actors' lines. throughout by their full proper names, as
though they had heard of one another
but had barely been introduced. It is al-
ways "Friend Ed," never simply "Ed."
Joe Saul's wife always speaks of him as
Joe Saul, even to his face. To emphasize
the fact that these people are symbols,
existing only in the third person, they are
transferred to a new milieu with each act.
In the first they are circus performers (it
may be taken that life is a circus); in the
second, they are farmers (fertility, at a
rough guess), and in the third, they are

363
discovered on the ever-changing sea (life these rhythms, just these pretensions. It
is fluid, and changes can be made). Their is the old mistake of supposing that uni-
language is not that of common life, but versality can be imposed from without,
a deliberate and artificial construction, just because you want it to be. You de-
occasionally gilded with a pseudo-poetic cide on some generalized statement you
word or phrase, designed to carry Mr. would like to make, and suppose that
Steinbeck's considered profundities. you will be able to find characters who
The curtain has no sooner gone up will willingly jump through hoops for
than someone says, "She wouldn't have you in order to illustrate it. Good plays,
gone else," and you know what you are and above all, universal plays, don't get
in for. And you are in for it. As the written this way.
evening goes on you will be treated to
Friend Ed telling Joe Saul what a "nervy" They begin with something concretea
thing he has done, to Mordeen (you heard real action, a real characterand stay
meMordeen), speaking of the growing with it, burrowing deeper and deeper
thing within her which will soon be into it, uncovering layer after layer of
reaching for the sky, and to Friend Ed's what is still reality, until the penetration
climaxing his great verbal assault on Joe is so complete that we seem at last to
Saul by calling him a "nastiness." You grasp the essential spirit which vitalizes
are going to be spared nothing this night. it. Half the time I doubt that the artist
knows what it is until he gets there. I
Now it is very possible to sympathize don't think Shakespeare ever did find out
with Mr. Steinbeck's anxiety to increase what it was in Hamlet, though there is
the dimension and stature of our literary something half-glimpsed which tantalizes
form. The literary method of the twenti- us. Anyway, this is the artist's method of
eth century has been, for the most part, seeking the universal, and it has nothing
to record in an almost scientific manner to do with the mathematician's. To get a
the surface phenomena of material real- little windy about it, it is a sense of im-
ity. Its psychology has been reflexive and material form within material reality, not
behavioristic, and its narrative method divorced from it. It is Mercutio, not
has been that of the detached and ju- Friend Ed. We do sense a universal of
dicious reporter. While this so-called real- friendship in Mercutio, but it would be
istic form has the values of idiomatic hard to put our finger on it, Mercutio is
accuracy (John O'Hara) and sensitivity to so fluid and so alive.
material surfaces (Hemingway on a duck Graham Greene mentions in his Brit-
hunt), it finds itself so concerned with the ish Dramatists that Macbeth is only a
specific as to lose sight of the universal. step away from the symbolic figure Am-
Great art always has a sense of the uni- bition in the morality plays. But the step
versal, and Mr. Steinbeck knows this. is everything. All figures known as Ambi-
The trouble is that he has gone about get- tion, in fact all labels anywhere, are dead.
ting it in the wrong way. Mercutio and Macbeth are alive because
He has junked concrete reality alto- they are first men, and only finally signifi-
gether and flown off into the abstract. It cant men. The friendship and the ambi-
is a sophomore's mistake. Anyone who tion are in them, not stamped upon them.
has ever taught playwriting will recognize It is unfair to hold Mr. Steinbeck to
this play. It comes in from the novice, account for Shakespeare's successes. But
once every year, in just these words, just it would be equally unfair to treat a man

364
of Steinbeck's talent other than seriously. where he bears an uneasy resemblance
Further, the flight into symbolism is not a to Jerry Lester. Only Barbara Bel Geddes
new problem, and it seems to be a par- maintains sufficient reserve in the face of
ticularly thorny one for men reared in the play's pretentiousness to command
this age of scientific realism. All the great your respect, and, with it, your sympathy.
realistsIbsen, Hauptmann, Strindberg,
O'Neillwound up as symbolists, and
the last stage was worse than the first.
The reason why the problem is so acute "Burning Bright."
in our time is that the scientifically Theatre Arts, 34
trained mind cannot conceive, or deliber-
ately rejects, the metaphysical possibility (December 1950), 16.
that an essential and spiritual form does
inhabit, and does animate, each lump of
living matter. Why work so hard to pen- John Steinbeck has taken the title of
etrate matter when the interior form is his play from The Tyger, William Blake's
not there to be perceived? To the scien- moving poem of awesome wonder at the
tifically trained mind, the notion of uni- great mystery of the creation. Like Blake,
versal form is only a man-made equation, he has pondered on man's finiteness in a
existing outside and apart from matter, boundless universe and found his answer
an intellectual construction after the fact. in the creative richness of love; in man's
Hence, when the realist has wearied of capacity for good. Burning Bright is an
his literal reporting and yearns for the affirmation of faith in the human race, an
universal, he can only escape to an equa- avowal of belief in the dignity of man
tion, to an intellectual construction. He stated with unmistakable sincerity.
calls his equation The Master Builder, or Burning Bright is a modern morality
The Sunken Bell, or Dynamo, or Burning play, a parable told through four sym-
Bright. Having abandoned the reality bolic characters; husband, wife, friend
which might have proved more fertile and intruder. The story moves continu-
than he could imagine, and over which ously against backgrounds that change in
he already had a considerable mastery of each actthe first is in a circus, the sec-
the surface, he finds himself scratching ond on a farm, and the third on board
about on the bare rock of abstraction. shipa device which is intended to em-
That is Mr. Steinbeck's present plight, phasize the universality of the play's
and it is a sad thing to report that there is theme. The effect is artificial; one regrets
not a moment in this more ambitious its use since the basic theme, valid in any
play to touch any given moment in the setting, gained nothing from the theatri-
earthy Of Mice and Men. cal trick. Similarly, Mr. Steinbeck's use
No production could help Burning Bright of highly stylized language is awkward
very much, but the present one is geared rather than poetic and does him a disser-
to expose its most artificial and embar- vice. However one must rejoice at what
rassing qualities. Guthrie McClintic has Mr. Steinbeck has to say, even while re-
staged it with reverence, and the effect gretting that he did not say it better, for
is stupefying. Kent Smith, a fine actor, he is the very antithesis of the dramatists
is made to seem rigid and awkward. of despair, the delineators of disintegra-
Howard da Silva, another fine actor, is tion. The noblest function of the art of
made to bubble friendliness to the point drama is to show life as it might be; to

365
serve, in Shaw's phrase "as a temple to Rarely has morality been so squarely chal-
the ascent of Man." This has been Mr. lenged by literary casuistry.
Steinbeck's aim; it commands respect. To give the play the aura of the uni-
Unaware that he is sterile, Joe Saul versal, Steinbeck pictured his four char-
passionately desires a child to carry on acters first in the circus, then on the farm
the "blood line" in which he has fierce and finally on a cargo ship and the ex-
pride. Mordeen, his young wife, realizes periment proved successful. But to illustrate
Joe Saul's desperate need to perpetuate the theme that it is not the individual's
himself through a son and, out of selfless but the race's progress which is impor-
love for her husband she conceives a tant, the young wife tries to satisfy her
child with another man. Just before the husband's morbid anxiety to preserve his
child is born Joe Saul discovers the de- forbears' "lifeline," by giving him a child
ception. Basic and base human emotions by another man. She finally convinces
of love, jealousy, pride, self-pity, and her husband of her devotion, and the tag
self-sacrifice are encompassed in this hu- line was "Every man is the father of all
man situation. Joe Saul's triumph is his children."
comprehension that all men are father to Happier to report were the fine perfor-
all children, and every child must have mances by Kent Smith and Barbara Bel
all men as father. William Blake said it Geddes; the sets by Mielziner and the
this way: good prose of the stylized dialogue.

. . . for Man is Love

As God is Love; every kindness is a
little death George Jean Nathan.
In the Divine Image, nor can Man
exist but by Brotherhood.
"Burning Bright."
Theatre Book of the Year:
1950-1951 (New York:
Euphemia van Alfred A. Knopf, 1951),
Renssaelaer Wyatt. pp. 67-70.
"Theater.55
Catholic World, 172
A middle-aged, sterile man longs for a
(December 1950), 228. child to perpetuate his name. His wife,
who loves him deeply, gratifies his wish
by having relations with a younger, fertile
In the much heralded and short lived man. The husband, believing the child to
Burning Bright, John Steinbeck made be his own, is elated until he discovers
use of the same plot as O'Neill in his the truth. After an explosion, he is recon-
Strange Interlude but Steinbeck built up ciled with his wife in the philosophy that
to a humanitarian climax a story which, the end justifies the means.
with O'Neill, showed only the stark con- That is Mr. Steinbeck's plot, as it has
sequences of sin. In the pragmatic phi- been the plot of various playwrights be-
losophy of Steinbeck, the sin became fore him, though impotence rather than
transmogrified into heroic self-sacrifice. sterilityas if it made much difference

366
dramaticallyhas been accounted the circus, farm, and sea represent the oldest
reason for the husband's disability. But professions of man and that, by changing
whereas the others have treated it with his actors' costumes, he can indicate the
more or less simplicity, Steinbeck has timelessness and permanence of man's
elected to invest it with what he evidently quest of immortality through offspring.
imagines is universal import and has so Though he has expressed his belief that
tortured it into an attempt at immense in this respect he has achieved something
symbolic, religious significance that the completely novel in the theatre and dra-
result is a play whose extreme preten- ma, what he has actually achieved is
tiousness rids the story of what power it merely an arbitrary trickery visited on the
might have and previously has had in a familiar device of showing the same char-
less strained telling. acters in different settings either down
In a conversation the author had with the ages (as in The Skin of Our Teeth,
me while he was working on the script of Love Life, etc.) or over the period of sev-
the play, he told me not without evident eral generations (as in plays by Bennett,
pride that, though he was not too versed Knoblock, et al.). The only small differ-
in dramaturgy, he was profoundly gifted ence is that Steinbeck's span of time is
in the matter of raw human emotions, nine months.
and that this was to be envied in a day He has expressed the further belief
when the theatre has become emotionally that he has hit a new note by having his
trivial. That raw human emotions are characters speak not in the vernacular of
one of his better stocks in trade is true, the three locales but in what he terms a
but at least on this occasion the rawness universal language that is not within their
is carried to such a melodramatic ex- own limitations. It is strange that he con-
treme that what drips from it is often siders this something strikingly original
less human blood than greasepaint. Like with him, since the same thing has been
other of the novelists and playwrights of done by dramatists for centuries. (Eugene
the "guts" school, Steinbeck frequently O'Neill, for a later day example, man-
mistakes the intestines for the brain and aged such expression very successfully
heart and is so intent upon being "strong" in Mourning Becomes Electra by basing
and "virile" that the hair on his literary his characters' speech on a liberal para-
chest becomes ingrowing, inflames him phrase of the language in the King James
out of all poise, and enfevers him and his version of the New Testament.) More,
characters to the point where blood-pres- Steinbeck's notion of a universal lan-
sure bursts any conviction they might guageor the notion rather of suggesting
have if they took things a little more eas- a universal languageis peculiar, since it
ily. Violent emotion is, of course, not in consists in little more than causing his
itself a dramatic sin; but emotion that characters stiffly to forego such contrac-
continues at boiling pitch for too long is tions as "don't" and "won't" in favor of
bound to make an audience's reaction "do not" and "will not," and making
luke-warm. them speak in what Orville Prescott de-
In the effort to give his plot a sense of scribes as rigidly stylized and painfully
universality, Steinbeck has resorted to the artificial dialogue that soundswith its
superficial device of shifting the scenery "strong in your wife-loss," "friend-right
from act to act and showing his charac- to ask a question," etc.like something
ters successively as circus people, farm- out of Hiawatha. The play, in sum, is one
ers, and seamen, his idea being that the that, despite its author's heroic puffings,

367
gruntings and strainings to lend it more to be sterile andhis husband and wife
weight than it essentially and naturally characters in particular would have been
has, haplessly suggests the vaudeville co- morally relieved to knowthat artificial
median with padded muscles under his insemination with the husband's sperm,
tights who, after prodigious heavings and if the count is not too low and hence
much wiping off of perspiration, quiver- reproductively insufficient, will often get
ingly succeeds in lifting aloft a papier- results when the customary procedure
mache dumbbell marked 2,000 pounds. will not.
Aiming at universality, what Steinbeck's The acting company, notably Barbara
gassy exhibit has captured elementally of Bel Geddes, who has developed remark-
the cosmos is mainly and only its wind. ably as an actress, meets fully the script's
Should the reader at this point protest demands, though Guthrie McClintic's other-
that things can not be as wholly bad as wise satisfactory direction has a tendency
all that with a writer of Steinbeck's abil- at times to make the male players so
ity, he will be right. Some of the play's scream and shout that they would scare
psychology, notably in the cases of the the life out of Olsen and Johnson.
young wife and young lover, is intelli- P.S. Mr. Steinbeck makes much of the
gently plumbed; some of the better lines claim that never before has sterility
are not without a lyric essence; and one figured as a theme in a play or a novel. It
or two of the situations are well handled. has been embarrassingly pointed out to
But over-all the effect is one of mechani- him that not only did Lorca employ the
cal intensity, of an overblown toy bal- idea in his play, Yerma, but that Elinor
loon, of a desperate attempt to pound tin Glyn, of all people, also used it in her
into steel. long ago fiction gem, Three Weeks.
Parenthetically, it might somewhat have
lessened Mr. Steinbeck's indignant and
tragic approach to the problem of steril-
ity had his research been a little more Checklist of Additional
up-to-date and had he become privy to
the latest reports on the subject from
Reviews
the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biol-
ogy. He would have learnedand duly
conveyed his findings to his characters Albert Goldberg. "The Sounding
that irradiation of the pituitary gland Board." Los Angeles Times,
has induced fertility in males believed 10 December 1950, Section 4, p. 5.

368
THE LOG FROM THE SEA OF CORTEZ
 THE

LOG
FROM THE

SEA OF CORTEZ

The narrative portion of the book, Sea of Cortez^ by

John Steinbeck and E. F. Ricketts, 1941,
here reissued with a profile
"About Ed Ricketts"

BY

JOHN STEINBECK

NEW YORK

THE VIKING PRESS 1951

 emonious .45 automatics. The little ship's
Harry Gilroy. company of seven goes ashore and at-
tends church, feeling how much the ser-
"Steinbeck's Living Sea." vice means to the native communicants;
New York Times Book goes also to the cantina and realizes that
the sad, glistening-eyed young men are
Review, 100 waiting for an angel with golden wings
(16 September 1951), 6. who will order drinks for everyone at the
bar. Another good section of the book is
the profile of Ed Ricketts. It develops that
At a time when readers are interested in the biologist, who died in 1948 in a rail-
authors who go down to the sea, and road-crossing accident, was the original
come up again with good tales, in sails Doc of Cannery Row.
John Steinbeck as scientist-deckhand on a Writing his log, the novelist is im-
collecting expedition in the Gulf of Cali- pelled to supply the philosophical dis-
fornia. His journal of these activities will course that passed between the friends
be new to many of his usual audience, in the late watches of the night. Their
but this Log appeared in 1941 as part conversations must have brought sound
of The Sea of Cortez, a joint effort of the sleep to all aboard the trawler. On this
novelist and Edward F. Ricketts, the biol- evidence, Steinbeck the philosophical es-
ogist of the collecting trip. Then Stein- sayist will do well to leave the field to
beck was sandwiched between hundreds the other Steinbeck; the novelist appears
of pages of notes about dreadful little ma- to have a far more penetrating insight
rine animals, with the result that only into nature.
3,000 customers had the nerve to take the
book from the store. Now the biology
text has been dropped and Steinbeck has
added an entertaining profile of Ricketts. Charles Poore.
The best part of this newly unveiled
work of the novelist presents sharply evo- "Books of the Times."
cative descriptions of the sea and the New York Times,
approaches to shore, plus some interest- 22 September 1951, p. 15.
ing accounts of the scuttling, flopping,
sucking, stabling, poisoning creatures that
were taken on the beaches. To go from
Monterey Bay to the hot, dangerous, sel- .. . When John Steinbeck published Can-
dom sailed waters of the Gulf, Steinbeck nery Row half a dozen years ago he said
and Ricketts chartered a seventy-six-foot, that "the people, places and events in
Diesel-powered fish trawler. They vis- this book are, of course, fictions and fab-
ited numerous old settlements and time- rications." Then he dedicated it to "Ed
less bays. Ricketts, who knows why, or should"
and opened the story with a fine sketch
Steinbeck makes the reader feel the relief of the waterfront in the far from fictitious
of coming from the rolling seas inside the California town of Monterey.
sheltering capes and jetties. The local au- Now, in a fine book that is both new
thorities troop aboard, all in their rarely and old, The Log from the Sea of Cortez,
worn uniforms and displaying their cer- Mr. Steinbeck discards the disclaimer, as

371
it were, and expands the dedication. For treacherous and amazing Gulf of Califor-
the new part of this volume is a superb niaonce called the Sea of Cortezto
memoir of Edward F. Ricketts, and there collect specimens of the marine life there.
is no longer any lingering shadow of a Now that Mr. Steinbeck has reissued
doubt that he was the original of the the log, the narrative part of Sea of
character called Doc in Cannery Row. The Cortez, the secret of who wrote what is
jumble of immaculate scientific equip- cleared up. This will no doubt be a relief
ment and uproariously disorderly living to collectors of Mr. Steinbeck's excellent
arrangements that Mr. Ricketts called the works. For the log is still magnificent
Pacific Biological Laboratories (and in reading. And the pages upon pages of
which Steinbeck was an enormously ab- scientific data that filled out the earlier
sorbed stockholder) is also true, equally, book, we hope, have long since been in-
to life and art. corporated in the main body of technical
"I used the laboratory and Ed him- knowledge about those Pacific waters....
self in a book called Cannery Row" Ed Ricketts, Mr. Steinbeck remembers,
Steinbeck observes in his memoir. "I took "was gentle but capable of ferocity, small
it to him in typescript to see whether he and slight but strong as an ox, loyal and
would resent it and offered to make any yet untrustworthy, generous but gave lit-
changes he would suggest. He read it tle and received much. His thinking was
through carefully, smiling, and when he as paradoxical as his life. He thought
had finished he said, 'Let it go through in mystical terms and hated and dis-
that way. It is written in kindness. Such a trusted mysticism.... Ed kept the most
thing can't be bad.'" careful collecting notes on record, but
It was inadvertently bad, though, be- sometimes he would not open a business
cause it drew coveys of tourists who had letter for weeks."
read Cannery Row to the real Cannery It may be, John Steinbeck concludes,
Row, interrupting the pleasures and du- that there really was no key to the per-
ties of the day. They would stop their sonality of Ed Ricketts. That may be so,
sticker-embellished automobiles and peer as it may be true of anyone or everyone.
through whichever windows in their cars But few men have had more understand-
didn't have coats and dresses hanging in ing memorials than Sea of Cortez, The
them at Ed and his establishment. The Log from the Sea of Cortez and Cannery
bolder ones trooped through the labora- Rowin which the revised flyleaf nota-
tory asking unlearned questions. This was tion might read: Everything in this book
a nuisance. It had some compensations, is imaginative, including these words.
though. For, as Ed Ricketts said, "Some
of the callers were women and some of
the women were very nice looking."
Ten years ago, reviewing the original "Briefly Noted."
edition of Sea of Cortez in this quad- New Yorker, 27
rangle, when the book was issued as the
joint work of Steinbeck and Ricketts, I (6 October 1951), 117-18.
noted that this joint personality had a
notable gift for writing with vigor, relish
and precision on all sorts of things. The . . . A re-issue of the narrative part of
book, as many will remember, was an ac- The Sea of Cortez, which was the
count of their expedition to the lonely, record of an expedition to the Gulf of

372
California undertaken ten years ago by generation they are identified with such
Steinbeck and his marine-biologist friend people as Henry Fonda, John Carradine,
Ed Ricketts. The object of the voyage, Lon Chaney and Burgess Meredith.
made in a seventy-six-foot seiner, was to What matters is that, if they are as
observe, collect, and catalogue examples true and genuine people as they seem to
of the marine life of the Pacific littoral, be, future readers will be able to see them
as well as to have some fun. The book in the mind's eye and get a very sharp
that came out of it was an unconven- picture of what life was like in the United
tional and memorable one, very unlike States in the dusty, hungry 30s of the
most reports on scientific exploration. 20th century.
The present volume omits the marine bi- No other writer has put down such a
ology, and the author has added an infor- picture. In his people alone, Steinbeck
mal biographical sketch of Ricketts, who has contributed a warm, human offering
was killed in an automobile-train colli- to American literature.
sion in 1948. Ricketts, according to When he gets off of people, precise,
Steinbeck (who used him as the central exact people, Steinbeck is someone else
character of Cannery Row), was an im- again. His ideology is leftish, but a modi-
provident, irreverent, hard-working man cum muddied by doubt of leftishness.
who made up his own moral code as he His philosophy is appealing but not quite
went along, had odd and interesting ideas workable. His writing, deprived of pin-
of what is diverting in life, and was al- point description and characterization and
most an idol to the citizens of Monterey talk of people, loses much of its force. He
who knew him. His highly flavored per- sounds as if he were trying to sell some-
sonality, as it emerges from the pages of thing he doesn't exactly believe in.
the new preface, greatly enhance[s] the This trend started in earnest in 1941
appeal of the book.... (the year the 30s died with a vengeance)
with the publication of Sea of Cortez.
It continued to some extent in The
Moon Is Down, increased in The Pearl,
W. D. Bedell. and reached its height in Burning Bright.
These last three books were not exactly
"People and Crabs Not novels or plays. They were mostly preach-
the Same to Steinbeck." ments. Steinbeck is a good preacher, but
only when he subdues his preaching to
Houston Post, his people.
7 October 1951, The Wayward Bus and Cannery Row,
Section 4, p. 14. both written in the 40s, do not follow
this pattern, although they are not so
vivid as his earlier stories dedicated pri-
marily to people.
John Steinbeck's forte is people: Everyday The Log from the Sea of Cortez is a
people like Tom Joad and Danny and powerful example of the two Steinbecks.
George; screwballs like Casy the preacher; The Log is taken from the book pub-
twisted people like Lennie; earthy angels lished in 1941. It is simply a narrative
like Ma Joad. of the Steinbeck-Ricketts expedition to
It matters not that the movies have the Gulf of California in the spring of
transformed these people and that to a 1941. The original Sea of Cortez^ a joint

373
endeavor of Steinbeck and Ricketts, was gist negligent of his clothes, his whiskers
heavy with scientific data. In the Log, and his financial affairs, but rich in mat-
Steinbeck has culled out the purely tech- ters of love, whether man for man or
nical portions and left a story of a group man for woman.
of carefree collectors on a strange junket Before you know it you are back in
on a fishing boat. Tortilla Flat and Ed Ricketts is Danny
The Trouble with Sea of Cortez and (on a slightly higher intellectual plane, it
the Log which was culled from it is that is true) and the sun is warm and the beer
it has no characters. True, it has an engi- flows and the world is like the world
neer who knows Diesels like his own face ought to be.
and a couple of playful crewmen who For Ed Ricketts is Steinbeck's ideal
can't steer a boat and who have a big man, the man Steinbeck wishes he him-
time in every Mexican town they come self could have been.
to. But, limited to hard fact, Steinbeck is He does a wonderful job of putting
here somehow limited to anecdote, and down on paper this highly individual spec-
nobody ever shines through the morass imen of the genus People.
of brittle stars and all kinds of crabs and
all kinds of clams and sea cucumbers that
were always interrupting the contempla-
tion and the beer drinking of the expedi- M. R. Levitas.
tionary force.
Even Steinbeck and Ricketts themselves
"Steinbeck All at Sea."
stay in the background of the story. New Leader, 52
A great deal of philosophy and obser- (31 March 1952), 10.
vation emerges, some of it concise and
good, sentences such as:
"It is possible to work hard and fast
in a leisurely manner, or to work slowly The ocean has always provoked the
and clumsily with great nervousness." imagination of sailors, poets, scientists,
"A Mexican town grows out of the and seaside lovers on a moonlit night.
ground. You cannot conceive its never Placid and turbulent, its whispering tides
having been there." have lisped the enticements of mystery.
"Boredom arises not so often from too Recently, we have been treated to two
little to think about, as from too much, brilliant and successful attempts at pro-
and none of it clear nor clean nor simple." viding the layman with some answers to
There is also, in one page, the basic the riddle of the seaThor Heyerdahl's
legend from which he later wrote his Kon Tiki and Rachel Carson's The Sea
beautiful but not very-popular allegorical Around Us. Now a third volume seeks to
book, The Pearl. join these two in making the sea more
All in all it is a good, solid travelogue, meaningful. Unfortunately, however, John
a little wordy but creditableit would be Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of
creditable, that is, for a travel writer less Cortez is unworthy of its predecessors.
expressive than Steinbeck. . .. Though it is intended for both av-
He seems to have realized this medioc- erage readers and marine biologists, it is
rity, so he makes up for it in the profile of hard to say which the current Log will
Ed Ricketts appeal to less.
Steinbeck pictures Ricketts as a biolo- For the layman, it is an unconscion-

374
ably dull chronicle of the comings and gist of less renown to the world at large,
goings of the Western Flyer as it stopped presented to the somewhat bewildered
to pick up various specimens on both world of letters a thick book about a col-
coasts of the gulf. Mixed in with this lecting trip to the Gulf of California, un-
record is a sprinkling of meditative der the title: Sea of Cortez. . . . To the
thoughtsequally uninspiringon many critics who were convinced that some-
subjects. . . . thing was wrong with Steinbeck as a
For the marine biologist, The Log writer, this "sort of choppino of travel,
offers its conclusions chiefly in general- biology and philosophy" was full of clues
ized terms of what species of animal lived and material for essays, and in recent
where and in what number. In detailed years three such essays have appeared in
form, this is probably valuable informa- the Pacific Spectator alone.
tion, but why in the world did it take the At least one well known reviewer of
reissue of the "unscientific" portion of a nature books somewhat innocently thought
scientific volume to provide it? Presum- that the "colleagues of the learned Mr.
ably, anyone interested in the marine life Ricketts" would be surprised to learn
of the Gulf of California has read the that he drank great quantities of beer,
original Sea of Cortez. and "wrote, or concurred in" certain
By far the best part of the book is that bawdy speculations. He did not, how-
which has nothing to do with the Gulf of ever, miss the fundamental point that the
Californiaa profile of Ed Ricketts by book was the joint effort of two authors,
Steinbeck, who was his devoted friend. who had a lot of fun putting it together.
Sympathetic and wise, Ricketts seems to That was ten years ago. Steinbeck and
have been one of those rare, intelligent Ricketts had such a good time with this
people who are alert to all things, but enterprise that they planned another
particularly to individuals. Steinbeck here northward, this timeat first, to the
writes vividly and movingly about Rick- Aleutians, then, more realistically, to the
etts and his place in the lives of the can- Queen Charlottes; and Ricketts began to
nery-row characters of Monterey. . . . develop a scheme to interlock his Be-
tween Pacific Tides with Sea of Cortez
and the new book, The Outer Shores,
which was to be in part the result of this
Joel W. Hegdpeth. northern expedition. He had an elaborate
"Sea of Cortez Revisited, set of cards in two sizes and several
colors printed to record all this informa-
or Cannery Row tion, with spaces for cross references
Revised." to the other books. In the meanwhile,
Ed Ricketts had become the Doc of Can-
Pacific Discovery, 6 nery Row and the legend was beginning
(January-February 1953), to grow. Then one day in 1948 Ed for-
got about the afternoon train to Pacific
28-30. Grove and drove his car into its path. It
was not a pleasant or an easy way to die,
and the manner of it increased our sense
Toward the end of 1941 a well-known of loss. For many of us, the heart has
novelist by the name of John Steinbeck, gone out of Cannery Row now, and only
and Edward F. Ricketts, a marine biolo- the curious passers-by go down to look

375
at the shack that was once the "Pacific began as a collaboration between him
Biological Laboratories." Steinbeck was and his friend Jack Calvin (who now
the hardest hit, because Ed was perhaps runs a printing business in Sitka, Alaska),
the only friend who was not in the least and which is an enduring contribution to
awed by his reputation as a writer and the literature of seashore biology: Be-
treated him first as a human being. When tween Pacific Tides. It was probably the
you become a famous writer, it is some- publisher's doing that the listing of this
thing like being rich: it is not easy to be title has been removed from this reissue
sure that your friends are really your of Sea of Cortez; it should be restored in
friends. He could never have any doubts further printings. This little detail and the
like that about Ed Ricketts. general tone of Steinbeck's memoir may
It is for the sake of saying what he leave the impression among uninformed
had to say about his friend that Steinbeck readers that the narrative part of Sea of
has published this edition of Sea of Cortez is even more Steinbeck's doing
Cortez. It consists of the narrative por- than it was. .. .
tion of the original book, up to page 271, To say that Ed was holistic in his
with this long preface or "profile." . . . thinking is simply to say that he was
Usually a preface to a new edition is by temperament a naturalist, devoted to
not given much space by reviewers, but achieving some synthesis of the world
this 67-page "profile" will be approached about him. As William Morton Wheeler
by critics as further source material for once observed, such people usually be-
the "Steinbeck problem," while friends of come hard-boiled Aristotelians, but Ed
Ed Ricketts will read it to learn how was a soft-boiled one, unable to exorcise
Steinbeck knew him: "As I have said, no his inherent mysticism. He lacked the
one who knew Ed will be satisfied with toughness of mind to adhere to an estab-
this account. They will have known innu- lished intellectual discipline, either as a
merable other Eds. I imagine that there biologist or a philosopher; he lived and
were as many Eds as there were friends thought as he pleased. Those of us who
of Ed." With such a disclaimer, we are had to knuckle down to conventions and
left without too much to say about this circumstances envied him at times. Yet he
portrait by Steinbeck, and are invited, in was not always as happy in this manner
effect, to write our own, if we are not sat- of living as we who envied or admired
isfied. In writing about Ed Ricketts, John him might imagine that we could be in
Steinbeck has attempted one of the hard- similar circumstances. As Steinbeck says,
est writing jobs he has ever set himself to he was looking for somethingmost of-
do. In a way, he has succeededat least, ten in love, but in music and in the
the history of this interesting friendship, tidepools as wellthat he did not find.
and something of the personality which On one plane he was the archetype of
has had such an influence on one of our the Steinbeck hero (out of the clinically
major writers has been set down. But as detailed pages of a book for men only),
one who knew Ed as a fellow biologist, on another, a lost soul. Well, we are all
and didn't care how he managed his pri- lost souls, seeking salvation of some sort
vate life, I find some curious gaps in this or another, but it is characteristic of
"profile." . . . Steinbeck that he does not come to grips
The most conspicuous oversight in with this aspect of Ed's characterper-
Steinbeck's profile is the failure to men- haps he will in some future writing, at
tion that Ed wrote another bookwhich least by indirection. Although his critics

376
do not use these words, they do agree ing, but always stimulating" student,
that the flaw in Steinbeck's writing is his "one of a group of Ishmaelites."
failure to meet this problem of salva-
tionlike Ed, he is contented to take
things as he finds them.
Certainly one does not try to reform John Coleman.
one's friends, especially after they are "Marine Creatures."
dead, and least of all, to censure them for
their faults, whether they be those of Spectator [England], 198
glandular imbalance or lack of philo- (26 September 1958),
sophical discipline. It would be unkind,
and not quite true, to say that this profile 412.
is simply Cannery Row in a new keyit
is a portrait of a friend, written in kind-
ness and love. I wish I knew how to say The Sea of Cortez is an old name for
things as well, yet enough has been said, the Gulf of California, a long, narrow,
indeed, to demonstrate that he was a rare treacherous body of water. In the spring
and lovable personality. of 1940, John Steinbeck, together with a
As for his eccentricities, they are all biologist friend, Ed Ricketts, and a hired
true enoughhow many times have we crew, spent six weeks there collecting ma-
been asked if there really was a beer milk rine fauna. The results of this expedition
shake, I wonder; he was gravely polite to were preserved in an unusual book that
dogs yet a competent embalmer of cats, appeared the following year, in which
and in his attire a veritable wedding guest Rickett's scientific data and Steinbeck's
in mufti. His easygoing attire was the journal lay cheek by jowl. It is the lively,
cause of an unpleasant little incident in literary half of this collaboration we are
the library of a certain research founda- now offered, prefaced by a long profile
tion, but he got his revenge by making Steinbeck wrote after his friend's death
critical remarks about the rich man in in 1948.
science in Sea of Cortez. Things happen One has only to sense the affection he
toand aroundpeople like Ed, and inspired to know that Ricketts was no
even Steinbeck, with his love for a good ordinary man. "Nearly everyone who
story, has hardly scratched the surface of knew him has tried to define him," writes
the store of anecdotes. Steinbeck in his memoirs. "Such things
But it must be said again that Steinbeck were said of him as, 'He was half-Christ
has not said enough about one of the and half-goat.'" But this is somewhat dis-
most enduring labors of Ed's life, of how ingenuous, since Steinbeck himself perpe-
for these last ten or twelve years students trated the remark in his novel Cannery
of marine biology have found, in the Row, where Ricketts appeared as Doc
book he started to write for his friends (and the goat, to be exact, as a satyr).
out of the background of those years Undergoing this obituary profile is ac-
of hours in the tidepools, their introduc- cordingly a weird discomfort, rather like
tion to the seashore of the Pacific Coast. watching Mr. Greene turn a film into a
Certainly Between Pacific Tides proved novel and, in the event, no more appeal-
that Ed was one of [W. C] Allee's finest ing: for the profile is little more than an
students, and the professor may well extended paraphrase of the "fictional"
remember him as a "sometimes disturb- saga of Doc, and the strange outcome is

377
that Doc, without the romantic frame- ous, but the adjective is useful here in
work of the novel, Doc, stepping out describing both the form of the book
of that tough, sentimental, bawdy, in- and its displacement from Mr. Steinbeck's
corrigible, private world, is suddenly di- customary lonely orbit. It never swings
minished, almost betrayed, as Ricketts. I clear of the field of force of Mr. Stein-
suppose there is a moral of sorts in all beck's Monterey. Indeed if it can be said
this, something about acts of piety. to be about any one thing, it is haunt-
There is a sound enough moral to ingly about the "doc" of Cannery Row.
be drawn from the second part of the But in building this memorial to a re-
book, anyway: go to the ant (or sea-cu- markable man it contrives to examine al-
cumber), thou novelist, and be wise. Why most everything that concerns his species
is it that English literary men show, for and its mysterious world.
the most part, such strenuous disinterest In 1940 Mr. Steinbeck sailed in a sar-
in the dance of bees and atomsas if dine boat with his friend the biologist Ed
the human comedy were the only one? In Ricketts to collect marine invertebrates
his day-to-day musings and descriptions, from the beaches of the Gulf of Califor-
as the Western Flyer went round the nia. This expedition was described by the
Gulf in a series of hops, Steinbeck is at two men in The Sea of Cortez, published
his most tender and, significantly, his in 1941. Eight years later Ricketts was
most Lawrentian. The aggressively male killed in a motor accident, and in 1951
anecdotes of thirst, copulation and greed Mr. Steinbeck, having written a profile of
are interrupted while the men wade for his friend in a vain attempt to cut the
sand-dollars and sponges. His passionate losses of his bereavement, used this as a
interest in all created things, "teeming, preface to the narrative portion of The
boisterous life," leads him on and out; Sea of Cortez, which now appears in an
and, if at one minute you are being heart- English edition.
ily bored by twenty pages on "teleologi- These men poked about the inter-tidal
cal" thinking, the little essays on laziness shores of a dangerous sea not so much
and man's boat-shaped mind that bolster to collect rare specimens as to find out,
the journal are often more rewarding if they could, how the colonies of life
than the best of Aldous Huxley. The in sand, rock and coral lived together.
book is indexed and, disarmingly enough, Ecology was their common interest; how
such pieces are listed under "Specula- does life go on? their consuming ques-
tions o n . . . . " tion. And not only the life of worms,
crabs, starfish and sea-cucumbers, but the
lives of the Mexican Indians in the gulf
settlements, of the American citizens bor-
"Queer Fish." dering it in a state of preparation for war,
and of themselves and their seamen, break-
Times Literary ing and entering a closed system with
Supplement [London], their alien desires and awkward ques-
tions. The invaders argued as tirelessly as
10 October 1958, p. 575. they waded and sorted their specimens.
Mr. Steinbeck's index shows oddly what
they were after. Clams, Crabs, Fishes,
To say of one of Mr. Steinbeck's writings Shrimps, Snails have each a fat entry. But
that it is eccentric is to glimpse the obvi- Speculation easily surpasses them all, and

378
if one works through its items one gets a On this cruise one of the arguments
pretty comprehensive exposition of the concerned the proper function of the
Steinbeck-Ricketts line on what life is re- biologist. How best to get at the life of a
ally about. Nothing is too familiar to be fish? You may with luck watch the flash-
looked at twice. There is, for example, ing colours and the fugitive movements
much more for us in a boat than we of his voracious and predatory freedom;
might think: you may produce its simulacrum by put-
ting him in a carefully controlled aquar-
A man builds the best of himself into ium; or, having killed and preserved him,
a boatbuilds many of the uncon- you can make a strict count of his anat-
scious memories of his ancestors. omy. In this book Mr. Steinbeck is hunt-
Once, passing the boat department of ing that queer fish Ricketts. He says he
Macy's in New York, where there are will let his profile come as it will, and it
duck-boats and skiffs and little cruis- comes as vividly, raggedly and inconclu-
ers, one of the authors discovered that sively as the man himself. "Half Christ
as he passed each hull he knocked on and half goat" is only a cartoonist's label;
it sharply with his knuckles. He won- some fraction of him should go to Socrates,
dered why he did it, and as he won- for he loved to question fragments of re-
dered, he heard a knocking behind ality. As for his other loves, they were
him, and another man was rapping lived out among the bums and whores,
the hulls with his knuckles, the same the cheap bottles and poverty of Cannery
tempothree sharp knocks on each Row. He loved music and some litera-
hull. During an hour's observation ture, besides honesty and truth; those
there no man or boy and few women who knew him found they could not do
passed who did not do the same thing. without him; and yet he could be trusted
Can this have been an unconscious with no other man's woman. In the nar-
testing of the hulls? . . . rative of the cruise Ricketts is never men-
tioned; he is the other half, the sleeping
At the other end of the scale there is a partner, of the narrative "we." But he is
strong attack on the very basis of teleo- awake, alive and boisterously kicking, on
logical modes of thought. Progress, we most of its pages. Having first been in-
like to think, is by way of explaining more structed in his anatomy, we have him in
and more of the phenomena that we ob- his freedom, and Mr. Steinbeck's problem
serve. Nothing is more soothing to civilized is solved:
man than to be able to say with finality,
"This is so because that is so." But to the One night soon after his death a num-
ecologist in excelsis such statements rarely ber of us were drinking beer in the
make sense. To him any situation is the laboratory. We laughed and told sto-
centre of a complex array of inter-related ries about Ed, and suddenly one of us
forces. To say "It is because it is" need said in pain, "We'll have to let him
not be the tautology of the unthinking; it go! We'll have to release him and let
may be the most profound phenomenal him go." And that was true not for Ed
statement that it is possible to make. And but for ourselves. We can't keep him,
if one stands on this, few of the most and still he will not go away.
comforting explanations of what is hap-
pening to the world, and to ourselves in Why should he? He was, as Mr. Stein-
the process, stand unshaken. beck might say, an influential man.

379
 refers only to the chapter's place in the
E. D. O'Brien. structure of the book, for if ever a por-
trait was lovingly painted, it is this one.
"From Childhood and the Someone said of Ed Ricketts that he was
Sea to Saints and "half-Christ and half-goat." He was a bi-
ologist, an eccentric, and a great lover of
Sorcerers." women. "He could receive and under-
Illustrated London News, stand and be truly glad, not competitively
233 (11 October 1958), glad." Mr. Steinbeck is a fluent author,
but he stumbles and falters slightly with
620. the authentic accents of deep affection
and sorrow at an irreparable loss.

. . . Excellent, too, in a quite different

genre, is Mr. John Steinbeck's The Log
from the Sea of Cortez.... I am among Checklist of Additional
those who can take any amount of John
Steinbeck, and although I cannot claim to
Reviews
be very much interested in the marine
creatures which he and Ed Ricketts set
out to catch in the Gulf of California, for Elizabeth M. Cole. "The Log from the
purposes of biological research, I cruised Sea of Cortez." Library Journal, 76
along very happily with this unusual (1 October 1951), 1565.
crew. But it is Ed Ricketts who provides "The Log from the Sea of Cortez."
the point. The book begins with a long, Booklist, 48 (15 October 1951), 68.
detached chapter, "About Ed Ricketts," Bruce W. Hozeski. "Sea of Cortez"
which is of a much finer quality than the Steinbeck Quarterly, 6 (Spring 1973),
account of the cruise itself. "Detached" 57-8.

380
EAST OF EDEN
JOHN STEINBECK

East
of
Eden

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK

 like such characters should and do. It has
W. Max Gordon. many fine passages, one of which is the
description of the trip with his favorite
"Steinbeck's New Book, uncle. We think the public will like it,
East of Eden, Tells of and, of course it's a "must" for Monterey
county people.
'His People' in Our
Valley."
Salinas Californian,
Orville Prescott.
14 September 1952, p. 4.
"Books of the Times."
New York Times,
There is nothing truly evil except what is
within us, and it is man's own decision
19 September 1952, p. 21.
whether or not he shall rule over sin.
This in essence, we think, is the theme
of John Steinbeck's new book .. . which John Steinbeck's best and most ambitious
goes on sale today here and throughout novel since The Grapes of Wrath is pub-
the nation. lished today. It is called East of Eden and
Mr. Steinbeck has taken some 600 is a quarter of a million words long. Clum-
pages to chronicle the story of "his peo- sy in structure and defaced by excessive
ple" and that of an imaginary character, melodramatics and much cheap sensa-
Adam Trask. Much of the story is laid in tionalism though it is, East of Eden is a
the Salinas valley. Many will recognize serious and on the whole successful effort
the real and imaginary people he weaves to grapple with a major theme. The
into his long story. theme is a moral one, good and evil and
Steinbeck is never dull and, even if the mixture of both, which give signifi-
you miss his message, you'll not be bored. cance to all human striving. In the thirteen
There is only one Steinbeck and no one years that have passed since the publi-
writes about "his people" as well. cation of The Grapes of Wrath John Stein-
"His people" in this case are members beck has given the impression of a writer
of his own family. His grandfather, Samuel exploring blind alleys, wasting his great
Hamilton, an easy-going and impractical talents on trivial books, groping and fum-
inventor, tried to eke a living from a poor bling among his own confused opinions
ranch near King City. He wasn't too suc- about human character and life itself.
cessful, but he raised a wonderful family Now in East of Eden he has achieved a
and the impact of his goodness and un- considered philosophy and it is a fine and
derstanding was immeasurable. generous one. Men and women are no
"His people" also are the workmen, longer weak and contemptible animals,
the ranchers, the ranch hands, the me- as they were in Cannery Row and The
chanics and even "the girls." He under- Wayward Bus. They are people, strong
stands them, knows how they think and and weak, wise and stupid, sometimes
how they react. . . . vicious; but their lives are made mean-
Steinbeck and his publishers say this is ingful by "the glory of choice." East of
his greatest book. Certainly, it is thor- Eden is Mr. Steinbeck's testimony to free
oughly Steinbeck, whose characters talk will and the essential nobility of man.

383
 This long, crowded, violent and desper- And, in contrast to these good men, is
ately earnest novel concerns the affairs of Adam's wife, Cathy, a symbol of absolute
two families through several generations. evil. Cathy is a baby-faced monster, a
It is laid in the Salinas Valley of Califor- sexual degenerate, a murderer and a cari-
nia, where Mr. Steinbeck grew up. Most cature of malice, duplicity and depravity.
of its important characters are members Mr. Steinbeck calls her a monster himself
of the Trask family. Most of its minor in one of the many interludes, in which
characters belong to the Hamilton family, he addresses his readers in the first per-
which is Mr. Steinbeck's own. So there son in the manner of some of the eigh-
is a curious overlapping of fictionalized, teenth and nineteenth century novelists.
personal family memoirs with outright But, since Cathy is a monster, she never
fiction in East of Eden. seems human.
Few modern novels have been orga- Her crimes and her vile career as the
nized according to so intricate a pattern madame of a brothel seem grossly out of
as that of East of Eden. It is filled with keeping in a novel so seriously concerned
parallels in situation and contrasts in with ethics and character as this. Mr.
character carefully arranged in pairs de- Steinbeck has piled up horrors in revolt-
signed to diagram Mr. Steinbeck's ideas. ing fashion. Cathy may win some readers
These seem artificially contrived and they for East of Eden who otherwise would
do slow down the course of Mr. never be attracted by it. But she is sure to
Steinbeck's narrative. sicken and to bore many others, those
East of Eden starts with two brothers, who respect the art of fiction and who
Adam and Charles Trask, Adam loved by care about the same issues of good and
his father and Charles rejected by him. evil that Mr. Steinbeck cares about.
Adam is a nobly good man, but a stu- East of Eden, it seems to me, is seri-
pid one, who idolizes the vicious woman ously damaged by Cathy's unreal pres-
who is his wife. They have two sons; ence and by the disgusting details of her
Aron is also good and loved and an ide- career. It is also somewhat handicapped
alist, blind to the realities around him. by its elaborate balancing of symbolical
Cal, like his uncle Charles, feels rejected characters and by Mr. Steinbeck's inter-
by his father and is a mixture of good ruptions of his story to deliver little lectures
and evil. on Western history, the roles of the rail-
In contrast to the good but stupid roads, the church and the brothel. But
Adam are two good and intelligent men. it is proof of the rich vitality and tre-
And these are two of the finest character- mendous drive of East of Eden that it
izations Mr. Steinbeck has ever achieved. survives such failings and remains an im-
One is of his own grandfather, Samuel pressive book.
Hamilton, a poor rancher stuck with near- A fine, lusty sense of life is here, a de-
desert lands, a blacksmith, a water di- light in the spectacle of men and women
viner, a poet and philosopher. Samuel struggling in the age-old ways to meet
Hamilton is that exceedingly rare thing in their separate destinies, and an abundance
literature, an entirely virtuous man who of good story-telling. Many of the minor
is also a believable, likable and wise one. characters, particularly the members of
Equally wise and equally interesting, but the Hamilton family, are lovingly and
not quite so humanly believable, is Lee, amusingly portrayed. John Steinbeck has
Chinese cook and guide, philosopher and grown in his respect for his fellow human
friend to the Trask family. beings, in his understanding of them. He

384
has reached mature and thoughtful con- text runs to more than six hundred pages.
clusions about them. And he has ex- Yet the results, artistic and imagina-
pressed his conclusions in interesting and tive, are meager. The characters divide
thought-provoking fashion. into symbols of good and evil, keeping us
East of Eden is constructed around a from accepting them as individuals. Sam
central idea that provides the most im- Hamilton, who came from Ireland to
portant of its many parallels, the story of California, is the embodiment of every-
Cain and Abel. What use Mr. Steinbeck thing good, sensitive, and true. His polar-
makes of that immortal story and what ized counterpart is Cathy Trask, introduced
his interpretation of it is will not be re- at the start as a monster rather than a
vealed here. human being, who burns her parents to
death, cuckolds her husband on their
wedding day, shoots him later after the
New England Trasks have settled in the
Leo Gurko. Salinas Valley, and abandons her new-
born twins to become the impresario of
"Steinbeck's Later the town's leading brothel, where she op-
Fiction.55 erates a ring of murder, blackmail, and
sexual sadism.
Nation, 175
Mixed in with this moral symbolism is
(20 September 1952), some biblical allegory, centering mainly
235-6. around the Cain-Abel theme. Old Cyrus
Trask has two sons, Adam and Charles,
who separate neatly into opposing cate-
gories. Adam is sensitive and good, Charles
This is the longest and most ambitious is muscular and bad. Naturally Charles
of the six novels by Steinbeck since the tries to murder his brother out of envy
appearance in 1939 of his masterpiece, and hatred because Adam is his father's
The Grapes of Wrath. It shares the dis- favoritejust as Abel's offerings were
tinction with the other five of being preferred by God to Cain's. The drama
unsatisfactory in one important aspect or between them is repeated with Adam's
another and raises anew the question of two sons, Aron and Caleb. The result of
why Steinbeck's talent has declined so ra- the struggle is that the evil brother is
pidly and so far. morally and psychologically conquered,
The physical dimensions of the book and in the process transformed into his
are quantitatively impressive. Two large counterpart.
families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, Confronted with these simplified ab-
supply the cast of characters across three stractions in the genre of the old medi-
generations. The time span stretches from eval morality plays, one remembers that
1870 to 1918 and covers, in rapid de- the Joads were none too individualized
scriptive interludes, most of the big events either. But their private lives were merged
of American history between the Civil with the collective lives of the Okies,
War and the First World War. The scene with the population drift from the Dust
is the Salinas Valley in northern Cali- Bowl to the land flowing with milk,
fornia, home territory for the author, honey, and orange groves beyond the moun-
which he treats with the minutest geogra- tains, and finally with the lives of the
phic and meteorological detail. And the uprooted everywhere. This linkage gave

385
The Grapes of Wrath its terrific intensity. Flat, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes
Here the linkage is with rather vague ste- of Wrath a permanent part of our litera-
reotypes about good triumphing over ture are painfully absent in East of Eden,
evil, men being distinguished from ani- as they have been in Steinbeck's fiction
mals by their moral sense and the eternal since the 1930's came to an end.
existence of free will. No one will dispute
the validity of these concepts, but they
are only verbalized cliches as they appear
in the novel. Harvey Curtis Webster.
Steinbeck is no great shakes as a mor- "Out of the New-born
al philosopher, and this novel in terms of
action and character is committed to its Sun."
moral philosophy. He is, or was, at his Saturday Review, 35
best when moved by indignation, horror,
passionate tenderness, and the other vio- (20 September 1952),
lent emotions that animated the natural- 11-12.
ist novelists from Zola down. There is in
this story very little emotion that affects
the author amid the numerous emotion-
alizing melodramas through which his char- Perhaps East of Eden isn't a great novel
acters pass. according to the strict conventions of for-
Furthermore, various elements fail to mal purity so widely accepted today, but
relate or cohere. The often lovely and al- it will take almost equal quantities of pride
ways vivid descriptions of the Salinas and stupidity to deny that it is one of the
Valley are not tied in with the lives of the best novels of the past ten years and the
Trasks and the Hamiltons, who might best book John Steinbeck has written since
just as well be living in any valley any- The Grapes of Wrath. Most people will
where; the detailed accounts of nature like it and many will buy it. They should,
are purely ornamental. So much time, en- for it is to be doubted if any American
ergy, and drama are invested in the novel has better chronicled our last hun-
Trasks that the Hamiltons as a group dred years, our trek from East to West to
struggle vainly for the attention of the discover an Eden that always somehow
reader. And the narrator, Steinbeck him- escapes us and that we as a people yet
self, a third-generation Hamilton, since continue to hope for and believe in.
he is only an outside observer of the events East of Eden is not a compact novel
he deals with, has a superfluous air. like Of Mice and Men, not brilliant so-
The brothel scenes aside, the novel ciological fiction like The Grapes of
might well have been written by Edna Wrath and In Dubious Battle, not a tem-
Ferber or Louis Bromfield. It is big, perately ironical tale of the disreputable
sprawling, muscle-bound, full of readily who are more lovable than the respect-
digestible characters involved in senti- able like Tortilla Flat. It belongs really in
mental situations in which virtue inescap- the tradition of the novels Fielding wrote
ably triumphs over vice. The Steinbeck and Thackeray tried to. It jangles, yet is
who was as much the genius of the 30's full of vitality; reading it you realize that
as Sinclair Lewis was of the 20's, is Steinbeck has never learned or cared to
scarcely in evidence. The vitality, passion, learn the lesson of Henry James, but that
and folk-communion that made Tortilla doesn't seem to matter as you are carried

386
forward by a narrative flow that encom- are endowed with a freedom of choice
passes vulgarity, sensibility, hideousness, that permits them to change their moral
and beauty. category.. . .
In another sense, East of Eden can be .. . These focal characters who bring
taken as a long parable expertly told. meaning and focus into what superficially
Mostly it centers about Adam Trask, ap- seems a sprawling narrative full of unguid-
propriately and Biblically named. He is a ed life are Steinbeck's artful instruments
fallible, gullible intelligent man who thinks in a novel that convincingly demonstrates
he has found his earthly paradise in the that he is still one of the most important
Salinas Valley, is seduced by his Eve, and writers of our time.
comes out of the moral wilderness this
sends him into to achieve belief in himself
and in the world he must learn to live in.
But as its length of six hundred pages Anthony West.
suggests, this parable is as full of inci-
dents and people who deviate from the
"California Moonshine.3
main line of narrative as Tom Jones. New Yorker, 28
Some of the episodes, like the compact (20 September 1952),
and highly interesting story of Cyrus
Trask who never forgot the Civil War or 121-2, 125.
learned gentleness, seem at first to be
largely irrelevant. One feels that Stein-
beck spends altogether too much time on Mr. John Steinbeck has placed the telling
the whores Adam's wife ultimately con- of his new novel, East of Eden,... in the
trols, too much loving description on the hands of a narrator related to many of
Salinas Valley, that he overcrowds his the characters. There is nothing especially
canvas with characters. Yet in the end the outrageous about this device, but in this
reader must conclude that there is little case the choice of instrument is unfortu-
real irrelevance and that even the actual nate. When he wishes to inform us that
irrelevance is so full of vitality that he he nearly died of pleural pneumonia, he
is glad Steinbeck did not do a sterner job chooses to say that he "went down and
of pruning. down, until the wing tips of the angels
The novel marks a definite advance in brushed my eyes." When he is not rolling
Steinbeck's thinking which has been de- verbal syrup of this kind around his
fined by Edmund Wilson as too barely mouth, he is liable to be toying with
naturalistic. In his earlier novels, men ap- phrases that resemble metaphors but in
proach the condition of animals with a which something bordering on a genius
uniformity that sometimes becomes mo- for dissociation may be discerned. When
notonous. In East of Eden, the animality Adam Trask, the hero of the novel, is
is still there but it is joined to a sense working hard to clear a neglected ranch
of human dignity and what it may that he has just bought near Salinas, we
achieve. There is none of the sentimental- are told that "Adam sat like a contented
ity about the outcast you find in Cannery cat on his land." A little later, with work
Row, none of the unconvincing mysti- on the homestead going forward nicely,
cism of The Wayward Bus. The main his happiness is increased by the knowl-
characters are good-and-bad, good, and edge that he is to become a father, and
bad; and one always has a sense that they his manner grows livelier: "Adam fluttered

387
like a bewildered bee confused by too In no time at all, the lady is married to
many flowers." A certain exaltation in Adam, but it is clear from the first that
an expectant father is only right and the young people are not made for each
proper, but since Adam has served two other. On the wedding night, the new
five-year hitches in the United States Cav- Mrs. Trask gives her husband a Mickey
alry, fought in the Indian Wars, rubbed Finn and tiptoes off to Charles' room.
elbows with I.W.W. stalwarts in hobo Even before Adam moves out West to the
jungles, and done a twelve-month stretch ranch near Salinas, his wife is none too
on a Tallahassee chain gang, it is permis- keen on the farming game, and sitting
sible to suggest that the delicacy of his around pregnant while her land-hungry
condition is over stressed. The narrator's husband ambles about the place with wa-
efforts to transform Trask into a marsh- ter diviners cures her of it for good. She
mallow of a man, all sponginess, purity, dislikes breeding just as much as she dis-
and softness, are at war with Mr. Stein- likes farming, so as soon as the twins are
beck's intentions, which are apparently to born and she is on her feet again, she
get a good man in a tough spot that will plugs Adam in the shoulder with a Colt
test his moral fibre. .44 and makes for the nearest bordello.
The pregnant lady responsible for She is a career girl and a hard worker,
Adam's flutterings is not altogether a and before long she is in a position to
credit to her sex. When she is what is poison the madam and take over. Her pe-
known in the garment trade as a sub- culiar talents give the place an uncom-
teen, a baroque quality in her romping mon atmosphere, and it is soon as widely
gets two of her boy friends sent off to re- known throughout the Golden West as
form school. In her first year at high that Parisian establishment called "the
school, she drives her Latin teacher to Enigmatic Miss Floggy's" was known in
suicide with her offbeat fancies, and two Europe during the thirties. Adam, who
years later, hitting her stride, she cracks has no idea where she is or what she is
the safe of her father's tannery and com- doing, settles into a sullen grief in which
mits arson, patricide, and matricide. This the reader may well share, as all this takes
sixteen-year-old voluptuary then takes off us only to about page 300 and there are
to slake her appetite for the rarer forms another three hundred pages to go. Mr.
of fun in the New England sporting Steinbeck and his narrator, however, have
houses. While advancing her professional got Adam to the focal tough spot of the
career, she encounters a big-time pro- story, and the point of it all is in sight.
curer with a circuit embracing thirty- Adam is for a long time unable to
three towns and wins his simple heart. bring himself even to name the twins, or
When he finds out what sort of girl he to pay them any other attention. The task
has fallen in love with, his reactions are of caring for them falls upon his Chinese
the uncomplex ones of a deeply passion- cook, who at last insists they must have
ate man; he takes the lady into a rural namesthe least a child can expect of its
section of upstate Connecticut and tries father. A neighbor naturally suggests
to beat her head in with a rock. The Cain and Abel, but Adam compromises
shady back road on which she is left for with Caleb and Aron. In due course, the
dead passes by the Trask homestead, and boys grow up, the family moves off the
before long she is in bed there, being ranch into Salinas, and Calebto the as-
lovingly nursed by Adam Trask and cor- tonishment of no perceptive reader
dially detested by his half brother Charles. finds out what Mama is. In a moment of

388
pique at his father's disapproval of his deck. Spiritually armed by this knowl-
successful gambling on futures in the edge, Adam goes off to the brothel to
bean market, he takes his brother to one face his wife as she really is, a meeting
of the bizarre exhibitions that are a fea- from which he emerges unscathed, and
ture of her establishment. In disgust, released at last from the feeling that some
Aron joins the Army and goes off to get vileness of his has driven the delicate
himself killed in the First World War. creature of his illusions away. In his exal-
Caleb, it becomes clear, is indeed Cain, tation, he makes the perfect gesture of a
and the book, it becomes clear, is about mystic in an industrial society and buys
the riddle presented by Genesis 4:1-8, an himself a new Ford. The liberation is not
extremely bewildering episode. simply a passing mood, either, and when
Mr. Steinbeck sees this story, which is the final crisis of the book comes, and his
concerned with the primitive religion of a son stands before him stained with his
people halfway between a nomadic and a war profits of seven and a half cents a
pastoral life, through a haze of modern pound on beans and his brother's blood,
psychology, which is almost entirely con- he is morally strong enough to lift the
cerned with the world of experience of burden of guilt from the boy by murmur-
the urban middle class. Cain was un- ing, "Timshel."
happy because his love was rejected; this "The subject," Mr. Steinbeck declares,
made him mean, and his meanness made "is the only one man has ever used as his
him feel guilty. To break his feeling of themethe existence, the balance, the
guilt, he became murderous, and thus battle, and the victory in the permanent
more guilty, and so on. According to Mr. war between wisdom and ignorance,
Steinbeck, this is the story of all mankind light and darknessgood and evil." It is
and the reason man is the only guilty ani- true that this has been the single theme
mal. If this were all, the outlook for the of a certain kind of literature. Mr. Stein-
human race would be a glum one, and beck has written the precise equivalent
Adam Trask, perversely depressed more of those nineteenth-century melodramas
by his wife's departure than by the man- in which the villains could always be rec-
ner of it, is inclined to take the dim view. ognized because they waxed their mus-
His Chinese cook, aided by a philosophic taches and in which the conflict between
neighbor, argues him out of it. The cook, good and evil operated like a well-run se-
a Bible student, belongs to a highgrade ries of professional tennis matches. Expe-
discussion group run by a San Francisco rience would suggest that the conflict is
tong. His master's problems have per- in fact quite different and vastly more in-
suaded him to an attentive study of the teresting, for the forces are not in balance
Cain and Abel story, and he has put it up and victory is not guaranteed to the side
to the group for clarification. They pro- of the angels. Be that as it may, there is
duce startling new information about the nothing more puerile than a discussion of
obscure sentence "And unto thee shall be the subject conducted in terms so naive
his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." that evil is identified with sexual aberra-
"Thou shalt," it appears, is a mistrans- tion. Compared with the evil that sits
lation of "timshel," which really means smiling in the family group or mingles
"thou mayest," and "him" refers to sin. with the guests at a wedding in a neat
So the last part of the sentence should suit, the evil that hides behind shutters in
read, "Thou mayest rule over sin." This the red-light district is neither very deadly
calls for a new deal all round with a new nor very interesting.

389
 many children; the Chinese servant, Lee,
Paul Engle. profounder than the reader ever quite be-
lieves is possible; the children of Adam,
"John Steinbeck's Theme mixed and hard Cal and the gentle Aron,
Is Struggle of Good and who is killed early. And against all,
against the world and life itself, the ruth-
Evil." less Cathy, the lifetaker who ends by tak-
Chicago Sunday Tribune ing her own.
Magazine of Books, The theme of the book is the struggle of
21 September 1952, p. 3. the good in some men against the evil in
others, and the struggle of the good in
each man against the evil in himself. In
We all live East of Eden, that country the end, the good triumphs, but only af-
where Cain lived after the Lord had set ter appalling loss and pain. The grief that
his mark on him. We are all children of pure evil causes shatters lives, but the de-
Cain, and thus mingled of good and evil, light that pure good causes mends them.
and wherever men and women live is the One feels that Sam Hamilton and Lee are
land eastward from Eden, whether it is a almost too perfect to be living men, but
Connecticut valley, where Adam Trask, they are very clear characters and very fine,
the main character of this long novel, There is a great deal of solemn talk in
was born, or whether it is the Salinas val- the book and this is its weakest part. When
ley in California, to which Adam brought an action is being accomplished it moves
his wife and where he died. crisply and firmly, but when Sam and Lee
Now, Adam Trask is in many ways and Adam discuss great matters, their
the original Adam himself, the man of in- language is stilted and unreal, utterly be-
nocence, the man betrayed utterly by a yond any state of language which the reader
woman, his wife, Cathy, who brought can accept from these men. The writing is
him perpetual sorrow. Cathy is absolute feeble at times in its reliance on the obvi-
evil, with no interest except her own ous; there are too many trite phrases such
pleasure and property. She murders. as "the fruit of his loins," "an idol was
crashing in Mary's temple," and Samuel
But this is no novel of a man and a is described as "beautiful as dawn with a
woman. It is a big, roaming story which fancy like a swallow's flight."
moves from Connecticut to the Indian
west, to a Georgia chain gang, to a Cali- Like its characters, this is a mixed book
fornia ranch, to a house of prostitution, in which the good and the bad are about
to death. It runs in time from the years of evenly divided. A book which is to be ad-
the Civil war to the first World war. mired for the sweep and range of its con-
In human terms, it includes a crowd ception and the variety of its human
of people: Adam Trask, his surly brother, qualities.
Charles, and their pretentious father, At the end one feels impressed with
Cyrus, who left them fortunes whose ori- the solid weight of experience faced and
gin could never be discovered; the exu- shaped, but depressed by the heavy lit-
berant family of Samuel Hamilton, poor erariness at times and the too neat ma-
inventor, rancher, philosopher, and his nipulation of such incidents as the death
wife, Eliza, tiny, determined, and their of Adam, at which he utters the single

390
word which has been made into a symbol perhaps, to Of Mice and Men, with that
of the entire book, "Timshel," meaning book's interest in the violence of irration-
that man may prevail over evil. ality, but in total treatment and effect
there is little similarity between the two.
Mr. Steinbeck's tightly constructed short
novels, in fact, and even such longer work
Mark Schorer. as The Grapes of Wrath, have given us no
"A Dark and Violent preparation for this amplitude of treat-
ment that enables him now to develop,
Steinbeck Novel." within this single work, not only a num-
New York Times Book ber of currents of story, but a number of
different modes of tracing them.
Review, 102 The novel opens in the mood of infor-
(21 September 1952), mal history:
"The Salinas Valley is in northern
1,22. California. It is a long, narrow swale be-
tween two ranges of mountains, and the
Salinas River winds and twists up the cen-
Probably the best of John Steinbeck's ter until it falls at last into Monterey Bay.
novels, East of Eden, is long but not "I remember my childhood names for
"big," and anyone who, deceived by its grasses and secret flowers. I remember
spread in space and time (c. 1860-1920), where a toad may live and what time the
says that it is "epical in its sweep," is birds awaken in the summerand what
merely in the usual grip of cliche. Its dra- trees and seasons smelled likehow peo-
matic center is a narrow story of a social ple looked and walked and smelled even.
horror that rests quite disarmingly on the The memory of odors is very rich."
proposition that "there are monsters In this mood, the novelist reconstructs
born in the world to human parents." the history of his maternal grandfather,
But through the exercise of a really rather Samuel Hamilton, who came to the Sali-
remarkable freedom of his rights as a nas Valley in about 1870 with his wife,
novelist, Mr. Steinbeck weaves in, and and there produced a brood of children.
more particularly around, this story of From the history of Samuel Hamilton,
prostitution a fantasia of history and of which, although it is a story of economic
myth that results in a strange and origi- failure is also a sunny and exhilarating
nal work of art. account of a rich and various family life
East of Eden is different from any of set against the rigorous background of a
the earlier Steinbeck novels. It is, in a recalcitrant land, we move into the dark
sense, more amorphous, less intent on and violent story of Adam Trask.
singleness of theme and effect. The story In about 1900, Trask arrives in Sali-
of the development of Mr. Steinbeck's nas with a strange and very pretty wife.
own country, the Salinas Valley, it is yet His own home was a Connecticut farm
as devoid of the regional emphasis of which he could not share with his broth-
Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row as it is of er, Charles, the Cain to Adam's Abel, and
the sociological emphasis of In Dubious when he finds the girl, Cathy, beaten
Battle and The Grapes of Wrath or the nearly to death on his doorstep, he nurses
political emphasis of The Moon Is Down. her back to health, marries her, and takes
Its central situation is closest in spirit, her to the West. Her own history, for all

391
her apparent innocence, already involves narrative method constantly erupting in-
the murder of her parents, and prostitu- to the jagged intensities of the drama-
tion, but this background is almost mild tic, or rather, the melodramatic method.
when we follow her career as Adam's From the story of Samuel Hamilton,
wife. She gives birth to twins, Caleb and we are led into the Cain-Abel story of
Aron, another Cain-Abel pair, and aban- Adam Trask, the Biblical situation occur-
dons them and Adam to become the most ring in two successive generations; and
infamous brothel keeper in that part of here the method moves again into poetic
the world. It is her story that seems most hesitation and indecision, mythic implica-
to concern the novelist. tion rather than dramatic definition or
These stories in themselves are less narrative explication. With Adam Trask
interesting than the whole that they com- we move, too, into the core story, the in-
pose, and more especially, than the vari- credible story of his wife, the "monster"
ous ways in which the novelist creates Cathy Ames, most vicious female in lit-
that whole. There is, to begin, the specu- erature, whose story if we accept it at all,
lative voice of Mr. Steinbeck himself, a we accept at the level of folklore, the ab-
kind of democratic chorus that broods on stract fiction of the Social Threat, of a
implications of the action but is itself, in Witch beyond women.
this role, entirely separate from the ac- This account may suggest a kind of
tion. ("Our species is the only creative eclectic irresolution of view which is, in
species, and it has only one creative in- fact, not at all the quality of the book. I
strument, the individual mind and spirit have hoped to suggest, instead, a wide-
of a man. Nothing was ever created by ranging, imaginative freedom that might
two men. There are no good collabora- save the life of many an American novelist.
tions. ...") Then there is the narrator There are defects in Mr. Steinbeck's
when he sinks into narrative, involved in imagination, certainly. He has always been
his own ancestral history and even, fleet- fascinated by depravities that he seems
ingly, in his boyhood. ("When I, her only helpless to account for; hence the melo-
son, was 161 contracted pleural pneumo- drama. Inversely, he has always accepted
nia, in that day a killing disease. I went certain noble abstractions about human
down and down, until the wing tips of nature that his melodrama is hardly de-
the angels brushed my eyes.") signed to demonstrate; hence the gap
Then there is that family history, par- between the speculative statement and no-
ticularly of Samuel Hamilton, through velistic presentation; or sentimentalism.
whom we are taken into the social his- These qualities cause familiar discon-
tory of Salinas County. Hamilton, an elo- tinuities in East of Eden, yet the tone of
quent Irishman, and his friend, Lee, an this book, the bold ease with which the
eloquent Chinese servant, are the most "I" takes over at the outset and appears
moving characterizations in the novel, and disappears and reappears through-
and both are ancillary to the story. out, both holds it together and gives it its
As we come into that story, we ob- originality; the relaxations of its freedom.
serve further varieties of method: the ("There is so much to tell about the west-
rapid, impersonal narration of which Mr. ern country in that day that it is hard to
Steinbeck is a positive master, a method know where to start. One thing sets off a
that has not found much room in the hundred others. The problem is to decide
contemporary novel with its Jamesian which one to tell first.")
emphasis on the dramatic unit; then the I am trying to praise the audacious-

392
ness with which this novelist asserts his certain phases in the cultural develop-
temperament through his material, and ment of America. But that is not all or
the temperamental means by which he even the most important intention. Be-
defines that material for us. sides being individuals first and types sec-
ond the characters are also something
elsethey are also symbols.
Here, so we are being told, is not only
Joseph Wood Krutch. the story of certain families and the story
of a frontier, but also the story of man-
"John Steinbeck's kind. Mr. Steinbeck is not, either as man
Dramatic Tale of Three or writer, very much like Thomas Mann,
Generations." but one thinks of The Magic Mountain as
the most obvious example of another
New York Herald Tribune modern novel which operates upon the
Weekly Book Review, 29 same three levels. And like Thomas
Mann, Mr. Steinbeck employs almost the
(21 September 1952), 1. whole repertory of novelistic devices. Be-
sides highly dramatized scenes there are
panoramic descriptions, philosophic dia-
Mr. Steinbeck's new novel is described as logues and interpolated disquisitions in
his most ambitious effort since The which the author, speaking in his own
Grapes of Wrath. That is inevitable, but person, discourses ironically upon such
it is also entirely inadequate because East subjects as the whore house as a social
of Eden is a novel planned on the grand- institution or what goes on when women
est possible scale. In some of his recent meet at the village dressmaker's.
books the author may have seemed to be Leaving aside for a moment the ques-
letting himself off easy, but in this he tion of symbolic meaning, the first thing
spares nothing. Here is one of those occa- to be said is that the whole ramifying
sions when a writer has aimed high and narrative holds the attention to an ex-
then summoned every ounce of energy, traordinary degree throughout the six
talent, seriousness and passion of which hundred long pages. Quiet, almost idyl-
he was capable. The most unfriendly lic, passages alternate with scenes of ex-
critic could hardly fail to grant that East travagant violence. There are sadistic beat-
of Eden is the best as well as the most ings, a rape, murders and even worse
ambitious book Mr. Steinbeck could horrors almost too numerous to count.
write at this moment. But considered at least as separate self-
The scene is mostly the Salinas valley contained episodes they nearly always
in California; the action mostly events come off because Mr. Steinbeck's talents
in the lives of three generations of two seem to be under that disciplined, self-
families. In each generation two brothers critical control too often absent in his
in one of the families play the leading lesser works, which often degenerated in-
roles and in each case there is some sort to sentimental melodrama. The violent
of Cain-Abel relationship between them. scenes are, moreover, thrown into high
Obviously the action is intended to be relief by the consequences of the fact that
significant on three levels. In addition to Mr. Steinbeck seems to know when, as
being the story of certain individuals it is narrator, to participate in the hysteria of
a story supposed to illustrate and typify the scene, when to withdraw into the

393
 detached, faintly ironical spectator. Nev- rejection comes anger, and with anger
er, I think, not even in The Grapes of some kind of revenge for rejection, and
Wrath, has he exhibited such a grip upon with the crime, guiltand there is the
himself and upon his material. If one has story of mankind." Furthermore, the cen-
sometimes been tempted to dismiss him tral character in the whole story, a son in
as merely a routine manipulator of the the second generation, is named Adam
more obvious tricks of the tough-tender, despite the fact that he is also Abel, and
hardboiled-softboiled school, he cannot his wife (intended perhaps as Lilith) is a
be so dismissed here. There is seriousness figure of pure evil outside the reach of all
as well as violence; passion rather than good human impulses. She was a whore
sentimentality. He is also, when the occa- and murderess before she married Adam
sion requires, master of a quietly and hu- and she leaves him to become both again.
morously deft little phrase of description Mr. Steinbeck does not stop with this
or comment which strikes precisely that attempt to embody a meaningful myth in
note of serenity necessary to highlight the the chronicle history of a modern family.
violence. When a wet year came to the He goes on to draw a further moral and
Salinas valley "the land would shout to pronounce a further thesis. Stated in
with grass." Samuel Hamilton's Irish wife the barest and most abstract terms this
was "a tight hard little woman humorless thesis is, first, that Good and Evil are ab-
as a chicken." solute not relative things and, second, that
What is most likely to disturb a reader, in making a choice between them man is
at least during the first third of the book, a free agent, not the victim of his hered-
is the tendency of the characters to turn ity, his environment, or of anything else.
suddenly at certain moments into obvi- This thesis is first announced paren-
ously symbolic figures as abstract almost thetically, casually, and without any hint
as the dramatis personae in a morality of its importance on page twelve, where
play. This awkwardnessand awkward it is remarked in passing that the first set-
it certainly isbecomes less and less no- tlers survived their trials because they
ticeable as the story proceeds. Whether were more self-reliant than most people
that is because Mr. Steinbeck learns bet- seem to be today, "because they trusted
ter how to fuse the individual and the themselves and respected themselves as
symbol or because the reader comes to individuals, because they knew beyond
accept his method I am not quite sure. doubt that they were valuable and poten-
But in any event it is not because the tially moral units." Nearly three hundred
symbolic intention becomes any less clear pages later it receives its most explicit
or important. In each generation the discussion in a dialogue between two of
Abel-Cain relationship is symbolized by the characters concerning the meaning of
a childish gift offered by each brother a phrase in the Cain-Abel story which re-
to the father and always in one case fers, apparently, to "sin."
seemingly rejected. And in each genera- In the King James version the phrase
tion one of the pair carries a scar on his reads "and thou shalt rule over him"; in
forehead. Indeed, Mr. Steinbeck states ex- the American Standard Bible it appears
plicitly as one of his theses: "The greatest as "Do thou rule over him." But accord-
terror a child can have is that he is not ing at least to one of Mr. Steinbeck's
loved, and rejection is the hell he fears. I characters, the crucial Hebrew word is
think every one in the world to a large or timshel and it means "thou mayest."
small extent has felt rejection. And with "'Don't you see?' he cried. The Ameri-

394
can Standard translation orders men to
triumph over sin, and you can call sin ig- "It Started in a Garden.5
norance. The King James translation
makes a promise in "thou shalt," mean- Time, 60
ing that men will surely triumph over sin. (22 September 1952),
But the Hebrew word, the word timshel
"Thou mayest"that gives a choice. It 110.
might be the most important word in
the world.' " And lest we might possibly
fail to see that upon this point the John Steinbeck, now 50, has run a wob-
whole meaning of the book is intended to bly literary path for nearly a quarter of a
depend, its last sentences are: "Adam looked century. Signposts along the way read:
up with sick weariness.His whispered charming sentimentality (Tortilla Flat),
word seemed to hang in the air: lTim- left-wing melodrama (In Dubious Battle),
shelr His eyes closed and he slept." maudlin blather (Of Mice and Men), ten-
Moral relativism and some sort of de- der innocence (The Red Pony), honest
terministic philosophy have commonly social indignation (Grapes of Wrath), mer-
seemed to be implied in the writings of etricious sex (The Wayward Bus). His
that school of hard-boiled realists with latest novel, East of Eden, comes under
which Mr. Steinbeck has sometimes been none of these labels, although it courts
loosely associated. It is difficult to imag- most of them for long stretches.
ine how any novel could more explicitly In 1938, while working on Grapes of
reject both than they are rejected in East Wrath, Steinbeck wrote in his journal: "I
of Eden. The author, who was acclaimed must one day write a book about my
as a social critic in The Grapes of Wrath people [family]." He got around to it in
and sometimes abused as a mere writer 1951. Steinbeck's intention was to write
of sensational melodrama in some subse- a story that would tell his sons, now aged
quent books, plainly announces here that eight and six, about their forebears and
it is as a moralist that he wants to be taken. the Salinas Valley in California where
The merits of so ambitious and ab- they settled. But on the way, fiction ran
sorbing a book are sure to be widely and riot and took over from fact so brazenly
hotly debated. The final verdict will not, I that much of the story is hardly fit read-
think, depend upon the validity of the ing for moppets.. . .
thesis which is part of a debate almost as
old as human thought or upon any pos- Perhaps Steinbeck should have stuck to
sible doubt concerning the vividness of his original idea of telling just the family
Mr. Steinbeck's storytelling. On the high- history. As it stands, East of Eden is a
est level, the question is this: Does the huge grab bag in which pointlessness and
fable really carry the thesis; is the moral preposterous melodrama pop up as fre-
implicit in or merely imposed upon the quently as good storytelling and plausible
story; has the author recreated a myth or conduct. Cathy's story, gamy, lurid, and
merely moralized a tale? There is no ques- told at tedious length, is all but meaning-
tion that Mr. Steinbeck has written an in- less. Almost as tiresome is the figure of
tensely interesting and impressive book. Lee, the Trasks' trusted Chinese house-
man, whose warmed-over Oriental wis-
dom and too gentle heart give the whole
California story an overdose of stickiness.

395
 Ironically, Novelist Steinbeck has done the shadow of the revolting Ames theme.
some of his best writing in East of Eden. Yet the book is worth considerable
As always, he describes his Salinas Valley discussion, for Mr. Steinbeck, obviously,
with fidelity and charm. Moreover, indi- is trying to say something which reaches
vidual scenes and yarns are frequently a higher level than the plane of bitter
turned with great skill. But whether as a frustration and senseless brutality upon
novel about pioneers in a new country or which such books as Of Mice and Men
just men and women working out their and The Grapes of Wrath moved. To do
private, earthly fates, East of Eden is too this, he has gone back to the story of
blundering and ill-defined to make its Cain and Abel, to the ancient problem of
story point. That point, says Steinbeck, is good and evil. This dominates the book.
"the never-ending contest in ourselves of Two sets of characters at various times
good and evil." East of Eden has over- act out the parts of the brothers, and in-
generous portions of both, but a novelist deed the title of the novel is taken from
who knows what he wants channels them, the passage in Genesis which tells how
he doesn't spill them. Cain "dwelt in the land of Nod, on the
east of Eden" after being "cursed from
the earth."
Late in the book Mr. Steinbeck, in one
Robert R. Brunn. of many asides, states the belief which
"'You Must Master It.555 is at the bottom of his characterization
and is the foundation upon which the
Christian Science Monitor, book is laid: "Humans are caughtin
25 September 1952, p. 15. their lives, in their thoughts, in their hun-
gers and ambitions, in their avarice and
cruelty, and in their kindness and gener-
osity, tooin a net of good and evil. I
In this rambling and ambitious novel think this is the only story we have and
spread out over more than half a century, that it occurs on all levels of feeling and
John Steinbeck wrestles with a moral theme intelligence."
for the first time in his career, certainly a Believing this, Mr. Steinbeck takes for
hopeful sign of the times. Yet his obses- his central theme the passage from Gen-
sion with naked animality, brute violence, esis in the King James version where Je-
and the dark wickedness of the human hovah speaks to Cain of overcoming sin:
mind remains so overriding that what "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be ac-
there is of beauty and understanding is cepted? and if thou doest not well, sin
subordinated and almost extinguished. lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be
This is true to such an extent that to his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."
read the book can be a punishing experi- His characters are overjoyed at one
ence. His portrayal of Catherine Ames point to discover a translation of the
alone, "a monster" in his own words with- Hebrew which has this passage read
out a spark of humanity or sensibility, is "thou mayest rule over him," that is,
so hopelessly evil as to make her incred- thou mayest overcome evil or sin, not thou
ible and the book a chamber of horrors. shalt. To Mr. Steinbeck, believing that
His excursions into the mellow light of man is enmeshed in a web of good and
normality with their wit and joy and po- evil this latter translation offers bound-
etry are clouded and often blotted out by less hopefor in it he sees man with a

396
private mind or intelligence, free to choose worst things about a bad book is the way
between a real good and a real evil. it infects your recollection of the author's
The "thou mayest" with its intimation good work. So I went back and reread
of dignity for the human mind and the some of the stories in The Long Valley
reality of evil is transcendent to him. It is and it was a great comfort; they are every
the last thing said in the book. Yet the bit as good as they seemed originally,
Standard Revised Version of the Bible, to maybe better. The animals, the people,
be published this month after more than the places, the weather are all there
20 years of painstaking research and the (in about that order of importance), real-
use of early manuscript never before ized with a remarkable delicacy and
available gives this translation of the pas- humor. And out of this fully realized
sage: "If you do well, will you not be ac- material there emerges imperceptibly
cepted? And if you do not well, sin is Steinbeck's feeling for life, a feeling that
couching at the door; its desire is for you, only the continuity of life itself is sure,
but you must master it." and that it is enough. This feeling allows
Now this is not a carping discussion. him to face things like suffering and death
The implication of the word must denies and especially that part of growing up
man the choice between good and evil, which consists in recognizing and accept-
affirms the King James translation, and ing these things, with an odd but impres-
implies the inescapable fact of man's per- sive dignity. They are part of the process
fection as "the image of God" as stated of life and therefore, however painful,
in Genesis. Can this perfect man know justified and fine. Steinbeck's sense of the
sin or have a private mind to know it? process controls his sympathy for the in-
And it is his belief in the gloomy phi- dividuals involved and keeps it genuine.
losophy of good and evil and of a human In a story like The Red Pony, even
mind apart from God, the divine Mind, the touch of third-rate mysticism about
that seems to have caught Mr. Steinbeck old Gitano's riding Easter off into the
in the net to which he refers, a mesmeric strange mountains and the melodramatic
net from which he has not yet broken and bloody climax when the colt is
freefree of its arguments of violence, born are absorbed by the story because
bestiality, and compulsive wickedness. Jody's awareness of the life around him is
completely convincing. You ascribe the
Shangri-la stuff to Jody's boyhood imagi-
nation (though Gitano and Easter are un-
Arthur Mizener. avoidably Steinbeck's) and the bloody
"In the Land of Nod." violence to the shock of his first experi-
ence of birth. No good story is ever writ-
New Republic, 127 ten without risks like these; The Red
(6 October 1952), 22-3. Pony is so very good because Steinbeck
takes them and on the whole gets away
with them.

After I had struggled through to the last But I suppose it was possible to see even
of East of Eden's 602 pages, I began to in these stories how dangerous the limita-
think I must be wrong about the earlier tions of Steinbeck's feelings were and to
Steinbeck, that it couldn't possibly be so guess what would happen if he tried to
good as I remembered it: one of the write in the usual way about people and

397
got to dwelling on the foggy visions and these philosophers. The Chinaman even
flat moralizing which are his substitutes reads aloud from Marcus Aurelius and
for a response to adult humanness. Ed- the Irishman from Genesisthe whole
mund Wilson pointed out a long time Cain and Abel story. It isn't enough that
ago that Steinbeck had a Steinbeck's title is from the passage in
Genesis ("And Cain went out from the
tendency . . . to present life in animal presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the
terms . . . [and his characters] . . . in land of Nod, on the east of Eden"), or
spite of Mr. Steinbeck's attempts to that his hero is named Adam, or that
make them figure as heroic human Adam's brother tries to kill him and has a
symbols . . . do not quite exist seri- scar on his forehead, or that Adam's sons
ously for him as people. It is as if hu- are named Caleb and Aron (Aron likes
man sentiments and speeches had hunting but Caleb is a gardener). Steinbeck
been assigned to a flock of lemmings is far more interested in bludgeoning us
on their way to throw themselves into with his hopped-up commonplaces about
the sea. abstract evil and abstract good than he is
in making us see his people and their lives.
Well, the best of the characters in East of Luckily he cannot fill six hundred
Eden are these talking animals. Not that pages with Deep Thoughts from the Best
you believe in characters like Adam's Thinkers. East of Eden was apparently
wife, Cathy, for example; there aren't re- conceived as an epic about the Salinas
ally animals like this. But until the moral Valley and Steinbeck seems to imagine
turns her into an illustration for a Salva- that the basic principle of the epic is
tion-Army speech, Cathy is, like the char- "plenty of everything." He doesn't even
acters in good animal epics, a fine maca- get the hero to the Valley for over a hun-
bre fancy. Most of the characters are dred pages. One of the fortunate results
not that interesting. They are comic-strip of this catch-all method is that he puts
illustrations of Steinbeck's moral, like in a number of things which, though they
Adam and Cal, or they are stock figures are never effectively related to the ac-
who act as mouthpieces for the mor- tion, are entertaining in themselves. There
alizinga philosophical Chinaman from are amusing scenes like Olive Steinbeck's
some novel by Earl Stanley Gardner or a airplane ride and Dessie Hamilton's re-
merry-and-sad Irish blacksmith who says turn to King City; there are a few spare,
things like, "In a bitter night, a mustard exciting episodes like Adam's escape
night that was last night, a good thought from the chain gang or Cathy's murders
came and the dark was sweetened when of her parents and of Faye. Occasionally
the day sat down." (If you don't believe Steinbeck's old ant-hill-observer's feeling
this, it's right there on page 258.) about humans and their institutions as-
Steinbeck is always catching this old serts itself and we get wryly sympathetic
gentleman posed against the sky with accounts of how difficult it is to run a
"his white hair shining in the starlight"; good whorehouse and how Kate does it.
and his manner keeps spilling over onto And once in a long while his fine feeling
the other characters so that they begin to for the animals and plants and weather
say things like, "In some strange way my of the Salinas Valley emerges. Most of
eyes have cleared. A weight is off me." the time the characters and events are
The book's action is always getting forced into stagey postures and well-
lost in a swamp of solemn talk from made-play situations by the moral, and

398
sometimes they are forced off the stage Evil in this novel is not the absence of
altogether while Steinbeck himself lec- good, but absolute principle and entity. It
tures us about Life.... is embodied in Cathy, the most fully
There is evidence even in East of Eden drawn character. Cathy starts her career
of what is quite clear from Steinbeck's by murdering her parents and faking her
earlier work, that so long as he sticks to own suicide. A willing whore, she is
animals and children and to situations he trapped into marriage, escapes to Salinas
can see to some purpose from the point to commit another murderto gain con-
of view of his almost biological feeling trol of a brothel which she makes a hell
for the continuity of life he can release of sadism and masochism as well as of
the considerable talent and sensitivity lust. Meanwhile her husband rears their
which are naturally his. As soon as he two boys, not knowing that they are his
tries to see adult experience in the usual brother's sons. Cathy dies (in the book's
way and to find the familiar kind of second justified suicide) at the invitation
moral in it, the insight and talent cease to of Alice in Wonderland! ("Eat me," says
work and he writes like the author of any the poisoned capsule.)
third-rate best-seller. Let us hope that East of Eden is not without its pas-
some day he will go back to the Long sages of human warmth, particularly those
Valley he really knows and maybe even which characterize old Sam Hamilton
find Jody Tiflin there. (Steinbeck's maternal grandfather). But
the impact and impress of the book
whatever the author's intentionare on
the side of evil, of an exploitation of a
Riley Hughes. mad, inhuman lust and a cruelty that lac-
"East of Eden." erates and degrades.
Catholic World, 176
(November 1952), 150-1.
"New Fiction."
There have always been at least two John
London Times,
Steinbecksone who writes feelingly of 26 November 1952,
old men and young boys and natural p. 10.
beauty; the other, a strident and fatuous
theorist, who explores the grotesque. The
latter clearly has control in East of Eden,
a huge mish-mash of a book. In it Mr. . .. Mr. Steinbeck's enormous book has
Steinbeck embraces, and embarrasses, to engulf some 40 years of time and
the cause of free will; his novel sharply stretch from Connecticut to California in
demonstrates the baleful consequences of order to inflate a series of anecdotes
an anti-Thomistic concept of evil. Once about some very elementary people to the
again the author is attracted to the story proportions of a novel. . . .
of Cain and Abel as the story of Every- Mr. Steinbeck i s . . . ambitious. His
man. In Mr. Steinbeck's handling of the characters are in the throes of love all the
struggle of good and evil the latter rages time, except when devoured by hate.
through his book with the progress of With an attention to detail worthy of
a disease. Richard Strauss, he has produced a kind

399
of Domestic Cacophony, scored mainly story-telling energy is there, I admit, but
for percussion and wind, yet constantly the dramatic passages seem to me prepos-
breaking into piquant and observant de- terous, the philosophising a tissue of
tail. He might claim that by an exhibition platitude and tinsel rhetoric. In spite of
of sustained vitality he can bludgeon the the unmistakably serious purpose of Mr.
reader into accepting East of Eden in a Steinbeck's conjuration of episodes of his
mood of constant anticipation. But still a family-history in northern California, al-
doubt must remain. For although the most the only thing to be said in favour
novel of delicate nuance has been grossly of the whole rich and absurd farrago is
overworked in the past 30 years, and al- that one does go on turning the pages in
though a conscious assumption of high order to find out what happens next....
art can be as irritating as too obvious an
artlessness, it is hard to justify any novel
the apparent purpose of which is to re-
port an imaginary experience without be- Paul Bloomfield.
stowing a real one.
"Books of the Day.55
Manchester Guardian,
R. D. Charques. 5 December 1952, p. 4.
"Fiction.55
Spectator [England], 189 Judges, whose burdensome but circum-
(28 November 1952), 744. scribed business it is to administer the
law as laid down, took a long time to be-
come fluttered by the problem of respon-
sibility. As private individuals they have
Never, I think, a writer who has let no doubt often, like others of us, been
imagination get the better of his consider- deeply puzzled by the meaning of good
able powers of contrivance, Mr. Steinbeck and evil. In East of Eden... John
has yet deserved serious attention here as Steinbeck writes a story about good
a representative American novelist. Dos people and evil ones. This long book
Passos, Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck sheds no light. Was Cathy so wicked be-
for some time now those have been the cause she had let herself be seduced as a
accepted older names. And no doubt all child? Or had she been so ready to let
in this respect is entirely as it should be. herself be seduced because of a congeni-
Only what in the name of reason and tal sensuality? And is it to be understood
courtesy does one say about East of that congenital sensuality is much the
Eden, Mr. Steinbeck's latest novel? I have same as evil"original sin"? But Mr.
not the least doubt that it will be hugely, Steinbeck proves that he knows that aus-
dizzily successful and even in some degree terity can be dangerous too. Some of the
merit success, but at the same time it seems most mischievous people in the world are
to me a quite shockingly crude, meretri- the positively undersexed ones, whose
cious and trumped-up piece of work.... self-esteem needs more than a little love
. . . There is scarcely a word of this to nourish it.
long, fluent and industrious novel in ver- Mr. Steinbeck, like John O'Hara, has,
bal technicolour that I could believe. The however, got some bee in his bonnet

400
about the special devilishness of tender, charming descriptions of scenery and shrewd
slender, fair girls. If he has, it is a medi- estimates of personality, Mr. Steinbeck
eval attitude, respectable without being has tried to say too many things at once,
clarified: he can shed no light if he has no and his message is hidden under superflu-
light to shed. As drama the book falls ous decoration.
very much short of a carefully designed
classic like The Mayor of Casterbridge
(Cathy's husband, Adam Trask, here in a
role remotely like that of Henchard); as J. D. Scott.
realism it is not to be compared with "New Novels."
such a grand book about a bad woman
as Balzac's Cousine Bette, or the lesser New Statesman and
but still superb Belchamber, by Howard Nation [England], 44
Sturgis, which one person has read for
every hundred or more who will read
(6 December 1952),
this 698-9.

Like a school of stranded sea-elephants

"Larger than Life." long, slow and wetthe Great American
Times Literary Novels are also hard to tell apart. How
like, for instance, is Mr. Steinbeck's latest
Supplement [London], offering to Mr. John Dos Passos's recent
5 December 1952, p. 789. Chosen Country* The recipe is simple; it
is to take one or two diverse families in
different parts of the country, to put them
into the American Melting Pot, and sim-
Everything that grows in California is mer. Mr. Steinbeck has followed this
slightly larger than life, and this applies recipe closely. In East of Eden the
to stories as well as oranges. Under that Hamiltons, for instance, give the stew the
fecund sky Mr. Evelyn Waugh and Mr. necessary Irish flavour, while the Trask
Aldous Huxley gave free rein to their fan- family perhaps represent the genuine
cy; it is not surprising that Mr. Steinbeck, home-bred beef. A less usual flavour is
a native son, fills East of Eden with the added by the soya sauce of the Chinese
most extraordinary characters.... philosopher-servant, Lee. This book is
Each incident is possible and even not, however, so deliberately "the Ameri-
plausible in itself, but the continual piling can Story" as Chosen Country was; it
up of eccentric characters and arbitrary purports to be a drama of good and evil,
disasters eventually surfeits the reader, with evil represented by a girl called
until if another lovable old philosopher Cathy, who begins her career by burning
walked up on three legs he would pass down her parents' house with her parents
unnoticed in the crowd. From time to in it, and carries it forward by combining
time there are hints that this is a retelling brothel-keeping with further murders.
of the story of Cain and Abel; but one Cathy represents direct evil; hers is a
succinct incident from Genesis cannot fill character with the good simply left out.
out such a rambling chronicle. Although Evil is supported by the rather bumbling
the total effect is not boring for there are kind of falseness of the eldest Trask,

401
who, having played an exceedingly in- Joseph Henry Jackson. "Books." San
conspicuous part in the Civil War, creates Francisco Chronicle (This World
a legend of his prowess which he comes magazine), 21 September 1952,
to believe in, and lives by swindling the pp. 20, 22.
veterans' organisation for which he works. Sterling North. "Wordy but Good."
Good, however, is represented by the bar- Columbus [Ohio] Citizen (Citizen
relful in Adam Trask, Samuel Hamilton, magazine), 21 September 1952,
and Lee, who, if Cathy is a kind of Satan p. 20.
of the Digests, are a kind of Trinity for Thomas B. Sherman. "Reading and
Rotarians. Writing." St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
Is there any point in saying that this 21 September 1952, p. 4C.
best-sellerish novel has the virtues of its Harrison Smith. "Steinbeck Writes New
type? Competently told, readable, occa- Masterpiece." Santa Barbara News-
sionally forceful, it provides characters Press, 21 September 1952,
who are credible enough so long as one is p. C-2.
actually reading about them. As a piece Irene Alexander. "Steinbeck Writes Long
of American commercialism it is not offen- Promised Saga of Salinas Valley."
sive; but with literature it has only the Monterey [Calif.] Peninsula Herald,
most tenuous and accidental connection. 23 September 1952, p. 4.
Emerson Price. "Steinbeck Writes
Pageant about Search for American
Eden." Cleveland Press, 23 September
Checklist of Additional 1952, p. 12.
George F. Helmer. "The New Steinbeck
Reviews Novel Is a Great One, to Rank
Alongside The Grapes of Wrath?
Sacramento Bee, 27 September 1952,
"East of Eden? Booklist, 48 (15 July p. 31.
1952), 369. "East of Eden? Bookmark, 12 (October
Eleanor Touhey Smith. "East of Eden? 1952), 10.
Library Journal, 11 (August 1952), Gilbert Highet. "New Books." Harper's,
1303. 205 (October 1952), 101-5.
Paul Pickrel. "Outstanding Novels." William Phillips. "Male-ism and
Yale Review, 42 (September 1952), Moralism." American Mercury, 15
viii, x. (October 1952), 93-8.
"Evil in Salinas." Newsweek, 40 Charles Rolo. "Cain and Abel."
(2 September 1952), 119. Atlantic, 190 (October 1952), 94.
Lewis Gannett. "Books and Things." Clyde Beck. "Books of the Day." Detroit
New York Herald Tribune, News, 2 November 1952, "Home and
19 September 1952, p. 15. Society" section, p. 19.
Patricia McManus. "Steinbeck Uses 300 Delmore Schwartz. "Long After Eden."
Pencils on Novel." Los Angeles Daily Partisan Review, 19 (November-
News, 20 September 1952, p. 6. December 1952), 701-2.
Don Guzman. "Steinbeck's Latest Held Robert O. Foote. "Steinbeck's Salinas
Sure Best Seller, But." Los Angeles Story." Pasadena [Calif.] Star-News,
Times, 21 September 1952, Part 4, 21 September 1953, p. 39.
p. 6. Claude-Edmonde Magny (trans. Louise

402
 Varese). "Magny on Steinbeck." Philosopher?" In All Conscience:
Perspectives USA, 5 (Fall 1953), Reflections on Books and Culture
146-52. (New York: Hanover House, 1959),
Harold C. Gardiner. "Novelist to 136-8 (reprint of unlocated review).

403
SWEET THURSDAY
JOHN STEINBECK

Sweet
Thursday

1954
THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK
 seauistic belief in the innate goodness of
Hugh Holman. man and the inherent evil of social sys-
tems, a faith in social progress through
"A Narrow-Gauge better social structures, and an anti-intel-
Dickens.55 lectualism so intense that it is most likely
to find truth in the mouths of half-wits
New Republic, 130 and the demented.
(7 June 1954), 18-20. These ideas, together with remnants
of Steinbeck's earlier interests are discern-
ible in Sweet Thursday, together with
John Steinbeck's latest novel, Sweet Thurs- an added concern about writing and an
day^ is both a sequel to Cannery Row attack on current standards of criticism.
and an implicit comment on Steinbeck's The novel is the account of the return of
careera career which has been one of Doc, the marine biologist, to Cannery
the most baffling in recent literary his- Row in Monterey after the war, his at-
tory. He has appeared to be a naturalist tempt to deal with his loneliness through
of the Biological Determination persua- scientific experiment and the writing of
sion and a celebrator of the simple joys an article, and the way that Mack and
of life; the author of effective social pro- the boys from the Palace Flophouse and
paganda and of mystically symbolic and the girls from the Bear Flag brothel,
wryly comic parables. Certainly a fair through the inspired instrumentality of
portion of those who read him as a social the half-wit Hazel, bring together Doc
critic in the 1930's are not among the and Suzy, a hustler from the Bear Flag.
still large numbers who read him as a This plot is certainly older than the soil
writer of picaresque comedy or of ro- on which it is laid; the basic tone of the
mantic parables. novel is the charmingly picaresque folksi-
Among the fifteen volumes of his ness for which Cannery Row has pre-
prose fiction that preceded Sweet Thurs- pared us, and the optimism about man's
day, Steinbeck has produced an impres- basic nature is consistently that which
sive strike novel (In Dubious Battle), Doc expresses when he tells an insane but
a powerfully effective propaganda novel suggestively Christ-like "seer," "I'm sur-
(The Grapes of Wrath), three stylized ex- prised they don't lock you upa reason-
periments with plays in novel form (Of able man. It's one of the symptoms of our
Mice and Men, The Moon Is Down, and time to find danger in men like you who
Burning Bright), a volume of distin- don't worry and rush about. Particularly
guished short stories (The Long Valley), dangerous are men who don't think the
an "epic" prose poem of too great length world's coming to an end."
(East of Eden), and a group of pica- These elements entitle us to dismiss
resque, comic novels on the delights of Sweet Thursday as a minor episode in an
poverty and lawlessness (The Pastures of erratic career. But the biologist Doc often
Heaven, Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, and seems suggestive of his author in his in-
The Wayward Bus). terests, his dilemma, and his statements
The ideas which help to shape these about life; and the comments on writing
books are as diverse as the books them- are too consistent to be casual; while the
selves. They include a pervasive and in- tone of half-disparaging banter often
formed interest in marine biology, a fund seem directed against the author himself.
of late transcendental mysticism, a Rous- These qualities encourage us to look at

407
the book as one in which Steinbeck has Set briefly against Cannery Row is Prairie
taken a trial balance on his careerim- Grove, a typical bourgeois community,
plicitly if not explicitly. against which Steinbeck levels two chap-
Steinbeck apparently cares little for ters of obvious satire which tend to spoil
much of our contemporary fiction, and the tone of the book at the same time
he criticizes it for a quality he was once that they point up with unconscious
thought to havethat of blood, dark- irony the extent to which Steinbeck's
ness, and symbolic evil. Joe Elegant, the characters develop bourgeois patterns for
cook at Bear Flag, is writing a modern their own lives. The whores from the
symbolic novel, The Pi Root of Oedipus, Bear Flag cherish and cultivate the middle
filled with myth, Freudian symbols, and a class virtues however much they may de-
grandmother who "stands for guilt. .. part from middle class ideas of morality.
the reality below the reality." Mack and the boys from the Palace Flop-
house, in their sense of social structure
Doc is tormented by the question: "What and social obligation, seem to differ from
has my life meant so far, and what can it the unhappy people of Prairie Grove
mean in the time left to me?" He is most in that they are warm, loving, and
haunted by a sense of debt: "Men seem happy; so that these social and economic
to be born with a debt they can never pay grotesques serve finally not to condemn
no matter how hard they try. It piles up the total social structure (as one feels that
ahead of them. Man owes something to they were intended to do) but to criticize
man." He declares this to be his objec- its failures through the examples they
tive, a goal which his creator seems to yield of success.
share: "I want to take everything I've This book, however thin and uncon-
seen and thought and learned and reduce vincing its central situation is, does make
them and relate them and refine them un- an emphatic and clear-cut statement of
til I have something of meaning, some- Steinbeck's greatest single theme: the com-
thing of use." His attempt to do this mon bonds of humanity and love which
through scientific writing appears doomed make goodness and happiness possible.
to failure, but the efforts of his friends The Christ-like seer declares, "There are
force him into realizing it through ac- some things a man can't do alone. I wouldn't
tion and human relationship. Yet the an- think of trying anything so big . . . with-
swer, when he finally arrives at it, seems out love."
to be: W. H. Frohock has pointed out that
Steinbeck's characters are all essentially
"What did Bach have that I am hun- the same good, improvident, and gentle
gry for to the point of starvation? folk, and that they are happy, as in Can-
Wasn't it gallantry? And isn't gal- nery Row, or miserable, as in The Grapes
lantry the great art of the soul? Is of Wrath, depending upon the degree of
there any more noble quality in the external pressure exerted upon them. The
human than gallantry? . . . Everyone point is valid. Steinbeck seems to see man
has something. And what has Suzy as basically noble, with a gentle goodness
got? Absolutely nothing in the world like that pictured in Sweet Thursday.
but guts. She's taken on an atomic Without the pressure of social indigna-
world with a slingshot, and, by God, tion he writes of such men in idyls of pas-
she's going to win! If she doesn't win toral happiness. He can, too, portray
there's no point in living any more." with fury the distortions of this goodness

408
and the piteous suffering which society Mission to become madam of the Bear
can inflict. But he shares with Charles Flag (her real name was Flora); Joseph
Dickens the failure to subject his people and Mary Rivas, a Mexican in the rogue
under either situation to an organized tradition; Mack, who recites snatches from
and logically consistent philosophy. Louis Shakespeare, Tennyson, and the Bible;
Cazamian has called Dickens' solution the "seer," who can't resist candy bars;
"une forme vague et sentimentale du Hazel, the half-wit who worries because
socialisme chretien" which was rooted in his horoscope says he will be President.
human love and sympathy on the indi- Every one of them moves with Dickensian
vidual level. Steinbeck's solution may extravagance; everyone is presented with
well be called "socialisme chretien" too. Dickensian verve; not one, I hazard a
The comparison with Dickens is more guess, would Dickens have scorned.
than casual. Steinbeck is a modern Dickens, Dickens' two most effective novels for
limited in range and theme, a narrow- contemporary readers are probably Bleak
gauge Dickens, but properly in the tradi- House, with its passionate indictment of
tion of sentimental social criticism of social injustice through the imbittered ex-
which Dickens is the greatest master. The amination of one institution, and David
parallels between the men are interesting. Copperfield, wherein goodness and warmth
Both are notoriously tender-spirited, sen- and humanity, particularly among the
sitive to suffering, easily moved to pity, lowly and the simple, are celebrated. And
forgiving of weakness and failure, the always the imperishable but unreal glow
fascinated and marvelously successful por- of transcendent goodness gleams through
trayers of children and child-like states of Dickens' Christmas books. Steinbeck's The
mind. Both have made sympathetic use of Grapes of Wrath is comparable to Bleak
the wisdom of the demented. Hazel in House both in its indictment of society
Sweet Thursday with his fear of having and in its lack of a solution. Tortilla Flat
to be President has striking parallels to and The Long Valley echo the nostalgic
Mr. Dick and his King Charles' head. charm of David Copperfteld. It is prob-
Both writers are keenly sensitive to social ably coincidence that both men were fas-
and economic injustice, without main- cinated by the drama in their middle
taining any really consistent framework years, but I believe it is no coincidence
within which to judge it. The failure to that Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday
recognize or to follow the party-line in belong in the same world of bright
Steinbeck's strike novel, In Dubious dreams that Dickens' Christmas books
Battle, a failure he justified by saying of belong in: they are beautiful to contem-
men such as his characters, "They don't plate, they are inspiriting, but they are
believe in ideologies . . . They do what not dependable indices to any actuality
they can under the circumstances," is we may ever meet.
comparable to the "plague on all your I think we have been wrong about
systems" attitude in Dickens' fictional so- Steinbeck. We have let his social indigna-
cial tract, The Chimes. tion, his verisimilitude of language, his
Steinbeck shares with Dickens, too, a interest in marine biology lead us to
tendency to picture eccentrics and gro- judge him as a naturalist. Judged by the
tesques, a fascination with the abnormal standards of logical consistency which
in people, and a delight in folk speech. naturalism demands, his best books are
Sweet Thursday consists almost exclu- weak and his poorer books are hopeless.
sively of grotesques: Fauna, who left a Steinbeck is more nearly a twentieth

409
century Dickens of California, a social incitement to summer reading since the
critic with more sentiment than science decline and fall of the hammock. Such
or system, warm, human, inconsistent, changes as have come to Cannery Row
occasionally angry but more often de- since we were all last there a dozen years
lighted with the joys that life on its low- ago or more only deepen and enrich its
est levels presents. I think Sweet Thurs- antic folklore and preposterously senti-
day implicitly asks its readers to take its mental mythology.
author on such terms. If these terms are World War II rescued Cannery Row
less than we thought we had reason to from the threat of prosperity. In a sus-
hope for from The Grapes of Wrath, they tained burst of profitable patriotism the
are still worthy of respect. wartime fishermen caught just about all
the fish along that part of the improbable
California coast. Now no one needs to
dabble in the perils of excess profits
Charles Poore. taxes. They have nothing to take with
5 them from that cabbage patch.
"Books of the Times. The hero of this libretto for a musical
New York Times, comedy is, once more, Doc, troubled by a
10 June 1954, p. 29. failure to concentrate on his marine sci-
entific research and by the love of a pros-
titute with a heart of gold that Mr.
Steinbeck has borrowed from a lit'ry
Although John Steinbeck is increasingly public domain older than Egyptology.
eminent, he shows no signs whatever of The girls at the Bear Flag, the boys of the
becoming appropriately stuffy. The pom- Palace Flophouse, all the hospitable
posities of prestige arouse in him a genial locality's freaks, fools and men of destiny
hilarity. He apparently allots little time to unite to further that rocky romance. And,
brooding over where his books will rank in the meantime, they live their own wild
in literature. He made his mark, once for lives, in groups and alone.
all, with The Grapes of Wrath, and any- Mr. Steinbeck's most peculiar charac-
thing he has had to tell us since then has ter is willowy Joe Elegant, a sort of
been bounty. That bounty gives us fine offshoot of the new collegiate criticism,
rewards again in Sweet Thursday, a rhap- who is writing a novel to be called The
sody in blue about the rare and raffish Pi Root of Oedipus, rife with myths
characters who live on Cannery Row. I'm and symbols, wounds and bows. Then
not certain that you could call Sweet there's Fauna, once a revivalist and now
Thursday a novel. It is awash with plots, a madam, who likes to recall the days
excursions and uproars. But, when all is when she managed a welterweight called
said and done, the most prudent thing to Kiss of Death Kelly. And a wacky wan-
do would be to say that it is a welcome derer whose faulty horoscope burdens
continuation of that earlier Steinbeck him with the threat that he is destined
saga, Cannery Row, with certain ele- implacably to become President of the
ments that link it biologically to Sea of United States. And a man who mixes a
Cortez and The Log from the Sea of drink (a martini made with chartreuse
Cortez. At any rate, Sweet Thursday is instead of vermouth) called the Webster
Steinbeck at his best and magnificently F. Street Lay-Away Plan. And a mad
entertaining. There hasn't been a better millionaire who operates as a sort of cut-

410
rate robber baron. To meet them all you hero of this saga of low life that is at the
have only to set your calendar to Sweet same time so very warm and generous
Thursday. and human. The heroine of the noble tale
is one Suzy, the harlot with the heart
of gold, wronged in her youth and
now trying with stiff upper lip and stub-
Harold C. Gardiner. bornly raised chin to find true love, home
"Vulgar Irresponsibilities.5 and children. . . .
It is only fair to say that anyone who
America, 97 tries this raucous storyprovided he can
(12 June 1954), 302. prescind from the foul language and the
crude suggestionswill find that it is, in
spots, genuinely funny in some of its situ-
ations. He may also be lulled into a be-
Mr. Steinbeck's wide-eyed discovery in nign (perhaps "boozy" is the better
East of Eden of the agonies and the glo- word) sense of tolerance for the stumble-
ries that come with personal responsibil- bums and the failures who do have, it
ity and the terrible freedom of the human must be admitted, a sort of pathetic and
will now seem to have been a mirage. Or warped dignity.
perhaps he found that such a discovery But no one ought to be hoodwinked
laid too heavy a burden on his artthat into thinking that the sentimentality with
he could not carry on so smoothly and which the story is super-saturated springs
devil-may-careishly if he had to be facing from anything else than a "philosophy"
up to the eternal problem and to the only that believes that environment is what
really valid theme of a serious novel, that determines character. With the single ex-
life and its temporal and final destiny is ception of Suzy, who shows a little self-
shaped by an individual's free acts. determination, every one of these characters
At any rate, Steinbeck is here back just can't help himself. He is what he is
with his beloved friends of Cannery Row. because the war, poverty-stricken youth,
Anyone, accordingly, who knows the ear- the unfaithful lover or the climate has
lier book will know what to expect here. made him what he is. That the public will
There would be little point in any ex- eat up this tale probably shows thatif
tended review, were it not for the fact they take Steinbeck as a serious novel-
that this new visit to the Row will un- istthey think the same way. And that
doubtedly rocket the book into the best- publishers will publish it probably proves
seller lists. It prompts, therefore, some that they think that the book trade is just
lengthier remarks on public taste, pub- what it is, and there's simply nothing
lishers' tills and the relationship of senti- they can do about it.
mentally ribald novels to both. If you'd like a refreshing contrast,
Cannery Row is, in Steinbeck's loving pick up some of Damon Runyon's sto-
Baedeker, almost, if not quite, the skid- ries. He wrote about down-and-outers,
row section of Monterey. It is inhabited too, but his style was never billingsgate
by bums, small-time racketeers, ladies and if the human dignity of his characters
of what is politely called "easy virtue," was often forlorn, it was never perverse
and by one dearly beloved, universally or perversely defended.
kind-hearted and generous marine-biol-
ogy "researcher," called Doc, who is the

411
 about human emotions and temporarily
Harvey Curtis Webster. loses interest in people who are pleas-
antly moral. The community, with Fauna
"Cannery Row and Mack in the lead, manage to get
Continued." Doc to fall in love with Suzy, a prostitute
who doesn't love her work. And so they
Saturday Review', 37 marry, to live not unhappy ever after,
(12 June 1954), 11. and maybe Doc even completes his study
of octopi.
The intelligentsia undoubtedly will
John Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday evidently ban Sweet Thursday. The sentimental as-
is well on its way to becoming a best sumption that "bad" people really are
seller even on its day of publication. It "good," which invaded all of his best
will be widely advertised and reviewed novels except East of Eden, pervades this
as a continuation of the very popular book as it did Cannery Row and The
Cannery Row, as another novel about Wayward Bus. It's another of his bad re-
"whores, pimps, and gamblers" who, takes of Tortilla Flat, and maybe the in-
looked at from another point of view, telligentsia will say, that one wasn't as
could be called "saints and angels and good as it seemed, either. Doc is a one-
martyrs and holy men." Because Sweet dimensional character with no resem-
Thursday is so clearly headed for a "suc- blance to any scientist living or dead. All
cess" very few books have, it's likely to the other characters are as unbelievable
be praised or panned quite as much in as an adolescent's day dreams after he
terms of the reader's intellectual affilia- has read Rousseau. In other words, Sweet
tions as in terms of its merits or demerits. Thursday is simply another concoction of
What's certain is that all the brows, from sweetness and sex by an author who has
highest to lowest, will have their say somehow been overpraised.
about the novel, that the public will be- But there will be intelligent others,
come even more aware of Sweet who are maybe closer to the truth, who
Thursday's existence than they were of will praise Sweet Thursday's uninhibited
East of Eden's. gusto and argue that Steinbeck's inten-
Like Cannery Row, Steinbeck's new tional exaggerations make good reading
novel centers about the activities of Doc, and good sense. Whores sometimes do
who, you'll remember, was sufficiently at become good wives; crooks are often
ease with himself to be at ease in the more moral than those who judge them;
world of Cannery Row. Because of this fellows like Doc represent the perplexity
self-sufficiency he was able to like Fauna, about good and evil that characterizes
the madam of Bear Flag (the commu- our anxious age. Anyhow, it's a good
nity's best house of prostitution), the girls yarn, full of good cracks like the one
who worked there, Mack, the amiable about the crook, Joseph and Mary, who
cook, Hazel, the mild moron, and a lot of took "a certain pleasure in being partly
others most readers wouldn't dare to like legal. It gave him the satisfaction most
in real life. But Doc's self-sufficiency has people find in sin."
deteriorated since the war. He feels guilty How strike a balance between these
that he's not accomplished more, under- two points of view? As anyone who has
takes a study of the transparent emotions followed him from Cup of Gold until
of octopi he hopes will reveal a good deal now knows, Steinbeck is the most uneven

412
excellent writer of our times. Even his
worst books are pleasantly readable some Carlos Baker.
of the time; even his best novels are never
as thoroughly plausible and illuminating "After Lousy Wednesday.5
as the best of, say, Faulkner and Heming- New York Times Book
way. Sometimes it seems as though Stein-
beck can become as great an American Review, 103
writer as we've had in our century (I (13 June 1954), 4.
thought so when I read East of Eden); at
other times, it appears that he is a gifted
writer who can never control his fiction Sometime we may have a book called
sufficiently to write a first-rate book. The Two Masks of John Steinbeck. Using
the fashionable critical idiom, it will
Sweet Thursday makes one feel betwixt make the point that for the past twenty-
and between; it's better than Cannery Row, five years Steinbeck has alternately worn
not as good as Tortilla Flat, In Dubious the comic and the tragic masks. The lat-
Battle, The Grapes of Wrath, and East of ter has perhaps predominated. The cor-
Eden. It belongs with his good-and-bad ners of the mask-mouth are turned down
books, like The Pastures of Heaven and in books like The Grapes of Wrath, In
Of Mice and Men. Of course Steinbeck's Dubious Battle, The Pearl, and East of
insight into the civilized and moral be- Eden. But alongside these, like comic in-
havior one often finds among the dis- terludes in the vast human drama, come
reputable is valid and healthy. Of course the merry tales of Tortilla Flat and Can-
Steinbeck is frequently clever, sometimes nery Row, farcical tours de force on the
wise in Sweet Thursday. But his latest jovial riffraff of slumside Monterey
novel often reads like an unconvincing those philosophical paisanos, golden-
reiteration of what he's said before and hearted females and benignant bums who
better. All of the characters are flat types, inhabit Steinbeck's tight little never-never
none of them individuals as Danny was, land on the shores of the North Pacific.
as Tom Joad was, as Adam Trask was. Sweet Thursday is probably best de-
The comedy (and comedy justifies over- scribed as a sequel to Cannery Row. If
simplification but not predictable distor- you liked Cannery Row you will certainly
tion) depends upon forgetting what you like the new novel. . . .
know is going to happen, and there The changes in personnel have been
are stretches of pages you can only get occasioned by the passage of time and
through because you know from past the intervention of World War II. Cannery
experience with Steinbeck that some good Row was pre-war; Sweet Thursday is
scenes will be coming up.. .. post-war. Gay is gone, killed by ack-ack
fallback in a London street. Dora Flood,
the Bear Flag's queen, is gone, and the
madamship has passed to her older sister
Flora, nick-named Fauna. Lee Chong has
sold his store to one Joseph and Mary
Rivas, and departed in his own trading
schooner with a stock of gold-plated
collar-buttons, canned goods and rub-
ber boots to the green and palm-strewn

413
islands of the South Seas. As Mack puts
it, "the tum-tum changes, giving place to Paul Engle.
the new. And God tum-tums himself in
many ways." "It's Pure Steinbeck."
A stranger, though, would find little Chicago Sunday Tribune
outward change. The hardworking girls
at the Bear Flag still live in tawdry afflu-
Magazine of Books,
ence; the nonworking boys in the Palace 13 June 1954, p. 3.
Flophouse still loll and argue in sybaritic
contentment. The big change is inward,
and Doc is the first to feel it. He still lives In his last novel, East of Eden, John
on beer and peanut butter sandwiches, Steinbeck portrayed as evil a woman as
still plays J. S. Bach on his superb phono- has ever appeared in American fiction.
graph, still journeys to the great tide ba- His new novel leaves the area of black
sin at La Jolla in search of baby octopi. night and old sin for the sunnier slopes of
But something is missing. A vacuum his earlier Tortilla Flat, to deal with the
develops at the center of his soul. "The simple folk of California, motivated by
worm of discontent," says Steinbeck, is the excellent drives of simple survival and
"gnawing at him." Cannery Row, ever honest feeling for those around them.
sensitive to the incursions of melancholy, Just as East of Eden suffered from having
becomes uneasy. "Doc acts," says Mack too much pure evil, hardly compensated
to Fauna, "like a guy that needs a dame." for by the too pure rancher, so does this
Enter Suzy.... Is Suzy the maidenly new novel suffer from too much goodness.
answer to Doc's unvoiced prayer? Will The situation revolves around Doc,
Mack and Fauna succeed in marrying off with his marine laboratory, collecting
Doc and Suzy? These are the 85-dollar specimens for selling to colleges, and a
questions asked and answered in a yarn crowd of plain people who have an ex-
so gaily inconsequential that it might serve traordinary softness toward Doc because
as the working script for a musical com- he has befriended them all.
edy on the order, say, of Pal Joey. Read-
ers who want a hint about the outcome There are the girls of a certain house
may ponder the fact that Sweet Thursday called the Bear Flag, and especially one
is the name of the day that follows Lousy named Suzy. There are the men of the
Wednesday. Steinbeck's confectional blend Palace Flophouse, of no apparent occu-
of satire and sentiment, of cracker-barrel pation. There are the customers of a greasy
philosophizing and the comic mystique is restaurant called the Golden Poppy. There
probably not to everybody's taste. But for is a swarthy character named Joseph and
those unregenerate thousands whose in- Mary. All these are involved by Steinbeck
tellectual bridgework still permits them in a touching but at times quite unbeliev-
to relish salt-water taffy, Monterey style, able story, culminating in the departure
this sequel to Cannery Row can be hap- of Suzy and Doc together.
pily recommended.
The narrative is diverting, often lively, of-
ten amusing, occasionally relying too
much on a whisky known as Old Tennis
Shoes. There is a fantasy about a party at
the Palace Flophouse in which a dim wit-

414
ted character called Hazel is persuaded to You cannot recapture the satirical-bur-
appear as a Prince Charming, so named lesque mood of that little masterpiece
in his own words, in as unreal a scene as Tortilla Flat, and you may as well give up
modern fiction has produced. Other local trying. Perhaps you cannot go back to
characters are dressed as a witch, as a the mood of Grapes or To a God Un-
dwarf, as Cupid, and it is altogether just known or In Dubious Battle, or even Of
too cute and contrived to convince. Mice and Men. Do you need to?
Is there nothing left aside from repeat-
This is an interim story in the author's ing triumphs of the past? Have you tried
career, written with a heavy effort of looking up from yourself and out into the
lightness, full of fine things about the world, to see whether there isn't some-
ocean and warm things about people and thing you have missed, notably in a for-
forced discoveries of innocence and good ward direction? Your old readers would
will among the humble. like to see such an awakening.
Now you have done a sequel to Can-
nery Row, with Doc and the boys of the
Palace Flophouse and the girls of the
Don Guzman. noble bawdyhouses and a few townsfolk
of Monterey and nearby Pacific Grove.
"Reviewer Says Steinbeck
Slipping.55 The party to raise money for Doc's mi-
Los Angeles Times, croscope and the ludicrous mistake the
boys made, the sad figure of Hazel and
13 June 1954, Part 4, his weird mental processes, the conversa-
p. 7. tions between Doc and his wealthy but
penurious friend, Old Jay; the antics of
the boys in their cupsthese and a few
other matters are going to make a lot of
Dear John Steinbeck: readers laugh. Your old friend, this re-
Your new novel, Sweet Thursday... viewer, even broke down and cracked a
is an amusing affair, when it comes off guffaw once in a while.
right; and it will of course be a best seller. But his laughter was hushed and
But is that enough for you? Ever since spoiled by the interludes of heavy think-
The Grapes of Wrath, you have been tak- ing; by the persistence with which you re-
ing time out for fun, except where you gard a madame or a hustler as one of
have done something penny dreadful in a nature's noblewomen (yes, you did create
naively serious vein (Burning Bright and an evil madame in East of Eden, but she
East of Eden), though The Moon Is Down was not in your great tradition of the
was not altogether bad. bawdyhouse and she may be discounted
You have made readers laugh, upon oc- as an aberration on your part).
casion, in Cannery Row and The Wayward
Bus. But these two novels, and Sweet Thurs- Some of us are getting a little wearied by
day, dip into the sorghum barrel a little your obsession with the virtues of sin; we
too much; and they labor hard over phi- are bored with hazy philosophy and
losophical interludes between laughter ashamed of too-frequent crying in your
a philosophy that is sometimes on the verge beer over your own characters, such as
of being astute but is largely maudlin. they are.

415
 Until you come out of beer fumes and bubbling notes of rowdy humor and the
the befuddlement of the phony, many of occasional broad satiric thrusts save the
us will have to drift away from you. love story from turning into what might
Sincerely, DON GUZMAN. be described as corn.
In Sweet Thursday Steinbeck takes us
back to Cannery Row, with its Palace
Flophouse, a shack shared by several down-
Milton RugofF. and-outers, the Bear Flag, a brothel so
"Business as Usual, wholesome it's prudish, Wide Ida's bar,
Lee Chong's grocery (now the property of
and Fun, Too, on one Joseph and Mary Rivas), and Doc, a
John Steinbeck's marine biologist and the Prospero of this
superbly uninhibited, shamelessly impul-
Cannery Row." sive community. Doc had been a model
New York Herald Tribune of the well-adjusted Steinbeck man, di-
viding his time between Bach and beer,
Weekly Book Review, between reluctant cephalopods and will-
13 June 1954, pp. 1, 11. ing young ladies. But he has grown de-
pressed, and the inhabitants of Cannery
Row, all beneficiaries of his open-hand-
As if out of sympathy with the pace and edness, decide to help him. Insofar as this
complexity of our time, John Steinbeck involves collecting money by hook or
returns constantly in his novels to the crook and arranging a party that means
misfits, outcasts, and primitivesto a well but ends disastrously, the novel is
simpler, slower civilization. Sometimes he Cannery Row all over again, with many
writes of them with great seriousness, as an echo of Tortilla Flat to boot. The chief
in The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious innovation is Suzy, a badly bruised but of
Battle, and at other times whimsically or course not really tainted young hustler
even farcically, as in Tortilla Flat, Can- who comes to work at the Bear Flag. She
nery Row, and this new novel. He seems and Doc attract each other, although
almost to alternate between these moods, both presumably know better, and Sweet
as though after the tension of tragic or Thursday is the record of Cannery Row's
bitter themes he needs the relief of writ- efforts to bring them together in, of all
ing about men and women who live care- things, matrimony.
lessly, lustily, more or less spontaneously. The spectacle of Doc, wise in the ways
For this relief he has created several of the world no less than of marine life,
groups of disreputable but unchastened falling for a saucy trollop would be too
characters and set them down on the pat were it not that Steinbeck so plainly
California coastMexican Americans in relishes the irony of it. Love, he chortles,
Tortilla Flat and others in a rundown, is the biggest practical joker of them all.
fishing-wharf area called Cannery Row. To add to the joke he has the inmates of
He knows these people well and he is a flophouse and a bawdyhouse combine
thoroughly at home in the vein of low to see that love leads to marriage. The
comedy in which he writes of them. But fact that they pick a Suzy for Doc is not
into this ancient and honorable tradition without its worldly wisdom, but their
he injects a strain of romance that is per- choice of a masquerade party as a means
ilously close to being cute. Only the up- betrays their irrepressible irresponsibility.

416
Few things seem to give readers and
theatergoers more amusement than rough- "Back to the Riffraff.55
necks trying to be proper or more satis-
faction than seeing them revert to type. Time, 63 (14 June 1954),
Fortunately the plot in these low-life 120, 122.
comedies of Steinbeck's is a good deal
less important than the characters and
their attitudestheir lack of either ambi- John Steinbeck respects the underdog,
tion or inhibition; their camaraderie; but he melts uncontrollably before a no-
their gusto and capacity for pleasure; good, boozed-up bum. His sentimental
their admiration, if not imitation, of the eulogies of riffraff began with his first
good, the true and the beautiful. If successful book, Tortilla Flat (1935),
Steinbeck idealizes them outrageously he continued in Cannery Row (1945), and
does so not simply for the sake of humor; appear again in Sweet Thursday, which is
he is implying that they are genuinely really a return visit to Cannery Row. It
closer to nature and to those virtues their reads like stuff that has been salvaged
genteel fellow citizens most admire. Here from the wastebasket. All the characters
only the shiftless and no-account seem to in Sweet Thursday (who live in Monterey,
have the leisure and the spirit to be good Calif., Steinbeck's home territory) have a
neighbors. Next to them the folks on the lot in common: rotgut whisky in their
more respectable side of the tracks seem bellies, leather in their hides, gold in their
dull and furtive; they would, Steinbeck hearts and bats in their belfries.
hints, live like Cannery Rowers if only In the cast which peoples Steinbeck's
they had the capacity. skid row are the following weirdies:
Sweet Thursday brims with generous
rapscallions, honest whores, good-na- A madam called Fauna who runs the
tured simpletons, a sentimental madam, Bear Flag and once masterminded a
and an intellectual susceptible to all the flourishing South American export
fevers of the fleshnature's noblemen all trade in shrunken human heads. She
of them. It is a world conjured out of a keeps a former competitor's noggin in a
wishing-wellthe kind that makes very desk drawer to remind her of the good
pleasant and amusing reading, particu- old days.
larly for all earnest, hard-working, re- A homosexual cook at the Bear Flag
spected and very frustrated citizens. who is writing a novel called The Pi
They say Sweet Thursday is to be made Root of Oedipus.
into a musical comedy; it will require A middle-aged Ph.D. named Doc, pre-
very little making; a few songs and dances viously characterized in Cannery Row
and it will be ready to take its place as by Steinbeck as "half Christ and half
"The Guys and Dolls of Cannery Row." satyr," who spends a lot of his non-
drinking time stimulating a tankful of
octopuses into apoplexy, for research
purposes.
A beachcombing seer who lives on sea
lettuce and stolen candy bars.
A Los Angeles hoodlum named Joseph
and Mary Rivas, who graduated from
"switch knives, snap guns . . . and, for

417
 the very poor, socks loaded with sand" Monterey's Cannery Row. It has changed
to ownership of the Lee Chong Gro- a bit since the war, though not so much
cery, and now keeps busy trying to as it might. What has not changed is
figure out a way to cheat at chess. Steinbeck's own pleasure in telling about
Hazel, a male deadbeat, who owes his the economic and social waifs and strays
name to a remarkably unobservant of this special world, the often rowdy hu-
mother. He lives with other deadbeats mor with which he does this, or the way
at the Palace Flophouse and is deeply in which he uses his story to say various
disturbed by his horoscope, which indi- things he feels like saying about our con-
cates that he is destined to be President temporary, too-complex, often wildly
of the U.S. hypocritical society....
As readers of Cannery Row are aware,
Plot? Yes, there is one, of sorts. Scholarly every time "the boys" try to do anything
Doc is in the middle-aged dumps. Hazel, for Doc the result is catastrophic. That's
Fauna and the rest of Cannery Row de- what comes of it this time, too. The regu-
cide that he needs a woman, perhaps lar tom-wallagaer of a party they throw
even a wife. While guzzling a liquid killer for him turns completely sour. But out of
called "Old Tennis Shoes," they pick the it good comesnot only for Doc but for
girl, a scrappy newcomer at the Bear Flag Suzy too. And, just incidentally, also
named Suzy. Suzy is unsure of herself. It good things for Mack and the rest of
seems that she was rejected as a child.... them in the Palace Flophouse.
Suzy makes a bachelor girl's flat out of As you'd expect, all this is told with
an abandoned 16-ft. boiler and starts extreme adroitnesswith, in fact, a tech-
slinging ham and eggs at the local hash nical craft that inescapably suggests the
house. Just when the matchmaking plans theater. (It's not the first time Steinbeck
appear to be spiked, Cannery Row fo- has written a short novel like a play.)
cuses its cloudy mind long enough to Indeed, you're likely to feel very much
bring the two lovers together by an ac- as if you'd had a couple of hours in
tion as silly as it is surprising. the theater, during which you've often
Sweet Thursday is a turkey with vis- been highly entertained, often felt the
ibly Saroyanesque stuffings. But where sharp needle of satire, and now and then
Saroyan might have clothed the book's been given a thought or so to chew on
characters and incidents with comic real- (see Fauna's advice to Suzy), all of this
ity, Steinbeck merely comic-strips them of without having been urged to believe too
all reality and even of very much interest. hard in either the people or the events
at least, any more than you'd have to
believe in characters or action in any
other bit of good theater. Sweet Thurs-
Joseph Henry Jackson. day comes out as basically a kind of
"Bookman's Notebook." Christmas-pantomime-in-apparent-re-
verse, a fable and a fairy-tale in which,
San Francisco Chronicle, encapsulated, are some choice fragments
15 June 1954, p. 21. of funny-sad and sad-funny satire.
In the end what? You'll have been
marvelously amused, provided you're
In his new Sweet Thursday... Stein- willing to accept modern frankness to the
beck returns to his decade-old setting extent of letting yourself enjoy a tale

418
about types that society calls "no-goods." Mack, Hazel, and the girls at the Bear
You'll have been a trifle dizzied by what Flag. The plot, digressions aside, is sim-
current jargon knows as "the switch"; ple. Doc is back from the army puttering
i.e., the good people are sometimes so amongst his rattlesnakes and octopi, all
"bad" and "bad" people are, surpris- set to rehabilitate himself by writing a
ingly, often so good. scientific paper. But Doc is unable to
And if you let the story take you with think of the business at hand. His mind
it you may even find yourself wondering prefers to wander amongst the birds and
for a moment or two, until the temporary the bees. Doc is lonely, and there is but
spellagain, so like that of the theater one answer in a novel of this sort. Doc
wears off, whether your accustomed needs a woman.
world or its upside-down reflection in This gives Mr. Steinbeck his chance to
the Steinbeck mirror makes better sense play the sugar-coated Maupassant by in-
after all. troducing a tart named Suzy. Needless to
say, Suzy reforms and Doc finally wins
her. But one really knows this all along. It
is only a matter of time and 273 pages.
Robert H. Boyle. Suzy is too much of a lady to put up with
"Boozy Wisdom.55 a tart's life, and one knows she never
will because, in Mr. Steinbeck's words, "a
Commonweal, 60 good hustler is flat-chested."
(9 July 1954), 351. Cannery Row wasn't one of Mr. Stein-
beck's better efforts, but he did manage
to write his lyric to the vacant lot with
a certain amount of charm. But there
Several years ago, Edmund Wilson, in wasn't enough to carry over to Sweet
writing of John Steinbeck, remarked: Thursday.
" . . . when his curtain goes up, he always
puts on a different kind of show." Mr.
Wilson couldn't have been more wrong
as far as Mr. Steinbeck's latest novel is Brendan Gill.
concerned. Sweet Thursday is nothing
more than a repeat, albeit post-war, per- "Books.55
formance of Cannery Row. New Yorker, 30
And it is a pity. Mr. Steinbeck has let (10 July 1954), 70-2.
his rooters down. Of late, some persons
have started to take Mr. Steinbeck and
his work so seriously that a number of
them felt that his absence from the aca- In the case of another current self-parody,
demic quarterlies was rather poor pool a novel by John Steinbeck called Sweet
on the part of the critics. Thursday ..., consolation is harder to find
A debatable point. But at any rate, [than in Thomas Mann's Black Swan].
one thing is certain. Mr. Steinbeck has For here the evidence tends to show
presented both his public and critics alike that while the author is comparatively
with a grade-B pot-boiler in Sweet Thurs- young and vigorous, his talent diminishes
day, a sentimental mishmash of a sequel from book to book. Sweet Thursday is
involving the awkward antics of Doc, intended to beshouts aloud, in fact,

419
that it will befunny and vulgar and envy. If Lee Chong and Gay are lost,
touching, and yet all for kicks; what it Joseph-and-Mary is gained, a double-
proves to be is labored, self-conscious, named genius of immorality and one of
and drenched with artificial sunlight and Steinbeck's more fascinating creations.
good feeling.... For a time it looks as though the war
Sweet Thursday is a sequel to Steinbeck's might have betrayed Cannery Row into
Cannery Row, and the author himself is thinking about life instead of living it.
one of the boys. He earns this honor first Sweet Thursday, however, is replete with
by showing that he can write English two happy ending, as Doc discovers a love
ways, plain and fancy, with and without, for octopuses and a girl named Suzy.
and then by showing that he knows all The plot is forthrightly sentimental; Stein-
there is to know about peoplehow, beck concentrates on characterization and
when you get to see them close up, the gentle satire. Even the portrait of Joe El-
bums and whores and assorted mavericks egant, a pointed burlesque of the moon-
(some of them doctors, some of them light-and-magnolia school of novelists, is
even writers), why, it turns out that not likely to arouse the wrath of any
they're the salt of the earth. Maybe yes, reader. The book was designed to go
maybe no, but in Sweet Thursday they're nicely with a cool highball and a warm
movie salt, and not only salt but sad, be- sun, and it does.
cause once upon a time it looked as if the
man who invented them might end up a
major American writer instead of merely
a major American writing name... . Riley Hughes.
"Sweet Thursday."
Catholic World, 179
"A Minor Pleasantry.5 (August 1954), 393-4.
Nation, 179
(10 July 1954), 37.
Perhaps the person with the clearest li-
cense to make fun of Mr. Steinbeck is
Sweet Thursday is a minor pleasantry Mr. Steinbeck himself. Surely nobody
from a major novelist. John Steinbeck else could hope to parody with such un-
has returned to the never-never-land of erring accuracy as can be found in these
Cannery Row, and the result is once pages the sentimental absurdities of the
again unpretentious but relaxing; a cast Salinas master. Sweet Thursday comes
of intriguing eccentrics bound together close to conscious parody, and not only
by a loose and lazy narrative.. .. conscious but deliberate. Most of the
Sweet Thursday, however, is in no way inhabitants of Cannery Row are back af-
a nostalgic novel. The boys in the Palace ter the war, engaged in their old occupa-
Flop House are still free souls; the girls at tions: Doc, at the marine lab; Fauna and
the Bear Flag House still have hearts of the girls at the Bear Flag; Wide Ida at
gold; and Docthe vagabond Ph.D.is the bar; and Mack and all the boys at the
still puttering around with his sea speci- Palace Flophouse. Semi-puns, misquota-
mens, leading a life that would have tions, and other archnesses abound. Here
turned Athenian philosophers green with are two chapter titles: "Tinder Is as Tin-

420
der Does," and "Where Alfred the Sacred lizerwas excluded, and Father, if admit-
River Ran." Perhaps Mack expresses the ted at all, came as a refugee from domes-
theme of the whole thing when he says: ticity. In Cannery Row the locale the
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, small boy as employee justified his res-
I'm sure we should all be as happy as tiveness in casual labor; in Cannery Row
kings." the novel the small boy vindicated his
. . . Mr. Steinbeck's world, it must be pranks, his misdemeanors, his fear of
admitted, has at times the charm of its responsibility in a glorification of per-
absurdity. petual hooky.

How documentary was Cannery Row}

How faithful to objective reality were the
Ward Moore. details of the novel; how much license
"Cannery Row Revisited: did Steinbeck take in the loosely joined
sketches? Since he used an extant geogra-
Steinbeck and the phy and characters with readily identifi-
Sardine." able models, the legitimate question arises:
Did his selection of some material and
Nation, 179 exclusion of some emphasize the roman-
(16 October 1954), tic or the "real" aspects of the Row? It is
significant that the reader is never taken
325-7. inside a cannery or introduced to even
minor characters directly involved with
fish-packing and with wages and work,
. . . To both the paisanos and the "old" unions and families. In a proletarian bo-
Americans indigenous to the Peninsula, hemia Steinbeck chose to portray the ul-
Cannery Row was heaven-sent. Seasonal, tra-bohemian fringe: the bums, whores,
irregular cannery work was suited to the and the two professional menthe mer-
temperament engendered by Monterey's chant, Lee Chong, rapacious and benevo-
climate and tradition. Further, it pro- lent, with a tightly symbiotic relationship
moted a dignity on the ancient American to the Row, and Doc, whose presence is
go-to-hell basis, unavailable to those in socially and economically fortuitous.
service occupations. If Carmel was a ru- Steinbeck's attraction to the bizarre is
ral Greenwich Village, Cannery Row was notable in his depiction of Doc. It is an
a proletarian bohemia. undeniably legitimate privilege of the
Inevitably this bohemia had to have novelist to distort his model in order to
its Murger; fortunately or unfortunately bring out desired effects; in heightening
opinions differ among Peninsulansit and foreshortening the original of Doc he
turned out to be John Steinbeck. To was merely exercising this privilege. But
Steinbeck, who carries to an extreme the "About Ed Ricketts," which is prefaced
Hemingway small-boy nostalgia for the to The Log from the Sea of Cortez, is not
never-never world of comradely mascu- fiction, and is therefore subject to re-
line society without women save as an straints not put upon the novelist. Yet
occasional convenience, Cannery Row in "About Ed Ricketts," Steinbeck de-
was an ideal microcosm. In it, socially at parts from objective facts, apparently to
least, the infantile triumphed; Mother sharpen drama. These facts, particularly
the realist, the disciplinarian, the stabi- the manner of Ed Ricketts's death, are on

421
record. To say, as Steinbeck does, "I am consequent diminution of size and vital-
sure that many people, seeing this ac- ity. If Cannery Row was farce, Sweet
count, will be sure to say, 'Why, that's Thursday is burlesque; if the first novel
not true. That's not the way he was at all. was peopled by lovable little men, the se-
He was this way and this.' And the quel is full of leprechauns; if the smell of
speaker may go on to describe a person the sardine was muted in the first, the
this writer did not know at all"is odor of rendering sugar is overpowering
merely to hedge. The complexity of any in the second. Cannery Row is no longer
man's character is admitted, and no one softened by a transmuting haze of art-
can write of what is alien to him in an- istryit is tidied up and prettified be-
other, but this does not excuse, in pur- yond recognition.
ported non-fiction, artistic distortions of
speech and action, time and circumstance Ostensibly Sweet Thursday displays the
which are proper in fiction. Indeed, a post-war, post-sardine Cannery Row. Doc
confusion seems to have grown up in the lives, despite Ed Ricketts's death, but he
author's mind between Doc of Cannery lives to be the beneficiary of hovering so-
Row and Ed Ricketts on whom Doc was licitude, the recipient of anxious en-
modeled, so that in "About Ed Ricketts" dowments, from writers' block and a
Steinbeck attributes to his friend many of sudden perception of loneliness to the
the characteristics and actions which be- affections of Suzy, a wistful and whole-
longed solely to his creation. He could no some whore. Steinbeck ceases to be the
longer distinguish between the two, not poor man's Hemingway and becomes a
so much because one was based on the slightly raffish Faith Baldwin.
other as because the intimacy of creation The other adult in Cannery Row has
excluded the intimacy of friendship. The been whisked from the scene. Lee Chong,
character stood between the author and Steinbeck relates gravely, has sold out his
the man. store and gone to trade with the glamor-
This confusion between fact and fancy ous Polynesians. In "About Ed Ricketts,"
seems to have been further compounded Lee Chong is called Wing Chong, in un-
in Sweet Thursday, in which Steinbeck derstandable confusion with the name of
returns to Cannery Row, possibly in dis- the store, "Glorious-Prosperous." There
satisfaction with the justice done to the was no Chongneither Lee nor Wing.
Ed Ricketts-Doc entity, or as an act of The founder of Wing Chong was Yee
love toward his dead friend. But now the Won; the business was carried on by his
author is no longer drawing from life son, J. H. Yee, and C. M. Sam, from
in order to present his own version of whom the character Lee Chong was de-
reality, as in the earlier novel. In Sweet rived. Neither Mr. Yee nor Mr. Sam has
Thursday he has forgotten that Cannery departed for the South Seas, though they
Row was a fiction, an improvement upon have dissolved partnership and the "Glo-
and distillation of things seen, just as he rious-Prosperous" store is in the process
has unconsciously forgotten that Ed of what is possibly the slowest and most
Ricketts and Doc were not identical, and dignified liquidation in history. It has
created by him. He has confused Cannery been selling out, at the moment, for more
Row with the material which went into than nine months, and the end is not in
it, so that Sweet Thursday is drawn, not sight. When it finally closes, Cannery
from life or even his memory of life, but Row will no longer have a vestige of
from his own book, second-hand, with a communal life; the few who still live

422
there will have to shop in Monterey or which once took the workers to their
New Monterey, like everyone else. jobs stand rusting and flat-tired. A newly
The "Glorious-Prosperous," like the decorated "fish and steak house" at-
rest of the Row, is the victim of short- tempts to lure some of the tourist trade
sighted greed. The pilchard is going the from fishermen's wharf.
way of the buffalo and the passenger pi- People still live on Cannery Row. Two
geon. Large catches produced more can- blocks of small apartments and a scatter-
neries; more canneries called for larger ing of weary frame houses shelter a small
catches. The number and size of boats population. Ed Ricketts's (or Doc's) labo-
and nets grew; the migration stream of ratory, its paint removed by the weather
the fish was charted; with insatiable zeal and its windows obscured against the cu-
the schools were pursued, netted, canned, rious, is in use as living quarters, the "B"
or reduced to mealbreeding stock, fry, of "Pacific Biological Laboratories" alone
and all. Voices raised for conservation remaining to identify it. Visitors and rub-
were shouted down; regulation was avoided berneck buses detour down the half-mile-
or evaded. Suddenly and "mysteriously" long Row. Optimistic business men speak
the sardine disappeared; the searching of the return of the sardine, basing their
boats netted handfuls of the survivors in- prophecy on a catch of four or five tons
stead of thousands of tons. If pursuit of in southern waters, trucked swiftly to the
the pitiful remnant were absolutely for- canneries, which obligingly open for a
bidden, the sardine could come back in few hours to receive them. But the prole-
time, but this idea is repugnant to those tarian bohemia is gone.
who hold to the "mysterious disappear- What does Cannery Row think of John
ance" theory and talk of shifting ocean Steinbeck? "Who?" asks one inhabitant.
currents and less plentiful plankton for "Wish I had his dough," mutters another.
the pilchards to feed on locally, though it
must be obvious that the answer to the
plaintive query, Where have the sardines
gone? is, Into the cans. Anne Duchene.
Meanwhile the actual Cannery Row
enjoys none of the shenanigans of Sweet
"New Novels."
Thursday. Some of the canneries work Manchester Guardian,
part timeon anchovies, squid, mack-
erel, or tuna. One has burned down,
26 October 1954, p. 4.
leaving a hole in the wall of two-story
buildings through which the Bay can
be seen from the Row. One has been . . . And at the bottom of the scale [of
spruced up to accommodate a moving- feeling and thinking] there is alas, John
and-storage company. Others are talked Steinbeck, nowadays content with counter-
of as possible homes for light industry feit feeling and thinking. Sweet Thurs-
which so far has been reluctant to pay day . . . comes off his Cannery Row pro-
the extra freight costs which are the pen- duction line. Fauna (real name, Flora),
alty for not being on the main line. For owner of the local "flop-house," wants
the most part the canneries are empty, to marry one of her girls to "Doc," Can-
paint-peeling and dusty, with mocking NO nery Row's marine biologist; the joke is
ADMITTANCE, APPLY AT OFFICE signs. But the about extra-social if not anti-social peo-
offices are closed, and the obsolete buses ple behaving with elaborate propriety.

423
There are chapter-headings like "Whom brothel-keeper, who provides a rest room
the Gods Love They Drive Nuts" and for her young ladies equipped with a
"Hooptedoodle (1)" (interpolations to table tennis set, a card table and a
"spin some pretty words, maybe, or sing parchesi board; a collection of hoboes
a little song with language"); the fag-end and eccentrics who live together in the
of a worn-out American convention. It is Palace Flophouse and drink immature
monstrously sad to see Steinbeck mum- whisky known as Old Tennis Shoes; a
bling at i t . . . . store keeper who cheats as a matter of
principle and is genuinely distressed to
discover that it is not possible to cheat at
chess: these and many others are pre-
Maurice Richardson. sented for a reader's amusement rather
"New Novels." than his belief. What these people do is
less important than what they say and
New Statesman and the way they say it. Their language is
Nation [England], 48 salty, rich and humorously extravagant.
Fauna reproves her girls for gambling in
(6 November 1954), the rest room:
589-90.
If a young lady wants to run a few
passes with a customer, that's differ-
. . . With Sweet Thursday Mr. Steinbeck ent, but I don't want to find no more
is back in Monterey with his Cannery pencil marks on the lump sugar.
Row characters. The plot hinges on the Gambling's a vice. I knew many a
wooing of Doc, the shaggy, classless, ma- good hooker with a future that's
rine biologist, and Suzy, newest recruit to throwed it away on games of chance.
the local brothel. It is, I suppose, great
fun for some, but rather too whimsi- The book's plot is like something bred
cal and Hollywooden for me, especially by Damon Runyon out of Hellzapoppin.
when Suzy leaves the brothel and lives in It deals with the efforts of the hoboes
an old boiler. to bring about the marriage of Doc, who
is dissatisfied with his chosen task of
writing a thesis about the habits of oc-
topi, and Suzy, who gives up work with
"Fiction." Fauna to go and live in a disused boiler.
Times Literary Suzy paints the curving boiler walls blue
and sticks the curtains to the walls with
Supplement [London], cement. Doc and Suzy are finally brought
26 November 1954, together through the activities of a hobo
whose life has been changed by a horo-
p. 753. scope prediction that he will one day
be President of the United States. Sweet
Thursday might have seemed merely silly.
Sweet Thursday is a humorous fairy-tale Mr. Steinbeck's handling, deft and casual,
of a specifically American kind. Its peo- gives the book very often a quality of in-
ple are less characters than specimens spired idiocy, a genuine harebrained charm.
of national folklore. The golden-hearted

424
 and the love story in order to enjoy what-
"Book Reviews." ever remains.
Dublin Magazine
[Ireland], 30 (January-
Checklist of Additional
March 1955), 66.
Reviews

As a sequel to Cannery Row, Sweet "Sweet Thursday." Booklist, 50

Thursday is rather disappointing. The (15 April 1954), 309.
Monterey sun still shines down on the Paul Pickrel. "Outstanding Novels."
old boiler and Palace Flophouse, but the Yale Review, 43 (June 1954), x, xii.
passing years have changed The Row and Louise Barron. "Sweet Thursday"
Mr. Steinbeck with it. The war has inter- Library Journal, 79 (1 June 1954),
vened, problems are now serious in the 1052.
laughter-and-tears fashion, and the dis- Lewis Gannett. "Book Review." New
reputable charactersnow amateur psy- York Herald Tribune, 10 June 1954,
chologists to a manhave taken on all p. 23.
the charm and quaintness of Workers or Sterling North. "Steinbeck Back in
Peasants. The result, if it can be imag- Cannery Row." Washington Post and
ined, is a sort of Resurrection cum Re- Times-Herald, 13 June 1954, p. 7B.
demption novel that combines and nearly "Steinbeck's Philosophers." Newsweek,
parodies both Tolstoy and Francis Stuart. 43 (14 June 1954), 110-11.
Doc, the marine biologist who held Can- Gilbert Highet. "New Books." Harper's,
nery Row loosely together, now returns 205 (July 1954), 93-6.
from the Army full of obscure but rather Robertson Davies. "For Hammock and
familiar troubles. He realises in turn that Deck Chair." Saturday Night [Los
a Man has a Need, that he must learn Angeles], 69 (24 July 1954), 13-14.
to Give Himself, and that these are the Edward Weeks. "Suzy and the
steps towards Fulfillment. He reaches this Octopus." Atlantic, 194 (August
happy fulfillment when he rediscovers 1954), 82.
and applies the great truth that bad hus- Patrick F. Quinn. "Fiction Chronicle."
tlers make the good wives. It is much like Hudson Review, 7 (Autumn 1954),
a film in which we try to forget the plot 463.

425
THE SHORT REIGN OF PIPPIN IV
 JobN

PIPPIN

New yoRk * cbe vikiNQ piiess * 1957

 It is a deadlock of the democratic forces
Ben Ray Redman. that gives the Royalists a chance to pro-
pose a restoration of the monarchy; but
"French Romance.55 the Royalists are split among themselves
Saturday Review, 40 as champions of various blood lines, un-
til an imaginative nobleman provides a
(13 April 1957), 14. common ground for action by proposing
that they all "unite under His Gracious
Majesty Pippin of Heristal and Arnulf, of
Graham Greene makes a practice of dis- the line of Charlemagne." That this fa-
tinguishing between his "novels" and his mous line is extinct, the nobleman ex-
"entertainments." In a similar way John plains, is a misconception. It lives on in
Steinbeck has set his latest book The Paris today, in the person of "Pippin
Short Reign of Pippin IV apart from the Arnulf Heristal, a pleasant man, an ama-
bulk of his fiction by dubbing it "A Fab- teur astronomer," whose uncle, a some-
rication." He could have just as well, and what shady art dealer, bears the proud
perhaps more accurately, have called it a name of Charles Martel. Pippinwho
humorous fantasy. has emerged only once before from
The idea from which The Short Reign happy obscurity, as the discover[er] of a
of Pippin IV springs is one that might cometis informed of his elevation to
have stimulated the playful imagination the throne, his troubles begin, and Mr.
of Anatole France, one that might have Steinbeck's fragile fable is launched.
excited Robert Nathan's fancy; and it is How Pippin plays his part of King;
tempting to speculate upon what these how his wife, Marie, "a good manager
authors might have done with it. We can who knew her province and stayed in it,"
be certain, I think, that either of them deals with the housekeeping problems
would have exploited this idea with more presented by the vast and drafty reaches
inventiveness, and more entertainingly, of Versailles; how his daughter, Clotilde,
than has Mr. Steinbeck. He puts very who at the age of "fifteen wrote a novel
little flesh on the bare bones of his idea; entitled Adieu Ma Vie," finds happiness
the entertainment that he provides is thin with a young American named Tod Johnson,
broth indeed; and when we have finished son of the Egg King of Petaluma, Califor-
The Short Reign of Pippin IV we are left nia; how Uncle Charlie discreetly carries
with the impression that it is the sort of on his business at the old standthese
thing that Art Buchwald might have writ- are themes that engage Mr. Steinbeck's
ten, had he decided to parlay a newspa- somewhat pedestrian fancy as his pleas-
per column into a short book. ingly written little story makes its way,
The brief tale begins in the year with few amusing surprises, towards its
19 , when France, as is not unusual, all too foreseeable end.
finds itself without a government, and
all efforts to form one seemed doomed
to failure. "For three days the struggle
raged. The leaders slept on the brocade
couches of the Grand Ballroom and sub-
sisted on the bread and cheese and Alge-
rian wine furnished by M. le President. It
was a scene of activity and turmoil."

429
 Using that internal situation and an
"Briefly Noted." equally joyous acceptance of it by other
nations of the world, Steinbeck pulls ev-
New Yorker, 33 ery conceivable satiric rabbit out of the
(13 April 1957), 164. fictional hat. Even skilled legerdemain
can pall and, when the rabbits give little
hint of being real, tricks for tricks' sake
can be boring.
. . . A brief, waggish novel about a pleas- There is a faint thread of story in the
ant middle-aged Frenchman who is con- book. Pippin, drafted as king, is a simple
tentedly practicing astronomy in his house little man whose greatest joy in life is sit-
in Paris when, to his consternation, he is ting up all night looking thru a telescope,
proclaimed King of France and forced to much to his wife's displeasure. He has a
take up residence in Versailles. The time daughter who, still in her teens, has been
is now.... a motion picture star, has written a best
selling novel, and who has captured an
American prince, son of the egg king of
Petaluma, Cal.
Fanny Butcher.
"Slight Sleight-of-Hand The trouble with this satirein contrast
to the great permanent satires of litera-
by Steinbeck." tureis that, although the idea is really
Chicago Sunday Tribune funny, and some of the contrived situa-
tions have hilarious possibilities, the book
Magazine of Books, demands that the reader know thor-
14 April 1957, p. 6. oughly what is being made fun of if he is
to give a whoopor a hoot.
The publisher of The Short Reign of
If John Steinbeck's reputation as a great Pippin IV suggests that it "might find a
writer (and he is one) had to stand or fall place . . . as a minor classic." In this reader's
on his latest fabrication (as this tale is la- opinion one of those last two words is
beled) it would topple like the spire of superfluous, and that word isn't minor.
the Old North church in a hurricane.
The author of one of the truly great
novels of our day, The Grapes of Wrath,
of the lusty, funny Tortilla Flat, and of Elizabeth Janeway.
the unforgettable Of Mice and Men has "A Star-gazing King."
written in The Short Reign of Pippin IV
what is meant to be a satire on every- New York Times Book
thing today. It starts with the assurance Review, 106
that in one of the crises of contemporary
French politics in 19 , France, in des- (14 April 1957), 6, 18.
peration, was returned to a monarchy,
with the joyous agreement of all of its
warring parties, including the commu- This "fabrication" by John Steinbeck is a
nist, . . . and to the joyous acceptance of froth of a book which must have been
all Frenchmen. great fun to write. In addition, it is one of

430
the purest expressions of true, simple, years with the Folies Bergere, a profes-
American affection for the French that sion which gave her fallen arches and a
has ever been writtencompounded with wide knowledge of men. Another less
our equally simple conviction that they trustworthy member of the circle is
are also, after all, a funny race.. . . Pippin's uncle, Charles Martel, a seedy
Reluctantly, Mr. Heristal, now sud- art dealer who specializes in selling paint-
denly Pippin the Fourth, is quite as aware ings he won't guarantee.
as Hamlet that the times are out of joint, The last two, at any rate, are amusing
but for fifty-four years he has had no ink- conceptions, but if we are to accept them
ling that he was born to set them right. at all, it can only be as figures of farce.
Here the moral of Mr. Steinbeck's fabri- When we whizz by them at ninety miles
cationand he is a highly moral writer an hour, they are very funny indeed: I
begins to show through the joke. For was entranced by Uncle Charles' expla-
Pippin is both Vhomme moyen sensuel, nation of that seemingly pointless crime,
and the ordinary citizen, who is suddenly the theft of the Mona Lisa. But when we
confronted with responsibility. What is he sit down to discuss moral dilemmas with
to do? Lend himself to the shabby face- them, this souffle of a book threatens to
saving that has set him up as a figure- collapse into a sodden crust.
head, or try to be what a king should be? To insist on taking Mr. Steinbeck's fun
"The purpose of a king," he says, "is to too seriously is to be a spoilsport. Let us
rule, and the purpose of rule is to in- pass over in silence, as Cicero liked so in-
crease the well-being of the kingdom." accurately to say, that Puritan structure
This, however, is not poor Pippin's of morality which our author can never
only dilemma. Does he want to rule? quite ignore, and enjoy the fabrication he
Should he? "A king without power is a has draped about it. It is safe to predict, I
contradiction in terms," Mr. Steinbeck am certain, that of next summer's crop
has him say, "and a king with power is of outward-bound American tourists, at
an abomination." Pippin is thus con- least two-thirds will have with them a
fronted not only with the practical prob- copy of The Short Reign of Pippin IV
lem, on the material level, of whether he (a dual Book-of-the-Month choice for
can be king. He is also involved in the May); and of these, a good 95 per cent
moral problem of whether it is right for will find themselves laughing happily as
him to try to be king. they travel with Pippin on the royal
I'm afraid it's too much weight for the motorscooter, or attempt to keep up with
book to carry. Pippin's allies, with whom Uncle Charles' business arrangements.
he discusses the alternatives he faces,
come from the borders of the realm of
farce. Among them are a young Ameri-
can from Petaluma, Calif., the son of the
Egg King. This Tod Johnson, the Egg Prince,
is an aspirant for the hand of Clotilde,
now a princess herself. He talks unfortu-
nate American slang and mixes martinis,
and any casting director would try to get
Russell Nype to play him. Another of
Pippin's cronies is Sister Hyacinthe, who
left the world for the cloister after twenty

431
Dick Wickenden. William DuBois.
"Steinbeck's "Books of the Times.'
Extravaganza." New York Times,
New York Herald Tribune 15 April 1957, p. 27.
Weekly Book Review,
14 April 1957, p. 1. The problem of getting two or more
Frenchmen to agree may soon be aban-
doned as insoluble by most sensible ana-
A few years from now, things in France lysts, including Frenchmen. In The Short
will come to such a pass that the twelve Reign of Pippin IV John Steinbeck, of all
squabbling political parties of that splen- people, comes up with a suggestion that
did but sorely troubled nation will be re- Francophiles, to say nothing of well-
duced to restoring the monarchy. The wishers of the human race, are advised
man destined to be crowned Pippin IV, in to approach with caution. France, sug-
a rather confused ceremony at Rheims, is gests Mr. Steinbeck, could achieve all her
a charming gentleman in his early fifties, former glories (at least for a year or so)
M. Pippin Arnulf Heristal... . if two bold steps were taken. Step one,
Such, at any rate, is the glimpse of the restore the monarchystrictly at roi-
future provided by this small and amus- faineant level. Step two, let nature take
ing book. The author's name is Steinbeck its course. It should be noted immediately
and his effervescent "fabrication" is an that the author has labeled his book "a
April choice of the Book-of-the-Month fabrication" rather than a novel. Written
Club. Although new to the field of ami- with a deceptive, off-the-cuff zing, and
ably satirical extravaganza he seems hap- lacking the savage posturings that distin-
pily at home in it. He maintains a firm guished his full-dress, Bunyanesque com-
control over material that might easily edies, it will seem a total departure to
have got out of hand; his inventions many Steinbeck readers.
are never outrageous or his humorous The fun (and we found it a very funny
flourishes arch, and his style is cleverly book indeed) is self-generating, oddly ex-
contrived so as to sound, for the most otic. Had the book come to us as a trans-
part, like an adroit translation from the lation, with any of a half-dozen current
French. The climax, though it might have Parisian labels, it could have been ac-
been more incisive and tumultuous, is al- cepted as such without demur. It is only
together appropriate. when one puts it aside that the special
The Short Reign of Pippin IV prob- Steinbeck impact comes through cleanly.
ably arises out of a deep if sometimes ex- Things start with a bang in this day-
asperated affection for France and the after-tomorrow France when the Cabinet
French and for the foolish race of man in finds itself in a crisis to end all crises. Af-
general. It was clearly a great deal of fun ter a series of backhanded miracles too
to write, and many thousands of readers, complex to be detailed here, the Royalist
infected by John Steinbeck's high spirits, party blunders into pro tern power. When
are going to have at least as much fun a member, more in jest than hope, sug-
reading it. gests that only a King can serve as a ral-

432
lying point, it is no accident that not even
the Royalists can agree on a possible can- "If I Were King."
didate. Finally, after a deadlock among
the Capetians, the Bourbons and the my- Time, 69 (15 April 1957),
riad heirs of Bonaparte, the Merovin- 126.
gians sweep the field. Within a few hours
they have discovered a descendant of the
eighth-century do-nothing, Pippin III
and the fabrication is in high g e a r . . . . At long last, France decided that the
Fortunately for France, the reign of French Revolution had all been a big mis-
Pippin IV is too short to bring destruc- take (some readers will say "I told you
tion. How the King grows weary of a do- so"). Caught in a parliamentary impasse
nothing status, how he eludes the royal to end all parliamentary impasses, the
guards at Versailles for incognito tours of National Assembly decided to abolish the
his realm on a motor-scooter, how he is republic and restore the monarchy. Hour-
howled down by his own Deputies after a ral Vive le roil
shy attempt to develop a program for na- This is the central situation of John
tional betterment that would substitute Steinbeck's latest bookletan underdone
deeds for wordsthis is the subject-mat- novel and overdone gag which is a long,
ter of Mr. Steinbeck's final chapters, and long way from wrathful Okies and Tor-
the reviewer has no intention of revealing tilla Flat
the modus operandi. It seems proper to Though The Short Reign of Pippin IV
add that M. Heristal returns quietly to (a May co-selection of the Book-of-the-
his astronomyand that France lapses Month Club) is a fable that makes no
once again, wearily but contentedly, into claims for itself beyond the desire to
near-chaos. please, its author waters Aesop with Al-
Early commentators have already ob- sop, mixes persiflage with prescriptions
jected that this book is slam-bang farce for the ills of modern France. The satiric
and nothing more, that Mr. Steinbeck has lapses into the pontifical ("The French
only belabored an obvious victim with are a moral peoplejudged, that is, by
his slapstick. The present reader took it American country-club standards"). Pip-
at a sitting, and genuinely enjoyed its sur- pin makes a charming king-for-a-day, but
face humors. It was only when the mean- the joke goes on for so long that those
ings-within-meanings began cropping up who come to laugh may stay to yawn.
that he found himself glancing over one Helasy political reality in France is so pre-
shoulder, as uneasily as Pippin's subjects. posterous that even better satirists than
Clearly Mr. Steinbeck is reminding us Steinbeck have a hard time topping it.
that happiness must be earned. Is it
barely possible that he has aimed his
moral at Washington, no less than at the
Quai d'Orsay?

433
 blamed President Hoover for the loss of
David Rey. his grocery store, but he could never for-
give President Roosevelt for having fed
"Many Keys to him." Pippin is also advised to turn over
Steinbeck," the details of the executive office to one
of the meat advertising agencies....
Nation, 184 The book makes us want to see his
(29 April 1957), 346-7. promised big work in progress, and we
are reminded that Hemingway didn't ful-
fill the predictions of doom after Across
. . . King Pippin's history, as a story, is the River. Pippin IV occupies a similar
rather slight. It relates an attempt to rem- position in the work of a major writer.
edy the French Republic's instability by
restoring the monarchy with an obscure
descendant of Charlemagne, an amateur
astronomer named Pippin. When he de- Harry T. Moore.
cides to be kingly rather than a mere "Steinbeck the Soft-
figurehead, Pippin realizes that "the time
for kings is past," something we may hearted Satirist."
have suspected in the first place. He goes New Republic, 136
back home, leaving us with the conclu-
sion that the people want a patsy, not a (27 May 1957), 23-4.
leader, and insist on remaining devoted to
unstable republics. Perhaps the compari-
son the publishers make to Candide was . . . Steinbeck shouldn't attempt satire
too much in Steinbeck's mind as he wrote which is what both he and his blurb
Pippin /V, for the style is remarkably like writer call this Pippin IV novel. Actually,
a translation from Voltaire, or more ac- it is a gentle comedy, superficially amus-
curately, reads as if it were written to ing for a while; but long before its 188th
make a translation into Voltaire's French and last page, it begins to pall.
an easy job. For this Pippin story is no more than
. . . Within the limited framework of an extended anecdote about a king who
Pippin's circular career from bourgeois to tries to be more democratic than the
king and back again, Steinbeck has bril- democrats and thereby gets into trouble of
liantly, if briefly, lacerated French and a traditional French-revolutionary kind.
American society and politics. When Pip- The fable is cliche, and most of its lan-
pin is made king he is advised that his guage is cliche masquerading as epigram:
first "official act should be to request a "There's no snob like a self-made man,"
subsidy for his government from America and so on. Throughout, the characters
for the purpose of making France strong are made to speak like those in a phrase
against Communism, and an equal sub- book. The king appears to be likeable
sidy from the Communist nations in the enough, and his relatives try to be. There
interest of world peace." He also has the is for example the uncle who deals in
benefit of counsel from his daughter's proverbs and fake paintings, whom the
boy friend, a progressive jazz fan. The author has, appropriately enough, con-
boy's father, who had gone from rags to trived with painful fakery; and there is
riches in the chicken industry, "never the king's daughter, a recognizable car-

434
toon of a teen-age novelist, about as pro- coach into the crowd without being ob-
foundly created as the take-offs, in TV served. Impossible, too, that he should
shows, of Brando or Capote. Odd: make secret trips all over Paris without
American writers used to "do" Europe- encountering the press or television cam-
ans so well, comically or otherwise, be- eras. Even when the monarchy falls and
tween the times of Irving and Henry Pippin returns to his stargazing no one
James. As for satire, surely Steinbeck is sees him go. Mr. Steinbeck has great fun
too soft-hearted for the medium: for that, at the expense of various French and
one needs the saeva indignatio, or at least American institutions. It would have
the chill upper lip of the author of The been well worth his trouble to treat his
Loved One. In this category a squashy main theme with a decent regard for the
sentimentalism won't do. Nevertheless, probabilities.
the continuing admirers of Steinbeck will
probably hail this soft "satire" as an im-
portant mutation in his career and will
nourish the book with the usual over- Daniel George.
praise. Indeed, it has already received the
accolade of the Book-of-the-Month Club. "New Novels.55
Spectator [England], 198
(31 May 1957), 726-7.
"New Fiction."
London Times, . . . John Steinbeck's little fantasy, The
30 May 1957, p. 13. Short Reign of Pippin JV, is delightful.
The publishers' announcement in the Book-
seller read: " J o n n Steinbeck has been
. . . The Short Reign of Pippin IV is 'having himself a ball,' as his countrymen
a high spirited holiday excursion into say. With abundant good nature and a
satirical extravagance. The author's sar- pen, needle-sharp, he has contrived a de-
donic comments on the French political licious lampoon of French politics and
scene to-day pepper the pages of this American big-business and a sly side-
brief conte of how M. Pippin Arnulf swipe or two at the British monarchy."
Heristal, a shy, middle-aged amateur as- No overstatement here. The position is
tronomer, descended from Charlemagne, that in despair of ever again forming a
is crowned King of France. At the root of stable government the French have voted
Mr. Steinbeck's joke is the instability of the Republic out of existence and pro-
the French political system. The new king claimed a monarchy. Disagreeing among
is a placid creature capable of detached themselves, the Royalists nominate an in-
observation. He is willing to sacrifice his offensive amateur astronomer who hap-
quiet life for the sake of his country, and pens to descend from King Pippin II. The
up to the day of his coronation the reader events that flow from this decision are
will willingly accept him for what he is. rapturously funny, the broadest humour
Then the squib misfires, but only be- in the telling of them being tempered
cause the author persists in flouting fac- with wit that would pass as French.
tual possibility. It is incredible that the
king should slide out of his coronation

435
 choose his type of holiday, his good hu-
Patricia Hodgart. mour and high spirits are undoubtedly
infectious.
"Books of the Day." Most of Pippin's subjects as well as
Manchester Guardian, Pippin himself are very conventionally French.
They are, that is to say, very much the
4 June 1957, p. 4. sort of people one would expect from a
knowledge of French literature, or rather
of literature about France, to meet in a
As an established Old Master, John Stein- book set in Paris but would be less cer-
beck needs no recommendation, although tain of meeting in a Paris street. Pippin
The Short Reign of Pippin IV.. . is an himself, for example, is very much the
unusual flight of fancy for him. An ex- traditional type of leisured individualist,
travaganza on French politics, it exploits living on the rent from his vineyard, peer-
with disarming gaiety every cliche about ing at the stars, enjoying what is in the
France and the French. His conception of best sense of the term a marriage of con-
the return of the monarchy and the na- venience, i.e., one that provides him with
tional response to it has the witty and comfort, companionship and affection, if,
loving detail of a Rene Clair film. perhaps, not a great deal of passion. His
uncle Charles Martel, inheriting from his
ancestors a taste for ease as well as for
pictures, manages to combine both in his
"King for a Day." profession of art-dealer, his main ambi-
Times Literary tion being to sell dubious Renoirs to rich
Americans. He, too, is very much a stock
Supplement [London], character. But this is not to disparage Mr.
7 June 1957, p. 345. Steinbeck's understanding of, and liking
for, the French themselves, which shows
clearly throughout the book. It is simply
It is possibly no less surprising for the that he has chosen to accept a definite lit-
reader to find Mr. Steinbeck in the role of erary convention, and obviously expects
an entertainer than it was for M. Pippin his reader to do the same.
Arnulf Heristal, a contented middle-aged Within the limits of this convention
rentier and amateur astronomer, to find his characters have individuality and life
himself suddenly called to the throne of of their own. He relies perhaps too much
France as Pippin IV. But an entertain- for comic effect on the disputes, divisions
ment, or, in Mr. Steinbeck's own words, and disappearances of French Govern-
"a fabrication," is undoubtedly what his mentstoo hackneyed a theme to be ac-
new book is primarily intended to be and ceptable even within a literary conven-
what for the greater part of its space tion, and in any case, and particularly at
it succeeds in being. Only secondarily the moment, a rather dubious subject for
should it be considered as a satire on mirthand his one characterization of
politics, French character or the French an American in Paris seems surprisingly
nation, and even then one must doubt wide of the mark; even so there will be
whether it is intended to be taken at all few readers who do not enjoy Pippin's
seriously. Mr. Steinbeck in fact is in holi- short reign considerably more than Pip-
day mood, and if not everybody would pin did himself.

436
 lutionary and impossible. I suspect that
A.B. those acute ex-deputies gave their king
the bronx cheer because they found his
"T/?e Short Reign of formulas about as exciting as yesterday's
Pippin 7 V." fish-course or last week's mistress. But
you can never tell with the French.
Canadian Forum, 37 Me, I can hardly wait for the next
(July 1957), 89. depression when a man'll be able to raise
a real hungerin' thirst for them grapes
o'wrath.
Another innocent goes abroad, this time
the novelist of the American dispossessed,
the bard of the golden-hearted bawd, the
singer of the mouse-loving, mouse-crush- Riley Hughes.
ing, retarded giant, chronicler of the "The Short Reign of
boiler-dwellersbut why should I keep
the reader in suspense? Before this para- Pippin IV."
graph took its first breath the cat was out Catholic World, 185
of the berry-bushes and everyone knew
that the author of this tourisme de force (July 1957), 312.
was none other than John Steinbeck.
How're they going to keep him down on
the Flats, now that he's seen Paree? Mr. Steinbeck calls this light, 188-page
The central idea of the book is sturdy bill of fare a "fabrication." The book is
enough for an excellent skit by Wayne not to be taken seriously, his publishers
and Shuster, to last no longer than seven contend, except as writing. But here is
and a half minutes of sponsored time. A where this utterly sleazy fabric fails most.
scion of the race of Charlemagne is called With only a minimum of imagination, verve,
on to become king by a France riddled and wit Mr. Steinbeck gets his tale told.
with political dissension and raddled by The time is now, or thereabouts, and
indecision. His adventures as Pippin IV France has decided to become a monar-
have a verve that can only be likened to chy again as a solution to recurrent gov-
the whoop of a tourist descending from ernmental breakdown. A king is chosen
his train at the Gare du Nord. After some from Charlemagne's line, a man who is
unfruitful dickering with an American an amateur astronomer and a man of
millionaire who wants him to achieve na- middle-class views. Pippin and his family,
tional solvency by selling French titles to along with the other characters in this
Texas cattle barons and oil kings, Pippin lead balloon, are the veriest shadows, not
falls into regal disrepute because he starts precise enough to be called cartoons. We
taking his job seriously. are not amused by them, least of all by
His final downfall comes when he ad- one Sister Hyacinthe, former burlesque
dresses a convention of political leaders performer now a nun, who is confidante
and proposes a list of reforms that are of the new queen. To get back to the
like as dammit to the New Deal. (Re- plot, Pippin tries to apply American
member?) As Mr. Steinbeck would have methods ("Royalty is extinct and its
it, these reforms are laughed to scorn by place is taken by boards of directors"),
Pippin's audience because they are revo- and comes to a farcical end.

437
 Our nomination for the silliest book ably less. The author is at his best in con-
of the year. cocting wild musical-comedy ramifica-
tions, such as the international furor of
chemical analysis provoked by the Soviet
government's purchase of several tank cars
Edward Weeks. of perfume. And no matter how semiseri-
ous his reflections on the United States
"A New King for France." may be, this comment on the Martini is
Atlantic, 200 (July 1957), worth quoting: "It's not their strength," a
83-4. young American tells the groggy king,
"it's their inherent meanness."

You can tell from the feel that John

Steinbeck was vastly amused at the pros- Pamela Hansford Jones.
pect of writing a satirical novel, The
Short Reign of Pippin IV, about the res-
"New Novels.55
toration of the French monarchy today. New Statesman
He chooses for his hero a gentle French
amateur astronomer, M. Heristal. The
[England], 54
steps by which M. Pippin Arnulf Heristal, (13 July 1957), 61-2.
lean, handsome, and fifty-four, is maneu-
vered toward the glories of Versailles are
made more entertaining because of the . . . It is not necessary to brush up on
remonstrances of his wife and the esca- the Carolingians to enjoy The Short Reign
pades of his daughter, Clotilde, who at of Pippin the Fourth, but it adds an extra
fifteen had written a best seller entitled shade of irony to the joke. Pepin le Bref's
Adieu, Ma Vie, and at sixteen and a half attempt to make kingship an effective of-
had joined the Communists. fice was one of the personal successes of
Mr. Steinbeck exuberantly caricatures history: Mr. Steinbeck's Pippin Heristal,
bourgeois finances, the proliferation of thrust upon the throne of France quite
French political parties, aristocratic art recently by the consent of all parties, tries
dealers, and adolescent female novelists. to do the same thing and immediately
But once le pauvre M. Heristal has been provokes a revolution. Mr. Steinbeck's joke
crowned, a more solemn note begins to is a pretty good one, pointed mainly at
intrude. The new king has some surpris- the instability and incessant government-
ing plans in store for the couture, the destruction of the French, but having
movies, and the tourist trade, but it also a good deal of point for the Americans
appears that he (or his alter ego Mr. too. It is an amiable book, sometimes
Steinbeck) would have the French pay very witty, sometimes just a trifle ham-
their taxes and correct the housing short- handed; this kind of thing needs the pre-
age. But this sudden infusion of transat- cise verbal dexterity of Evelyn Waugh or
lantic common sense tends to waterlog Marcel Ayme to be entirely successful.
the cockleshell fantasy. The Carolingian twist is a funny one, but
Mr. Steinbeck's liberal-humanistic prin- not quite justifiable: it fits too loosely and
ciples are admirable, but when they begin sometimes seems, like M. Heristal's court
to show through, the fun grows appreci- attire, to be held in with safety-pins at

438
the back. It is pleasing for him to have an Maxwell Geismar. "Steinbeck Uses Great
uncle called Charles Martel, who is a Talent to No Purpose." Chicago Sun-
dealer in fake pictures and antiques, but Times, 14 April 1957, Section 3,
the elaboration is a bit untidy and unmo- p. 1.
tivated. Still, this is both an engaging and William Hogan. "Steinbeck Plays an
a sensible jape, fun to read, and with all Elaborate Joke with a King." San
the exhilaration of a sober writer's holi- Francisco Chronicle, This World
day-piece. magazine, 14 April 1957, pp. 22, 28.
"New Steinbeck Work Takes Jab at
Politics." Los Angeles Times, 14 April
1957, Part 5, p. 6.
Checklist of Additional Lon Tinkle. "Reading and Writing."
Reviews Dallas Morning News, 14 April 1957,
Part 6, p. 10.
"John Steinbeck's Latest." Newsweek,
Harvey Breit. "In and Out of Books." 49(15 April 1957), 114.
New York Times Book Review, 106 Phil Watson. "Steinbeck's Whimsy." San
(20 January 1957), 8. Jose [Calif.] Mercury News, 21 April
Harvey Breit. "In and Out of Books." 1957, p. 8.
New York Times Book Review, 106 Irene Alexander. "Steinbeck's Pippin."
(3 February 1957), 8. Monterey [Calif.] Peninsula Herald,
"The Short Reign of Pippin /V." 26 April 1957, p. 20.
Booklist, 53 (1 March 1957), 345. Paul Pickrel. "The New Books."
Eleanor T[ouhey] Smith. "New Books." Harper's, 214 (May 1957), 84.
Library Journal, 82 (13 March 1957), "The Short Reign of Pippin JV."
753. Bookmark, 16 (May 1957), 191.

439
ONCE THERE WAS A WAR
Once There Was a War by John Steinbeck

THE VIKING PRESS

N E W YORK

195 8
"Once There Was a War: John H. Thompson.
Booklist, 55 "Steinbeck's War Stories.3
(1 September 1958), 8. Chicago Sunday Tribune
Magazine of Books,
A troop ship's Atlantic crossing, an Amer-
26 October 1958, p. 10.
ican air base in England, and the invasion
of Italy are among the many scenes and
events depicted by a World War II corre- "Once upon a time there was a war," are
spondent whose immediate, unsentimen- the first lines written by John Steinbeck
tal prose recaptures time, place, and in this book, "but so long ago and so
mood. Originally sent as dispatches to shouldered out of the way by other wars
the New York Herald Tribune and other and other kinds of wars that even people
newspapers, the pieces deftly underline who were there are apt to forget."
the human element that survives even in With that Steinbeck, the master story
the midst of war's impersonality. teller, reintroduces a collection of dis-
patches he wrote as a war correspondent
between June and December, 1943. Unless
you read the New York Herald-Tribune
T. Houlihan. foreign service in those days you will
"Once There Was a War." never have seen these beautiful, clean,
clear stories of men at war.
Library Journal, 83 In today's world of nuclear weapons,
(15 September 1958), ballistic missiles, satellites, and space
travel they almost are period pieces.
2436. Steinbeck was not interested in strategy
and generals, but in the soldiers, GI or
lieutenant, and what they did. No one
This collection of World War II news dis- has ever excelled him in this field. If you
patches by the noted author brings to have forgotten what that war was like,
mind the journalistic maxim that there is Steinbeck will refresh you. Age never can
nothing quite so dead as yesterday's news. dull this kind of writing.
Nevertheless, these dispatches, written in
1943 when Steinbeck covered England,
Italy and Africa as a war correspondent,
contain some excellent sketches depicting
the humor and tragedy of war, and the
fear and courage of men and women in
combat. Fans of Steinbeck will enjoy this
collection, as will many of those who
saw action in the places covered by the
author.. ..

443
 correspondence was perhaps the most test-
Stan Swinton. ing and rewarding journalistic form.
It tested the man. You had to be there
"Period Pieces of a to write a stirring and honest account. It
Terrible Time." couldn't be done back at regiment or di-
vision or Army.
Saturday Review, 41 It tested reportorial skills. The human
(1 November 1958), 18. mind has a powerful tendency toward es-
capism in combat. It is much easier to
keep your head down and think of your
These dispatches areas the author says wife than it is to observe carefully and
in his introduction"period pieces, the precisely so that you can write accurately
attitudes archaic, the impulses romantic." and honestly later.
Some of them make exciting reading It tested writing ability. You reached the
nearly fifteen years later. When Steinbeck press camp at night, tired, dusty, and hun-
tells of a tiny task force capturing the is- gry, headed for the typewriter and wrote.
land of Ventotene, off Italy, his ability to If you were very good the results had the
describe precisely and to flesh out the in- color and form of dispatches by men like
cident with literary form is admirable. Dan DeLuce, Milton Lehman (of The Stars
But many of the dispatches, particu- and Stripes), or of these by Steinbeck.
larly those from a troop ship and from It tested the ability to be a human be-
wartime London, today hold only curios- ing. The war correspondent was only a
ity value. A collection such as this was partial participant. He did not stay in the
frequent during and immediately after line with the infantry company for a
the war. Issuing it today seems a rather week or ride the PT boat every day or fly
pointless exercise. Steinbeck buffs will the mission over Ploesti ten times. He
appreciate it, of course. So will former participated, withdrew to write and send
war correspondents, for many of these his story and left the soldier or airman or
dispatches represent extraordinarily good sailor behind to stay until death or rota-
journalism. War reportage either can be tion or peace came along. If an outfit ac-
very easy or very hard for the journalist, cepted the same correspondent several
you see. times or many times it meant he was re-
The war is transcendent news. Even spected or liked or both. And this was
the indifferent correspondent can satisfy personally important to the successful
a distant editor without stirring too far combat reporter.
from the press camp. If the weather is too Steinbeck's dispatches reflect all these
cold or his hangover too horrendous, qualities of good war reporting and, in
there are handouts which can be rewrit- the second half of his collection, great
ten. At the worst he can quote the PIO war reporting in the age of pre-atomic
sergeant on life at the front. The number war. But reading them is like taking time
of PIO sergeants who have been identi- out in this new hour of crisis to browse
fied by name and home town, but not by through old copies of The Stars and
job, in dispatches bravely datelined "With Stripes. It tends to be rather meaningless.
the 5th Army in Italy" or "With the 7th
Army in Southern France" is staggering.
But journalistic malingerers were few.
For the bulk of combat reporters, war

444
 mushrooms," and a reader conjures up
"Briefly Noted." visions of the Okies of Steinbeck's fiction.
In England, Steinbeck discovered several
New Yorker, 34 characters, especially an American pri-
(8 November 1958), 215. vate named Big Train Mulligan. "You
can leave Big Train parked in the middle
of a great plain, with no buildings and no
. . . The author's introduction says that brush, no nothing, and when you come
for a long time he resisted the impulse to back ten minutes later there will be a girl
reprint his war correspondence, believing sitting beside him."
that "unless the stories had validity twen- In Italy, Steinbeck went out with the
ty years in the future they should stay on Navy on a mission to capture a German
the yellowing pages of dead newspaper radar crew on the tiny island of Ventotene
files." Unfortunately, these thin feature in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Steinbeck here
stories"human-interest" without recre- far from his Sea of Cortezconveys the
ating human beingsabout goat mas- emotions of combat with the paratroop-
cots, short snorters, the pathos of a ers. Watching a handful of men make a
shelled rosebush, and the atrocity of landing and bluff the Germans into sur-
English cooking do not pass that admi- render makes for the most suspenseful
rable test. .. . part of the book because one can sense
the author's own tenseness and excitement.

Long ago, Steinbeck proved that he could

Herbert Mitgang. report. Indeed, his strong descriptive pow-
"Noble Men in Uniform.55 ers and eye for detail are important in all
his big novels. In an introduction, he says
New York Times Book that these stories were written in haste to
Review, 108 appear as (he adapts the perfect word)
"immediacies." As a result, many of the
(16 November 1958), 12. pieces are slight in subject and obvious.
The packed emotion of Steinbeck the
fiction-writer is missing, for the most
In the second half of 1943, John part, in these dispatches, but who can
Steinbeck went to England, North Africa consistently sustain excitement in thou-
and Italy and wrote a series of dispatches sand-word stories?
for the New York Herald Tribune and From the same war theatre and time,
other newspapers. Now for the first of course, two truly great books emerged
time these sixty-six short pieces are as- Ernie Pyle's Brave Men and Bill Mauldin's
sembled in a book. Because Steinbeck's Up Front, which upon rereading today
people in fiction and non-fiction have al- remain not merely journalism but fine
ways been men and women of good-will, literature. The Pyle and Mauldin books
it is not surprising that his men at war together stand as the common soldier's
also shine nobly. story of World War II, in a class by
There are some fine little stories and themselves. Steinbeck's short pieces are
descriptions in Once There Was a War. not so good, but nevertheless they do
"The men wear their helmets, which hold up today.
make them all look like long rows of

445
 base in England; what it was like when
Herbert Kupferberg. the kids asked for chewing gum and oran-
ges; what it was like when an Italian vil-
"Correspondent Steinbeck." lage fell all over itself trying to surrender.
New York Herald Tribune Scenes such as these retain a surpris-
ing immediacy in Steinbeck's recountings,
Weekly Book Review, perhaps because after fifteen years of
8 February 1959, p. 10. gnawing worldwide struggle one feels al-
most an acute nostalgia for the days
when joyous Sicilians garlanded the G.I.s
Once there was a war and John Steinbeck with grapes, and "Lilli Marlene" wafted
went to cover it. It was the New York its haunting melody between the oppos-
Herald Tribune which sent him there, as ing lines. "It would be amusing if, after
a matter of fact, and the year was 1943. all the fuss and heiling, all the marching
Some of those dispatches which appeared and indoctrination, the only contribution
in this newspaper have now been col- to the world by the Nazis was 'Lilli
lected in book form and fitted out with Marlene,' " wrote the Steinbeck of fifteen
an introduction in which Mr. Steinbeck years ago, and he wasn't far wrong.
sets down his memories of soldiers, cen- Unlike some correspondents, Steinbeck
sors and war correspondents. He resisted saw the war less in terms of military stra-
the impulse to turn his dispatches into tegy and political objectives than of the
a book at the time, he says, because people involved in it either purposefully
he felt that "unless the stories had va- or accidentally. In them, he found, was the
lidity twenty years in the future they stuff of life and of legend. There are both
should stay on the yellowing pages of a-plenty in this warm and truthful book.
dead newspaper files."
Well, it has been only fifteen years.
But these samples of Steinbeck's jour-
nalism decidedly do have validity, both Harry Klissner.
as memory joggers and as artistically "John Steinbeck Harks
wrought pictures of the war that are of-
ten quite moving. Back to World War II.55
It so happens that 1943 was one of Los Angeles Times,
those in-between years of the war; the
year after the invasion of North Africa
22 February 1959, Part 5,
and the year before the invasion of p. 7.
France. So although Steinbeck's itinerary
covered England, North Africa and Italy,
his stories for the most part deal with the The horrors of World War II have been
everyday war, the less spectacular but cut into anecdotal morsels in Once There
more typical aspects of a soldier's life. Was a War by John Steinbeck....
Those are accounts of what it was like to With the exception of the introduc-
cross the Atlantic in a silent, darkened tion, Steinbeck makes no attempt to in-
troopship (something which nearly every ject his post-bellum feeling. Instead he
soldier remembers vividly); what it was permits some of the news releases he sent
like in London during the bombings; home from Europe and Africa from June
what it was like at an American bomber 20 through Dec. 13, 1943, to show the

446
mental detachment which man has placed republished to mark the twentieth anni-
between that period and today. versary of the outbreak of war in 1939.
Many of the stories seem humorous Do they still have any relevance to the
now because there are no men fighting war? To anything? Mr. Steinbeck himself
for their lives. The reality of the slaughter seems a little doubtful, for he describes
has passed into oblivion, and this makes them as "period pieces, fairy-tales, half-
the title of the book particularly apt. meaningless memories of a time and of
While Steinbeck permits the news re- attitudes which have gone for ever from
leases to speak for themselves, he pre- the world." The time has gonebut have
sents his message in his introduction. the attitudes? That, alas, is less certain,
Here he points out: "Greece, it was said, and here is justification for republishing
had to be at war every 20 years because these "period pieces." They offer no
every generation of men had to know more than an anecdotal description of
what it was like. With us (20th Century war, nearly always touching, and often
Man), we must forget, or we could never quite funny. But their combined effect is
indulge in the murderous nonsense...." to bring out a sensitive writer's convic-
tion that the war he tries to write about
His compassion toward members of the and the war that men and women un-
armed forces is amplified in another part dergo are on utterly different planes of
of the introduction as he comments " . . . human experience. He records a conver-
and although all war is a symptom of sation with a soldier at Salerno, who de-
man's failure as a thinking animal, still scribes his landing:
there was in these memory-wars some
gallantry, some bravery, some kindliness. We were out there all packed in an
A man got killed surely, or maimed, but L.C.I, (landing craft infantry).... I
living, he did not carry crippled seed as a could see the boats land and the guys
gift to his children...." go wiggling and running, and then
maybe there'd be a lot of white lines
and some of them would waddle
about and collapse and some would
John Anderson. hit the beach. It didn't seem like men
"Once There Was a getting killed; more like a picture, like
a moving picture.
War."
Manchester Guardian, That is very accurate reporting: that is
what war does look like at a little dis-
11 December 1959, p. 6. tance, like a movie; until there is a sudden
sick realisation that one is on the wrong
side of the screen. Mr. Steinbeck meets an
Mr. John Steinbeck is a distinguished air-gunner who has been reading a news-
writer, and he produced some very good paper from home. "Well, anyway," he says,
war correspondence in the New York "I looked through that paper pretty close.
Herald-Tribune and other papers during It seems to me that the folks at home are
the last war. Once There Was a War... fighting one war and we're fighting an-
is a collection of his pieces written as a other one. They've got theirs nearly won,
war correspondent from England, North and we've just started on ours. I wish
Africa, and Italy in 1943. They have been they'd get in the same war we're in."

447
 Yes, these are period pieces. In an cently been published under the title
atomic war there would be less doubt Once There Was a War. . . . Mr. Stein-
about which war people were in. beck has written an excellent introduc-
tion to them, describing the hazards and
obstructions of a correspondent's life,
and this is by far the best piece in the
E. D. O'Brien. book. The restto an English mind, any-
"A Literary Lounger." wayhardly justify reprinting.
Mr. Steinbeck is an agreeable, relaxed
Illustrated London News, reporter, and one can rely on him to cre-
235 (26 December 1959), ate the real picture without distortion or
falsity. His tone is admirable, too. But the
960. fact remains that these reports, which
read more like drafts from novels than
day-to-day dispatches, seldom say enough
. . . Could anything, I asked myself as I to interest at this range.
picked up his Once There Was a War, be
more dreary than another book about the
last warand that a reprint of the
author's dispatches as war correspon- J. R. Ackerley.
dent? I deceived myself. If there were "Once There Was a
sackcloth, I would wear it, or ashes
(apart from anthracite clinker in my all- War."
electric house), I would distribute them Listener [England], 63
liberally on my head. This is one of those
books which baffle description. I will (16 June 1960), 1067.
only say that, reading it alone, with no
one to whom to quote the best passages,
I found myself at one moment laughing In 1943 John Steinbeck was attached to
aloud; at another moment, the tears were the American forces as war correspon-
pouring down my reluctant cheeks. Mr. dent. He visited England, Africa and
Steinbeck knows a good deal about war, Italy, and this book collects the dis-
but he knows much more about human patches he sent in. He tells us he resisted
beings. Here is a book as well worth buy- the impulse to make use of the material
ing as it has been worth publishing. when the war ended, "believing or saying
I believed that unless the stories had va-
lidity twenty years in the future they
should stay on the yellowing pages of
"Italian Risorgimento?" dead newspaper files." Rereading them
Times Literary lately for the first time since they were
hastily written and 'phoned across the
Supplement [London], 8 sea, he offers them now for other and
January 1960, p. 15. rather strange reasons, because "I realize
not only how much I have forgotten but
that they are period pieces, the attitudes
Mr. John Steinbeck's war-time dispatches archaic, the impulses romantic, and, in
from England, Africa and Italy have re- the light of everything that has happened

448
since, perhaps the whole body of work to try and convince myself that I ain't
untrue and warped and one-sided." In- scared." "I wish they wouldn't think
deed, war and truth are not buddies, as we're so brave," says another; "I don't
he goes on to confess in an introduction want to be so brave." There are useful
that is really the most interesting part of remarks, too, about Anglo-American re-
his book; truth is dangerous to the war lations and some amusing side-lights on
effort and deleted by the censor wherever the English scene as viewed through
it happens to creep in; these dispatches American eyes.
were true so far as they went, he avers, But on the whole the reports suffer
but they were not the whole truth; that from the disabilities under which Mr.
could not be told. Steinbeck admits they were written. In-
They re-create for us, nevertheless, evitably, too, a compilation of scraps,
something of the atmosphere of that such as this is, suffers from the tedium of
black and blacked-out period, and per- scrappiness, and it is a pleasure when
haps managed to indicate to homefolk at some of them form a sequence, as they
the time a few convenient lies and to do in the accounts of the transatlantic
ruffle a few complacencies. As will be ex- troopship voyage and the battle scenes in
pected, Mr. Steinbeck is deeply sympa- Italy at the end. Occasionally also they
thetic with the private soldier and has de- suffer from the triviality of "comic relief"
cent things to say about his loneliness, his and from a certain over-neatness in de-
nerves, and his fear. "I read a very nice sign. Yet an air of honesty, so far as hon-
piece in a magazine about us" (says a esty could go, pervades them, and, writ-
tail-gunner: Mr. Steinbeck was then at- ten in quick, short, clipped sentencesa
tached to a bomber station). "This piece telegraphic stylethey do manage to re-
says we've got nerves of steel. We never port, with feeling and energy, many as-
get scared.... I never heard anything so pects of that boring war that happened
brave as us. I read it three or four times "once upon a time."

449
THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT
 THE
WINTER
OF OUR
DISCONTENT
The Viking Press New York 1961

JOHN
STEINBECK
 drunkenness, a playful violence, cheerful
Peter Harcourt. drabbing with androgynous whores, and
general high spirits and affection. In this
"Steinbeck's Fables." world of Steinbeck's fancy, there is noth-
Time and Tide [England], ing so intense or personal as love, be-
cause love would involve complexity and
41 (6 June 1961), tension and the whole of his characters'
1031-2. personalities, while the layabouts of Mon-
terey are all just generalised warmth and
good-will. They have the single dimen-
For over 25 years now, John Steinbeck sion and immediate appeal of characters
has been a prolific and unpredictable novel- in a fairy tale. To drink wine with one's
ist. The first of his works to attract atten- friends, to wiggle one's toes in the sun
tion were Tortilla Flat, and To a God this is the core of life and its wisdom.
Unknown, both published in 1935. Al- And however unreal this rose-coloured
ready in these early works, Steinbeck re- world may appear to us, it is difficult not
vealed what we now think of as his most to respond to these books that have been
characteristic qualities: his warmth, his so warmly, so generously conceived.
whimsy, his sense of fun, his mistrust
of organised society, his belief in the va- But beneath the whimsy and unreality of
lidity of the simple pleasures of simple these particular novels, there lies a seri-
people, and if indeed his sentimentality, ous social concern; and from this concern
also his reverence for life of all kinds, for as again from the Salinas Valley came
all things that grow. Like so many Ameri- Steinbeck's two greatest worksOf Mice
can writers, Steinbeck is at heart a fablist; and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.
and both these novels have all the direct- These two books can also be seen as
ness and simplicity of a fable. To a God fables, but this time the characters have
Unknown is undisguisedly a celebration the accent and manners of real people. In
of the forgotten mysteries of a pagan Of Mice and Men, Lennie is a simpleton,
world, of the gods of the earth and the a kind, loving creature who delights in
sky, with a blood sacrifice at the end bright colours and in the texture of soft
that brings on the required rain. And in things, but who possesses the strength of
Tortilla Flatas some ten years later in a giant. Lennie epitomises all of Stein-
Cannery Row and its sequelsif the so- beck's characters who are underprivileged
lemnity in the face of the mysterious gods in some way. There is simply no place for
of the earth has disappeared, the simple such creatures in our society, no place
sense of wonder remains. for people who are inescapably different.
The world of the Salinas Valley in They engender mistrust and suspicion.
Californiathe world of Monterey that Lennie's strength is his undoing, and
in Tortilla Flat produced Danny and like the old dog in the middle of the
Danny's friends and in Cannery Row, storyLennie has to be destroyed. There
Doc, Mack, and the boysis a world vir- is simply no other way.
tually untouched by the hustling way of The Grapes of Wrath exhibits Steinbeck's
life of the great American continent. In most hostile criticism of American soci-
Tortilla Flat and in Cannery Row the val- ety, a society of unchecked technological
ues both praised and embodied are above expansion and exploitation. It is the
all loyalty and friendship; then indolence, struggle of the common people to survive

453
starvation in the face of the wasteful complaint about his most recent novel,
abundance of the privately-owned fruit The Winter of our Discontent. It is the
farms of California; and like the turtle at story of a New England gentleman who,
the opening of the book, no matter how through his honesty and goodwill, has
many set-backs they experience, they come down in the world and who sees a
carry on in the same direction. In this chance, by abandoning his honesty, to re-
book, there is faith in abundance and an gain his fortune and thus the trappings of
affirmative anger: "We've got a bad thing his social position and self-respect. In the
made by men, and by God that's some- process, of course, something inside him
thing we can change." And at the close, begins to corrode and the corrosion spills
when Rose of Sharon gives the life in her over and begins to spoil the lives of the
breast to the starving man in the barn, people around him. Like The Moon Is
we realise that this is not only offered as Down, the whole thing is seen as if from
a final indication of how the poor will a long way off, but this time the feeling
look after one another, but also we get of distance is largely the result of the dis-
the sense that Rose of Sharon's baby was crepancy between the factitiousness of
not lost completely in vain: as at the end the plotthe clever way it is all made to
of To a God Unknown, Steinbeck seems fit together at the end like a thrillerand
to be saying, through the loss of some the warm humanity and inconsequential
lives, others may continue. Once more humour that enlivens each individual
we have a kind of sacrifice and then the page and which serves to bring his char-
sense of life going on. acters so vividly to life.
And yet, although the manner is so
But I began with a reference to the un- different, the perennial Steinbeck concerns
predictability of Steinbeck as a novelist, are there: the validity of the affections,
for he has not always assumed the dun- of decency, even of small talk endlessly
garees of an uneducated country people. indulged in as a valuable transmitter of
The list of his complete works is a long warmth and goodwill from one person to
one and contains books that are too vari- another. There is the same power of lan-
ous both in their treatment and in their guage, the proof of his own sensitive and
success to encourage confident general- sensuous response to experience, the abil-
isation. The Moon Is Down, for instance, ity to compel us not only to see what he
is the war-time story of an unspecified is describing but to love it as much as
occupied country and of the quiet de- Steinbeck does himself:
termination of the occupied people to re-
sist the invader. Thematically, it is not No one in the world can rise to a
unlike The Grapes of Wrath, but in man- party or a plateau of celebration like
ner, completely different. The whole thing my Mary. It isn't what she contributes
is seen at a distance, with none of the im- but what she receives that makes her
mediacy of the world of the Salinas Val- glow like a jewel. Her eyes shine, her
ley. The tone is measured, cool and exact; smiling mouth underlines, her quick
and though it achieves a quiet impres- laughter builds strength into a sickly
siveness by the time we get to the end, joke. With Mary in the doorway of a
the novel as a whole seems rather less party everyone feels more attractive
than the sum of its individually persua- and clever than he was, and so he
sive moments. actually becomes. Beyond this Mary
Many readers will make a similar does not and need not contribute.

454
And finally, there is the central recogni- acts of society than with the fact of soci-
tion (so laboriously worked out, I feel, in ety. One never quite knew whether his
East of Eden) that in some ultimate sense heroes wanted to storm the barricades
a man is his brother's keeper. or take to the woods and play hooky
But most curiously of all in this novel, from the machine age. In Dubious Battle
there is the pervasive feeling of something found him siding with Communist labor
intangible, joined with a mistrust of the organizers, but in Tortilla Flat he sided
intellect, a feeling that there is something with an amorally jolly bunch of vagrants
in life that governs our actions which is and winos. In The Grapes of Wrath he
much deeper than thought. It is at times keened over the suffering Okies in their
close to superstition and is as implicit in mass exodus, but in The Red Pony he
this particular novel as it was overt in To celebrated the vernal innocence of a boy
a God Unknown. It is as if Steinbeck and a colt beyond the reach of civili-
wishes to suggest that in our materialistic zation's dust bowls. After the '30s, this
pursuits we have lost something mean- internal dramatic tension drained out of
ingful, something perhaps magical, that is Steinbeck and his later novels are all rather
able to give life more than a merely day- like Hollywood sets, more to be looked
to-day significance. He doesn't know ex- at than lived in.
actly what it is, or at least, he can't say In The Winter of Our Discontent, Stein-
directly; but he writes about it in such a beck tries to recover his angry young
way that we are made to feel the reality manner with a blast at the affluent soci-
of his sense of loss. ety. Unfortunately, the book contains more
The Winter of our Discontent is a cu- pose than passion, and the moral anath-
rious book and a strangely moving one, ema sounds curiously like late-middle-
the product of a veteran novelist who aged petulance.
throughout his career has managed to re-
tain his faith that out of goodness and The book's hero, Ethan Allen Hawley, is
simple feelings, more goodness can flow a decent sort who loves his wife, has two
and, as at the end of the novel, the light teen-aged children and seems affably ad-
of life can continue burning. justed to failure. He clerks in a grocery
store that he once owned for a Sicilian-
born boss named Marullo. However, Ethan
is haunted by totems of past status. The
"Damnation of Ethan sleepy Long Island port of New Baytown
in which he lives was once virtually the
Hawley." fief of his whaling-captain forebears. He
Time, 77 (23 June 1961), carries one such captain's narwhal stick
and lives in his great-grandfather's white
70. shiplap house with its widow's walk. It
hurts Ethan when his son pipes up: "I'm
going to buy you an automobile so you
In the early, vigorous fiction that brought won't feel so lousy when other people
him fame, John Steinbeck wrote in the all got one."
language of the outcast and sided with Almost black-magically, Ethan's luck
the outsiders. It was an ambiguous form and character (but not his dialogue) do
of social protest, since Steinbeck some- begin to change. He discovers that his
times seemed less at war with the unjust boss Marullo entered the U.S. illegally,

455
and he tips off the immigration authori- lantic seacoast town as tradition-haunted
ties. The unsuspecting Marullo, who ad- as his West is still raw in its newness.
mires Ethan for his loyalty, gives him the He makes the journey with the easy
store before he is deported. Author Stein- assurance of the artist he is, instinctively
beck has other heavy ironies to put in the receptive to the subtleties of place and
moral fire, and at book's end, Ethan change. That old concern of his, the basi-
owns the world of New Baytown but cally moral concern in Grapes of Wrath,
he has, of course, lost his own soul. How the effect on character of the patterns of
does he learn that? He discovers that societythis too is entirely at home in
his son has cribbed from the speeches of New Baytown (Long Island?), scene of
Jefferson, Webster, Lincoln and Henry Clay The Winter of Our Discontent.
to win a nationwide TV essay contest.
But the truth is that the fact of place,
All of this might be funny in a macabre splendidly as Mr. Steinbeck captures it,
way if it were not so flatly incredible. The is not the most important thing here.
novel is not helped by an overworked What happens in New Baytown, as he in-
style that always seems to be asking the dicates in a prefatory note, could happen
reader to finger the rich material of the in a large part of America today. For The
prose. In Steinbeck's naively symbolic Winter of Our Discontent is essentially a
handling, the world of money and busi- commentary on the ethics of success, or
ness is reduced to a branch of witchcraft, what constitutes the national concept of
thus vitiating any valid point that Stein- it; and Mr. Steinbeck's story is of the fate
beck might have hoped to make about of one man who under sundry pressures
the state of U.S. ethics. Asked to define succumbs.. . .
business at one point, Ethan calls it
"everybody's crime." The guilt for this Because, given the sensitive cast of mind,
novel is somewhat easier to localize. the intelligence, the pride with which au-
thor has endowed his protagonist, and
the absence of some sudden, desperate
need, Ethan's surrender is all but incred-
John K. Hutchens. ibleand The Winter of Our Discontent
"Daily Book Review." is accordingly enfeebled, the surrender
being after all the pivotal point of the
New York Herald novel. One suspects that Mr. Steinbeck
Tribune, 23 June 1961, himself sensed this weakness, unless there
are hidden meanings in a misty lot of ab-
p. 21. racadabra involving fortune cards, a tal-
isman, etc., encountered by Ethan on his
new road.
A major American novelist's first major Familiar Steinbeck virtues are happily
effort in almost ten years finds him mov- herethe tang of believable speech, the
ing to a new bailiwick and bringing with blend of tenderness and irony, the deft
him, as he does so, an old concern. Across way with minor characters, the gratifying
the country from the West in which he sense of being in the presence of a writer
set his Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and who is writing about something. So much
Men, East of Eden and their frontier about The Winter of Our Discontent is
company, John Steinbeck comes to an At- satisfying that you can even forget from

456
time to time the implausibility at the manner of the writing of this satire robs
heart of it. But it keeps coming back to it of much of its force. Mr. Steinbeck's
mind, and it mars the rest. prose is jocular, gay and flippant.
His hero, whose surrender to the pres-
sures of a grossly materialistic society
should be cause for grief or anger, is only
Orville Prescott. an amusing allegorical figure. Likable and
"Books of the Times.5 even charming, he seems too much like
a character in an early Alec Guinness
New York Times, comedy to inspire any sobering reflec-
tions on the "there-but-for-the-grace-of-
23 June 1961, p. 27. God-go-I" theme.
There are some solemn moments in
The Winter of Our Discontent, particu-
The first lines of Shakespeare's Richard larly at the end when realization strikes,
III are: when the sins of the father are imitated
by the son and suicide seems the only so-
Now is the winter of our discontent lution; but even these cannot make Mr.
Made glorious summer by this sun of Steinbeck's parable as effective a protest
York. and warning as it ought to be. When
comedy is the prevailing note, moral out-
Richard is talking about the period of ex- rage is a difficult emotion to sustain in
ile, frustration, envy and poverty endured the face of the hero's distracting habit
by the Yorkists while the Lancastrians of calling his wife by a whole series of
held the English throne. In John Stein- dismaying pet names: "Duck Blossom,"
beck's new novel, The Winter of Our "My Creamy Fowl," "Flower Feet," "Dimp-
Discontent, the title has a double mean- sy Darling" and "Pigeon-Flake."
ing. It refers to the corruption of our It all happened in the village of New
times, to the greed and dishonesty that Baytown in Wessex County, L.I., which
drive people in politics, business and the much resembles Sag Harbor in Suffolk
professions to take bribes, to demand County. There Ethan Allan Hawley toiled
kickbacks, to accept payola and to cheat as a clerk in Marullo's fancy grocery
the Government, their competitors, their store. This was a comedown for Ethan
employers and employees and the gen- because his ancestors had all been promi-
eral public. nent citizens, privateers and whaling cap-
Such practices are not new, but they tains. But Ethan's father had lost the
are now so commonplace that many people family fortune and Ethan had gone broke
take them for granted. Mr. Steinbeck's himself. So now he worked for Marullo
title also suggests that those who steal and righteously rejected bribes, under-
and betray resemble Richard III, the arch the-counter commissions and opportuni-
villain, even if they are lesser criminals ties to steal from his boss. But the path of
and would not dream of murder. virtue was rocky.
With such a topical theme inspired by Ethan's simple-minded but nice wife
a host of recent headlines The Winter of couldn't hold her head up while he was
Our Discontent is the most serious, bitter only a clerk. His 13-year-old daughter
and angry novel Mr. Steinbeck has writ- was "sick of being poor." His 14-year-
ten since The Grapes of Wrath. But the old son, obnoxious almost past belief,

457
complained: "Do you think I like to live
without no motorbike? Must be twenty Granville Hicks.
kids with motorbikes. And how you think
it is if your family hasn't even got a car, "Many-sided Morality.3
leave alone no television?" Saturday Review, 44
And all around him Ethan knew that
deals were being made, frauds were being (24 June 1961), 11.
perpetrated, suckers were being tricked.
"Don't be a fool. Everybody does it."
"Grab anything that goes by." "Look out In his new novel, The Winter of Our Dis-
for number one." content . . . , John Steinbeck has written
Sojust to get "a cushion of secu- what he intends to be a tract for the
rity"Ethan abandoned the ethical stan- times, a sermon on the decay of moral
dards in which he believed and ruthlessly standards. "Readers seeking to identify
betrayed both his oldest friend and his the fictional people and places here de-
boss, who trusted and admired him. Ethan scribed," he announces, "would do better
even planned to hold up a bank. After his to inspect their own communities and
various financial coups paid off he would search their own hearts, for this book is
become respectable again. about a large part of America today."
In telling Ethan's story Mr. Steinbeck Unfortunately, the book is neither con-
displays considerable ingenuity in con- vincing as a piece of fiction nor persua-
triving unexpected twists of plot. His sive as a sermon.
portrait sketches in silhouette of Ethan's The time is emphatically the present
wife, children and neighbors are deft and from Good Friday to the Fourth of July,
amusing. 1960. The scene is a Long Island commu-
His own pleasure in a sprightly, pranc- nity, New Baytown, once a prosperous
ing, frivolous prose style, unlike anything center of the whaling industry, and the
he ever wrote before, is attractive. But hero is Ethan Allen Hawley, a descendant
this change of literary personality, while of whaling captains. The family having
diverting enough, diminishes the weight lost its wealth, Ethan is currently general
of Mr. Steinbeck's attack on moral cor- factotum in a grocery store owned by
ruption. Satire, if it is to draw blood, in- a Sicilian.
spire feelings of guilt and contrition, The most important thing about Ethan
cannot afford to seem too light and play- as we meet him is that he is an honest
ful. Mr. Steinbeck's anger and bitterness man. Indeed, early in the book, several
are the underlying forces that drove him persons assure him that he is too honest
to write this book. But, once it was for his own good. His employer is one of
started, a sort of verbal cheerfulness kept them. Another is the president of the lo-
breaking in and blunted the edge of his cal bank, an old friend of the Hawley
wrath. family. A salesman gives Ethan a practi-
Nevertheless, there are clever bits, cal lesson in how to get ahead by offering
funny bits and touching bits in The Win- him a bribe. But Ethan remains steadfast.
ter of Our Discontent. They make sure Suddenly, under a variety of pressures,
that this uneven novel is always pleas- Ethan decides to change his ways. In or-
antly readable. der to gain possession of the store, which
he once owned, he betrays his boss, and,
to protect his financial future, he takes

458
advantage of a close friend. He also plans means what he says, and he is stupidly
to rob the bank, but everything else turns unprepared for what happens. (Ethan
out so well that he doesn't have to. Not strikes me as a pretty poor sort of father.)
only does he get hold of the store; he Moreover, it does seem to me surprising
is in a position to exploit the wealthy that Ethan, with so much on his own
men who have for years been exploiting conscience, has so little sympathy for his
the town. guilty child.
Then disaster strikes in what if for In the third place, I object to the slick
Ethan, though not for the reader, an un- way in which Steinbeck has carpentered
expected fashion. His fourteen-year-old the novel. Ethan prospers by virtue of the
son, Allen, has entered a national I Love most extraordinary set of coincidences;
America Contest, and, his essay having even the bank robbery that never comes
won honorable mention, he is to appear off is perfectly set up for him. Equally
on television, which is the height of his implausible is the way in which Allen al-
ambition. Just in the nick of time, from most gets away with his plagiarism; the
the point of view of the sponsors of the advertising man who breaks the news to
contest, it is discovered that his essay was Allen says he can't understand what hap-
plagiarized. Ethan is so stricken that he pened, and neither can I. I also dislike
almost commits suicide. Steinbeck's way of playing with the su-
What is wrong with the novel as a pernatural, and I distrust his chronology.
novel is simply that it isn't plausible. In (Is it likely that Ethan, who was born af-
the first place, I cannot believe that Ethan ter 1920, would have remembered, very
Allen Hawley would do the things that well indeed, a grandfather who remem-
Steinbeck has him do. To give Steinbeck bered the great days of New Baytown's
his due, he makes us feel that Ethan is eminence as a seaport?)
somebody we know. He is a thoughtful If it is difficult to take the novel seri-
man, often amusing in a whimsical way, ously as a novel, it is impossible (for me)
ashamed that he has fallen so far below to be impressed by its message. A novel
the position of his ancestors, but proud indicting our low moral state ought, I
of his fidelity to their moral teachings. I think, to deal with a representative per-
can believe that such a man might hold son in a representative situation. Ethan
stubbornly to his unprofitable course. I is about as untypical an individual as
can also believe that his standards might one can imagine: a member of a distin-
slowly erode under pressure. What I can- guished though now impoverished fam-
not believe is that he would deliberately ily, a Harvard graduate, a captain in
seek to attain his ends by mean and un- World War II, who after the war chose
derhanded methods. He might conceiv- unaccountably to set himself up in the
ably rob a bank, but he would not betray grocery business, and, having failed as a
his friends. businessman, cheerfully spent a dozen
In the second place, I am puzzled by years sweeping the store and waiting on
the climax of the book. It is clear to the customers. Moreover, when he yields to
reader, and it should be clear to Ethan, temptation, he does not engage in the
that young Allen is perfectly capable of kind of chiseling and cheating that we are
plagiarism. Indeed, he says again and all so well aware of but behaves in a das-
again that all he wants is to lay his hands tardly fashion.
on some easy money. Ethan yaps at him, Steinbeck is not naive enough to sup-
but he doesn't understand that the boy pose that there was no corruption in

459
America before 1950, but he assumes
that the past decade has witnessed a de- Carlos Baker.
cline in morality. If he is right, as very
likely he is, he ought at least to show "All That Was in the
how this decline has come about. But his Cards for a Man Named
examination of our present situation is
superficial. He says nothing, for instance,
Ethan Hawley."
about the fact that our whole economy New York Times Book
depends on the production and consump-
tion of more and more unnecessary goods,
Review, 110
and he says nothing about the part that (25 June 1961), 3.
advertising plays not only in creating a
demand for these goods but also in shap-
ing our moral standards. If his readers The appearance of a new and full-fledged
heed his exhortation to inspect their own novel from the pen of John Steinbeck
communities, they will not find that the after a lapse of nearly ten years is bound
book has contributed much to their un- to invite speculation. In some quarters it
derstanding of what they see. will be seen as a kind of "comeback,"
achieved at the age of 59, after what
Finally, Steinbeck has failed to resolve the looked to be a period of at least partial
problems he has raised. Ethan decides to desuetude punctuated only by the humor-
go on living, lest another light (meaning ous novel, Sweet Thursday, the subtle
his daughter) should go out, but we are fable on King Pippin the Fourth, and the
not told how he proposes to come to retrospective collection called Once There
terms with his conscience, or what he in- Was a War.
tends to do about his son, or what kind Then there is the matter of the east-
of life he and his family are going to lead. ward shift in locale. Never before has
Like Calvin Coolidge's preacher, Steinbeck Steinbeck-of-California chosen to write
is against dishonesty, but he has not ex- about the East Coast village of New En-
plored at any depth its causes, conse- gland traditions. Never hitherto has he
quences, and cure, nor has he thrown any picked as a protagonist anyone quite like
bright light on the practical problems of the impoverished young Yankee store-
an honest man in our society. keeper whose ancestry goes .. . back to
Saul Bellow has written: "In this book Revolutionary times. Does this account
John Steinbeck has returned to the high of the change for the better in the for-
standards of The Grapes of Wrath and tunes of Ethan Allen Hawley suggest an
to the social themes that made his early implicit allegory on Steinbeck's own career
work so impressive and so powerful. as a writer since he left the West Coast to
Critics who said of him that he has seen establish a permanent residence in these
his best days had better tie on their nap- Atlantic longitudes? Would it be fair to
kins and prepare to eat crow." Having say that, with this return to serious fic-
greatly admired Steinbeck in the early tion, Steinbeck himself has now emerged
years and having expressed disappoint- at last from the long winter of his discon-
ment with much of his recent work, I tent into a vernal equinox where the sun
should have been happy to eat a little once more shines warm and clear?
crow, but that is not what The Winter of Possibly so, though it is a speculation
Our Discontent has put on my plate. not to be ridden too hard. Not since East

460
of Eden in 1952 has Steinbeck engaged a Like the hints of the marvelous in
theme of such broad social significance as Hawthorne's romances, however, these
his present one: the threat to personal in- of Steinbeck's are of less importance in
tegrity and right conduct which is im- themselves than as a means of exploring
posed on men of goodwill by the modern the labyrinthine twistings of human psy-
slackening of ethical standards. Not since chology. No amount of abracadabra can
The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 has he disguise the factas the lady-witch her-
found a subject closer to his heart than self puts itthat a good man named
this account of one man's resolute rise to Ethan Hawley is traumatically enmeshed
self-redemption after a period dominated in a socio-economic trap from which his
by sundry forms of inertia, doubt and whole personality, not to mention the
failure of nerve.. . . shades of his men-of-action forebears,
Connoisseurs of vintage Steinbeck will cries out for release. No matter how
soon recognize that here, as in most we explain it, Ethan reflects, there comes
of his major fictions, he has chosen to a year pregnant with the possibilities
write a fable in the form of a novel. Not of change, a time "when secret fears"
for nothing does the action take place emerge into the open, "when discontent
between two holiday week-ends in the stops being dormant and changes gradu-
spring of 1960precisely the time, we ally to anger." It is just here, Steinbeck's
are told, when the first draft of the novel suggests, rather than in the configu-
book was set down. For in the opening rations of the stars or the hidden predic-
Friday-to-Sunday of Easter tide, after tions in Tarot packs, that the patterns of
some hours of distinct spiritual unrest, fresh action are accountably initiated. Yet
Ethan begins to experience a dawning who shall say that cards and stars and
sense of rebirth, a consciousness of fresh talismans have not played some obscure
beginnings. And the book concludes, role in sparking the prepared mixture
wisely enough, with Independence Day, and setting the vehicle in motion?
replete with certain climactic emotional Steinbeck redivivus is less ready than
fireworks, and reaffirming once more, in he formerly was with the sturdy moral
an individual instance, the proud old na- preachment and the pat social answer.
tional principle of self-reliance. This is all to the good. Yet so many half-
Indeed, Steinbeck plays with fabu- hidden ironies play through the story of
lous elements rather more overtly than is Ethan Hawley that most readers, pausing
his usual custom. There is, for example, to reflect, may find themselves baffled or
a handsome lady-witch named Margie bemused. This is a problem novel whose
Young-Hunt who confidently predicts the central problem is never fully solved, an
rise in Ethan's fortunes by reading a pack internal conflict novel in which the central
of Tarot cards. Among the Hawleys' issue between nobility and expediency,
collection of knick-knacks there is also a while it is joined, is never satisfactorily
curiously carved stone talisman to which resolved. For this reason, despite its obvi-
magical powers now and again seem ous powers, The Winter of Our Discon-
to be attributed. And the cave of contem- tent cannot rightly stand in the forefront
plation to which Ethan periodically re- of Steinbeck's fiction. Yet it is also a
turns to reassess his values, probe his highly readable novel which bristles with
motivations, or reflect upon the influ- disturbing ideas as a spring garden bristles
ences of his stars and his ancestors, is al- with growing shoots. If this is Steinbeck's
most a Platonic metaphor. second spring, it is a welcome season.

461
 which New Baytown stands today has
Virgilia Peterson, cracked and shifted, perhaps irreparably.
The protagonist of this Steinbeck novel
"John Steinbeck's Modern is Ethan Allen Hawley, descendant of
Morality Tale." New England whaling captains, but now,
at the threshold of his middle age, re-
New York Herald Tribune duced, by misfortune, mismanagement,
Weekly Book Review, and the chicanery of an earlier genera-
tion, to working for his family as a grocer's
25 June 1961, p. 29. clerk.... Until the moment when the au-
thor presents him, he has been resigned
to failure. How, at the cost of conscience,
We have come to think of John Steinbeck he almost achieves money, power, and
as a writer with two literary faces, the success, and what happens to make
one gleeful, the other outraged, but both them slip from his grasp, is the burden of
startlingly and memorably alive. It is the this story.
angry face, however, the face of the mor- It is on Good Fridaya day that
alist, that commands, ipso facto, the Ethan has always held in awe and
more attention, and this is the one that dreadthat a wholesale grocery drum-
looks out from the pages of his latest mer offers him a five per cent cash bribe
novel, The Winter of Our Discontent. to obtain his employer's business and
Deserting, for the new book, the exu- leaves behind him on the counter a shiny
berant California scene he has so often leather billfold with twenty dollars in
tenanted for his readers, Mr. Steinbeck it. And it is some three months later, on
now takes a sleepy-looking Long Island the Fourth of July week-end, that Ethan
village named New Baytown for his set- reaps the whirlwind he has meanwhile
ting. By-passed by modern industrial de- been sowing. In that brief span, Mr.
velopment, New Baytown still bears the Steinbeck undertakes to prove how easy
marks, beyond the new municipal pier, of it is to make out of a lamb a shark.
its Old Harbor, where deep-hulled whal- No one who has attempted to breast
ers used to dock, and on its tree-lined the tides of our affluent society would
streets the facades of Colonial houses still dare deny that its waters are shark-
keep vigil among the functional buildings infested, nor fail to notice that it is
of today. The people in New Baytown to the victorious shark that the spoils
know each other's habits, as, too, they usually go. Even the sharks themselves
know each other's place. The policeman could scarcely quarrel with the thesis that
keeps the same beat; the town drunk still today in America honesty is losing its
begs money for a drink at the same hour reputation. But it takes more than an in-
of the night; the bank president arrives controvertible thesis to make a novel. No
at the bank at the precise same moment matter how right the author is, how fine
in the morning; the red setter on Elm his wrath, he will not disturb his readers'
Street knows whom to salute with his sleep or trouble their complacency unless
tail. The ground New Baytown stands on he has filled the arteries of his characters
has never shifted, you would swear, since with blood. But how much can we be-
its earliest settlers set foot on it. But, ac- lieve in this Ethan who makes such so-
cording to Mr. Steinbeck, you would be phisticated jokes when in bed with his
wrong. The real, the moral ground on Boston-Irish wife and who sees through

462
the maneuvers of one of Steinbeck's least most as telling a social theme out of a cri-
probable huntresses, yet has never heard, sis of personal honesty. Fallen aristocrat
till the day we meet him, of the bribe? Ethan Hawley is a grocery clerk in an old
How far can we believe in a man of inno- Long Island whaling town his family
cence and principle who finds it so ridicu- once owned. Ethan can take it, although
lously easy to outshark the sharks? And his upright rearing makes him a poor pu-
if Ethan himself is hard to accept, the rest pil when his immigrant boss trains him to
of the characterswith the exception of weigh the meat for sale without trimming
Ethan's tender, womanly, foolish wife off the fat. Poverty lies heaviest on his
are all drawn quite casually from stock. wife and two teenage children whothe
When serious, John Steinbeck is one shame of it!must live without such
of the most serious American writers of amenities of the affluent society as a tele-
our time. Inescapably, therefore, what- vision set or auto.
ever he writes is exposed to a fiercer scru- Under pressure from his friendsand
tiny than is given to most of his contem- the influence of an everybody-does-it mo-
poraries. With each new Steinbeck play ralityEthan plots to mend his fortunes
or novel, there springs up the question: Is by seizing the store. To do so, he has to
this as good as his best? In the case of destroy two men and mutilate his old-
The Winter of Our Discontent, the an- fashioned conscience. Lest he be spared
swer is, unfortunately, no. any of the pain of the latter, he sees
his crookedness mirrored in his son who
wins fame through a patriotic essay con-
test in which he has submitted stolen ma-
"The Old Steinbeck." terial. Steinbeck, writing better than he
Newsweek, 57 has done for years, gives this story a con-
centration of emotion and a relevance to
(26 June 1961), 96. the larger scene which make it a sort
of prodigya preachy novel which is a
good one.
Any critic knows it is no longer legal to
praise John Steinbeck. Indeed it some- Chatting in his bearish basso in the gar-
times seems that he has been in the dog- den of his New York town house the
house almost since the great days of The other day, John Steinbeck said he had
Grapes of Wrath. When he exuded the learned to ignore the report card the crit-
heavy molasses of Sweet Thursday seven ics give him. "I care what is thought
years ago, it looked as though he had about this book," he said, "I don't care
glued the door shut. As Steinbeck's first what is said." Big all over, including nose
real novel since then, The Winter of Our and ears, Steinbeck now has one small
Discontent is bound to stir up that un- featurea becomingly pruned beard. He
fragrant memorythe more so since it started it as a joke, then kept it as a deco-
is destined for vast, popular success in ration when it developed "a skunk
both the mass magazines and the book- streak" and reminded him of "certain
stores. Happily, this is Steinbeck in his relatives." When writing, Steinbeck said
old, rare form. in his warm rumble, he never addresses
In his finest novels, he captured the an audience but a single individualusu-
whole drama of a time by writing about ally imaginary. The new book was writ-
simple hunger. For today, he makes al- ten to his father.

463
 At the moment, Steinbeck is halfway The Winter of Our Discontent is partly
through another book based on a cross- a protest against the American cult of
country motor tour he took last year to success, a novelist's tradition that goes
eavesdrop on the American people. They back a good way.
were fearful, he found, at the thought of Partly it is a comment on what is
the old moral codes fading in influence. popularly being dramatized as the moral
At the same time, Steinbeck observed: crisis of our times, a topic that ranges,
"Every man is moral. It's only his neigh- according to taste, from the Van Doren
bors who aren't." He himself was ap- scandal to juvenile delinquency. Mr. Stein-
palled by American waste"city dumps beck has treated this subject previously in
twice as big as cities." And everybody, nonfiction forms, most notably in his let-
everywhere in this country, he said, was ters to Adlai Stevenson reprinted in the
itching to be somewhere else. New Republic.
What about the uprooted generation In his novel the Steinbeck who re-
which Steinbeck wrote of in his master- sponded so powerfully to the pioneer's
piece, The Grapes of Wrath? "Ah, they mystique in "The Leader of the People"
were different," he said, "they were wan- is wondering desperately how the best
derers because they had to be. Today, and the hardiest in American experience
the Okies of the 1930s are not only can be made continuous today.
settled, they own land in Californiaand But the book often seems as funda-
probably are guilty of some of the same mentally confused as it is, fundamen-
practices they were victims of during the tally, earnest. Its indignant diatribe against
depression." amorality is incongruously punctuated by
Steinbeck was puzzled that the maga- trashy paragraphs of titillation and the
zines were cutting The Winter of Our sort of intolerably arch, smutty chitchat
Discontent after he had already cut it to characteristic of meretricious Broadway
the bleeding point. He learned to do this, comedies. It is marred by a badly mis-
he said, from an old Scot whom he once handled religious motif that is both pre-
heard declare that, if it were respectable tentious and disturbingly inappropriate.
to put water in whisky, "they'd do it at And its only destinationdespite a curi-
the distillery." ous and unconvincing final reprieveis
the cul de sac of romantic despair. . . .
With a welter of symbolism Mr. Steinbeck
suggests that the committed search for
Melvin Maddocks. money is a form of witchcraft whose
spell devotees are not free to break.
"Steinbeck's New Novel." Ethan gets his money all right, but at
Christian Science Monitor, the price of betraying his oldest friend,
27 June 1961, p. 7. his employer, and, of course, himself.
One cannot help reading this story, in
a detrimental sense, as a fable. Neither
characters nor events seem self-impelling.
In his best-known novel The Grapes of The rigging hand of the author is irritat-
Wrath, John Steinbeck wrote about how ingly omnipresent, converting plot into
poverty erodes character. In his latest evidence for his opinions, conjuring up a
novel he has written about how prosper- past of white sails and granite-principled
ity does even worse. Great-Aunt Deborahs to play off against

464
a present, editorialized as a materialistic The Winter of Our Discontent ends up
orgy set to rock V roll. Ironically Mr. with the best of both worlds. When we
Steinbeck's golden age just about coin- first meet him, Ethan Hawley, last of a
cides with the era William Dean Howells once-wealthy New England ship building
was doing his own lamenting upon in family, has sunk to working in a grocery
books like The Rise of Silas Lap ham. run by a Sicilian immigrant, and his so-
But the basic trouble may be that Mr. cial position depends on his birth and his
Steinbeck is not working to his strength. reputation for honesty. He is well edu-
He writes most eloquently about simple cated (he has a literary allusion for every
people fingering the rich soil of a Califor- occasion), and adores his wife with an
nia valley. His natural hero is the primitive. endless supply of freshly coined endear-
Man as a social creature depresses him. ments; in fact his aggressive satisfaction
He is the Huck Finn of American nov- with the world and himself constitutes a
elists. In the city or even the town he kind of hubris. So he is tempted. His wife
loses his certainty as a writer. His whole and children drop hints that they want
style suffers. The characters of The Win- to be more like other families. His boss,
ter of Our Discontent fall into flattened understandably irritated by his shining
stereotypes. Their dialogue becomes by virtue, tries to teach him the sharper
turns embarrassingly florid, cute, and points of business. Ethan succumbs, com-
cheap. They are confused people for pletely, dramatically, and basely, but sur-
whom Mr. Steinbeck can feel only a con- vives by an ironic intervention of Fate,
fused compassion. which is presumably taking his past con-
Though diluted with sentimentality, duct into account.
his goodness of heart is impressive. But The trouble with Ethan is that he is
the complexities of the contemporary such a windbag. He is all talk and liter-
challenge are almost certain to elude a ary moralizing, while inside there is no
thinker whose most passionate instinct is character at all. This may have been
not for a better civilization but for no Mr. Steinbeck's intention, but it makes
civilization at all. Ethan's lapse into crime absolutely unbe-
lievable. The crucial moment of betrayal
comes and goes in a haze of words. . ..

"New Fiction.55
London Times, Burns Singer.
29 June 1961, p. 15. "New Novels.55
Listener [England], 65
A deep disquiet about present-day mate- (29 June 1961), 1140.
rialism is shown in both this week's
American novels. Mr. Steinbeck, the es-
tablished author, is an optimist, while Call him anybody. He might be your
Mr. Stevens, who wrote The Double Axe next-door neighbour or the man who
while he was still at Princeton, is resign- comes to read your gas meter. He might
edly pessimistic. Mr. Steinbeck, it may be even be your boss, certainly any of your
felt, has stacked the cards rather unfairly. subordinates at the office. In the novels
The hero (very nearly the anti-hero) of under review he is alternately a grocery

465
clerk who comes of a good family, an bank robber and is only saved from car-
aging journalist, an accountant, retired, rying out his part by the timely, though
who contributes snippets to the local accidental intervention of an F.B.I, agent.
rag, and a highly articulate bargee. He The plot proceeds by a series of innuen-
lives, again alternately, in New England, does, disguised as actions, and actions,
France, New England (where he evidently disguised as innuendoes, from one
flourishes) and Scotland. He is the aver- Hawley success to another. And each suc-
age decent man, a bit helpless in the cess is a disguise for loss, the loss of a
maelstrom of modern life but trying val- real integrity. Hawley, for example, be-
iantly to keep his integrity, to do his best. trays his best friend by giving him a thou-
He is beloved by novelists of all races and sand dollars, in the certain knowledge
all persuasions. Not only does he provide that one thousand will be quite enough
a foil for the more eccentric characters in to allow his friend to drink himself to
their books but also, by penetrating into death. He betrays his boss by informing
the tensions that lie hidden under his the F.B.I, that he is an illegal immigrant;
facade, he allows them to grope for the and his boss, out of respect for Haw-
malaise of our time and other such high- ley's honesty, gives Hawley the business.
sounding social agonies. And, indeed, the character of this boss,
Such, anyhow, would appear to be an Italian money grubber, is the only
his purpose in John Steinbeck's new nov- genuine thing in the whole book, the one
el, an elaborately pretentious and por- reminder of what a great writer Mr.
tentous parody of all the other books Steinbeck used to be, a shade sentimen-
about the little man. Ethan Allen Haw- tal, perhaps, but essentially noble. In the
ley has only one notable characteristic. last few pages, Mr. Steinbeck loses me
He calls his wife by a multitude of names completely. Their obscurity is such that
running the gamut from "My Mary" I have no idea of what is happening
through "Miss Mousie" to such absurdi- or why....
ties as "Darling chicken-flower" and
" Pollywog." He also has certain proper-
ties, a house, a walking stick, its handle
fashioned from a narwhal's horn, and a Matthew Hodgart.
talisman, "a kind of mound of translu-
cent stone, perhaps quartz or jadeite or
"Models of Mischief."
even soapstone." (I should have thought New Statesman
that, since he attached so much impor- [England], 61
tance to it, he might have made some ef-
fort to discover which it was. There is, (30 June 1961), 1052-4.
after all, a very considerable difference in
hardness alone between quartz and soap-
stone.) The verbal pyrotechnics Hawley Local politics is an ideal subject for the
address [es] to his wife strike me as a de- novel. You have a community, public
vice on the part of Mr. Steinbeck to dis- opinion, individuals whose actions mat-
guise from the reader the basic poverty of ter, complex issues, temptation and fall.
his own life. Indeed, this is a book of dis- In England, despite Middlemarch, it seems
guises, singularly transparent and unin- hard to find out just what is going on
teresting disguises. Thus, Hawley disguises (what ever did happen to that chief con-
himself, in his own imagination, as a stable?), but in America all secrets are

466
known. Novelists have long been busy
making models, as convincing and as Simon Raven.
sinister as a toy Polaris. Steinbeck's nest
of corruption, in The Winter of our Dis- "False Prophets."
content, is a pleasant little port in New Spectator [England], 206
England, where almost everyone is dis-
creetly on the fiddle. Ethan Hawley, of
(30 June 1961), 960.
good family and education, has come
down in the world, to become clerk in
the grocery store, which belongs to a Si- . . . John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our
cilian. Ethan is about the only honest Discontent, while sentimental and slow,
man in town; but tired of being broke he provides some interesting discussion of
is determined to prove a villain. He gains honour. Ethan Hawley, scion of an old
development land by giving his old New England family, a man of scruple
friend, the town drunk, enough money to and culture too delicate for our greedy
kill him off, he informs on his Sicilian to age, is reduced as a result of his own
get him deported for illegal entry, and is honesty to serving in a grocery store. His
even on the point of robbing the bank wife and children could do with less
when he learns that his grateful boss scruple and more money and start mak-
has given him the store for next to noth- ing this plain. Looking around him,
ing. Flushed with victory over the local Ethan realises that indeed he stands alone
banker, and on the point of enjoying in his righteousness. So shall he too join
wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, the dog-fight? After almost interminable
Ethan finds to his horror that his son delays, he doeswith some quite funny
has cheated in a TV competition, and results which prove he was right in the
so ends in self-disgust and repentance. first place. Though a contrived and fore-
Mr. Steinbeck, obsessed with the problem seeable tale, this does have some telling
of honesty, has written a serious tract, or bits of observation and some very quot-
at least the sketch for one; his grasp of able remarks scattered through its pages.
local detail is sure, and he writes of the
setting with some charm. But his people
remain unconvincing, especially Ethan:
I simply cannot believe in his transforma- Norman Shrapnel.
tion into Richard III; while his wisecracks
and domestic endearments are sadly sen- "Routine Steinbeck."
timental. Ambition should be made of Manchester Guardian,
sterner stuff.
30 June 1961, p. 7.

A mixed bag this week, starting with a

live and kicking Steinbecka big fellow,
the biggest since East of Eden. The theme
o f The Winter of o u r D i s c o n t e n t . . . i s
honour and its corruption. The hero,
Ethan, is a small and honest shopkeeper
who starts to think, and thought is

467
dangerous. "Men don't get knocked out, IV, The Pastures of Heaven, and The
or I mean they can fight back against Long Valley, with themes as Wayward
big things. What kills them is erosion; as The Bus, appeared to justify them.
they get nudged into failure. They get But now, with The Winter of Our Dis-
slowly scared." content, Steinbeck re-emerges as one of
Ethan resolves to fight back against America's most subtle and human writ-
the little things, to halt the erosion, to ers, one whose work gathers enormous
play it the top people's way. The resulting power from the calm restraint of the
success and dishonour kick back at him writing, and his detractors will have to
with a certain domestic charm; his small think again.
son, for instance, catching the general The book is a study of the meaning of
skulduggery in the air, composes a prize- honesty and morals in a small town on
winning "I Love America" essay which the U.S. coast. .. .
turns out to have been written by a team The character of Ethan Hawley is
consisting of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, sharply and clearly drawn, and very early
Jefferson, Lincoln, and some others. in the book the seeds are set which allow
But this is not comedy. It is moral him to become a cool, calculating advan-
tragedy with too much basic innocence, tage-taker. The whole cycle of the book is
and too much routine skill, to get very established one morning when Ethan is
far. Its virtue is atmospheric: the sensuous sweeping the sidewalk outside the store.
descriptions such as that of the small- Mr. Baker passes on his way to the bank,
town general store are fascinating: "The as he does unfailingly just before nine
seminal smells of flour and dried beans o'clock. Baker knows that Ethan's wife
and peas, the paper-and-ink odour of Mary has inherited some money from
boxed cereals, thick rich sourness of her brother, and he urges Ethan to put
cheeses," and so on. The dialogue is it to use. Ethan is reluctant, and briefly
highly individual, as likely to consist of a they recapitulate the decline of the Haw-
man talking to himself as to anyone else, ley fortunes.. . .
or to some old sunbaked dog met on the Ethan's hatred of his job is naked and
way to work, or even to the still-life veg- intense. With his knowledge of what by
etables in the shop.. .. rights should be his social position, stiff-
ened by the goading of his two children
and by Mary's need to have her pride in
her husband restored, Ethan rationalises
Robert Poole. himself into making use of his knowledge
"Resurgent Steinbeck." of the weakness and foibles of his neigh-
bours and friendseven of tragic Danny,
Books and Bookmen the lonely drunk who had been Ethan's
[England], 6 (July 1961), school pal.
Shrewdly Ethan goes to work and his
19. plan succeeds. The Dago is deported,
allowing Ethan to buy the grocery store
for a fraction of its value. Danny drinks
It had been said by some critics that John himself to death with money Ethan gave
Steinbeck had passed his peak, that he him, having first made over to Ethan the
had given his best, and to some extent deeds of his only possession, his great
such works as The Short Reign of Pippin family home that stands on the only level

468
ground for miles that could be developed past, is a gay, unaggressive spirit working
as an airport. as a clerk for Alfio Marullo; like his fa-
As this unfolds we see that Ethan loves ther before him, Ethan has lost the ac-
his pretty daughter Ellen and his snarly quisitiveness of his forebears, and with it
son Allen, but these two are contami- what remained of the family fortune. At
nated by the evil that has grown in their the age of thirty-six all he has left is the
father. The book ends with a climax in old Hawley place, a couple of frankly en-
which tragedy and irony are combined, vious children, and the nest egg of $6500
and which makes it one of the most pow- which his patient, pretty Irish wife, Mary,
erful and telling novels I have read. inherited from her brother.
Most important from the point of The meaning of Good Friday was
view of new or would-be writers is the burned into Ethan as a boy, and it is
establishment very early in the book (the ironic that on this day a series of small
conversation . .. with Mr. Baker) of all provocationsa bribe offered and re-
the potentialities that are in Ethan's na- jected, a fortuneteller at her cards, a re-
ture. Only too often writers, probably mark of Mary's that prodded under the
in order to add drama, make their cen- skinshould startle him from his rut and
tral characters say or do something com- even launch him on a new career. Ethan
pletely at odds with the character so far lends himself to the conspiracy of events
established in the reader's mind. It weak- in such a human, doubting-Thomas way
ens the whole structure they have cre- that before he knows it he is in up to his
ated. Apart from its value as a book, The knees. He has two charming accomplices
Winter of Our Discontent is an object in Margie and Mary, the one tempting,
lesson in writing technique and control. the other pushing, and the gradual de-
basement of his honesty is absorbing and
rather shocking to watch. It all happens
so effortlessly.
Edward Weeks. That his years at Harvard and his
"Yankee Luck.55 prowess in World War II should have left
Ethan so feckless and so incompetent
Atlantic, 208 (July 1961), must be taken on faith; these phases
122. of his career are touched so lightly as to
be superficial, but what is genuine, famil-
iar, and identifiable is the way Americans
beat the game: the land-taking before
In The Winter of Our Discontent. .. John the airport is built, the quick bucks, the
Steinbeck turns for the first time in his plagiarism, the abuse of trust, the near
versatile career to the East Coast for theft which, if it succeeds, can be glossed
his setting and character. Bay Hampton, overthese are the guilts with which
where on Good Friday morning his new Ethan will have to live in his coming
story begins, could be any small seaport prosperity, and one wonders how hap-
on Long Island or on the coast between pily. John Steinbeck was born to write
New York and Boston. It is a village once of the sea coast, and he does so with
famous for its Yankee skippers and sea- savor and love. His dialogue is full of
plucked fortunes, now being run by the life, the entrapment of Ethan is inge-
new blood from Ireland and Italy. Ethan nious, and the morality in this novel
Allen Hawley, whose name echoes the marks Mr. Steinbeck's return to the mood

469
and the concern with which he wrote
The Grapes of Wrath. "Looking after Number
One."
Times Literary
Eric Keown. Supplement [London],
"New Novels." 7 July 1961, p. 413.
Punch [England], 241
(5 July 1961), 31-2. Mr. Steinbeck is a versatile novelist and
he has achieved several different kinds
of success. Now he has written a moral-
A man from the moon trying to learn ity. His tempted Everyman is a grocery
about America from its currentfictionwould clerk in a small New England town. The
easily get the impression that all its think- tempters are his friends and neighbours,
ing is done in small, cheerfully backward who, he suddenly discovers, have no
coastal communities, as untouched by morality or scruples where business and
progress as, say, East Anglia in 1914. the dollar are concerned and consider
This significant retreat from the main- him rather a fool for not looking after
stream of American life is part of the new number one. This apparently contented,
respect for the social courage of the whimsically minded and unenvious man
beachcomber and the bum, and I dare thereupon defrauds his employer, drives
say is healthy escapism. Such a forgotten his best friend to suicide and ably double-
port, left behind in the march of the big crosses the bank manager, who is as bad
machines, is the scene of John Steinbeck's as himself. Armed with his popularity
The Winter of Our Discontent. This is a and his reputation for scrupulous, stick-
study of an innocent whose character is in-the-mud honesty, he finds it all quite
corrupted by the discovery that graft is easy to do; and of course, in the end, he
easy. The descendant of prosperous ship- finds it does not pay in an ultimate sense.
owners who have frittered their money He cannot confide in his wife and seems
away, he has been to Harvard and is now to be about to slip into the arms of
a grocery-clerk, happily married with another woman for the sole reason that
two ruthless children. He has odd habits. she understands what he is up to. His son
He makes speeches to his bottles of to- fools a television company in a schoolboy
mato sauce and pickles, and calls his essay contest and he contemplates suicide.
long-suffering wife by a fresh pet-name Crime does not pay: the point is a
every time he addresses her. This is rather obvious one and the book is, in-
Steinbeck in holiday mood. One gets to deed, sentimental and rather trivial at
know everyone in the town, even the heart. The hero is to begin with too good
dogs, and all their secret springs; the chil- to be true and in the end too wicked. The
dren come to life with alarming reality, perfect marriage with which he starts
and much of it is entertaining, but the is described with that sentimental impu-
odour of whimsy is strong, and one dicity which is a feature of so many
senses that only a part of Steinbeck's feel- fictional happy families; the small town
ing was engaged. I was unprepared for setting and characters seem right out of
the melodrama of the ending. stock; we scarcely need to be told how it

470
will all end, even to the fact that the hero tent. Here is another long work of Amer-
will remain in possession of the consider- ican fiction, quite different from those
able swag. Some of the things he gets up which usually come my way. The hero is
tothe bank robbery that he plans, for a sensitive, loving, intelligent scion of a
exampleare quite unbelievable; and the distinguished American family which has
reader could well have been spared, if not steadily come down in its little world un-
some of his conversations with his wife, til Ethan Allen Hawley is reduced to work-
at least some of his conversations with ing as an Italian-born grocer's assistant.
the groceries. Yet it must be said that Mr. He himself is comfortable and philo-
Steinbeck has one or two good comic sophical, steady in his honesty and de-
scenes (the one with the man from the voted to his wife and two children. But
television company, worried about an- pressure gradually grows on him to enter
other scandal on top of the payola and the rat-race and become rich. He suc-
the quizzes, for instance) and, when he is cumbs, and the art of Mr. Steinbeck has
not being embarrassing, a sort of affable, never been shown to better advantage
relaxed charm. than when he describes, quite casually,
the two unutterably mean and despicable
actions which open the door to Ethan's
prosperity.
E. D. O'Brien. But meanness and treachery are catch-
ing. The atmosphere spreads its own mias-
"A Literary Lounger." ma. Allen, Ethan's fourteen-year-old son,
Illustrated London News, wins an honourable mention in an ail-
239 (8 July 1961), 70. American essay competition. The boy is
about to sign TV contracts and launch
out on the lucrative career of a prodigy
when it is discovered that his essay is a
The advantage of being a literary lounger, clever pastiche of cribbing. (This strikes
as I see it, is that one may, with honest the only false note. Can the judges
impunity, lounge: that is, one need not be really have been so ignorant of their
continuously on a nervous look-out for own country's literature?) The finale is
some new masterpiece, or manifest frus- so brilliant that I will not spoil it by a
trated disappointment if one fails in one's bald summary. But the point, to me, lies
search. We are now beginning what I will in the skill whereby the author maintains
not call the "silly" seasonthat would the consistencynot the inconsistency
be unfair both to authors and publish- of Ethan's weak but most attractive char-
ersbut a time of year in which one does acter. This is a gentle, brave, and hu-
not expect (though one sometimes finds) mane book. . . .
the appearance of any outstanding new
work. This has been, from that point
of view, a typical week, when I have
had before me a number of readable but
comparatively unpretentious books, each
good in its way, but none eliciting any
tremendous response.
The best, I think, is John Steinbeck's
new novel, The Winter of Our Discon-

471
 This is just about where the book
Harold C. Gardiner. ends. There is no focus either in the
supposed morality or, indeed, in the tell-
"The Old Pro and Three ing, which is marred by an insufferably
Newcomers." cute dialogue, especially when the hero
is addressing his everloving wife. If our
America, 105 public morality is declining, this book
(22 July 1961), 554. doesn't shed much light on the whys and
wherefores.

. . . The trouble with this new novel by

a man who was once one of the near-
greats on the U.S. literary scene is that it Asher Brynes.
poses as a modern morality play, but is at "A Man Who Lived with
the same time utterly devoid of any firm
sense of moral commitment. Pretending Failure.55
to probe into the unraveling moral fiber New Republic, 145
of America, Steinbeck can summon up
only a languidly condemnatory tsk-tsk. (21 August 1961), 24.
What made The Grapes of Wrath a no-
table book was the subdued glow of a
type of moral indignation over the social The curtain rises and we are in the midst
ills so graphically depicted. This book of a man-and-wife dialogue. The setting
whimpers where it should bang. is a bedroom on a sunny morning. It is
The story, briefly, concerns the moral Good Friday, which commemorates the
decay of a good man. He is from old agony by which man may be redeemed.
native New England stock and counts Ethan Allen Hawley spouts bits from the
among his forebears intrepid whaling Bible and the Golden Treasury and Mother
captains and sturdy traders. His own for- Goose. Mary Hawley protests happily;
tune has declined, and he is just a clerk in her responses are a sweet chorus to his
the town grocery store. But he is happily flights of fancy. Then the Problem appears.
married, has two rather stock-character Ethan is the lone offshoot of a line of
children and is not discontented. He gets grandees who once owned much of this
the bug of ambition, however, and sets old whaling town, but now he clerks in
about bettering his economic condition a grocery store and his employer is a
by a series of underhand deals. He even "wop." All that is left of his New En-
plans to rob the local bank, but a happy gland patrimony is the house his ances-
accident thwarts that, and anyway he tors builtand mouthfuls of words in
doesn't have to, because his schemes are place of the cash in strong-boxes. So he
working out well. masks his bitterness with a persistent gai-
Indifferent to his own moral decay, he ety of speech. Since the Hawleys live in a
is brought up short when he discovers small community and were once people
that his son has cheated in winning hon- of wealth, their lack of money is almost
orable mention in a nation-wide essay unbearably conspicuous. Besides, Ethan's
contest. How can he justly rebuke his son two children have actively average tastes
when the boy brazenly protests that he for the consumption of merchandise.. ..
has only done "what everybody else does"? The . . . novel is the story of a man

472
who lived with failure for a long time is Ethan Allen Hawley, a young and im-
and woke up late, so late that he is ob- poverished member of an old New En-
sessed with the idea of neglecting no op- gland-type family. Hawley, who is distin-
portunity to grab what he should have guished only by the non-New England
had all along. He literally leaves uncom- endearments he uses with his Boston Irish
mitted no sin that can profit him. He wife ("my creamy fowl," "Cheesecake,"
even tries to perpetrate an unnecessary "my dimpsy darling," "pigeon-flake"),
theft.. .. by his insomnia, and by his total lack of
As in all his major fiction, Steinbeck humor, embarks on a somewhat tar-
wants to instruct and warn the reader nished program of financial self-improve-
as well as entertain him. The Grapes of ment and is one-upped by his own son,
Wrath dealt with rural people in a West- who commits an even better misdemeanor.
ern setting; and he knew them so well Mr. Steinbeck's style ("She was laughing
that despite the fact that he sandwiched her lovely trill, something that raises
a full chapter of generalizations about goose lumps of pleasure on my soul")
them between each chapter of the earlier suggests Grand Rapids chartreuse. A Lit-
novel, few readers found those digres- erary Guild selection.
sions objectionable. Here the allegorizing
is more obtrusive. Another demerit is the
absence of a controlling point of view
such as the Jeffersonian agrarianism which "The Winter of Our
served him so well in sorting out the Discontent."
significance of things when he wrote of
country people. Here the iron-handed Virginia Quarterly
way in which he implements (that is Review, 37
the proper word) all omens and ties all
strings and punishes all important sins (Autumn 1961), cxii.
those which involve betrayals of trust
and affectiongives The Winter of Our
Discontent an unintended pathos. It is Three hot wars and an interminable cold
clearly a comeback effort, and as clearly one, together with a single deep economic
a failure. depression and several of minor though
lasting significance have beyond question
left their impress upon the American
people who have suffered among other
"Brief Mention." things such intangible losses as a lowered
New Yorker, 37 sense of morality and personal responsi-
bility, a weakened concept of integrity,
(16 September 1961), and a tendency to accept material values
177. in preference to the abstractions repre-
sented by honor, duty, or even decency.
In a complete and invigorating break
. . . A symbolic novel, an allegory, a with his literary past Mr. Steinbeck con-
parable, a tracttake your choicethat vincingly demonstrates his skill as a nov-
spends three hundred pages telling us elist, and his determination not to be
that dishonesty breeds dishonesty. The shelved as a major contemporary writer,
hook the author hangs his sermon on by considering at length the debilitating

473
effects upon character of such currently erty. Ethan, who (like his father before
fashionable traits as disloyalty, dishonesty, him) has lost the courage and daring of
infidelity, cheating, and untruthfulness among his ancestors and most of the money left
the inhabitants of a northeastern seaport by them, dwells in a village known as
founded by American pioneers who pos- New Baytown with his wife and their
sessed the very qualities and attributes two teen-age children.
scorned by their descendants. Mr. Stein- Employed as a grocery clerk by Alfio
beck's parable is incisive and chilling. His Marullo, an immigrant Italian, Ethan (al-
admonitory finger is all the more arrest- though aware of the dishonesty and the
ing because it is never shaken in the shady practices engaged in by some of
reader's face. With his technique of un- the leading families in the maintenance of
derstatement and his progressively insidi- their wealth and prestige) is so riddled by
ous development of deteriorating stan- the fear that he will be unable to support
dards, both individual and collective, the his family at all, that he takes no chances
author adds considerably to his stature as and lives resigned to his fate.
an authoritative commentator on Ameri- Good Friday arrives and it is ironic
can life. His new novel is certain to be that on this day the moral disintegration
rated with his finest work. of Ethan should begin, prompted by the
discontent of his wife who complains
that their children have a hang-dog look
because they cannot be dressed as well as
Larry Conterno. others. His children in turn express their
"The Winter of Our longing for luxuries their friends enjoy.
Disturbed by these outpourings, Ethan is
Discontent." subjected during the following days and
Catholic World, 194 months to a series of temptations which
could (if he succumbs to them) result in
(November 1961), 125-6. the acquisition of money, property and
prestige. It would also mean betraying his
employer, cheating a lifelong friend and
John Steinbeck, in his new novel, turns even holding up the local bank.
to a consideration of the loss of person- Aided by a female witch equipped
al, business and political morality in our with fortune-telling cards (and a knowl-
society. In setting and character this work edge of better things for better living through
represents a departure for the author chicanery) Ethan's disintegration is seem-
who, heretofore, has written of the Far ingly effortless, remarkably smooth, suc-
West and of simple, uneducated people in cessful in purpose and horrible to watch.
that area. How he is saved from self-destruction
The locale of this novel is the North- makes up the denouement of Mr. Stein-
eastern Seaboard during the time be- beck's plot.
tween Good Friday and the early days of The theme of the novel is inherently
July; and the characters depicted are for powerful and meaningful and the bare
the greater part wellborn, educated and outline of the plot has an undeniable
successful. The story concerns Ethan fascination. It is regrettable that the au-
Allen Hawley, an heir to the upright New thor, in the mistaken notion that addi-
England tradition whose forebears have tional weight is necessary, has invested
numbered sea captains and men of prop- the book with a lot of mumbo-jumbo

474
and hocus-pocus involving a talisman, a
female witch and ambiguous religious Benjamin De Mott.
significance that results in a contrived,
pretentious story, reduces his theme to a "Fiction Chronicle.55
point of dullness and vitiates his moral Hudson Review, 14
indignation to a spark where it ought to
be a flame burning bright. There is a fur- (Winter 1961-2), 624-5.
ther lack of conviction in the use of a
time span which seems too brief for the
disintegration involved, and in the sketch- . .. Once or twice in his career Steinbeck
iness of some of the characterizations. labored hard at writing, accepted the
What you have left that is appealing killing obligation to offer objects instead
and reminiscent of Mr. Steinbeck's finer of comment on objects, places and people
works, is his writing about the land and instead of complaints. But he has not
the sea. These passages are lovingly, evoca- done this for years, and he does not do
tively and warmly rendered. It is too bad it in the novel at hand. His scene is com-
that this is not, as advance ballyhoo pletely unrealized (he explains in a note
would have had one believe, his finest that "this book is about a large part of
novel since The Grapes of Wrath. America today"). His talk, though bouncy
and cheerful, is embarrassingly out of
touch (consider the slangy "grapes" above).
And his central situation, integrity chal-
D[aniel] A. P[oling]. lenged in a grocery store, never becomes
"The Winter of Our a situation (because it interests its creator
merely as an excuse for chatter about
Discontent." how to be really good). Nobody can
Christian Herald, 83 blame an established reputation for being
reluctant to roll the fictional stone any
(November 1961), 100. longer up the hill, or for ceasing to re-
gard self-doubt as a powerful primal en-
ergy, or for hoping that his name will
This novel is something altogether differ- serve in lieu of illusion. But there is no
ent from other best sellers of the author, way of evading the truth that the hope is
but it is as distinguished in its own right false, and that the writer who gives him-
as Wayward Bus or The Grapes of Wrath. self over to it has the poorest (not the
Those who wait for Steinbeck's next will best) chance of getting himself accepted
be surprised with this. They may be disil- as a sage....
lusioned, but hardly will they be disap-
pointed. Mature and not for church libraries.

475
Jarmila Dvorak. J. N. Hartt.
"The Winter of Our "The Return of Moral
Discontent." Passion."
Books Abroad, 36 Yale Review, 51
(Winter 1962), 80-1. (Winter 1962), 305-6.

After years of silence, John Steinbeck pre- . . . After frolicking in the beery froth of
sented us in 1961 with a large novel, set Sweet Thursday, Steinbeck comes up clean
in a small eastern coast town with a fa- and dry in The Winter of Our Discon-
mous whaling past. . . . One day in spring tent. Here he is moralizing even more
of 1960, Ethan decides that he would vigorously, and with less philosophic pre-
help to regain the lost family dignity. He tentiousness, than in East of Eden. He
plays with the idea of robbing the bank, rides with a simple story-line: Ethan Allen
but finally he uses less spectacular means Hawley, scion of a history-making New
to help the family back on its feet. He England family, has seen his fortunes fall
swindles his boss out of his business by on evil days. He is reduced to clerking
denouncing him to the immigration au- in a non-supermarket, and to watching
thorities for illegal entry into this coun- helplessly as his wife and two children
tryand gets the last lot of valuable land struggle to maintain pride and integrity
from his former best friendnow the against the multitudinous pressures of com-
town drunk who commits suicide. We munity life in our troubled era. Against
also learn about Ethan's teenage son Allen, impossible odds Hawley himself lives by
who copies a composition for the contest his own code of honesty, fairness, com-
from a bookand wins. But the end sees passion, and courage; and he is able to
everybody happy and well established get in at least one thumping body-blow
where they belongincluding the Italian against moral corruption in high places.
grocer, who returns to his native Sicily. But he has to stand by impotent, as his
All this may very well illustrate the son capitulates to the success-at-any-price
moral climate of the Fifties but I suspect attitude; and he is himself partly culpable
that the author did not want to criticize, in the death of a very dear friend. Unable
but to praise the "good old American to live faithfully, as he feels, in a world
way of life" for which the Hawley family gone dead and rotten at the heart, he
is striving at any price. And this is a very is on the verge of suicide when he is
disturbing thought. brought back to renew the good fight. In
Of course, John Steinbeck is a skilful this darkling world even the smallest light
writer and he has proven it more than is worth infinite care: there's the principle.
once in his own great past, first in his Steinbeck comes very close to espous-
classic work The Grapes of Wrath (1939). ing the cause of American small-town vir-
But at that time we had no doubts about tue against the juggernaut of urbaniza-
the author and his intentions, while to- tion. What we call Progress, he tells us
day we somehow feel out of place with through Ethan Hawley, is often a move
our own discontent. toward the moral jungle, the noisome
wilderness in which the reputation of rec-

476
titude is but a ruse for the aggrandize- Rio, believe it we must. Plucked more
ment of the power-lusting ego. Thus the or less at random from The Winter of
moral tone of The Winter of Our Dis- Our Discontent, that particular colloquy
content is unquestionably serious, indeed, is the handiwork of Mr. John Steinbeck;
passionate. I do not believe that any of and Mr. Steinbeck is quite in earnest,
the characters attain a proportional lumi- deeply troubled by what the jacket calls
nosity and power. The villain is drawn "our shoddy attitudes toward honesty
from stock; and his motivations are ex- and success" (antithetical, as any fool
posed only for the purposes of excoria- knows), by "the loss of integrity in our
tion. And sweet and lovely as Hawley's world." For both Mr. Steinbeck and his
love-affair with his wife isSteinbeck is protagonist, a grocery clerk who tempo-
prepared, I take it, to endure disbelief rarily wanders down where the money
and perhaps even contumely in having and the primroses grow, the idea of "in-
them faithful to each otherHawley ap- tegrity" is pretty much encompassed in
pears to draw his moral strength from that of not cheating on television quiz
solitude only. But with what does he com- programs. It all takes several hundred
mune thus? Ancestors of oaken moral pages, but in the end, Mr. Steinbeck is
fiber. This I find preposterous, for a against cheating. He is for honesty. He is
grown, battle-seasoned man, since it is for some other things, toofamilies, for
one of the more inane forms of ancestor- example, and friendshipbut his ideas
worship. The virtues which have made about honesty and integrity are far and
America great, rather than merely strong, away the most provocative of all his
are indeed doomed, if Steinbeck has cor- moral perceptions. Perhaps the most in-
rectly represented the sources of courage teresting thing about The Winter of Our
and wisdom in the defense against the Discontent is that Dr. Carlos Baker, writ-
evils of this present hour. .. . ing in the New York Times Book Review,
found it a novel loaded with "disturbing"
implications. Nada te turbe, Carlos.

J[oan] Didion.
"The Winter of Our "The Winter of Our
Discontent." Discontent."
National Review, 12 Christian Century,
(16 January 1962), 33. 20 May 1962, p. 693.

He: "You're a witch! Why don't you Ethan Hawley, descendant of an upright
whistle up a wind?" She: "I can't whistle. New England family, works as general
I can raise a puny little storm in most handyman in a grocery located in a Long
men with my eyebrows. How do I go Island Sound village. Despite the loss of
about lighting your fire?" He: "Maybe family fortune, Ethan is happyhappy
you have." Although it is difficult to be- in his job and in his marriage and fam-
lieve that whoever wrote that dialogue ily. Then the seeds of discontent begin
had much more on his mind than some- to germinate. He has no car, no television
thing along the lines of Flying Down to set, none of the appurtenances which

477
symbolize success and contribute to com- William Hogan. "A Bookman's
fort. He decides to go after the money Notebook: SteinbeckAgain the
which he now feels will bring more hap- Social Critic." San Francisco
piness to his family. He engages in some Chronicle, 22 June 1961, p. 29.
shady business maneuvers and in the pro- William Hogan. "A Bookman's
cess almost loses his soul. Although this Notebook: Steinbeck Comments on
modern morality fable is too contrived to the New Morality." San Francisco
be entirely convincing, Steinbeck succeeds Chronicle, 23 June 1961, p. 33.
in drawing one devastating portrait, that Fanny Butcher. "Steinbeck Novel Offers
of a modern teen-ager, in this case Ethan's a Mental Challenge." Chicago
son. The lad decides to emulate Charles Tribune, 25 June 1961, Part 4,
Van Doren's example and cash in on tele- pp. 1-2.
vision's prizes. He almost succeeds. Had Jean Martin. "Steinbeck Wades into
Steinbeck been less concerned to preach a Modern Integrity." Chicago Sun-
sermon about the evils of materialism, he Times, 25 June 1961, Section 3,
might have written a better novel. p. 1.
V.P.H. "New Steinbeck Novel Just
Literary Pablum." New York World-
Herald, World-Herald Magazine,
Checklist of Additional 25 June 1961, p. 20.
Paul Pickrel. "The New Books."
Reviews Harper's, 223 (July 1961), 91-2.
"The Winter of Our Discontent"
Bookmark, 20 (July 1961), 234.
"The Winter of Our Discontent." "Critics Disagree about New Book."
Booklist, 57 (1 June 1961), 606-7. Monterey [Calif.] Peninsula Herald,
Robert B. Jackson. "The Winter of Our 17 July 1961, p. 5.
Discontent" Library Journal, 86 Mary Lowrey Ross. "Moral
(15 June 1961), 2339. Disarmament." Saturday Night, 76
Emerson Price. "Compassionate (5 August 1961), 27.
Steinbeck Novel Explores Loss of Ernest Gordon. "The Winter of Our
Moral Principle." Cleveland Press, Discontent." Princeton Seminary
20 June 1961, p. 8B. Bulletin, 15 (Winter 1962), 44-7.

478
TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY IN SEARCH OF AMERICA
 S TEIHBECK

Travels
with
Charley
IN SEARCH OF AMERICA

THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK

Eric Moon. Orville Prescott.
"Travels with Charley." "Books of the Times.5
Library Journal, 87 New York Times,
(15 June 1962), 2378. 27 July 1962, p. 23.

Charley is "an old French gentleman Soon after Labor Day in the autumn of
poodle" with a placid temperament and 1960 a big man with a beard and a large
cultural pretensions. John Steinbeck is dog with a scraggly mustache set forth
an aging writer with a romantic view of together on an automobile tour of the
himself as a "man of the people," now United States. The man was John Steinbeck,
worried that the America he has been one of the most successful of contempo-
writing about for 20 years has passed rary American novelists. The dog was
him by. This is the crew of Rocinante, a Charley, an elderly French poodle who
three-quarter-ton pickup truck equipped understood French better than English
with a miniature ship's cabin and named and who, Mr. Steinbeck insists, could read
after Don Quixote's horse. Their journey mindshis master's mind anyway. They
of rediscovery takes them through 40 states, rode in a pickup truck named Rocinante
but it is really no more than an excuse after Don Quixote's famous steed.
for Steinbeck to be along, to meet again On the truck was a small house built
people on the road, and to muse nostalgi- to Mr. Steinbeck's specifications like the
cally about the way things used to be cabin of a small boat. The riders were off
before "progress" came along. The mood to learn "what are Americans like today?"
ranges from sentiment (his love affair Mr. Steinbeck was no longer sure because
with Montana), through gentle irony for twenty-five years he had been living
(Texas hospitality), to a rather naive hor- in New York and had lost touch with the
ror over the mechanical demonstrations ranch hands, migrant workers, paisanos
by strident women outside New Orleans and such about whom he had written in
schools. The prose is, as one would ex- his best books. A report on the trip of
pect, always competent, often self-con- man and dog is now published, Travels
scious, sometimes superb. It's a slight, With Charley: In Search of America.
inconsequential book by a nice man This is a likable and amusing book.
rather than a great novelist. But it's a Mr. Steinbeck has not been able to find
pleasant evening's reading, and it will be out what Americans are like today, but
deservedly popular. he thinks that they are growing more like
each other than they used to be and that
regional differences are disappearing. He
noticed what one would expect: the ex-
panding cities, the roaring superhigh-
ways, the good breakfasts and wretched
dinners available along the highways, ra-
cial strife in New Orleans and the beau-
ties of nature everywhere.
Travels With Charley is lightweight

481
fare and contains nothing of much sig- Me.; a sermon in Vermont depicting the
nificance about the present state of the fires of hell as awaiting most of us; the
nation. But Mr. Steinbeck doesn't pretend habits of truck drivers, who know noth-
that he discovered a new America. He ing of the country they pass through; mo-
had an interesting time. He writes about bile homes and mobile living; the nature
it in a bright, brisk, bouncy style. Re- of turkeys; the melancholy changes that
laxed, informal and chatty, he indulges in have transformed Salinas and Monterey
whopping exaggerations, tells tall stories, since the day of Mr. Steinbeck's youth;
sketches odd characters he met and tosses the beauties of the Mojave Desert and
off a series of capsule essays on scores of Texas as a state of mind and as a religion.
subjects. Since Mr. Steinbeck is an intelli- I like particularly what Mr. Steinbeck
gent man and a facile writer the result has to say about superhighways:
is engaging. "Trucks as long as freighters went
Reading Travels With Charley, I found roaring by, delivering a wind like the blow
it necessary to keep a volume of state of a fist. These great roads are wonderful
road maps handy. Mr. Steinbeck, who for moving goods but not for inspection
"was born lost and takes no pleasure in of a countryside. You are bound to the
being found," rather scorns maps. But I wheel and your eyes to the car ahead and
am one who cherishes them. Without to the rear-view mirror for the car behind
them how would I know where he and and the side-mirror for the car or truck
Charley were when they met the young about to pass, and at the same time you
man in Idaho who yearned to be a ladies' must read all the signs for fear you may
hairdresser in New York? Or when they miss some instructions or orders.
encountered the roving actor in Montana "No roadside stands selling squash juice,
who was giving a one-man Shakespeare no antique stores, no farm products or
reading, as exactly like Sir John Gielgud's factory outlets. When we get these thru-
as possible? ways across the whole country, as we will
Through thirty-four states for more and must, it will be possible to drive
than 10,000 miles, camping out in Rocinante from New York to California without
most of the time, staying in motels for seeing a single thing."
the sake of a hot bath some of the time,
Mr. Steinbeck journeyed. He was fright-
ened in the dark and amid the woods
of northern Maine. He had a terrible Fanny Butcher.
time when a rear tire blew out in a rain- "Steinbeck Rediscovers
storm in Oregon. Charley was alarmingly
ill twice. But the lobsters of Maine were His Land and People."
delicious. The Wisconsin countryside was Chicago Sunday Tribune
beautiful and surprisingly varied. The red-
wood trees of California were magnificent. Magazine of Books,
And Montana, "a great splash of gran- 29 July 1962, Part 4,
deur," was so wonderful that it is now
and forever Mr. Steinbeck's favorite state. pp. 1-2.
Just to give you a notion, here are a
few of the many topics briefly discussed
in Travels With Charley: French Cana- John Steinbeck, who has cut deep into
dian potato pickers in Aroostook County, the heart of America more than once

482
with his novels (will you ever forget The If the reader expects to find here a
Grapes of Wrath}), decided he wanted to travel guide to the United States, he will
see what had happened to his native be disappointed. If he hopes to find tren-
country and fellow Americans since he chant observations about life in general
last had had intimate contact with them and about our country, occasional glow-
across the land. He would make a jour- ing descriptions of nature, some wonder-
ney around the world of the United States, ful, revealing scraps of conversation, a
he decided, and he would come closest to penetrating insight into American mores,
the American good earth and the Ameri- searching thoughts on loneliness, all re-
can people if he went by truck, avoiding corded by a master of the writing craft,
main highways as much as possible. he will be delighted with Travels with
He bought a three-quarter ton pickup Charley.
truck, had "a little house built like the "Americans are a restless people," says
cabin of a small boat" constructed on it, the author, reminding us that this country
equipped it with "a heater, refrigerator was settled by people who "hungered to
and lights operated on butane gas, and a move." "But just moving has obsessed
chemical toilet." He called it his "turtle many Americans," he observes, and he
shell" and named the conveyance Rocinante wonders wryly if "one goes not so much
in memory of Don Quixote's steed. to see as to tell afterwards."
He took shotguns and fishing equip- One thing he noticed about American
ment. "If a man is going hunting or fish- cities all over the country is that they
ing his purpose is understood, even ap- "are like badger holes, ringed with trash"
plauded," but, "I no longer kill or catch all of them "surrounded by piles of
anything I cannot get into a frying pan." wrecked and rusting automobiles and al-
These preparations for making talking to most smothered by rubbish." He saw di-
strangers easier proved unnecessary. vergent tendencies thruout the country, in
Charley, who shared Steinbeck's three northern Maine and New England, vil-
months, 10,000 mile trip, was born in lages giving way to cities and wild life
France, a "very big French poodle who taking over, in the midwest and the far
knows a little poodle English, responds west, a population explosion and "progress"
quickly only to commands in French .. . everywhere. And he says, "I wonder why
a born diplomat, a good watchdog, who progress so often looks like destruction?"
roars like a lion." "When we get these thruways across
Charley was not only companion but the whole country as we will and must, it
stage setting, too. For, says Steinbeck, "A will be possible to drive from New York
dog, particularly an exotic like Charley, to California without seeing a thing," he
is a bond between strangers. Many con- asserts. He used other roads whenever
versations en route began with 'What de- possible and confesses, "I was born lost
gree of dog is that?' " The best way of all and take no pleasure in being found, nor
of opening a conversation, however, he much identification from shapes which
found was to be lost. symbolize continents and states."
The trip began at Sag Harbor, Long Some of his descriptions of nature
Island, just after Labor Day in 1960. His are thrilling. Of autumn in New England
course went to the tip of Maine, across he writes, "It isn't only color, but a
the northern United States to California, glowing. .. , There's a quality of fire
back thru Texas, New Orleans, and the in these colors." The Wisconsin fall
south. enchanted him. "The air was rich with

483
butter-colored sunlight, not fuzzy, but himself with a three-quarter-ton pickup
crisp and clear, so that every frost-gay truck, a "camper" atop it, and set out,
tree was set off.... There was a penetra- accompanied only by Charley. Charley is
tion of the light into solid substances, so a French-born blue poodle, companion-
that I seemed to see into things, deep able and friendly, except for bears.
in, and I've seen that kind of light only Now John Steinbeck, as readers know,
in Greece." is a born story-teller with a rumbling
Steinbeck often was asked if he was chuckle in his way of speech, and a great
traveling for pleasure, and he could al- gift of friendship, particularly for dogs,
ways answer yes until he went to New but also for truck-drivers, bartenders and
Orleans. There he saw a group of wom- lonely wayfarers. He was, to be sure, his
en called "cheerleaders" applauded by own bartender on most of his journey,
crowds as they shouted obscenities at but a small bar in a "camper" is almost
two small Negro children entering and as good an invitation to confidences as a
leaving a previously all-white school. dog, and Mr. Steinbeck had still another
"They were neither women nor moth- gadget for making friends along the way.
ers," he says, in what they were doing, He has, he says, a talent for getting lost,
and it made him sick at heart. He left the and a lost driver brings out the best in
south saying sadly to himself, "I know human nature, even in New York City
that the solution when it arrives will not policemen.
be easy or simple." The resulting book is unlike anything
His words about his traveling com- Mr. Steinbeck ever wrote before, and ut-
panion (and the human race) are ironic: terly unlike the usual pseudo-sociological
"Charley doesn't belong to a species observations on what's wrong with America.
clever enough to split the atom, but not Mr. Steinbeck set out in a benign mood,
clever enough to live in peace with itself." just escaping the hurricane Donna, and
he claims that from start to finish he
met no "strangers." Even the guardians
of absentee-owned estates, who began by
Lewis Gannett. questioning Mr. Steinbeck's right to park
and camp, quickly turned into friends.
"From Coast to Coast, The only people Mr. Steinbeck saw that
He Met No Strangers." he didn't like were the screeching ninnies,
locally known as "cheerleaders," who were
New York Herald Tribune shouting obscenities at integrated school
Weekly Book Review, children when he passed through New
Orleans. Of course, Charley helped. Charley
29 July 1962, p. 3. liked people, and people liked Charley
on sight, and the friendship quickly ex-
tended to include Charley's travelling
After twenty-five years in Manhattan and companion.
Hollywood, Sag Harbor, London, Paris New England a little baffled Mr. Stein-
and points East, John Steinbeck decided beck, who is California-born and accus-
that it was time for him to go back and tomed to conversation at breakfast.
feel America, hear its changing speech, Breakfast with truckers was one of his
look at its hills and water, smell its grass delights in state after state. Truckers, for-
and trees and sewage. So he equipped ever on the move, are the kind of people

484
who particularly appeal to Mr. Stein- British or Negro descent, more like each
beck's restless soul. But in Maine he dis- other than a Lowland Scot is like a High-
covered that "the natural New England lander. This, he says, "is an exact and
taciturnity reaches its glorious perfection provable thing," but he didn't stop to
at breakfast." An early morning waitress prove it. He and Charley just kept mov-
who condescended to say "Yep" to an ing along, and moving along with
out-of-state visitor was, in Mr. Stein- Steinbeck in this mood is a very pleasant
beck's experience, relatively garrulous. In experience.
the midwest he found people friendlier.
He was startled by the sheer beauty of
the Wisconsin countryside, and with the
whole state of Montana he fell wildly in Eric R Goldman.
love. Sometimes he passed the night in
trailer camps, where he discovered the "Steinbeck's America,
friendly company of the great fraternity Twenty Years After."
who live on wheels. They have no roots,
he says, but they all have dogs. New York Times Book
In Chicago Mr. Steinbeck had a good Review, 111
time figuring out the history of the previ- (29 July 1962), 5.
ous occupant of a hotel room whose
wastebasket had not yet been emptied:
that's one story. The trailer-travelling ac-
tor he met on a North Dakota roadside is There are some men, John Steinbeck
another. So is the unbelievably co-opera- says, who are born wanderers; when the
tive Sunday garage owner on a mud road winds of restlessness seize them, there is
in Oregon. And so's Thanksgiving dinner nothing for them to do but go. They find
with Mr. Steinbeck's wife's friends in reasons for everything, including the need
Texas. For sheer emotion, though, try for the trip. In Steinbeck's case, the justi-
Steinbeck on the big trees of his native fication was easy enough. Here he was an
state, or the story of his return to Johnny American writer, writing about America,
Garcia's bar in Monterey, complete with but for some twenty years he had known
the whole cast of characters from Tortilla little of the country at first-hand. Shortly
Flat, including the "American dogs." after Labor Day, 1960, Steinbeck left his
It's a happy, relaxed book, devoid of Long Island home for a swing around the
the bitterness and violence of some of the United States.
middle-period Steinbeck. But Steinbeck Three months and 10,000 miles later
is still Steinbeckno Pollyanna he. He the 5 8-year-old novelist was back, physi-
thinks America, putting cleanliness first, cally and emotionally exhausted. But it
has lost the sense of taste. He doesn't was all decidedly worth the effort. The
like sprawling citiesalways gets lost in resulting book is pure delight, a pungent
them, for one thing, and besides, they potpourri of places and people inter-
lack dogs. The books and magazines on spersed with bittersweet essays on every-
sale along the way, and the local radio thing from the emotional difficulties of
stations he listened to, were as tasteless growing old to the reasons why giant Se-
as the food. Mr. Steinbeck is pretty dog- quoias arouse such awe.. . .
matic about his thesis that Americans The swing into the Middle West
are a new breed, whether of Chinese, brought out the old agrarian in Steinbeck.

485
He deplored the superhighways and he no one can doubt his meaning as he
abhorred the mammoth cities. He noted reached New Orleans and "Cheerleaders"
too that the road signs were shifting scream at a tiny Negro girl making her
in tone. The New York State signs had terrified way into a desegregated school.
shouted at him. The New England ones Here is the most powerful writing in the
had a kind of laconic precision. In the book, stinging with the cold lash of out-
Middle West the signs were "more be- raged decency.. ..
nign. . . . The earth was generous and Of one thing Steinbeck became quite
outgoing here in the heartland, and per- sure. For all the stubborn regionalism of
haps the people took a cue from it." the United States, for all the ethnic range
Once past Chicago, Steinbeck's prose of its people, "we are a nation, a new
takes on a new lift. This was his kind of breed. . .. The American identity is an
country, and the Pacific, his Pacific, was exact and provable thing." But just what
nearing. By the time he reached Mon- was this exact and provable thing? Stein-
tana, he was engaged in an unabashed beck would try to lay hold of it and more
love affair with nature. The calm of and more he came back to the drive for
the mountains and grasslands, he was change in the American character. In a
sure, had seeped into the inhabitants. whole series of mullings, he speculated
Out here even the casual conversation, on the exact cause and nature of this
in Steinbeck's glowing reportage, has an characteristic.
earthy sagacity. It was beyond Chicago Increasingly in his travels Steinbeck
that he talked with a crossroads store- caught himself when he wanted to lash
keeper and raised the question that was out at the most fundamental result of
beginning to bother him. Why didn't that drive, the rampant industrialization.
Americans argue violently about public "It is the nature of man as he grows older
affairs any more? . . . to protest against change.. .. The sad
On to Seattle and then down into north- ones are those who waste their energy in
ern California. Naturally the clash be- trying to hold it back, for they can only
tween old and new produced the sharpest feel bitterness in loss and no joy in gain."
twinges in the area of Steinbeck's boy- For such talk Charley had no com-
hood and of his novels. In Monterey, ment at all. A wise dog does not try to
Johnny Garcia stood behind his bar and top wisdom.
went on and on about what a homecom-
ing this was and Steinbeck sat on the
stool thinking about the Carmel Valley
when he could shoot his rifle where he George Mills.
pleased without disturbing anything but "Maybe Satchelful of
frogs. Suddenly he was on his feet, bolt-
ing for the door. "I was on Alvarado Characters?55
Street, slashed with neon lightand Des Moines Sunday
around me it was nothing but strangers."
Texas undid Steinbeck. He was deter-
Register, 29 July 1962,
mined not to go along with the usually p. 15G.
easy denunciations of the state, and in
this chapter he leans backward so far
that at times he tumbles into saccharinity Can a man take a dog and a mobile
and even near incomprehensibility. But home and go out and discover what

486
America really is like in three months? now he meant to prove something. "My
That is what John Steinbeck tried to wife married a man," he writes. "I saw
do. Charley is his French poodle. To- no reason why she should inherit a baby.
gether they traveled from coast to coast. I knew that ten or twelve thousand miles
(Iowa was not on the itinerary.) driving a truck, alone and unattended,
If Steinbeck "discovered" present-day over every kind of road, would be hard
America, he doesn't give a deep report of work, but to me it represented the anti-
his findings here. Maybe he brought back dote for the poison of the professional
a satchelful of characters who will spark sick man."
future Cannery Rows and Sweet Thursdays. And off he went, curving up through
Nevertheless, this is a lively and re- New England, then through the Midwest,
freshing book. Steinbeck's cutting edge is the Northwest, down through California,
still good His word artistry is classic over to Texas and the Deep South, and
The comparative brevity of the book, up the Appalachian line. Steinbeck is very
246 pages, is sufficient proof of the fact much a visual man, and he responds
that the author is not pretending to pro- most vividly to excesses of naturethe
vide his readers with a definitive picture autumn riot in New England, the Dakota
of the nation as it is today. One omission: Badlands, the limitless plains of Mon-
Steinbeck includes no report on the im- tana, and the sequoia forests of Califor-
aginative, strenuous, vital and erudite life nia. His taste in people, though, is more
of intellectual young Americans on today's subtle, and he finds wonder or pleasure
college campuses. or annoyance or stimulation or anger or
amusement in every human he meets,
from a hellfire preacher in Vermont to an
old Negro hitchhiker in Louisiana.
"Steinbeck on the Road.' It is silly to talk about drawing con-
Newsweek, 60 clusions from a journey like this, because
Steinbeck set out simply to see and to
(30 July 1962), 77-8. hear, and he has done both with a quick
mind and an honest heart. If this vigor-
ous, affecting, and highly entertaining
"For many years I have lived in many book has a flaw, it is only in Steinbeck's
parts of the world . . . I had not heard the self-indulgent loathing of every city he
speech of America, smelled the grass and drove through, cities which seemed to
trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, him nothing but "a great surf of traf-
its color and quality of light. I knew the fic . . . waves of station wagons, rip tides
changes only from books and newspa- of roaring trucks." Even Don Quixote
pers. But more than this, I had not felt knew that you can't begin to judge a city
the country for 25 years. In short, I was until you get off Rocinante.
writing of something I did not know
about, and it seems to me that in a so-
called writer this is criminal." . . .

Steinbeck's concern with his writer's craft

was admittedly not his only reason for
mounting Rocinante. A year earlier, at
59, he had suffered a severe illness, and

487
 an opinion if you don't know? My grand-
Paul Pickrel. father knew the number of whiskers in
the Almighty's beard. I don't even know
"The Changes That Time what happened yesterday, let alone to-
Brings." morrow. He knew what it was that makes
a rock or a table. I don't even know the
Harper's, 225 formula that says nobody knows. We've
(August 1962), 91-2. got nothing to go ongot no way to
think about things." Not many people
that Steinbeck encountered were that ar-
In Travels with Charley . . . John Steinbeck ticulate or that much aware of their own
tells of a trip he took around the United predicament, but the sense of being shut
States to see how time has changed the off from certainty was prevalent.
country in the last twenty years, while he In its generalizations Travels with
has been too busy writing about it to do Charley is a commonplace, even a trivial
much traveling.. .. book, agreeable enough to read but not
What Steinbeck saw turns out to be really very enlightening. But it comes
largely predictable. He found for instance to life whenever Steinbeck fastens upon
that regional differences in speech are less the particular. His marvelous ear for dia-
marked than they once were, a change logue, his skill in revealing character
that is hardly surprising after several de- through speech, and his quick sympathy
cades of radio and television and a vast for the disadvantaged raise nearly every
amount of moving around. He thinks personal encounter he reports well above
that American speech may be more gram- the level of his general observations. So
matical than it once was, a piece of too, though his general impressions are
speculation that will bring no comfort undistinguished, his descriptions of par-
to the numerous deplorers of the way ticular objects or prospects are nearly al-
grammar is now taught (and dictionaries ways effective and sometimes brilliant.
compiled), though they may find some
reassurance in the fact that Steinbeck
himself is not the most sure-footed of
grammarians: he thinks that the word Edward Weeks.
slow in a sign saying "Drive slow" is an
adjective, and deprecates its use.
"Seeing Our Country
Steinbeck found the American people Close."
more subdued and uncertain than they once Atlantic, 210 (August
were, without many or strong convic-
tions, too worried or too indifferent even 1962), 138-9.
to exercise their long-established right to
argue over the Presidential election. (The
one exceptionthe violent anti-segrega- As his books reveal, John Steinbeck is a
tionists of New Orleans, who were will- writer who is happiest when he gets
ing to make a lot of obscene noise about down to earth. He is a rugged, broad-
their convictionsshocked him.) On the shouldered, six-foot Californian, born in
whole the old New England farmer who Salinas, and destined to write his first sto-
spoke to him at the outset of the trip set ries about the Valley. He has the gift of
the tone of what follows: "What good's identifying himself passionately with other

488
Americans, with migratory fruit pickers, Holland Tunnel with so much butane in
as in his novel In Dubious Battle, and the cabin, all the novelist could say was,
with the Okies, as in The Grapes of "But I want to get home. How am I going
Wrath. He relishes doing things with his to get home?" Incidentally, in his passage
own two hands; in a swift self-portrait he of over 10,000 miles through thirty-eight
writes, "I have always lived violently, states, he was not recognized even once.
drunk hugely, eaten too much or not at
all, slept around the clock or missed two
nights of sleeping, worked too hard and
too long in glory, or slobbed for a time in Melvin Maddocks.
utter laziness. I've lifted, pulled, chopped,
climbed, made love with joy and taken
"Westering with
my hangovers as a consequence, not as a Steinbeck."
punishment." Gradually his career drew Christian Science Monitor,
him into the success and confinement of
Manhattan and Long Island, and it came 2 August 1962, p. 7.
to him with a shock one day at the age of
fifty-eight to realize that not for twenty
years had he seen at close hand the coun- In a short story titled "The Leader of the
try he had been writing about. People," young John Steinbeck made a
His new book, Travels with Charley . . . patriarchal survivor of covered-wagon
is a one-man, one-dog account of the days lament to his grandson: "No place
expedition in which he recaptures his to go, Jody. . . . But that's not the worst
familiarity with America. He set out no, not the worst. Westering has died out
with some misgiving, not sure his health of the people. Westering isn't a hunger
would stand up to the 10,000-mile jour- any more. It's all done."
ney he envisioned; as he traveled, the Time's winged wagon train rolls on.
years sloughed off him, and the eager, It is a quarter of a century later. Mr.
sensuous pages in which he writes about Steinbeck, now a prosperous, middle-
what he found and whom he encountered aged literary celebrity, is surprised by an
frame a picture of our human nature in ancestral westering itch in his traveling
the twentieth century which will not soon shoes.
be surpassed.... There are always "reasons" for a trip.
This is a book to be read slowly for its Mr. Steinbeck officially justifies his on
savor, and one which, like Thoreau, will business grounds: "I, an American writer,
be quoted and measured by our own ex- writing about America, was working from
perience. It holds such happy passages as memory.... I was writing of something I
his love for Montana, his rediscovery of did not know about, and it seems to me
San Francisco, and his surprising new im- that in a so-called writer this is criminal."
pressions of the Middle West; it holds At Sag Harbor, Long Island, he fitted
such horror as he witnessed in the rancid out his 1960's version of a covered wag-
race demonstrations in New Orleans. on: a brand new three-quarter-ton pickup
And as all good journeys must, this one truck with a custom-built camper top,
suddenly went flat as he was returning complete down to its double bed, four-
through Virginia. Thereafter, his one de- burner stove, heater, refrigerator, radio,
sire was to get home, and when a police- 30-gallon water tank, and window
man forbade him to drive through the screens.

489
 Other items for the well-equipped Mr. Steinbeck's slightly tough-guy, occa-
pushbutton pioneer: padded nylon sub- sionally profane confidences. All except
zero underwear; sufficient emergency food, French poodle owners are likely to weary
one gathers, to service a bomb shelter; of Charley and his fairly limited re-
tools for repair, tools as sparestools sponses to the American wayside.
perhaps to make tools with; several guns; But even Charley becomes a small,
150 pounds of books. tail-wagging part of America in a sub-
Waving an admittedly regretful fare- jective travel bookand what travel
well to his wife and his cabin cruiser, Mr. book isn't?
Steinbeck with his French poodle Charley Or as Mr. Steinbeck puts it: "This
beside him set out to face what he fore- monster of a land, this mightiest of na-
saw as "the terrors of the uncomfortable tions, this spawn of the future, turns out
and the unknown." to be the macrocosm of microcosm me."
A man who once banged around the Which is perhaps why the westering
country in an old bakery wagon with instinct will never die as long as the urge
a mattress in the rear, he acknowledged for self-disco very remains alive.
an element of self-parody by dubbing
his motel-on-wheels Rocinante, after the
horse of Don Quixote.
It is quite possiblethe allowance Rudolph J. Gerber.
must always be made with travelers who
rationalizethat part of him did not
"Travels with Charley."
want to make the trip at all. But once America, 107
he found himself on the road, the reflexes (4 August 1962), 569.
of an observant writer and an entertain-
ing raconteur took over, ensuring an un-
pretentious book that is light without
being trivial. Into nearly a score of major works John
Mr. Steinbeck has nothing startlingly Steinbeck has injected varying degrees
new to report, and he wisely avoids strain- of the spirit of America, exporting, per-
ing after ambitious summing-up. haps, more of that spirit than he im-
Like most United States travelers since ported. Travels with Charley issues from
the war, he deplores growing signs of his concern that he might have been writ-
uniformity: the superhighways that soon ing about a nation existing largely in his
will make it "possible to drive from New imagination.
York to California without seeing a single To discover the reality of modern Amer-
thing"; the hygienic flavorlessness of most ica, Steinbeck set out on a voyage of re-
roadside restaurants; the radio that blasts discovery, westward from New York, in
"Teen-Age Angel" in California as pre- the company of his distinguished French
dictably as in Maine. poodle, Charley....
On the plus side, he loves Montana His reflections, offered informally to
and truck drivers and stands in awe of the reader and to Charley, constitute the
Texas. Though he carefully refuses to core of his modern-day travelogue. The
play the grizzled reactionary, he leaves no booming trailer camps bordering our high-
doubt that he prefers country to city, ways raise questions about where America's
wood to plastic, the old ways to the new. roots lie, and Steinbeck wonders if America
We may grow tired occasionally of is perhaps a restless, rootless people.

490
 Friendliness, he finds, increases as the 34 states, and what have you got? One of
prairies and the Rockies approach, but he the dullest travelogues ever to acquire
shares the artist's concern that television the respectability of a hard cover. Vaga-
is effacing local color, regional speech bond Steinbeck's motive for making the
and individual custom. Roadside restau- long, lonely journey is admirable: "To try
rants have shared an analogous fate in to rediscover this monster land" after
sacrificing taste to cleanliness, and he years of easy living in Manhattan and a
notes that the mental fare of radio across country place in Sag Harbor, L.I. He
the land is as generalized, packaged and meets some interesting people: migrant
undistinguished as the food of most local Canucks picking potatoes in Maine, an
restaurants. itinerant Shakespearean actor in North
Segregation and the tourist trade are Dakota, his own literary ghost back home
criticized, among other things, but there in California's Monterey Peninsula. But
are many moments of pride and satisfac- when the trip is done, Steinbeck's attempt
tion. From start to finish Steinbeck found at rediscovery reveals nothing more re-
no strangers. His one "immaculately in- markable than a sure gift for the obvious
spected generality" is that despite our observation.
geographic range and sectionalism and
interwoven breeds, we are one country, a
new breed, more like our countrymen
than our European ancestors. William Rivers.
Travels with Charley reveals the Ame-
rican spirit and culture in its common-
"The Peripatetic Poodle."
place sourcesthe "little" people, the Saturday Review, 45
small villages, the vast prairies. Its eva- (1 September 1962), 31.
luation is objective and penetrating, if
not always optimistic, and its obser-
vations would be worth-while to any
American curious about his cultural en- When the novelist turns to journalism, he
vironment. may, like Norman Mailer, invest so much
of himself in his reportage that every ef-
fort is autobiographical. Or he may con-
descend, as Ernest Hemingway occasion-
"Travels with Charley." ally did in magazine articles, almost to
Time, 80 the point of saying: "I need not spend
much of my talent on nonfiction."
(10 August 1962), 70. There is a little of both attitudes in
John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, a
report on a trip around the United States.
Put a famous author behind the wheel The reader learns much more about the
of a three-quarter-ton truck called Roci- author than he does about the country.
nante (after Don Quixote's horse), equip And, although Steinbeck undoubtedly went
him with everything from trenching tools through the agony every writer experi-
to subzero underwear, send along a pedi- ences who makes a book sound offhand,
greed French poodle named Charley with one cannot imagine that he gave himself
prostatitis, follow the man and dog on a to it in quite the way that he surrendered
three-month, 10,000-mile trip through to, say, East of Eden. The result is both

491
better and worse than what a perceptive broken comb. Like most of the book, this
journalist might have accomplished. is highly impressionistic, but it is also a
The opening pages are heavy with tru- stunning performance. Almost any jour-
isms that a first-rank journalist would nalist daring to try it would probably
have avoided. "I live in New York," prove himself the victim of a circum-
Steinbeck writes, "or dip into Chicago or scribed imagination.
San Francisco. But New York is no more In the end, the novelist's eye, which
America than Paris is France or London sees the droopy, early-morning men in a
is England." Then, "Thus I discovered roadside restaurant "folded over their
that I did not know my own country... . coffee cups like ferns," makes this book
So it was that I determined to look again, memorable.
to try to rediscover this monster land."
There is more of much the same. It is
perfectly true that the act of writing
ordering and organizing observation and E. D. O'Brien.
experienceteaches the writer as well as "A Literary Lounger."
the reader. But sentences like "I set this
matter down not to instruct others but to Illustrated London News,
inform myself" represent humility of a 241 (6 October 1962),
highly self-conscious sort. Few journalists
get caught in this net, but Steinbeck is 534.
entangled again and again....
But if the self-consciousness . .. rings
an occasional loud note of falsity, the . . . The America inspected by John Stein-
novelist's eye and mind are precious. beck in Travels with Charley is rather
Here is Steinbeck on literary style in different. Charley is a poodle, incompara-
highway signs: bly the most charming character described
by the author in his travels through forty
The New England states use a terse of the States. The trouble is that Mr.
form of instruction, a tight-lipped, la- Steinbeck has travelled almost too far.
conic style sheet, wasting no words His delightful vignettes of people, places,
and few letters. New York State shouts and incidents whet the reader's appetite,
at you the whole time. Do this. Do but never satisfy it. The segregationists of
that. Squeeze left. Squeeze right. Every the South come in for a tousling. On the
few feet an imperious command. In other hand, the Texanshere they are
Ohio the signs are more benign. They again!emerge as funny and furry crea-
offer friendly advice and are more like tures, to be commended, like the yak, "as
suggestions. Some states use a turgid friends to the children...."
style which can get you lost with the
greatest ease.

And when Steinbeck stops at a

crowded Chicago hotel and must for a
few hours occupy an unmade room, he
analyzes the previous occupant from bits
and pieces left behind: laundry slips, a
half-written letter, a scent of perfume, a

492
Nicholas Wollaston. "Exploring Home.55
"In Continents and Times Literary
Islands." Supplement [London],
Spectator [England], 209 2 November 1962,
(19 October 1962), p. 843.
604-5.
John Steinbeck's new travel book de-
scribes a tour of the United States which
To touch the fringe of an unknown coun- he made late in 1960 in the company of
try, without the chance of penetrating it, his French poodle, Charley. Like many
is a tantalising thing. Like an encounter middle-aged writers, particularly in such
with a stranger, those brief, guarded mo- a vast country, he feared he had lost
ments of curiosity offer a prospect of dis- touch with his raw material and so he
appointment but also a promise of love, set out self-consciously, yet, conscien-
and it is little comfort to be told after- tiously, "in search of America." Earlier in
wards, by another traveller, just how his careerwhen he resisted all the many
much one missed. attempts to make him a public personal-
John Steinbeck, of course, missed nothing. ityhe would have produced a reporter's
My experience of the United States is lim- account of what he saw and heard, with
ited to a night at Miami airport, but now a minimum of generalizations and per-
I know all I want to know about the rest. sonal references. But Mr. Steinbeck has
It is the grand country I always hoped it mellowed since then and his new book
might be, and Travels with Charley... is like some of his later novelsreflects this
a fine, generous, loving book. As Steinbeck change in him.
himself says, "there's absolutely nothing He becomes the chief character of
to take the place of a good man," and for his Travels, Charley is his Fool, and
the author of a travel book I would add the United Statesnearly forty of them
that there's absolutely nothing to take the fly by like a backcloth to a sketch of a
place of a writer. A self-confessed bum in writer in search of material. Mr. Steinbeck's
search of America, he drove a truck with deepest impressions of modern America
a boat's cabin built on the back through will probably not be put on paper until
forty States, and the only sorrow he he has had more time to digest his experi-
brought back to his cottage on Long Is- ences for future novels. They will pre-
land was the memory of the screaming sumably be the real reward of an often
white women outside a school in New arduous tour. This book in that sense
Orleans where a little black girl was be- is a mere byproduct, an amiable ramble
ing escorted to her lessons by the US mar- from New York through the Middle
shals. And Charley? The only sorrow he West and the Far Westwith a family re-
brought back was the memory of the gi- union in the home of Cannery Row
ant forest redwoods in the State of Or- through the Deep South and then back
egon. For Charley was a big blue poodle, home to New York. Mr. Steinbeck even
and those redwoods were like no trees he relaxes enough to fall for the tempta-
had seen before. tion of a generalization now and then,

493
and some of them are as bad as: which helps to put the Deep South into
perspective. And even if these scattered
It is a fact that Americans from all gems of reporting do not compensate
sections and of all racial extractions for the more whimsical exchanges be-
are more alike than the Welsh are like tween Charley and his master, the book
the English, the Lancashiremen like as a whole has the warmth of an ex-
the Cockney, or for that matter the tended personal essay, that fast-disap-
Lowland Scot like the Highlander. pearing and much-missed form of litera-
ture: an essay, moreover, written in Mr.
Yet with his novelist's eye, he also hits Steinbeck's deceptively simple style, that
off in reports of casual encounters a few odd blend of precision and the colloquial,
home truths that will make him the envy which provides a lesson in how to write
of some experts on America who have modern prose.
devoted much more space to saying much
less. He is particularly telling in the Deep
South, for segregation to hima native
of Salinas, Californiais as foreign as it Francis J. Thompson.
is to an Englishman, and as a middle-
aged man he can observe it in a detached
"Travels with Charley.55
way impossible for the latest generation Florida Historical
of Americans who have grown up in a Quarterly, 42 (July 1963),
period more aware of the Negro's strug-
gle. This section shows that when he is 59-60.
sufficiently gripped by his subject Mr.
Steinbeck is still a superlative reporter.
But the essential superficiality of his Comparison of our Nobel Prize winners,
book as a study of America can be seen though odious, may be instructive. John
in his passing glance at the school inte- Steinbeck, for example, is more akin to
gration conflict in New Orleans, for he Pearl Buck than to either William Faulkner
arrived there while the mobs were still or Ernest Hemingway.
active and yet paused only long enough Steinbeck's latest book, a beatnik grand
to look at them. Having been there at the tour of the United States, starts out with
same time one would have thought a an exciting account of "Donna" wallop-
novelist particularly would have wanted ing his Sag Harbor, Long Island, cottage.
to remain long enough to gain a complete The hurricane did extensive damage in
understanding of this complex tragedy. the peninsula state, too, but this doesn't
But perhaps he did not want his picture fit into his picture. In fact, when he gets
of America as a whole to be thrown off his gear stowed away after the blow, he
balance by too long in one place and in embarks for Bangor musing about how
one situation. Or perhaps his deepest con- much he prefers autumn sight-seeing in
clusions will come only in a future novel. exciting, chilly Maine to October in un-
At least in Travels with Charley there eventful, warm Florida. The horrible vi-
are two excellent conversation pieces. One sion of "sitting on a nylon-and-aluminum
of them reflects the Louisiana Negro's chair out on a changelessly green lawn
unwillingness to trust any stranger with a slapping mosquitoes in the evening"
white face. There is also a memory of a hurts him until he drinks a tumbler of
Negro family he grew up with in Salinas vodka and forgets it.

494
 As long as he follows the Canadian and be wise. Hemingway and Faulkner
border towards the Occident, Steinbeck's on the other hand chose daring Ameri-
reactions are eager, and interested, but cans for their heroes although there is
when he turns from Seattle, he begins to evidence that the Nobel Prize was
yawn. Later, still, levanting from Salinas awarded the Mississippian in the mis-
to Texas, he transmits his boredom by re- taken belief that he, too, hated the South.
peating tiresome, old jokes about the size
of the lone star state, its cowboy boots,
chauvinism, and so on.
Reviving as he approaches Louisiana, Checklist of Additional
he gradually works himself into such
a rage at the puerility of some segrega-
Reviews
tionists that he appears willing to turn
Dixieland over to the Black Moslems.
The outward and visible signs of his agi- "New Steinbeck Book Is Story of His
tation attract public attention. So on the Travels through 40 States." Salinas
edge of New Orleans he warily parks Californian, 20 June 1962, p. 16.
Rocinante, his mobile home, and Charley, "Travels with Charley." Booklist, 58
his pet poodle, where they will be rela- (1 July 1962), 748.
tively safe from suspicious white tribes- John Harris. "John Steinbeck's
men and takes a taxi to within a block of Sentimental Trek." Los Angeles Times,
the school where the disturbances have 22 July 1962, "Calendar" section,
been taking place. There he is able to spy p. 15.
on the natives without being detected un- William Hogan. "Class Tells in
til, outraged beyond endurance by the Steinbeck's Diary." San Francisco
naughty war cries of some pale-face Chronicle, 29 July 1962, p. 24.
"cheerladies," he scurries away to safety Robert L. Perkin. "One Man's Pegasus."
north of the Mason-Dixon line. Denver Rocky Mountain News,
Some twenty-odd years ago Edmund 29 July 1962, p. 22A.
Wilson spoke disapprovingly of "Mr. Stein- "Reading the Editors Have Liked."
beck's tendency to present human life in Holiday, 32 (August 1962), 13.
animal terms." In Travels with Charley, Van Allen Bradley. "Rediscovering
the pooch and Rocinante, his "three- America." Chicago News, 1 August
quarter-ton pickup truck equipped with 1962, p. 12.
miniature ship's cabin," are closer to ge- Hoke Norris. "Good Steinbeck Trip
nus homo than his representative South- Despite Whimsy." Chicago Sun-Times,
erners are, and more simpatico than any 5 August 1962, Section 3, p. 2.
bipeds observed during the journey. "Books." New Yorker, 38 (8 September
En fin, just as Pearl Buck took us to 1962), 152.
China to see the truth about mankind as Alistair Cooke. "Steinbeck's New Found
she knew it, so Steinbeck would have us Land." Manchester Guardian,
go to canines and cars, consider their ways, 21 September 1962, p. 6.

495
AMERICA AND AMERICANS
 Text by

AMERICA John Steinbeck

and AMERICANS
Photographs edited by the staff of
Suttliu lionks, The Viking Pros

The Viking Press New York

 and his people and he has faith in them
Maurice Dolbier. faith that the energy, the driving dis-
satisfaction with things as they are that
"World of Books." has been an integral part of the American
New York World story will enable us to survive "the dan-
ger which in the past has been most de-
Journal Tribune, structive to the human: successplenty,
24 October 1966, p. 37. comfort, and ever-increasing leisure."
The varied components that make up
the unity that is America are richly dis-
A little over five years ago John Steinbeck played in the photographs thatfillso many
went off in a truck with a tall dog named pages of the Steinbeck bookphoto-
Charley to rediscover America. He trav- graphs by a stellar group of 55 artists. . . .
eled over 10,000 miles and through 34
states, and he wrote a book about the
places he saw and the people he met and
what they said. Conrad Richter.
"From start to finish," he summed up "America Appreciated,
in Travels with Charley', "I found no stran-
gers. .. . For all of our enormous geo- Especially New England."
graphic range, for all of our sectionalism, Harper's, 233
for all of our interwoven breeds drawn
from every part of the ethnic world, we (November 1966), 132-3.
are a nation, a new breed.. . . This is not
patriotic whoop-de-do. It is a carefully
observed fact. . . . It is astonishing that . . . It's stepping out of the distinctions of
this has happened in less than 200 years New England in more ways than one to
and most of it in the last 50. The American come to America and Americans. There
identity is an exact and provable thing." is almost a confusion of photographs, of
In his new book, Steinbeck makes a which some emerge memorably from the
deeper examination of that identity mill run. Perhaps the latter must be ex-
what historical institutions and accidents pected when choice lies in the hands of a
have helped to create it, what paradoxes committee or panel able to agree most
are present in it, what dangers threaten equably on a common denominator. Stein-
it, what powers of survival it may have beck's text, while not of the quality of
against them. It is, he writes, a book of Charlton Ogburn's, stands clear of the
"opinion, conjecture and speculation" panel, is individual and independent as it
about a country that is "complicated, can well afford to be, one man's responsi-
bullheaded, shy, cruel, boisterous, un- bility and to hell with the blame. He de-
speakably dear, and very beautiful." clares at the outset that his writing is
Steinbeck is not a patriotic whoop- opinionated. He is most convincing in his
de-doer. There are shameful pages in our judgments on civilization, politics, despo-
national history; he does not overlook liation, and lack of principle today as
them. There are symptoms in today's so- well as in the past. But it's in telling a
ciety of an illness that could bring us to story that we get the best glimpse of him,
the verge of moral collapse; he describes the account of his Great-Aunt Carrie, his
them in grim detail. But he loves his country Faulkner-like tale of a miser in Salinas,

499
that of a piano in a sod shanty ("Profes-
sor, could you play the Maiden's Pray- S[ister] M[ary] L[ucille]
er?"), and the meaningful incident of
Jimmy, the Indian, and the mermaid. [McCreedy].
Reading these, even the dullest reader "Books for Young Adults."
should feel that here is the hand of an ac-
complished storyteller. . . .
Catholic Library World,
38 (December 1966),
273.
Robert J. Cooke.
"Books." Nobel prize winner, John Steinbeck,
Social Education, 3 writes affectionately about the govern-
(December 1966), 673-4. ment, the American people in their pur-
suit of happiness and Americans and
their land, their relationship to the world,
and their future. Magnificently illustrated
A good picture book is very seldom with 136 pages of photographs, twenty-
the victim of a cleaning off of shelves four in full-color, by a distinguished
its detail is infinite and its appeal is time- group of photographers and edited by the
less. One returns to a picture book be- staff of Studio Books, The Viking Press.
cause it makes no demands, its message Recommended for those collections which
is emotional rather than intellectual, yet can afford this expensive, beautiful volume.
itfillsthe spaces left after reading printed
words. . . .
John Steinbeck's America and Ameri-
cans is clearly a labor of love and he de- "America the Beautiful."
scribes his work as "a book of opinions, Times Literary
unashamed and individual." The pictures
are rather ordinary (with one or two no- Supplement [London],
table exceptions such as "Schoolgirl" by 1 December 1966,
Declan Haun on page 65) and most of
them have been seen before in Life or p. 1120.
Time or some such magazine. The almost
book-length text is, indeed, Steinbeck
opinion; whimsical, superficial, idle ob- From one point of view, this is a picture
servations such as "Sometimes we seem book, an excellent picture book but
to be a nation of public Puritans and pri- rather conventional in that it stresses too
vate profligates," or "But we are an exu- much America the Beautiful. But it is a
berant people, careless and destructive as picture book whose accompanying text is
active children." The book is disappoint- not a rivulet but a river and the text is by
ing. Steinbeck, like Dos Passos, grows that famous and idiosyncratic author
older.... (and Nobel Prizeman), John Steinbeck.
The pictures, adroitly chosen, are by
some of the most famous American cam-
eramen and some are dazzlingly beautiful

500
and some have special kinds of fascina- but it is not a matter of features but of
tion. But it is the text that matters. Mr. a score of ways of behaving that marks
Steinbeck still thinks of the United States all Americans, white, black, yellow. The
as "the last, best hope of earth" but in Cornish-speaking miners Mr. Steinbeck
some ways, this brief commentary is as met ought to be shipped back to the
disconcerting for the 100 per cent Ameri- Duchy, to teach the modern Cornishmen
can as was The Grapes of Wrath. Mr. their ancestral tongue.
Steinbeck has no sacred cows. Indeed, he The pictures are brilliant, but not rep-
dares attack a cow more sacred even than resentative. The Middle West is nearly
Mom, the rule by what he calls the neglected. The antiques and ruins that
"paedarchy." The "alienation of youth" Americans are so good at building are
does not impress him, although it does excessively represented. There is an al-
depress him. most total absence of academic scenes.
Why not a picture of a midwestern col-
The reign of terror, which is actually lege with a fine site like Marietta? Why, if
a paedarchy, increases every day, and we are to have Vanderbilt chateaux, not
the open warfare between adults and Biltmore rather than The Breakers? Why
teenagers becomes constantly more not some rural slums like the decayed
bitter.... I do not blame the youth; mining villages of Pennsylvania and West
no one has ever told him that his Virginia or decayed textile towns like
tricks are obvious, his thoughts puer- that New Hampshire town that proudly
ile, his goals uncooperative and selfish, boasts it is the original of Peyton Place?
his art ridiculous. Psychoanalysts con- But it is a pleasure to see some of the
stantly remind their little patients that great natural sights, to realize that the
they must find the real "me." The real power of wonder New York once had is
"me" inevitably turns out to be a sav- not exhausted, to recognize a fine restau-
age, self-seeking little beast. rant in San Francisco by the wallpaper
and to see a member of the (Boston) Ath-
Mr. Steinbeck notes the importance of enaeum holed up in his natural habitat.
the fact that the Americans have always This is an expensive book but it is worth
been, to quote from Professor David Pot- the money.
ter, "a People of Plenty." He knows the
importance of the forest, the antiqua
silva that dazzled Pastorius in the late
seventeenth century. Mr. Steinbeck is Tetsumaro Hayashi.
worried by "the Negro question." He "America and
tells us of the quick and prudent reaction
of a Negro who might have been accused Americans."
of rape. And of his reply to Mr. Steinbeck's Visvabharati Quarterly
congratulations"I've been practising to
be a Negro for a long time." [India], 31 (1965-6),
Mr. Steinbeck has his quirks. The 404-6.
longbow was a Welsh, not an English in-
vention. The Japanese in California are
taller and heavier than their parents
were, but so are the Japanese in Japan. John Steinbeck, a Nobel Prize winner, one
The Nisei no doubt "look American," of the greatest living American authors,

501
 recently spoke out again forcefully in his and injustice. Americans are, implies Stein-
America and Americans, a collection of beck, the kindest and the friendliest peo-
informally written essays of serious na- ple on earth, but they can be as mean,
ture about his beloved country and cruel, and rude to their own brothers as
people. His essays are illustrated by beau- some savages in the jungle. They love
tiful, selected photographs of American their president, and yet they crucify him,
people and typical American festivals, laments the patriotic writer. In "Paradox
events, and scenes. and Dream" Steinbeck states, in a posi-
Like his Travels with Charley in tive tone, one of the self-contradictory di-
Search of America (1962), this book at- chotomies of the United States. "We are
tempts to recapture the diversified images complacent in our possessions, in our
of America and her people and to tell homes, in our education; but it is hard to
Americans how they stand and look to find a man or woman who does not want
others. To a great extent, however, what something better for the next generation."
he discusses seems to be an assimilation Throughout the book he points out this
of what many sociologists, psychologists, kind of dichotomy again and again, hop-
theologians, and philosophers have ar- ing that a better America and greater
gued in the past. Therefore, this book country may someday be created out of
will not shock the reader, nor will it im- such complex characters. The reader will
press you with strikingly new ideas and not always agree with Steinbeck, but he
interpretations. Yet it is the straightfor- will certainly respect the author's pas-
wardness and honesty with which Stein- sionate love and grave concern for his
. beck talks about the realistic human con- country and her future, because his love
dition in the United States that make the and concern are directed not merely to-
work significant and captivating. ward America and Americans but also
He is, for instance, unashamed when toward all nations and all mankind.
he praises his country for her greatness. The truths of America and Americans
At the same time, he is equally unre- he discovers and discusses in this book is
strained when he points out the evils and [sic] by and large the truths of all nations
hypocrisies of his country and people. It and peoples on earth. It is truly due to
is this honesty and boldness as well as this universal identity that the reader will
this fairness and insight in his critical ap- find Steinbeck's message appealing. In
praisal that makes this book worth read- this respect this is a book of prophecy
ing, for the conscience of America is re- written by a man of mission and vision, a
vealed in the person of John Steinbeck man who loves his country and people so
throughout this book. much that he cannot help worrying about
Steinbeck sees America as a country their problems, faults, and dilemmas, a
full of contradictions, conflicts, tensions, man who cannot help telling his people
and paradoxes. Thus he dares, though what is wrong with them. After Adlai
sympathetically, to discuss various prob- Stevenson is gone,. .. America's con-
lems and subjects in their intricate and science is now represented by Steinbeck
mysterious dichotomies: good and evil; who denies a fairy tale of the United
pride and shame; hope and despair; vir- States but sees through chaos and confu-
tue and sin; conflict and harmony; and sion a really truthful picture of his coun-
promise and pitfalls. America is, as he try and people.
sees her, a mecca of freedom, and yet she The author maintains in the conclud-
is also a home of inequality, segregation, ing chapter that America's hope lies in

502
her insatiable desire, a desire to be rebel-
lious, angry, searching, and dissatisfied David E. Scherman.
with the status quo, for the desire and
dissatisfaction are an energy to be greater. "Things and People."
In the darkness and despair John Steinbeck New York Times Book
finds shining light for America and her
people. It is not only America's hope but Review, 116
a hope for all mankind. (4 December 1966),
3,46.
Eric Moon.
"New Books Appraised." . . . The most ambitious of the five [picto-
rial books] is John Steinbeck's America
Library Journal, 91 and Americans. .. . Pictorially, it is merely
(1 December 1966), 5962. an attempt to search out and boil down
the entire photographic output of Amer-
icaall the picture magazines and all
copies of U.S. Camera, it would seem
. .. Don't be misled. It has the look and into one big, smashing book that spells
feel of a coffee-table special. The pictures, Yankeeland. A preposterous goal, and in
the work of 55 of today's best photogra- spite of lots of keen snaps of Industry,
phers, loom twice as large as the text, Sports, Sex, Rich Businessman, Confused
and it's a fine, handsome, heavy, impres- Negro, Mom, Baby, College Fun, Serious
sive book. But what really makes it very History, Religion and Monument Na-
much more than just a coffee-table book tional Park, Ariz, (our heritage) it is
is the 70-page essay by Steinbeck. In this hardly attained. Verbally, it is perhaps
short space he manages to capture more not within my competence to comment
of the essentials and the paradoxes of upon, except to state that Steinbeck's
Americaand Americansthan all the prose is only occasionally relevant to the
photographers together. He writes, clear- pictures, at best the intelligent ramblings
ly, out of a love for his country and his of a first-rate reporter, at worst the opin-
people, but he is less maudlin and senti- ionated musings of a liberal Westbrook
mental in this book than he has some- Pegler. We're a great people, warts and
times been in the past when on the all, and what else is new? . . .
subject of his homeland. This time he has
drawn a "warts and all" picture, with the
warts exposed full-size and in detail. It
is an honest, sincere, powerful piece of "America and
writing, better perhaps than most things Americans."
he has done since the thirties. Not every-
one will like everything Steinbeck says in Choice, 4 (May 1967),
this book, but very few will be able to re- 279.
sist reading i t . . . .

Steinbeck essays, through a sparing use

of words and lavish use of photographs,

503
to present as an American the sort of de- interests and directions, something has
scription-cum-analysis which Europeans emerged that is itself unique in the world:
have been turning out for centuries. In Americacomplicated, paradoxical, bull-
this respect his work compares well with headed, shy, cruel, boisterous, unspeak-
Brogan's American Character (1944). It able, dear, and very beautiful."
is avowedly "a book of opinions, un- Photography buffs will love the book
ashamed and individual." Some of these for its beautiful pictures, which make the
are certainly open to challenge, but all volume relatively expensive, and slower
are unpretentiously stated and all have readers willfindthe photographs an added
the characteristic ring of American thought. incentive. It is possible for an interested
The photographs, all full-page or better, poor reader to read only one or two of
some in color, make up three-fifths of the short sections which are complete
the book. They represent the work of in themselves.
Eisenstadt, Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Tom Steinbeck, as usual, records provoca-
Hollyman, Bruce Roberts, and 50 others. tive insights and will enable some readers
And they are, collectively, beautiful and to view old concepts in a new light. The
moving in a measure rarely seen since advanced student will enjoy these flashes
The Family of Man and The Europeans, while at the same time recognizing that
Those who want a beautiful and very the expression of personal opinion some-
American book will be delighted. One times leads to generalization and over-
would hope to find it in every U.S.I.A. simplification. At any rate, Steinbeck's view
reading room. of the paradox of America is lively read-
ing and was obviously written from great
devotion to his country. He is concerned
about the future of America but sees
Geraldine LaRocque. hope in its vitality. . . .
"Book Marks:
Potpourri."
English Journal, 57 Ted Atkinson.
(May 1968), 751-53. "America and
Americans."
Steinbeck Quarterly, 2
. . . Because of the recent television pro-
gram based on it and because of John (Fall 1969), 66-8.
Steinbeck's appeal to young adults, Amer-
ica and Americans .. . might interest
many students in the ninth through twelfth For the literary scholar I must assume
grades. Because Steinbeck is openly sub- that the text is more important than the
jective, the text takes on the added spirit pictures of America and Americans. If
which comes from his conviction. In the one is granted this assumption, then it
Foreword the author states, "In text and follows that the Bantam edition of Amer-
pictures, this is a book of opinions, un- ica and Americans (1968) is as valuable
ashamed and individual.... I believe that to the scholar as the Viking Press edition
out of the whole body of our past, out of of 1966. The text for both editions is the
our differences, our quarrels, our many same; it is only the size and placement of

504
pictures that differ. If, however, one con- dox and Dream," Steinbeck continues
siders the pictures to be of great signifi- his analysis of the American identity by
cance, then the Viking edition (due to its discussing the uniquely American di-
larger size and clearer reproduction of the chotomies that most Americans accept as
pictures) is certainly the superior volume. commonplace. The author states that
America and Americans is a highly "we are able to believe that our govern-
subjective work; the author does not ment is weak, stupid, overbearing, dis-
claim to be objective. Since the volume is honest, and inefficient, and at the same
admittedly subjective (Steinbeck states time we are deeply convinced that it is
in the "Foreword" that such is the case), the best government in the world, and we
we have what amounts to the author's like to impose it upon everyone else."
casual reflections on American culture. The many paradoxes of American life are
One of the major strengths of such a further explored as Steinbeck indicates
work is that the author reveals as much that Americans live in cities and dream of
about himself as he does about the Amer- the country, earn money only to give it
ican tradition. It becomes quite apparent away, and restlessly long for security,
then that such a volume is valuable to the only to be deprived of it by restlessness.
student or scholar searching for a com- The many paradoxes of American culture
pendium of Steinbeck's political, social, are again developed in "Government of
and economic views. the People." Here the author discusses
One of the most striking features the American attitudes toward the Presi-
about this volume is that its casual style dent and the many "inviolable, deep-
is at once interesting and informative. seated" political customs like the nomi-
Personal anecdotes, such as the Tallac nating conventions.
hatchery encounter with Jim, heighten In the next two sections of America
the reader's interest and clearly illustrate and Americans, "Created Equal" and "Ge-
points of discussion. Steinbeck's personal nus Americanus," Steinbeck's main con-
experience at the hatchery illustrates well cern is with race and class prejudice. In
"the way the tribesmen can slip back and the first of these sections the author la-
forth between their two realities and be- bors long and well to trace the origins of
tween one culture and another." Other racial prejudice in America. In the pro-
personal observationsthe old lady at cess he attempts to dispel illusions and
Third Avenue with her city life and trap- establish facts. The process is continued
pings of a rural dream and Mr. Kirk with in "Genus Americanus" as Steinbeck con-
his haunted house and intriguing charac- siders how "members of a classless soci-
tersalso serve to entertain and instruct e t y . . . work out changes in status levels
the reader. without violating their belief that there
Aside from the power of Steinbeck's are no such levels." This consideration
style and apart from the value of the sub- touches upon the old notions of aristoc-
jective revelations, America and Ameri- racy, the new notions of capitalism, the
cans is interesting because of the tension strange structures of the corporation, and
developed by honestly expressed ideas. the curious need for "orders, lodges, and
" Pluribus Unum," the first section of encampments." The cultural paradoxes
the text, is a discussion concerning the explored in the preceding two chapters
complex fusion of geography, climate, are further exploited in "The Pursuit
and ethnic anarchy that fashioned Amer- of Happiness." In this section problems
ica and "made us Americans." In "Para- that occur from childhood to old age are

505
considered within the bewildering Ameri- for survival. This idea figures strongly
can culture that was revealed in the ear- throughout America and Americans, but
lier chapters. "Americans and the Land" it is particularly clear in this last section.
is a rather tiresome discussion of the The paradoxes and ironies of American
American's treatment of their landscape. life are successfully resolved in Steinbeck's
From the early wanton destruction of concluding affirmation of faith in America's
forests to the present inadvertent pollu- future: "I believe that our history, our ex-
tion of water and air, the author reveals periences in America, has endowed us for
the means by which the landscape has the change that is coming."
been victimized by innumerable abuses.
The slight value of this section is, how-
ever, well offset by "Americans and the
World." Here the focus changes from Checklist of Additional
Americans looking at Europeans and Eu- Reviews
ropeans looking at Americans, to Ameri-
cans looking at themselves and finally
creating an American literature. After
discussing the American journalist and Walter Havighurst. "The Face of
literary artist, Steinbeck pays a tribute to America." Chicago Tribune, 16
the historical value of Huckleberry Finn, October 1966, Section 9, p. 12.
An American Tragedy, Winesburg, Ohio, Beatrice Washburn. "Steinbeck Takes
Main Street, The Great Gatsby, and As I America Apart." Miami [Fla.] Herald,
Lay Dying. 15 January 1967, Section J, p. 7.
In "Americans and the Future," T[etsumaro] Hayashi. "America and
Steinbeck seems to clearly indicate that Americans'" (Japanese edition),
the tensions present in American culture Steinbeck Newsletter, 1 (August
will always provide the energy necessary 1968), 4.

506
JOURNAL OF A NOVEL: THE EAST OF EDEN LETTERS
JOURNAL OF
A NOVEL 56
The East of Eden Letters

JOHN STEINBECK

The Viking Press 3C NEWYORK

 his title. Should it be "Salinas Valley," or
William Hogan. "My Valley"? "I have never been a title-
man," he confided.
"World of Books." This curiosity piece becomes an "ar-
San Francisco Chronicle, guing ground" for his story, a sharpening
of pencils in public (Steinbeck found that
16 December 1969, p. 41. long beautiful pencils charged him with
energy and invention). His sexual drive
grows "stronger than ever, but that may
We enter a low-keyed neurotic wonder- be because it is all in one direction now
land in John Steinbeck's Journal of and not scattered."
a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. This The weeks roll on, and the author
is a literary document, reminiscent of... rides their backs. Suddenly the first draft
Thomas Wolfe's self-revealing back- of what he hoped would be a finer work
ground notes on the writing of Look Home- than The Grapes of Wrath is finished. "It
ward, Angel (1935). But the Steinbeck is a kind of death," he wrote; "this is
material is a far more personal and re- the requiem."
vealing emotional catharsis. It is a series The letters become a disturbing frag-
of letters to his editor at Viking Press, the ment of an autobiography, a private note-
late Pascal Covici (who died some four book that often seems to be just too
years before Steinbeck did), and who was personal for a stranger to be browsing in.
Steinbeck's mentor, psychiatrist and fa- As an admirer of Steinbeck's work, espe-
ther-confessor. cially the early work, I find it a fascinat-
The letters were written between January ing set of literary-clinical notes, and only
and November, 1951, when Steinbeck wish after all this posturing and heart-
was writing East of Eden, the long, real- bleeding anguish he had produced a bet-
istically detailed saga of a Salinas valley ter book. It remains a set of echoes from
family played as a reconstruction of the the confessional, even such asides to
Cain and Abel story. As it turned out, Covici as:
East of Eden was a rather pretentious "You must be getting damn sick of
novel which stirred a mixed critical re- this endless soapbox and there is not a
ception, but it added to the bulk of thing you can do about i t . . . the one
Steinbeck's work for which, in 1962, he thing you can do is not to read it and I
received the Nobel Prize for Literature. think you are too curious for that so I
Daily, during the composition of this have you and I can be as dull as I wish.
book, Steinbeck "unblocked" himself by Ho, ho!"
writing a letter to Covici. Most of the let-
ters appeared on left hand pages of a
large notebook; the text of his story was
on the right hand pages, all written in
longhand. They tell much about the
writer's creative process, and about this
particular author-editor relationship.
It is intimate stuff, never designed for
publication. It is chatter about his char-
acters, about his drinking habits, about
news events of the day, his wife, sons and

509
 read the latter with all the emotional in-
Clarence Brown. tensity that informs his best pages, the re-
sult being that he gradually identified it
"The Callus behind the with the former. When he had settled into
Fiction." his new room and his new chair, before
his new drafting table and his new ledger,
New Republic, 161 one part of Steinbeck's mind was anx-
(20 December 1969), 26, iously prodding, taunting and encourag-
ing the other. It proposed paradoxes. In
30, 32. the journal the paradox is that a man
might arrange himself ever so comfort-
ably, his bowels and soul in some celes-
Steinbeck thought that every man had tial harmony, and still be unable to write.
one book in him and that East of Eden But the paradox of the novel is the su-
was his. This naturally made him ner- preme, the biblical, paradox of good and
vous. It made him, when he finally evil, of the murderer's freedom to tri-
brought himself to try the book, turn to a umph over his sin. For passionate analy-
kind of athlete's compulsive checking and sis, whatever it may lack in scholarship,
record-keeping and not a little voodoo to there must be nothing in all the annals of
ward off the demons that impede cre- hermeneutics to match Steinbeck's pages
ation: telephones, depression, doorbells, on the single Hebrew verb timshel. So the
children, advice, and bad pencils. In a novel is infinitely the greater book, but its
large ledger that his editor, Pascal Covici, greatness confers a remarkable distinc-
had given him he wrote letters to Covici tion upon the journal.
on the left-hand page at the start of each The journal, never meant for publica-
working day and the novel on the right. tion, is repetitious and contradictory, but
He began at the end of January 1951 and these qualities are not faults, for they
wrote straight through the year deep into provide precious insights into a writer's
the fall. Then the novel, except for some hesitant awareness of what he was doing.
revision, was finished. Just before start- The faults of the book belong chiefly to
ing, Steinbeck had emerged from the Steinbeck's anonymous editors, or per-
writer's peculiar hell of a long dry spell haps just to circumstance. The journal is
and the general hell of a divorce that had meaningless without a fresh reading of
deprived him of two sons. But he had re- the novel from which, in a strictly physi-
married, this time to a woman who gave cal sense, it was excised; but even with
him a buoyant serenity that is evident such reading you are not always sure just
throughout his journal, and the novel which passage is being referred to, and
started to come. the editors' help on this point is haphaz-
East of Eden, as it chances, is the ard. But incomparably the greatest lack
story of two sons who turn up in several of all is that of Pascal Covici.
guises but always with indelible traces of
their models, Cain and Abel. It is also ex- Covici was clearly the kind of editor that
plicitly the story of Steinbeck's own fam- every writer longs for, or ought to. His
ily narrated by himself in his own name relationship is not that of Maxwell
and person. Little wonder that he saw it Perkins to Thomas Wolfe, whose ungov-
as his one book, for it is his own primal ernable creativity Perkins brought under
story and the primal story of Man. He some kind of control. If Covici took a

510
hand in Steinbeck's novel, he did it convinced that this journal will provide
simply by being the one perfect reader material for part of the answer. He was
of it. In the first draft, parts of the novel obsessive about the daily production
had the form of letters to Steinbeck's quota. One day, early on in the journal,
two boys. But this was abandoned, and he perversely declines to work (though he
I think the reason is clear: the novel it- wrote the letter). He will have his hair
self was never really addressed to any- cut. He might "go farther and get a little
one but Covici. From 1934, when his sweet-smelling tonic rubbed on. This is a
editor discovered himthree novels had real festive day for me with garlands.
done poorly and a fourth, Tortilla Flat, And you, old word-Scrooge, will curse
was being rejected by all publishers and mutter because I am wasting time.
until 1964, when Covici died, he was Well, I defy you." That is an extraordi-
the writer's confidant, goad, quartermas- nary tone of voice, as extraordinary as
ter andin Steinbeck's consciousness, I his non-feasance, and it is uncomfort-
thinkhis single auditor. Eliot said that ably somewhere between flirt and bitch.
writing comes from talkingto oneself, Where does it come from? The answer is
to one other, or to God. For Steinbeck, elsewhere in the passage, for Steinbeck
Covici was the "one other." East of Eden is preparing to introduce Cathy, whose
was dedicated to him. So, incidentally, warped malignancy runs through the
was Saul Bellow's Herzog. And so was novel like the stain of Man's first disobe-
Charles A. Madison's Book Publishing in dience. I think he was discovering her in
America (McGraw-Hill 1966), which I himself, though it was much later in the
had to unearth from the British Museum journal that he explicitly realized his
for such information on Covici as one greater kinship with her than with any
might reasonably expect to find in a other character in the book.
preface to Steinbeck's journal. Madison I treasure his testimony concerning the
quotes something that Steinbeck said af- physical side of writing. The writing cal-
ter Covici's death: "Pat Covici was much lus on his middle finger grew to both-
more than my friend. He was my edi- ersome proportions. When he cut his
tor. . . . He demanded of me more than I thumb carving something out of wood,
had and thereby caused me to be more the writing suffered. Earlier the slant of
than I should have been without him." his table had seemed wrong, and when he
And from Covici, in 1941: "In my little changed it, improving his posture, the
life, which is about three-quarters done, work went easier. There was a glare on
you are my rarest experience . . . . " It was the light wood of the table, so he painted
that sense of being at least one man's rar- it black, which was a bad idea, so he put
est experience that banished from Stein- down a restful, green blotter. But all this
beck's mind the clouds of depression, the
is mere frippery when compared to the
sick fear of rejection and failure, certain
question of pencils. I should like to pro-
frightening impulses in his own soul (all
pose that Steinbeck's numerous com-
plentifully attested to) and enabled him
ments on the basic instruments of author-
to write.
ship be made into a syllabus for the first
The question how Steinbeck or any course in "creative writing." I am not in
artist can fuse the dark night of the soul the employ of Eberhard Faber, but I re-
with the radiance of love for wife, sons, gard it as a duty to set down his devotion
and friend into the alchemical product of to the Blackwing ("Half the Pressure
art is beyond my competence, but I am Twice the Speed") and, for other moods

511
and stages of inspiration, the Mongol Steinbeck's post-war reception was one
480 No. 2% F round. of nearly unrelieved and often misdi-
rected hostility. Of the eight fictional
Writers alone will understand that they works published during this period, only
can use no other information in the The Pearl was even fleetingly praised,
book. His comments on character, pace, and it has inevitably suffered from con-
construction, and so on, are profession- stant comparison with Hemingway's The
ally worthless, since if Steinbeck has any Old Man and the Sea. What distressed
message at all, it is that practically noth- Steinbeck most were the "expecters"
ing can be learned from predecessors, those critics who constantly awaited an
and the little that can must be painfully updated Grapes of Wrath, who refused
disremembered. A novel is oneself or it is to "go along with the story" in each sub-
nothing. He wrote a novel of two fami- sequent work if it did not meet the crite-
lies against a background of history with ria of his most famous novel. When, for
an explicitly moral purpose and an explicit- example, Peter Lisca (The Wide World of
ly present author. His method was sharp John Steinbeck) wrote a postscript on
juxtaposition. But he was not building on Steinbeck's "decline as a writer," chiding
Tolstoy: he was reinventing him. That his him for abandoning "his earlier view-
reinvention lagged behind the original is point," it was clear that balanced opinion
not so bad when you recall that mere had been pre-empted by stylistic preju-
imitation would have been unreadable. dice. Other critics, such as Lionel Trill-
ing, Walter Allen, and Mark Schorer, still
influenced by Edmund Wilson's knell-like
statements of 1940, found the post-war
Lawrence William Jones. work wanting for much the same reason.
Still others somehow saw evidence in the
"Personal History." journalism of the Sixties . . . that the au-
Saturday Review, 52 thor had lost his creative spark with his
(20 December 1969), first step outside the Salinas Valley.
Whether these letters, written to Stein-
25-6. beck's editor, Pascal Covici, during the
ten-month composition of East of Eden
in 1951, will have much effect on future
"One should be a reviewer," says John criticism is a difficult thing to predict.
Steinbeck in one of the letters in this Written as a warming-up exercise for the
posthumous collection, "or better still a actual novel, though, they contain a great
critic, these curious sucker fish who live deal more than indictment; they reveal
with joyous vicariousness on other men's much about Steinbeck the man, about his
work and discipline with dreary words relationship with those closest to him,
the thing that feeds them." Elsewhere about his art in general and East of Eden
in his writings he calls criticism "a bunch in particular. I believe they will be indis-
of crap" and "an ill-tempered parlor pensable to future studies of his work.
game in which nobody gets kissed," re- The autobiographical details are of
marks that, although relatively infrequent, course invaluable in the absence of any
seemed to become increasingly venomous biography. ("Feel free to make up your
in the late stages of his career. own facts about me," he told would-
The venom was well deserved, for be biographers; "biography by its very

512
nature must be half-fiction.") Steinbeck it has seemed to me there is ample evi-
comes across in these letters as an ex- dence that in these later works Steinbeck
tremely introspective person, often lonely, was attempting not to depict real-life
given to periods of deep depression as situations (as in, say, In Dubious Battle)
well as exquisite joy (during the creative but rather to give us fictional examples of
process), possessed of strong personal be- the truth of a formulable moral statement
liefs often bordering on the arrogant, as in other words, to construct fables, para-
enamored of mechanical inventions as of bles, apologues. Now the proof of the va-
experimental ideas. His self-descriptions lidity of this perspective is at hand; in a
often remind one of many characters in letter of October 10 Steinbeck declares:
his fiction, as do the brief portraits of his "I have noticed so many of the reviews of
relativesmother and father, sons Thorn my work show a fear and a hatred of ideas
and John, and wife Elaine. and speculations. It seems to be true that
Most illuminating is the obvious un- people can only take parables fully clothed
derstanding and accepting relationship with flesh. Any attempt to correlate in
between the author and his editor, a rela- terms of thought is frightening."
tionship which Charles Madison (Book Furthermore, throughout the letters he
Publishing in America) has called "the speaks of his vital concerns, which are
happiest in publishing history." The mu- surely those of a fabulist: clothing the
tual respect, the sharing of ideas, the thematic skeleton with the "trappings of
attempt to comprehend each other's role experience," creating "symbol people"
all are evident here, so that one can who will merely translate his ethical ideas
appreciate Steinbeck's tribute to Covici for the reader, catching the reader in a
after his death in 1964: "For thirty years "trap" of involvement with these ideas,
Pat was my collaborator and my con- managing the various levels of meaning a
science. He demanded of me more than I parable may evoke, utilizing some perva-
had and thereby caused me to be more sive pattern or motif ("the great covered
than I should have been without him." thing") to which everything else in the
Many of the personal details (prefer- narrative bears a relation. The writing of
ence for certain types of pencils, theories parables, it appears, requires attention to
about the popular desire for long books) such fine points of technique; but the
and incidental comments (on Commu- catch is this: a reader must be willing, as
nism, on man's life-patterns) tend to be- Kafka puts it, to "go over" into the spe-
come boring by mere repetition, as is per- cial world of parable, to read his own life
haps to be expected of a publication of into that worldand this responsibility
this nature. By far the greatest worth of the "expecters" have always eschewed.
journal of a Novel is to be found in its In East of Eden, Steinbeck maintains,
commentary on the nature of writing and he is working with the "microcosm,"
on the technical problems involved in a with a story which is symbolically that of
massive creation like East of Eden. mankind. Thus he sees the moral theme
Lately, I have been seeking to main- of his Cain-Abel framework as the most
tain that Steinbeck's direction in his post- vital aspect of his book, something every
warfictionis fabular rather than novelistic man must inculcate as he reads. "My
(a view that has always been an under- wish is that when my reader has finished
current in criticism, and which I was with this book, he will have a sense of
happy to find I shared with that energetic belonging in it," he declares; and again,
Steinbeck aficionado Warren French). For "I don't want a treatise. I want the par-

513
ticipation of my reader. I want him to be Golding, it may be remembered, had to
so involved that it will be HIS story." The cope with much the same tendency to-
various ways in which Steinbeck tries to ward all inclusiveness in the writing of
achieve this reader participation are fasci- Lord of the Flies, and he concluded (in
nating to watch: manipulation of the his essay "Fable") that "if one takes the
book's pace ("much more like Fielding whole of the human condition as back-
than like Hemingway") to give the reader ground of a fable it becomes hopelessly
time for contemplation, the fashioning of complex.... The fable is most successful
symbolic characters like Samuel Hamilton qua fable if it works within strict limits."
(the "wide open man" who recurs in Unfortunately, although Steinbeck men-
other parables) and Cathy-Kate (the per- tions this problem at least once (July 24)
sonification of an inherent human malig- he was unable to overcome it.
nancy), the refining of the "universal Other correlations of these letters to
quality" any parable must have into the published novel (Steinbeck does not
some manageable objective correlative. think of it as a novel but as a pseudo-
Since it does not take much to upset history or a romance) must await, as the
the delicate sense of proportion in par- publisher's note indicates, "future scholar-
able form, reasons for the ineffectiveness ship." Read carefully, I think the letters
of East of Eden are also found here. At in Journal of a Novel might well lead
least two are easily detectable. One is many "expecters" to re-examine Stein-
Steinbeck's indecision over the nature of beck's later work and re-evaluate it on
Cathy-Kate: at times he seems to believe his own terms. For the general reader
that the evil she represents is "un- (and popular following remains strong)
earthly," not human at all, whereas at the Journal provides not the wide-angle
others (as in the letter of May 31) he view of James's prefaces nor the micro-
comes closer to the doctrine of original scopic conciseness of Faulkner's interviews,
sin: " . . . while she is a monster, she is a but a telephoto close-up of a fabulist seri-
little piece of the monster in all of us. It ously engaged in the "silly business" of
won't be because she is foreign that writing. The most eloquent passages in
people will be interested but because she the letters come when Steinbeck discusses
is not. That is not cynicism either." this business at length (Jan. 29, Sept. 3):
There is a hint here of what is glar-
ingly obvious in the books from Cannery The craft or art of writing is the
Row to The Winter of Our Discontent: clumsy attempt to find symbols for the
Steinbeck's compelling vision of good wordlessness. In utter loneliness a
(found in unity with the "Whole"with writer tries to explain the inexplicable.
nature and one's fellows) remains unop- And sometimes if he is very fortunate
posed by an equally compelling vision of and if the time is right, a very little of
evil, and the unresolved tension dissipates what he is trying to do trickles
the moral thrust. throughnot over much.. . . Having
A second reason for the failure of East gone through all this nonsense, what
of Eden to make a serious impact on emerges may well be the palest of re-
American literature is that it tackles too flections. Oh! it's a real horse's ass
much. Repeatedly, Steinbeck insists that business. The mountain labors and
the book must be about "everything," groans and strains and the tiniest of
that it must be a "key to living" contain- rodents comes out. And the greatest
ing "all in the world I know." William foolishness of all lies in the fact that to

514
 do it at all, the writer must believe January 29 and November 1, 1951, while
that what he is doing is the most im- he set down the first draft of East of
portant thing in the world. And he Eden. He wrote the journal in the form
must hold to this illusion even when of daily letters to his friend and editor at
he knows it is not true. If he does not, the Viking Press, Pascal Covici. For those
the work is not worth even what it interested in the literature of the creative
might otherwise have been. As it says process, it's worth reading.
in The King and I"Is a mystery!" Within certain bounds, Steinbeck seems
to have been open in his observations to
Covici. He describes the separate corri-
dors of his life in the Eden period. There
Richard J. Cattani. was his wife of a recent marriage and their
"Novelist Half in outfitting of a house in New York. Then
his paternal eye out for his two sons, liv-
Hiding." ing apart from him. And his world of
Christian Science Monitor, gadgetryrebuilding electric pencil shar-
peners, restoring chairs, wood carving. In
2 January 1970, p. 11. all of these, Steinbeck seems remarkably
human, and knowingly idiosyncratic.
He seemed to have learned to use
Men can surfer from their subterfugesa what others might call diversions as tun-
John Steinbeck no less than others. Writ- ing screws for his writing machine. Stein-
ing men defend themselves from these beck knew himself well, how to keep up
subterfuges or turn them to advantage, or the rhythm of his work. He could often
they cease to be writing men and become forestall or work out of ugly moods with
something else. This something else is his hobbies or family attentions. He sel-
usually in part defined by frustration, dom shorted his daily goal of two pages
unrealizationbeing not half the man of handwritten copy.
one's mental standard would have him be. Steinbeck was a pencil man. He would
Steinbeck had such a bout with self- buy five or six dozen at a time, sharpen
subterfuge and self-realization with each the lot of them each morning before
of his novels. But if he is to be taken at he started, then discard them when the
his word, East of Eden (with The Grapes metal eraser-band touched his skin. A
of Wrath and the short novels behind small matter perhaps, which he discussed
him, and The Winter of Our Discontent endlessly. He insisted they be round and
still to go) was his big book. It was to be not hexagonal, and of a certain make.
the measure of his powers. It was to be Like the several finishes he tried on his
his echo of the big theme of good and drafting table top before finding one
evil. It was to reflect the history of the that suited him, these humorings were
American conscience, his own family part of the way he kept himself in his
chronicle, and a summing up of what writing room. As was the Covici letter-
wisdom he had as a legacy for his two journal ruse.
then young sons. Reading the journal is like being with
This very ambition was one of the a professional athlete in the locker room
threats to his big book. He had to keep before and after every game of a season.
his intentions from crabbing it. Partly to You learn a lot about how he feels toward
stay loose, he kept a journal between the sport, whether he's all courage or

515
scared, whether he's abstracted or vulgar. or of contemporary fiction generally
But you still don't know what's going will be moved and instructed by this inti-
on in his head when he's playing the mate record of an important novel's
game. That's in the novel itself, in a way. evolution and the surrounding texture of
And that's why, as Steinbeck says in Jour- its author's life....
nal of a Novel, the reading of a book or
the rating of it (and East of Eden wasn't
rated high by all who read it, not by a
long shot) isn't anything like the thrill "Notes on Current
and gamble of the writing of it. Books."
Virginia Quarterly
John R. Willingham. Review, 46 (Spring 1970),
"Journal of a Novel: The lxvi.
East of Eden Letters."
Library Journal, 95 This posthumous work, a day-by-day ac-
count of the writing of East of Eden in
(1 March 1970), the form of a series of letters from John
899-900. Steinbeck to the late Pascal Covici, editor
of The Viking Press, will be of little inter-
est to the general reader, but for the
While writing the first draft of East of teacher and student of fiction and for
Eden in 1951, Steinbeck composed al- those who wish to know the mind and
most daily letters in a notebook for his heart, the working habits and daily prob-
editor, Pascal Covici. In them, he alter- lems of one creative writer, who after
nately fretted and exulted over the novel's publishing many novels, short stories,
progress. His commentary on his art is and plays was awarded the Nobel Prize
neither profound nor frequent (he writes (1962), this journal will provide invalu-
more often of his love for soft new pen- able information and some fascinating,
cils, his wife Elaine, his sons, his aches unexpected insights. Of course these same
and pains), but every page reveals his ear- qualified readers will also recognize the
nestness with each detail of his "big irony and pathos of this account, for
book." East of Eden was admittedly, although John Steinbeck would seem to
grandiosely autobiographical; it drew have regarded East of Eden as potentially
upon his countrythe Salinas Valleyas his most important and profound work
well as his family background. Often he critics have generally considered it one of
apologizes for his pace or his moodiness; his least successful novels.
but generally he projects a fine detach-
ment proceeding from his awareness that
the letters would not be read for at least
a year from their beginning. This is not a
scholarly edition: comments that might
have hurt the living are omitted; minute
textual details of the manuscript were
not checked. But admirers of Steinbeck

516
 He himself declared that "the best jus-
Derek Stanford. tification of these notes" was that they
got "all or most of the kinks out" before
"Mother McCarthy's he actually started on the book. What is
Chickens." so remarkable about the journal is the
way in which it establishes the relevance
Books and Bookmen of fine-spun threads of association to the
[England], 15 (August author's central act of composition. Ev-
erything becomes, in one sense simplified,
1970), 14-15. in terms of the role it performs as a hang-
up or a stimulus.

The book referred to in John Steinbeck's

journal of a Novel is East of Eden, his
longest and most ambitious, though not Richard Astro.
most famous fiction. Published in 1952, "Journal of a Novel."
East of Eden came 13 years after The Grapes
of Wrath. When Steinbeck began it in Steinbeck Quarterly, 3
1951, he was 49 and had another 17 years (Fall 1970), 107-10.
to live. The product of his mature middle-
age, the journal he kept while writing his
novel is probably, in one sense, a more
noteworthy document than the tale itself. It is difficult to know how to assess prop-
Into it went all sorts of matter: thoughts erly the Viking Press's recent publication
on the story he was writing, thoughts on of John Steinbeck's journal of a Novel,
the man writing that story. Indeed, in its the series of "letters" Steinbeck wrote to
excavations of the self and its drive to- his close friend and editor, Pascal Covici,
wards inner honesty, it makes us think during the composition of East of Eden.
of a very different work: Henri-Frederic At first glance, these "letters," written
Amiel's Intimate Diary, first published in every working day between January 29
1883. But whereas Amiel's two great in- and November 1, 1951, in a large note-
terests are the self and philosophy, those book across from the text of Steinbeck's
of Steinbeck are the self and psychol- grandly conceived but largely unsuccess-
ogythe latter understood in a very ful novel, seem to display the last remains
homely, concrete yet inquiring fashion. of a defeated novelist whose deteriorating
Steinbeck's journal in question was ac- literary talents had finally struck bottom.
tually a large exercise book measuring And even upon closer inspection, part of
103AM x 14" which Pascal Covici, his this initial reaction remains.
close friend and editor, had given him. Put simply, much of journal of a Novel
Every-day on the left-hand page, Steinbeck is trivial, and despite the fact that these
prepared for his stint of novel-writing dispatches were not written to be pub-
by indicating an entry or "letter" for lished, their very existence suggests some-
his friend. This unblocking warming-up thing rather pathetic about the general
work completed, he would then set to on quality of Steinbeck's thinking in 1951. It
the novel itself, setting down his regular is, in short, rather discouraging to find
1,000 words or so on the right hand the author of In Dubious Battle and The
pages of the journal. Grapes of Wrath absorbed with such

517
matters as the size of writing pencils, the tion and setting to achieve that end. And
operation of an electric pencil sharpener, in talking about people who are to ap-
eye doctors, the weather on Nantucket pear in his novel, it becomes apparent
Island, and General MacArthur. And that Steinbeck is more concerned with
even the uncritical Steinbeck reader can the character of Cathy Ames (Trask) than
find it difficult not to become annoyed at with any other single figure in the book.
the forced sense of method and control Calling her a monster born "with a mal-
which the novelist states he imposed on formed soul," Steinbeck states his desire
the actual writing of East of Eden. to show that Cathy "is a little piece of
Besides being repetitious, full of irrel- the monster in all of us."
evancies, and often just plain dull, Jour- Also of importance in Journal of a
nal of a Novel shatters the myth that has Novel are Steinbeck's remarks about the
often surrounded the novelist as a per- Hamilton stories in East of Eden. These
son. For the Steinbeck of these "letters" "letters" show, for instance, Steinbeck's
appears as a detached, somewhat self-in- fondness for the memory of his mater-
dulgent, comfort-loving member of the nal grandfather, Samuel Hamilton, whom
New York literati who hardly resembles the novelist remembers "surrounded with
the Steinbeck that we, in our delusive all manner of birds and beasts and quali-
simplicity, like to imagine fighting the ties of light" and whom he wants to por-
battles of the dispossessed Joads or envi- tray in his novel "in a kind of golden
sion stealing vegetables for the communal light, the way such a man should be re-
stews on Cannery Row. membered." In addition, Steinbeck ex-
To the reader genuinely concerned plains why he included the strange and
with Steinbeck and his work, however, very personal episode of Tom and Dessie
Journal of a Novel is an interesting and Hamilton, why he describes the character
highly valuable book for a number of of Abra as "the strong female principle of
reasons. First, it is a sincere testament of good as opposed to Cathy," and accounts
Steinbeck's affection for and trust in Pat for the character of Lee Trask's philoso-
Covici who, after the death of Ed pher-cook, who is in the book "because I
Ricketts in 1948, became Steinbeck's need him."
closest friend and professional confidant. Most importantly, the "letters" to Covici,
Further, the "letters" are highly valu- when taken as a whole, suggest that while
able to the Steinbeck scholar in that they Steinbeck consistently maintained that
enlarge the critical understanding of East East of Eden was "not a story about the
of Eden since they contain explicit state- Trasks but about the whole Valley," the
ments of Steinbeck's intentions in the book was gradually transformed into a
novel. For example, one learns that Stein- sprawling study of good and evil in the
beck regarded East of Eden as his "big world through a symbolic representation
novel" into which he attempted to pour of the Cain-Abel story (Steinbeck states
"every bit of technique I have learned that his characters are "symbol people")
consciously." From the standpoint of Stein- and an affirmation of free will (the Tim-
beck's thematic concerns in East of Eden, shel symbol) by which each individual
the "letters" to Covici are highly impor- can maintain his integrity and purpose-
tant in that they contain the novelist's in- fully assert his creative impulse. In short,
sistence that his main concern in East of Journal of a Novel clearly shows that in
Eden is with people and that he willingly the process of writing East of Eden,
subordinated his usual interest in descrip- Steinbeck's increasing absorption with

518
the theme of good versus evil led to his discards or at least minimizes his interest
preoccupation with the story of the Trask in the natural environment, telling Covici
family, and the result is less a series of he only wants to give "an impression of
"contrasts and balances" as Steinbeck the valley" since "this book is not about
hoped, but rather a long, incohesive and geography but about people." Under most
highly episodic work which reflects the circumstances, such a one-directional and
novelist's inability to weave several di- selective approach in a novel written on
verse threads into a coherent fabric. an epic scale would be hazardous, but to
In addition to the importance of Jour- a writer, like Steinbeck it is disastrous.
nal of a Novel in illuminating Steinbeck's In one of the last letters to Covici,
intentions in East of Eden and indirectly Steinbeck notes that most reviewers, fear-
accounting for the novel's failures, the ing and hating ideas and speculations un-
"letters" are even more significant in that clothed with flesh, will misread East of
they clearly demonstrate a shifting bal- Eden which "is full of such things." And
ance in Steinbeck's overall world view. In while this critic's objection is not that
short, the Steinbeck who appears in Jour- Steinbeck introduces ideas and specula-
nal of a Novel is not the writer who, in tions into his fiction, but simply that in
his best books, extolled the natural beauty East of Eden he does it to the exclusion
of the Salinas Valley, who celebrated the of everything else, what we are ultimately
ecological unity of all life, and who could left with is Steinbeck's final remark in the
champion the plight of homeless mi- original dedication to Covici which ap-
grants or write with loving acceptance pears at the end of the journal: "God
about the antics of the paisanos on Tortil- damn it. This is my book.... My book is
la Flat. Rather the Covici dispatches about good and evil. Maybe the theme
show him as a novelist driven to affirm, got into the execution. Do you want to
at the expense of everything else, the ba- publish it or not?"
sic humanity of the human animal which, In no way can Steinbeck's collection
in his earlier fiction, he had accepted a of "letters" to Covici be called a signifi-
priori; his desperate struggle to prove cant literary landmark. Nevertheless, it
that "although East of Eden is not Eden, presents an important portrait of John
it is not insuperably far away." Steinbeck attempting the impossible task
Viewed in retrospect, however, Stein- of "putting down the Salinas Valley from
beck's real contribution as a thinker in a country man's viewpoint" in a New
his writing is his ecological world view York apartment while a MacArthur Day
by which he maintains that all living parade goes on below his window. It
things are important not only in them- shows an already famous writer, with his
selves, but also as they relate to the total- greatest work behind him, trying me-
ity of their environment. "Man," says thodically and unsuccessfully to do it all
the novelist in The Log from the Sea of over again. No, Journal of a Novel is not
Cortez, "is related to the whole thing, re- a good book and to most readers is prob-
lated inextricably to all reality, known ably not worth the purchase price, but to
and unknowable." And in his greatest es- the Steinbeck critic interested in what Ed
says, short stories and novels, Steinbeck Ricketts once called "the toto-picture," it
presents this ecological, balanced view is indispensable in that it clearly illumi-
of man and his natural environment. In nates a highly important chapter in Stein-
Journal of a Novel (and by stated inten- beck's life and career as a writer.
tion in East of Eden), however, Steinbeck

519
 able to pick up the novel from where he
Peter Lisca. had left off.
The content of these letters is varied,
"Journal of a Novel: The from personal problems or ecstasies to
East of Eden Letters." general philosophical speculation; and
from complex problems of structuring
Modern Fiction Studies, the novel's action to the shape, size, hard-
16 (Winter 1970-1), ness, color, sharpness, and number of
pencils on handat least some dozen
571-2. passages on pencils and almost as many
on the physical properties of desk and
paper.
When Pascal Covici, Steinbeck's editor What emerges of Steinbeck's personal
at the Viking Press, died in 1964, Stein- life is not particularly valuable to the schol-
beck wrote, "For thirty years Pat was ar. But it is interesting to note how much
my collaborator and my conscience. He pleasure he got from working with his
demanded of me more than I had and hands at the practical tasks of homemak-
thereby caused me to be more than I ingbuilding shelves and doors, painting
should have been without him." Although walls, and at woodcarving and little prac-
it is clear in the present volume and else- tical inventions of the moment. Like a
where that Steinbeck resisted strongly good craftsman, he loved good tools. Al-
any "collaboration," his use of that term though the editor of this journal (an un-
in this tribute is a measure of his love and named member of the Viking staff) found
friendship. Their closeness was no secret, it necessary to delete a few lines relating
and Charles Madison (Book Publishing to persons still living, those remaining
in America) calls their relationship "the passages show a rich personal life, full of
happiest in publishing history." Journal love for his wife Elaine and her daughter,
of a Novel consists of a series of un- his own two sons by his previous mar-
mailed letters to Covici written every riage, and a variety of friends.
working day that Steinbeck spent on the Although his health was excellent dur-
first draft of East of Eden. So absorbed ing this period, he seemed often concerned
was he in the writing of that novel that that he be allowed to live long enough to
between January 29 and November 1, finish his novel, which he thought of as
1951, start and finish, there is a letter for the high point of his career"everything
every weekday except perhaps half a else I have written has been, in a sense,
dozen, and there are some Saturday and practice for this." Yet, paradoxically, he
Sunday letters to make up for them when so identified his daily life with the writing
he could not stay away from his book. of the novel that he hated to see the ap-
These letters were used as warm-up exer- proaching last chapters, and these are the
cises"like a pitcher warming up to cause of his longest delays.
pitch"for the actual writing stint of a Despite the much-quoted excerpt a-
carefully controlled, almost invariable bout it being "the duty of a writer to lift
quota of about 1500 words. Several let- up, to extend, to encourage . . . " there
ters themselves run to that length, al- were other days when he thought his
though they vary down to just a few craft a "silly business" and even a "horse's
lines, their variation reflecting the diffi- ass business," particularly when he was
culty or ease with which Steinbeck was reminded of critics and reviewers, whom

520
he had once called "lice" and now "curi-
ous sucker fish who live with joyous vi- Walter R. McDonald.
cariousness on other men's work and dis-
cipline with dreary words the thing that "Transfiguring the Word."
feeds them." He anticipated that the North American Review,
great themes, moral earnestness, and tech-
nical accomplishments of East of Eden
255 (Winter 1970), 74-6.
would not be appreciated. In fact, his
original four-page "Dedication" for the
book consisted of an imaginary free-for- . . . The Journal is an intriguing thing. In
all on the book among himself, editor, the form of letters to his editor, it was
proofreader, sales department, and reader. Steinbeck's way of warming up for writ-
Whatever the justification for Stein- ing East of Eden, "getting my mental
beck's harshness toward the critics in arm in shape to pitch a good game." The
1951, and it was ample, certainly the five letters, on the left-hand pages of a note-
books and a bibliography on his work in book, were sometimes used as "a kind of
the last eleven years, innumerable articles, arguing ground for the story" but more
three conferences of scholars in the last often they were random thoughts which
three years (and several books now in open to us the author's mind and show
preparation) have done much to change the nature of the creative process. After
that situation. In fact, his frequent insis- warming up with a letter, he would fill
tence in these letters that the current the right-hand pages of the notebook
novel's themes and symbols might remain with the story of East of Eden. The Jour-
forever inaccessible to the critics seems nal makes us hungry to see the pages,
incredibly naive in the face of that novel's side by side. As it is published, it is a
obviousness. teasing, enticing part, and we must wait
Except for rare passages, these letters on scholarship to give us the rest of
have little critical value. As the working the story. For instance, Steinbeck writes,
notes are about the book's first draft, they "There, Pat [his editor], that part is done.
are sometimes not clear in terms of the And do you think it is good?" Or again,
published version, and this edition's scope he muses that since the scene he is about
did not allow the editor to make the to write is "very strange," he will put
kind of extended correlation that might most of it in dialogue, the best way to
have been interesting. Surely, with a more make it convincing. Now and then in this
scholarly and complete re-editing of the edition there is a footnote, but usually we
journal and access to this first draft of the are left to wonder what part of the novel
novel, some valuable observations might he means. We lose much, therefore, not
be made; but in its present form the jour- knowing what his judgment was at such
nal has little more than a gossip interest. times, and with no way to match ours
with his.
But there are fascinating, available parts:
his excitement in discovering other trans-
lations of the Hebrew word "timshel"
("do thou," "thou shalt," and "thou may-
est"), a pivotal discussion in the book.
There is his month to month search for a
title (he says he was always a poor title

521
man), from Salinas Valley, to My Valley,
to Valley to the Sea. Dissatisfied with Checklist of Additional
their provincial ring, he puzzles about for
a symbolic title, one that would tie his Reviews
story in with its root, the Cain and Abel
story. Cain Mark struck him, until finally
three weeks later, after writing in his own Henry Raymont. "Steinbeck's Letters
hand the sixteen verses of Cain and Abel, Will Be a Book." New York Times,
he knew he had the one, East of Eden. 2 June 1969, p. 52.
Perhaps the most revealing part is the "Newsmakers." Newsweek, 73
way characters come to being, live, be- (16 June 1969), 52.
come a part of the author. The best ex- "Forecasts." Publishers9 Weekly, 196
ample is Cathy. "Cathy Ames is a mon- (6 October 1969), 49.
ster," he introduces her in the Journal. "Journal of a Novel." Kirkus Reviews,
Days later he writes, "Cathy is going to 37 (15 October 1969), 1142.
start emerging pretty soon now. I hope Henry Raymont. "Viking Press Publishes
I can make her believable." After she is 200 Letters by John Steinbeck on First
in the story, after "warming up" again, Anniversary of His Death." New York
he concludes a letter by saying now "I Times, 21 December 1969, p. 49.
will go back to my dear Cathy." In The Frederick Madeo. "Book Forum."
Writer's World [Joseph] Heller and oth- Saturday Review, 53
ers discuss what Flaubert meant when he (10 January 1970), 35.
said, "Madame Bovary, c'est moi." See- Dorothy H. Vera. "The Chuck Wagon."
ing Steinbeck creating his madam, with Salinas Californian, Western Ranch
asides about his own personality ("To and Home Magazine,
that extent I am a monster like Cathy"), 28 February 1970, p. 2A.
we know. And even when Cathy the girl- "Journal of a Novel.9* Choice,
monster becomes the mature whore, 7 (October 1970), 1044.
Kate, without a conscience, Steinbeck "Paperbacks." Publishers' Weekly, 198
says, "I think you will find that Cathy as (9 November 1970), 62.
Kate fascinates people though.... While "Brief Mention." American Literature,
she is a monster, she is a little piece of the 43 (November 1971), 505.
monster in all of us. It won't be because
she is foreign that people will be inter-
ested but because she is not." The
writer's world, then, becomes our world,
lived once more with meaning....

522
THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS
JOHN STEINBECK t h e

Acts of king ARthuR An6

his noBle knights * * * *
FROM THE WINCHESTER
MSS. OF THOMAS MALORY
AND OTHER SOURCES
* EDITED BY CHASE

HORTON'FARRAR, STRAUS

AND GIROUX * NEW YORK

 our time. Dating mostly from 1958-59,
"Fiction." Steinbeck's fragmentary attempt repre-
sents both an earnest effort at scholarly
Publishers' Weekly, 210 perspective and a broad contemporary
(30 August 1976), 332-3. reinterpretation. He did not try to "trans-
late," but simplified and condensed Malory's
language while tidying up some narrative
loose ends. There are five brief, fairly
When John Steinbeck was a boy, he dis- straightforward versions of episodes from
covered the Caxton Morte d'Arthur. The the first book (following Eugene Vina-
fascination of the stories, the language, ver's edition of the Winchester MS) and
the old words never diminished for him. two lengthy narratives based on the Tale
Eventually he began to work on his own of Sir Launcelot du Lake and the Ga-
version of some of the 15th century tales. wain, Ywain, and Marhalt episode. The
His research took him to the Winchester brief pieces are usually best when closest
Mss. (more authentic than Caxton's ed- to Malory; the fog-over-the-moors flour-
ited printed edition) and to noted Malory ishes and frequent sententious interpola-
scholar Eugene Vinaver, who helped him tions rarely come off. And Malory's blunt,
with his Arthurian research. The seven clear prose rhythms find little counterpart
tales here were completed in 1959. Stein- in Steinbeck: "And only then did the
beck's aim was "to set them down in knights look about them. On a smooth
plain present day speech .. . (to) keep the dark water they saw a little ship covered
wonder and the magic." He does just with silken cloth..." for "Than the
that for old and young alike. Delightful kynge loked aboute the worlde and sawe
too is the bonus: correspondence with his before hym in a grete water a lytyll
literary agent. It reveals the extent of shippe all apparayled with sylke downe
Steinbeck's interest in Malory, his own to the watir." The two long pieces are
artistic concerns and his problems with freewheeling, often playful reworkings of
the Arthur project. A wonderful, wise, Malory, in which Steinbeck tries to sum
posthumous gift to us from the prize- up his complex love of all that knight-
winning Steinbeck. .. . hood and the Arthurian fellowship have
meant to him. Here the dominant mode
is the arch and whimsical fable, much in
the vein of Pippin IV, bound to enthrall
"Non-fiction." and exasperate equal numbers of people.
The book must be evaluated more as
Kirkus Reviews, 44 Steinbeckiana than as Arthuriana, not so
(1 September 1976), much for its narrative foibles as because
the project remained so fragmentary
1025. including neither the Grail quest, the
book of Launcelot and Guinevere, nor
the Morte Arthur. A complete Arthurian
"Jehan Stynebec" maintained a lifelong cycle from Steinbeck would have been
devotion to the 15th-century minor hood- good to have. The present version re-
lum and "knyght presoner, sir Thomas mains an erratically charming curiosity.
Malleorre," and long cherished the idea
of retelling the Matter of Arthur for

525
G. A. Masterton. John Gardner.
"The Acts of King Arthur "The Essential King
and His Noble Knights." Arthur, according to John
Library Journal, 101 Steinbeck.55
(15 October 1976), 2178. New York Times Book
Review!, 126
The Arthurian legends fascinated Steinbeck. (24 October 1976),
Not only were their themes and symbols 31-2, 34, 36.
in his work but they suffused his life.
When he decided to retell Malory, Stein-
beck or his agents visited every likely site
and purchased or microfilmed every When John Steinbeck was at work on
available document and study. This occu- his The Acts of King Arthur and His
pied him from at least 1956 to 1965, and Noble Knights in the middle and late
he thought of it as the most important 1950's, he hoped it would be "the best
work he had ever undertaken. It was to work of my life and the most satisfying."
be the "Steinbeck version" of the tales, Even in its original form, the project was
interlarded with interpretative essays, and, enormoustranslation of the complete
perhaps, both the capstone to his career Morte d'Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory;
and the key to his beliefs. However, he and the project soon became still more
never achieved a distinctive voice for his difficult, not translation but a complete
tales, and they remained enmired some- retellingrethinkingof the myth. Stein-
where between Malory and The Once beck finished only some 293 uncorrected,
and Future King. Those included here of- unedited pages, perhaps one-tenth of the
fer evidence for his efforts, but it is the original. Even so, the book Steinbeck's
more than 70 exuberant or crestfallen let- friend and editor Chase Horton has put
ters excerpted here that offer strong evi- together is large and important. It is in
dence to the argument that Steinbeck's fact two books, Steinbeck's mythic fiction
best writing was in his letters. on King Arthur's court, and a fat, rich
collection of letters exchanged between
Steinbeck, Horton and Elizabeth Otis,
Steinbeck's agent. The first is an incom-
plete but impressive work of art; the
second, the complete story of a literary
tragedyhow Steinbeck found his way,
step by step, from the idea of doing a
"translation" for boys to the idea of writ-
ing fabulist fiction, in the mid-1950's,
when realism was still king. . . .
Steinbeck's Arthurian fiction is, in-
deed, "strange and different," as he put
it. The fact that he lacked the heart to
finish the book, or even put what he did

526
complete into one style and tone, is ex- as they crossed back to England and rode
actly the kind of petty modern tragedy he slowly from the coast of Cornwall, Mer-
hated. The idea was magnificentso is lin showed her many wonders, and when
much of the writingthough we see both at last he found that he interested her, he
the idea and the writing changing as they showed her how the magic was accom-
go. In the early pages he follows Malory plished and put in her hands the tools
fairly closely, merely simplifying and here of enchantment, gave her the antidotes
and there adding explanation for the of magic, and finally, in his aged folly,
modern young reader. taught her those spells which cannot be
As he warms to his work, Steinbeck broken by any means. And when she
uses Malory more freely, cutting deeply, clapped her hands in maidenly joy, the
expanding generously. In the passage old man, to please her, created a room of
on Merlin's defeat by Nyneve he writes unbelievable wonders under a great rock
like a man retelling a story from his cliff, and with his crafts he furnished it
childhood, interpreting as he pleases and with comfort and richness and beauty to
echoing hardly a line. Merlin tells King be the glorious apartment for the con-
Arthur what he must guard against and summation of their love. And they two
says he, Merlin, must go to his doom. went through a passage in the rock to
Arthur is astonished that the wizard would the room of wonders, hung with gold
go to his doom willingly, but Merlin does and lighted with many candles. Merlin
so nonetheless, because, as he says, "in stepped in to show it to her, but Nyneve
the combat between wisdom and feeling, leaped back and cast the awful spell that
wisdom never wins" (Steinbeck's addi- cannot be broken by any means, and the
tion). He travels off with the young woman passage closed and Merlin was trapped
he loves, fated and knowing it. With only inside for all time to come."
an occasional glance at his sourcesix- Here there are still Malorian elements
teen cool lines (in tight modern English sentences beginning with "Then" and
they could be written in three)but "And," formulaic repetitions, archaic dic-
keeping the formal old sound, for the tionbut all the rest is modern. For in-
most part, Steinbeck writes: stance, it is novelistic, not mythic, to
"Nyneve was bored and restless and speak of Merlin's "panting," "pleading
she left Ban's court with Merlin panting and whimpering," or of "the inborn craft
after her, begging her to lie with him and of maidens" and "the inborn helplessness
stanch his yearning, but she was weary of of men," novelistic to speak of riding
him, and impatient with an old man as a slowly from the coast of Cornwall (a
damsel must be, and also she was afraid quick touch of verisimilitude), novelis-
of him because he was said to be the tic to show Nyneve clapping her hands
Devil's son, but she could not be rid of with pleasure, or later, leaping back. By
him, for he followed her, pleading and the time Steinbeck reached "The Noble
whimpering." Tale of Sir Lancelot of the Lake," he
"Then Nyneve, with the inborn craft had his method in full control. He makes
of maidens, began to question Merlin authorial comments of a sort only a
about his magic arts, half promising to novelist would risk, cuts pages by the
trade her favors for his knowledge. And fistful, and at the same time embellishes
Merlin, with the inborn helplessness of Malory's spare legend with a richness of
men, even though he foresaw her pur- detail that transforms the vision, makes it
pose, could not forbear to teach her. And no one but Steinbeck's. Here is a passage

527
with no real source in the original: whole purpose at this stagea purpose
"A man like Lancelot, tempered in close to Malory's yet utterly transformed
soldiery, seasoned and tanned by perils, to show in the manner of a fabulator
lays up supplies of sleep as he does food how plain reality is transformed by magic,
or water, knowing its lack will reduce his by the lure of visions that ennoble though
strength and dull his mind. And although they ultimately betray. It's a theme we've
he had slept away part of the day, the encountered before in Steinbeck, but a
knight retired from cold and darkness theme that has here the simplicity and
and the unknown morrow and entered a power of myth.
dreamless rest and remained in it until a The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble
soft light began to grow in his cell of na- Knights is unfortunately not Steinbeck's
ked stone. Then he awakened and wrung greatest book, but as Steinbeck knew,
his muscles free of cold cramp and again until doubt overcame him, it was get-
embraced his knees for warmth. He ting there.
could see no source of light. It came
equally from everywhere as dawn does
before the rise of the sun. He saw the
mortared stones of his cell stenciled with Phoebe-Lou Adams.
patches of dark slime. And as he looked,
designs formed on the walls: formal
"The Acts of King Arthur
rounded trees covered with golden fruit and His Noble Knights."
and curling vines with flowers as frankly
invented as are those of an illuminated
Atlantic Monthly, 238
book, a benign sheltering tree, and under (November 1976), 118.
it a unicorn glowing white, with horn
and neck lowered in salute to a maiden
of bright needlework who embraced the The late John Steinbeck learned to read
unicorn, thus proving her maidenhood. on a cut version of the Caxton Morte
Then a broad soft bed shivered and grew d'Arthur, and loved it. Discovering, in
substantial in the corner of the cell...." due course, that such love is far from
There is nothing at all like this in general, he embarked on a freely modern-
Malory. What we have here is myth ized version for readers allergic to archaic
newly imagined, revitalized, charged with language. The result may outrage devo-
contemporary meaning, the kind of thing tees of Malory, but it makes some fine
we expect of the best so-called post-mod- tales readily accessible....
ernists, writers like John Barth. Steinbeck
creates a lifelike Lancelot, a veteran sol-
dier who knows his business (how to
grab sleep when you can and so on);
shows, in quick realistic strokes, how the
soldier wakes up, wrings his muscles
against cold and cramp; and how magic
starts to happen to this cool, middle-aged
realist. The falsity of the magic is em-
phatic"as frankly invented as [the de-
signs] in an illuminated book."
The paragraph encapsulates Steinbeck's

528
 other sons not so youngto set the
Edmund Fuller. stories down in meaning as they were
written, leaving out nothing and adding
"A Splendid Version of nothing." Further: "If I can do this and
King Arthur's Tales." keep the wonder and the magic, I shall
be pleased and gratified. In no sense do
Wall Street Journal, I wish to rewrite Malory, or reduce him,
18 November 1976, or change him, or soften or sentimental-
p. 22. ize him."
He describes movingly how in child-
hood learning to read had been an agony
for him, as it appears to be for many chil-
Winston Churchill, in his History of the dren today: "Perhaps the greatest single
English Speaking Peoples, wrote of the effort that the human undertakes, and
legends of King Arthur: "True or false, he must do it as a child... the reduction
they have gained an immortal hold upon of experience to a set of symbols.... The
the thoughts of men.... It is all true, Bible I absorbed through my skin. My
or it ought to be; and more and better uncles exuded Shakespeare, and Pilgrim's
besides." Progress was mixed with my mother's
Now we have a fresh treatment of milk. But these things came into my ears."
some of those stories in a posthumous Reading tormented him until "one day,
volume of John Steinbeck's, The Acts of an aunt gave me a book and fatuously
King Arthur and His Noble Knights, ignored my resentment." It was selec-
from the Winchester Mss. of Thomas tions from the Caxton edition of Morte
Malory and Other Sources. It is splendid d'Arthur, and young Steinbeck's heart
in several ways. We may lament that it was enthralled by Malory.
represents only part of a large design he The very thing that might seem an ob-
had conceived but be grateful, anyway, stacle charmed him. "I loved the old
that we have this much, plus collateral spelling of the wordsand the words no
material, all ably and lovingly edited by longer used. Perhaps a passionate love
Chase Horton who worked with him for the English language opened to me
from the start. from this one book." He was a rare
The novelist's deep interest in the Arthur- child. Though that could happen also
ian canon was seen in last year's mas- with a rare child today, he is right in feel-
sive volume, Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, ing that most of today's readers would
edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert want to begin with something less exotic,
Wallsten.... What we have of the work closer to their current tongue.
includes seven substantial chapters: "Mer- An important, enriching aspect of the
lin," "The Knight With the Two Swords" bookthe spirit of which increases admi-
(the story of Balin and Balan), "The Death ration and liking for Steinbeckis the
of Merlin," "Morgan Le Fay" (precipi- 67-page Appendix: letters written by
tating the tragedy of Arthur), "Gawain, Steinbeck, while at work in England and
Ewain, and Marhalt," and "The Noble parts of Europe, between 1956 and 1959.
Tale of Sir Lancelot of the Lake." Some, but not all, overlap with the Life
Steinbeck says of these tales: "I wanted in Letters.
to set them down in plain present-day They are addressed to Mr. Horton and
speech for my own young sons, and for to Elizabeth Otis, Steinbeck's literary agent

529
who was always his trusted friend and wisest man alive. You know what is pre-
counsellor. To her, he said at the start: paring. Why do you not make a plan to
"When I have some of it done, I shall save yourself?" Merlin answers: "Because
with an opening essay tell of my own in- I am wise. In the combat between wis-
terest in the cycle.... I shall also try to dom and feeling, wisdom never wins."
put down what I think has been the im- Some of Merlin's wiser words, quite
pact of this book on our language, with apt for the aftermath of an election:
attitudes, and morals, and our ethics." "Somewhere in the world there is defeat
That full essay was never written but the for everyone. Some are destroyed by de-
substance of it is in these wonderful letters. feat, and some made small and mean by
He writes: "So many scholars have victory. Greatness lives in one who tri-
spent so much time trying to establish umphs equally over defeat and victory."
whether Arthur existed at all that they As if prescient that he would never
have lost track of the single truth that finish the project Steinbeck concludes his
he exists over and over." Again: "My brief introduction: "I can only ask that
looking is not for a dead Arthur but my readers include me in the request
for one sleeping. And if sleeping, he is of Sir Thomas Malory when he says:
sleeping everywhere, not alone in a cave 'And I pray you all that redyth this tale
in Cornwall." to pray for him that this wrote that God
He discerns that "the Arthurian cycle sende hym good delyverance and sone
and practically all lasting and deep-seat- and hastelyAmen.'"
ed folklore is a mixture of profundity
and childish nonsense. If you keep the
profundity and throw out the nonsense,
some essence is lost. These are dream sto- Diana Rowan.
ries, fixed and universal dreams, and they "Malory's Tales for
have the inconsistency of dreams."
In the brief introduction he observes Twentieth Century."
that these stories contain "courage and Christian Science Monitor,
sadness and frustration, but particularly
gallantryperhaps the only single qual- 12 January 1977, p. 23.
ity of man that the West has invented."
He remembers, "Children are violent
and crueland goodand I was all of It is a robust and curious work, very
theseand all of these were in t h e . . . much Steinbeck's own, since he changed
book. If I could not choose my way at and added to Malory's tales. His goal
the crossroads in love and loyalty, neither was nothing less than to make the
could Lancelot. I could understand the Arthurian legends and era come alive for
darkness of Mordred because he was in the 20th-century reader; to rescue the tales
me too; and there was some Galahad in from the obscurity of Middle English
me, but perhaps not enough. The Grail and, he felt, from Malory's faulty nar-
feeling was there, however, deep-planted rative construction and one-dimensional
and perhaps always will be." characterizations. Malory seemed to have
King Arthur, perplexed when Merlin had the disconcerting habit of getting his
foretells that his, the magician's, own knights and damsels into trouble, and
death will result from his own doting then forgetting where he left them, as he
upon a woman, protests: "You are the began new adventures. Worse, in novelist

530
Steinbeck's eyes, Malory always gave whelm and/or escape him. But these spells
away the climax two or three times be- were broken by long periods when the
fore the end of every tale. joyous "fury of writing," as he termed it
Steinbeck denied he wanted to rewrite would sweep him forwarduntil May,
or change Malory; he particularly refused 1959, that is, when Otis's comments and
to soften or sentimentalize him, dealing Horton's "almost lack of comment" on
bluntly with Arthur's sinful dalliances and the first portion he gave them seemed to
his Herod-like slaughter of the innocents. stun him past recovering that certain mo-
He also refused to erase the lusty elements mentum. He struggled to rally his ener-
as Tennyson did in the Victorian era (re- gies ("I hope I am too professional to be
ducing Malory's "muscular prose to wa- shocked into paralysis") but there are no
tery poetry"); he presents the attempted more periods of joyful fury. He stopped
seduction of Lancelot by the four lascivi- writing several weeks later, and corre-
ous witch-queens with graphic drama, spondence on the subject ceased between
and evokes a sensuous tenderness be- 1959 and 1965.
tween Guinevere and her chaste knight. He continues to voice an interest in
Yet why did he end the tales with the Horton's new lists of Arthurian "ms., ar-
moment of anguished bliss between these tifacts, and illuminations," but his last
twoas if reluctant to follow the legend published comment on the subject in
from that perfect, fatal moment down to July, 1965, is significant: "I am struggling
its chaotic conclusion? Even his editor, along with the matter of Arthur. I think I
Chase Horton, refers with apparent baffle- have something and am pretty excited
ment to Steinbeck's "block" that might about it. But I am going to protect myself
have kept him from finishing the tales. by not showing it to anybody so that af-
Did he become overwhelmed (as he often ter I get a stretch of it done, if it seems
worried he would) by the vast under- bad, I can simply destroy it. But right
growth of Arthurian scholarship, which now I don't think it is bad. Strange and
stretches back across cultures from Is- different, but not bad."
lamic to Italian? Was it the sense of the One suspects Steinbeck completed and
impending close of his own life? (He died left behind just about as much of King
in 1968, three years after the last pub- Arthur as he wanted to give to us.
lished correspondence on this work.) Or
might it have been, in part, the shock he
felt at the dubious reaction his agent,
Elizabeth Otis, and his friend Horton Mary C. Williams.
gave him upon their reading of the first
portion in 1959? For that matter, what "Books Considered."
keeps any writer from completing a work New Republic, 176
he or she knows (at least at moments) is
good? Evidently, something kept even (5 February 1977), 34-5.
this literary giant from carrying the work
through to completion.
In his correspondence on the subject . . . In a sense Steinbeck had always been
with Otis and Horton (included in this reading and re-doing Malory, for there
book as a fascinating backdrop for the are Arthurian themes and echoes through-
tales) Steinbeck talked incessantly of his out his work. The Caxton Morte D'Arthur,
apprehension that the subject would over- given him when he was nine, inspired

531
him to act out its adventures. In his intro- it necessary to cut, to explain, to provide
duction to The Acts Steinbeck traces his continuityand so he began to feel the
love of language, his moral ideas, and his work was his own.
sympathy for the oppressed to this en- Then he received a shock. After read-
chanting book. He structured two early ing the Merlin story, Elizabeth Otis was
novels around Arthurian themes, the quest "confused . . . and disappointed." Steinbeck
of The Cup of Gold and the paisano was even more so. He did not, however,
Round Table of Tortilla Flat; however, wish to change his style and method in
each time his hero started out in Camelot order to write an adaptation like T. H.
and ended up in a spiritual wasteland. White's The Once and Future King. He
It is probable that what sent Steinbeck was sick of his old ways and old tricks,
back to Malory in 1956 was a despairing he wrote. But he assured Otis that the
mistrust of his creative powers: "I want work would be rewritten later and that
to forget how to write and learn all over meanwhile he was feeling freer about
again with the writing growing out of changing Malory's stories. His letters
the material," he said. Also, he had a show him proceeding for a time with
helpless feeling that he did not under- renewed confidence. But then he began
stand his own age. In this he identified to express dissatisfaction with Malory's
with Malory, and his letters reflect the in- work and finally with his ownit was
tensity of the identification. He saw the just "a repetition of things I have written
author of the Morte caught up like him before." And so he suspended work on
in shifting and perilous times and trying The Acts, though he returned to it for a
to order them through his work. In a time in 1965.
flash of insight he saw that Malory's Steinbeck died without finishing, cor-
"self-character," the one into which every recting, or editing his manuscript. The
author puts himself as he is and as he original plan was to translate all of the
would be, is Lancelot, the man who Morte D:'Arthur; this was amended to
could not win the Grail because he was omit certain parts and concentrate on the
stained with sin and imperfection, but Lancelot episodes. The translation, along
who nevertheless could father Galahad. with commentaries between the tales,
And so, "Malory-Lancelot has in a sense was to appear in two volumes. What is
won the Quest." And Steinbeck-Lancelot, published here corresponds to only about
one assumes, can achieve it tooand like one-fourth of Malory's work, through
Malory transmit a moral heritage. In his the tale of Sir Lancelot. There is a short
introduction Steinbeck says that the book introduction, but the commentaries were
is designed "for my own young sons and never written. Chase Horton reports that
for other sons not so young." (Daugh- Steinbeck did not edit his typescript but
ters, presumably, can read it if they want does not report what editing he himself
to.) Using the Winchester manuscript of has done. According to a note about the
the Morte D'Arthur, he intended to put manuscript by Roy Simmonds, Steinbeck
the stories into simple language without left 154 pages of manuscript of the tale
changing them. His desire was to re-cre- of Sir Gareth; if so, this portion has been
ate a living story with significance for omitted without a word from the editor.
the present. Something less than one-half of The
Steinbeck began to write in loneliness Acts comes close to straight translation
and uncertainty. But then pleasure and of the stories of the coming of Arthur
confidence came. As he worked he found to the throne, Balin, the marriage of

532
Arthur and the enchantment of Merlin. paragraph begins: "When Uther Pendragon
Steinbeck has added some explanations, was King of England his vassal, the Duke
some comments, some scene-painting, of Cornwall, was reputed to have com-
and some human interest detailsbut not mitted acts of war against the land." The
too many. Some of the supernatural has final paragraph begins: "Their bodies
been subtracted. The work compares fa- locked together as though a trap had
vorably with Keith Baines' translation, sprung." Quite a difference. This last was
which appeared in 1962. Both versions not written for sons, nor for admirers of
suffer from flatness, but Steinbeck's style the Morte who recall that Malory did
is better. He was trying for "a timeless not know what Sir Lancelot and Queen
English," which is very successful. Guinevere did together, since love was
A change begins with the "Morgan Le different in those days.
Fay" episode and accelerates in the final Steinbeck wanted too much to make
tales of Gawain, Ewain, and Marhalt and Malory's work his own and to make
Lancelot, written after the shock of Otis' Lancelot a version of himself. He couldn't
disapproval and the concurrent new feel- make the book turn out right: "I don't
ing of freedom to revise Malory. Incidents, know what to do with it and I am too
characterizations, backgrounds, themes old to kid myself about it," he wrote.
are invented, changed and developed. Ma- The Acts is not a unified and complete
lory's distancing of characters is replaced work. Yet, as a revelation of its au-
by carefully established motivation and thor and his way of working, it is of
humanizing detail. But cuteness, senti- much interest.
mentality, sententiousness, contemporary
idioms, and some monstrous overwriting
creep in and vulgarize the material;
Malory's world becomes Disney's world, Derek Mahon.
sexed upand also T. H. White's world.
It is unfortunate that the author never
"Round Tables.55
carefully edited the work because his New Statesman
ideas about shaping characters and con- [England], 93
necting Malory's incidents are highly in-
telligent. With his usual interest in men in (11 February 1977), 195.
groups, Steinbeck develops the social im-
portance of Arthur's court in dealing with
the difficulties of peace through establish- John Steinbeck was a curious writer and
ing the King's Justice. Steinbeck is also a curious man. Some, like myself, have
focusing on Lancelot, inventing a series not been offered the Nobel Prize; others,
of Malorian temptations by witch queens like Sartre, have refused it. But Steinbeck
to express latent conflicts in the knight is the only one, to my knowledge, who
and developing the relationship with Guin- accepted it while making it clear that he
evere much earlier and more fully. And didn't deserve it. This estimate of his
Steinbeck expands women's rolesbut own work was engagingly candid, and
unhappily turns all women, Morgan and indeed quite true, although The Grapes
Guinevere alike, into manipulators of men. of Wrath has some claim to the status of
The opening sentences of the first and a minor classic. Steinbeck was first and
last paragraphs of The Acts illustrate the foremost a pro: he wrote books. His last
contrast between the two parts. The first book, based on Malory, was written

533
 in plain present-day speech for my der Malory into English for modern read-
young sons, perhaps to compete with ers, so that they could share his enthusi-
the movies and comic-strip travesties asm. He was also fascinated by the prob-
which are the only available source lem of dictation and style: "I intend to
for those impatient with Malory's spell-translate into a modern English, keeping,
ing and archaic words. or rather trying to recreate, a rhythm and
tone which to the modern ear will have
Not a work of scholarship, but a compe- the same effect as the Middle English did
tent and useful piece of bookmaking, and on the fifteenth-century ear."
as such highly recommended. But first, he put in a year and a half of
formidable researcha case of overkill
so far as translation is concerned, but
a labor of love and in some ways a put-
Robert E. Morsberger. ting off of the actual chore of writing.
To obtain background, he made three
"The Acts of King Arthur trips to England and one to Italy, visited
and His Noble Knights." Armando Sapori and Bernard Berenson
and became good friends with Eugene
Western American Vinaver, the world's leading Malory ex-
Literature, 12 pert, who was impressed with a sample
of rough translation and offered any help
(August 1977), 163-5. possible. Steinbeck decided to work with
the Winchester manuscript discovered in
1936 rather than with Caxton, and he
Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d*Arthur^ made microfilm copies of each. Though
published in 1485, is a watershed in the he read hundreds of books on the Middle
literature of the Western world. It is the Ages, he continued to feel that there were
culmination of the Arthurian romances, gaps in his reading, scholarship, and the
the Matter of Britain, from Gildas through "feel and look" of locations. He felt that
Layamon, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chretien the work required him to "know the
de Troyes, and other "Frensshe" books, countryside in which Malory lived and
anonymous alliterative poets, Gottfried operated.... I had to go from one end
von Strassburg; in turn, it profoundly in- of England to the other to get a sense of
fluenced subsequent literature. Milton topography, color of soil, marsh, moor,
contemplated writing an Arthurian epic, forest, and particularly relationships of
and Tennyson tried to do so. Matthew one place to another. .. . This is destined
Arnold, Swinburne, E. A. Robinson and to be the largest and I hope the most im-
T. H. White wrote Arthurian material, portant work I have ever undertaken."
Mark Twain burlesqued it, Prince Valiant With his wife making a photographic rec-
borrowed it for the comics, and Holly- ord, Steinbeck roamed all over Somerset,
wood adapted it for the movies. Cornwall, Wiltshire, and Wales. "Build-
John Steinbeck had a lifelong love ing a background for this book has been
affair with Malory's tales of the Round a long and arduous job," and an expen-
Table and claimed that the fellowship of sive one, he added, "but highly reward-
paisanos in Tortilla Flat was a version of ing." He began by predicting that the
them. Finally, in November, 1956, he de- work would go very fast but later
cided to work with the original and ren- thought it might take 10 years. "Why has

534
it been necessary to read so muchmost In addition, there are 68 pages of let-
of which will probably not be used? I ters from Steinbeck to his agent Elizabeth
think it necessary for me to know every- Otis and his friend Chase Horton. Some
thing I can about what Malory knew and of these are in Steinbeck: A Life in Let-
how he might have felt, but it is also nec- ters, but many are printed for the first
essary for me to be aware of what he time. (There are additional letters on
did not know, could not have known, Malory to Vinaver, Pascal Covici and
and could not feel," in order to avoid others in the Life in Letters.) But since
the error of thinking Malory was like a both collections of letters are edited and
modern man. excerpted, we sometimes have different
Finally, he began writing, working main- parts of the same letter in the same two
ly in Somerset, from July, 1958, to Octo- books. The letters deal not only with
ber, 1959. He tried for "a close-reined, Steinbeck's research on Malory and his
taut, economical English, unaccented and problems with translation and adaptation
unlocalized." He succeeded rather well; but with reflections on art and the artist,
the prose is vigorous and clear but neces- on language and style, on medieval life
sarily a hybrid that is modern in diction and thought, and on the heroic vs. mod-
but retains an archaic formality. As he ern anti-heroes. As such, they are reveal-
got into the material, he took increasing ing both to students of Steinbeck and of
liberties with the text, not only making Malory and the Middle Ages.
cuts but additions and elaborations. "I
have eliminated a number of the more
obscure adventures in Malory, but others
I have greatly expanded in a way that Robert Black.
might deeply shock the master." The
book of Balin, The Knight with Two
"The Acts of King Arthur
Swords, is a faithful rendering, extremely and His Noble Knights."
well done. On the other hand, Steinbeck Denver Quarterly\ 11
expands three and a half pages of the
adventures of Sir Ywain to 30 pages of (Winter 1977), 206-9.
his own, with such interpolations as a
lengthy discussion of how the longbow,
by destroying knighthood, would revolu- John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur
tionize institutions and lead to govern- and His Noble Knights is edited by Chase
ment by commoners. Thus long passages Horton and published posthumously. The
are not Malory at all but original Stein- Introduction and Appendix together give
beck in the manner of Malory. Steinbeck's reader both an insight into his
This may explain why the project was craft as novelist and a critical direction
aborted. After three years of enthusiasm, one ought to take in reading the novel. In
he confessed, "The work doesn't jell," The Acts Steinbeck is neither translator
and put it aside for The Winter of Our nor redactor but is rather a Nobel Prize-
Discontent. In 1965, he briefly returned winning novelist who with moral and
to Malory, but completed only seven of artistic consciousness is working in one
the adventures. These are self-contained of the West's most traditional narrative
and among the best, so that readers will forms, the Arthurian romance. His sense
find the volume satisfying and perhaps of morality comes from Caxton's Morte
wish for more. d1Arthur of Thomas Malory. "I think my

535
sense of right and wrong," he writes in reading hundreds of books on the Middle
the Introduction, "my feeling of noblesse Ages and by visiting and corresponding
oblige, and any thought I may have with Malory scholars like Eugene Vinaver,
against the oppressor and for the op- Steinbeck is finally successful in The Acts
pressed, came from this secret book." His because for him there was so much good
sense of style also begins with Caxton's fun in just trying to do it. In a letter to
Malory, which more than any other book Chase Horton, Elaine Steinbeck tells of
enchanted him as a child and taught him her husband carving out wooden spoons
how to read. for their kitchen in Somerset and speak-
In the Appendix, which is made up al- ing of Arthur and Merlin. Vinaver quotes
most entirely of some seventy letters writ- Steinbeck as saying, "I tell these old sto-
ten between 1956 and 1965 to his agent ries, but they are not what I want to tell.
Elizabeth Otis and his acknowledged col- I only know how I want people to feel
laborator Chase Horton, Steinbeck is when I tell them." The Acts of King
intensely conscious of his craft. Enthusi- Arthur and His Noble Knights is a mod-
astically he writes, "This is destined to be ern novelist's Philobiblon, his modern
the largest and I hope most important Love of Books.
work I have ever undertaken." In his In the last two tales, "Gawain, Ewain,
letters he abandons Caxton's Malory in and Marhalt" and "The Noble Tale of
favor of the Winchester manuscript, dis- Sir Lancelot of the Lake (and a noble tale
covered in 1936, as the basic text for it is. J.S.)," Steinbeck is at his best as
his novel and declares that he will write a raconteur for the modern age. "If
in a language which is as out of time Malory could rewrite Chretien for his
and place as the Arthurian legend itself time, I can rewrite Malory for mine," he
"a close-reined, taut, economical English, tells Elizabeth Otis. The tales are ex-
unaccented and unlocalized." His Malory panded into stories which are unified,
will not be like that of Tennyson or tough-minded, chatty, and sophisticated.
Southey or even T.H. White, all of whom Steinbeck expands Malory's episode of
to some extent clean up the tales for Gawain, Ewain, and Marhalt to present
young boys. "Let boys beware," Steinbeck an arrogant Gawain and a delightful Lady
writes, for he will be true to the fifteenth- Lyne who serves as Ewain's first manager
century text for the sake of his "own and turns the medieval Pygmalion story
young sons" as well as for adults, "for upside down. But above all, Steinbeck is
other sons not so young." more ironical than Malory.
Although an unfinished workone of Malory's thirteenth-century "Frensshe
its medieval attractionsThe Acts pre- books" create a sense of irony through
sents seven stories, the last two of which the use of abstract ideals such as honor,
are especially successful as "moral par- courage, and love, as each is understood
ables" without time and place, written in for better or for worse by the knights
a style which never makes what William and ladies in the romances. For example,
Golding calls the "deadliest of literary love is often presented in Chretien de
vices in writing for children, the hideous Troyes as referring finally to a predict-
sidelong twinkle in the direction of other able ideal in a Christian culture, the love
adults." A famous novelist who became of men and women for God. A depar-
intimately familiar with his subject by ture from that ideal is often understood
spending over ten years traveling through- to be unreasonable, comic, and iron-
out England, Wales, and Italy and by ical. Malory's Morte d'Arthur is different.

536
Even when the adultery of Guinevere and remains nameless. "I never thought to
Lancelot is seen to be central to the dissi- ask," says Marhalt.
pation of Arthur's kingdom, Malory's One of the most attractive qualities
sense of morality is in part superficial about Steinbeck's novel is the dialogue
and even sentimental. Steinbeck writes between men and women. The women in
without implicit references to Christian Steinbeck are real "dames," as he calls
ideals, but he achieves an ironical effect them in his letters. Damsels eat a lot of
by filling in gaps in Malory, making feasts and ladies in distress drive hard
persistent references to political or eco- bargains when they make knights keep
nomic conditions. their oaths. Almost all of the queens,
In Malory, for example, Sir Marhalt maidens, servant girls, nuns, and witches
and his lady are simply turned away are personalities in the tales. Their con-
when they ask to stay overnight with versations with knights establish the links
a poor cotterwho nonetheless directs between episodes as much as their ac-
them to further adventure down the tions determine the plots. Everywhere
road. In Steinbeck, however, the Ugly they create enchantment and comedy.
Householder is a tough character with Steinbeck is determined to correct what
his own story. "A knight venturing," he he thought to be a dislike of women
observes of Marhalt; "I know your kind, in Malory. In his letters he describes
a childish dream world resting on the Guinevere as "a doodle." In his dedica-
shoulders of less fortunate men." And tion he even goes so far as to raise his
when Marhalt asks to be guided to an- sister Mary to knighthood. His great suc-
other place to spend the night, the Ugly cess with the characterization of women
Householder demands to be paid first. "I in romance makes one wish for more sto-
will," says Marhalt, "but if you do not ries, and one can only regret not having
lead us truly I will return and burn your Steinbeck's version of some of the stories
treasured house." "I know you would," in Malory's last two books, particularly
he says, "gentlemen always do." The a version of the delicate "The Fair Maid
Ugly Householder is significantly not a of Astolat."
medieval churl or a deformed or super- One thing more may be said about
natural figure. He is one of many modern Steinbeck's sense of morality and of his
men in The Acts. His kinsmen are Lady art. In The Acts Steinbeck "picks up" in-
Lyne's bowmen who ironically are more cidents forgotten by Malory in order
powerful than Arthur's knights and who to "give reasons for the whole thing."
cannot speak English; his chief protestor More than Malory, Steinbeck uses mo-
is ultimately Arthur himself who at the rality as an imperative element of the
end of the novel ironically wonders "how plot. In "The Noble Tale of Sir Lancelot
long we can leave justice in the hands of of the Lake" Steinbeck's Sir Lyonel chooses
men who are themselves unstable." to fight Sir Tarquin alone because of
What Steinbeck sometimes shares with a new-found virtue, achieved through
Malory, on the other hand, is a tendency what reads like a Socratic dialogue with
to be somewhat superficial in trying to Lancelot the previous day. Malory offers
create a moral effect. At the end of a no reason at all for Lyonel's decision.
year spent riding together seeking adven- Steinbeck's Sir Lancelot, whom Steinbeck
ture, Marhalt and his lady finally leave in his letters calls "my boy," rides out
each other as just good friends with disguised in Sir Kay's armor because he
no commitments. A mellow heroine, she is reacting morally to the Seneschal's

537
defense of his own loss of powers, brought The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble
on by the bureaucratic mess of running Knights. Selected for their relation to the
the business end of a kingdom. work, these letters Steinbeck addressed to
Ultimately, of course, Lancelot him- his agent and his editor form a moving
self fails, but his adulterous love for taleif an incomplete one. Although edi-
Guinevere is in Steinbeck a modern virtue tor Horton collaborated closely with Stein-
rather than a medieval vice. For the beck during the years 1956-65 when
Middle Ages that vice betrays the central Steinbeck's redaction was alternately pur-
cause of decadence in Arthur's kingdom. sued and abandoned, Horton's only com-
In an earlier confrontation between an ment is a very brief note preceding the
incredulous Lancelot and a young en- appendix.
chantress who cannot quite cast a perfect Steinbeck's appropriate title comes from
spell, Steinbeck gives his reader a hint words on the title page of Caxton's man-
of the final catastrophe which will come uscript and eliminates the usual mislead-
to Lancelot and Guinevere. But only in ing Morte. The text is the incomplete
the final paragraphs does he continue draft of the first volume of a projected
that theme: two-volume work based [on] Malory. Far
more difficult for him than he antici-
"Their bodies locked together as though pated, this goal required considerable
a trap had sprung. Their mouths met reevaluation as he proceeded, but after
and each devoured the other. Each his painstaking scholarly preparation of
frantic heartbeat at the walls of ribs many months, he could defend decisions
trying to get to the other until their from a sound position, which was very
breaths burst out and Lancelot, diz- important to him. "Nothing," he wrote,
zied, found the door and blundered with typical humility and informality, "is
down the stairs. And he was weeping so dangerous as the theories of a half-
bitterly." assed or half-informed scholar."
Working with microfilm copies of both
"That's why I love Lancelot I guess," the Caxton and Winchester manuscripts,
Steinbeck writes in one of his last letters. reading and consulting "hundreds of books
"He is tested, he fails the test and still re- bought [and] rented," conducting "end-
mains noble." less correspondence with scholars in the
field," and making trips to England and
Italy to turn up new sources of informa-
tion and to become acquainted with the
Barbara McDaniel. actual scenes he thought to have influ-
"The Acts of King Arthur enced Malory, he immersed himself in
The Acts. When inspiration flagged, he
and His Noble Knights." even went to live in Somerset half a year
West Coast Review, 12 for the sake of his muse. Once he be-
gan the actual writing, he remarks that
(January 1978), 57-9. in Malory the straggling sentences, the
confused characters and events of the
early parts become smooth, showing that
Certain letters found in A Life in Let- "Malory learned to write as he went
ters, as well as others, again cut without along"; then with delight Steinbeck
notation, form the lengthy appendix of found this happening to himself. Only a

538
short way into the material, he evolved makes the work one or eight or fifty.
hypotheses and methods that prepared We can read it now one way, now an-
him to rewrite what was done, but he re- other. We partly make what we read."
sisted the impulse, saying he knew he Alterations in the interest of unity are
must proceed and revise later. By this consonant with Steinbeck's sense that his
time he knew that, despite all the scholar-"tampering . . . at best will make the his-
ship published on Malory, he would have tory available to more readers, and at
to rely on intuition some of the time. worst can't hurt Malory very much."
Such freedom led to vacillation between Having begun the writing in July 1958
exuberance and despair. with "freezing humility," "an uneasiness
One idea governing Steinbeck was the approaching fright," Steinbeck soon lost
conviction that Malory was at heart a his inhibitions. "Almost by enchantment
novelist, and the Morte therefore Ma- the words began to flow, a close-reined,
lory's own story, having Launcelot as his taut, economical English, unaccented and
"self-character," the symbolic spokesman unlocalized. I put down no word that has
Steinbeck believed every novel to have. not been judged for general understand-
Where he states this his letters acquire ing. Where my time cannot fill in, I build
considerable value for Steinbeck studies, up, and where my time would be impa-
for the writer declares his view of himselftient with repetition, I cut. So did Malory
as a novelist: "I suppose my own symbol for his time." But Steinbeck's new faith in
character has my dream wish of wisdom "intuition, my own judgment and the
and acceptance." That Steinbeck con- receptivity of our times" was dashed by
the reception Chase Horton and Eliza-
ceived of the Morte as a novel is a signifi-
cant fact to bear in mind in reading his beth Otis, Steinbeck's agent, gave the
version, for it must affect numerous pas- first section of the manuscript, the Merlin
sages, probably including the following story, which Steinbeck had found par-
one from "Merlin": ticularly difficult. Ironically, the end of
four months of his reporting to them
Arthur looked upward and he said, with gusto is a paragraph on May 11,
"It's a black day, a troubled day." 1959, saying, "I resent anything that in-
"It is a day, simply a day. You have a terrupts the slow, steady flow of this
black and troubled mind, my lord." translation." Two days later he was try-
ing to rebound from the criticism he has
Nothing like these sentences occurs in just received from them, or rather from
Vinaver; the addition creates more mod- her remarks and "Chase's almost lack
ern characterization and unity. of comment."
Other scholars, C.S. Lewis, for ex- A quality in Steinbeck that attracts
ample (in Essays on Malory, ed. J. W. W. many readers is never more apparent
Bennett, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963), than in this long letter to them, and sev-
do not believe that any Middle English eral other letters, in which he humbly
author could have conceived a work of struggles to understand the objections.
fiction following our principles of unity, One can only infer the nature of the criti-
much less have undertaken to write one. cism: perhaps what Horton and Otis ex-
But Lewis's principles leave room for pected was "form the present-day ear
Steinbeck's art: "The choice we try to accepts without listening," the ear "trained
force upon Malory, is really a choice for by Madison Avenue and radio and tele-
us. It is our imagination, not his, that vision and Mickey Spillane." Solemnly

539
expressing his sadness, Steinbeck never-
theless states, "I know I'll have to go John F. Kiteley.
along with my impulse." He intends to
continue in the same vein until "I've "Magnificent Obsession.3
worked the summer away and the fall Books and Bookmen
if it still seems dull, then I will stop it
all, but I've dreamed too many years [England], 23
too many nights to change direction." (March 1978), 55-6.
Although this letter won him supportive
replies from both, Steinbeck never re-
gains his enthusiasm. In September he is I have had many problems in considering
"completely dissatisfied"; in October he the Steinbeck Malory. What right had
"might have an answer"; in an undated I to pass public judgments on the work
letter he won't "write a single word on it of such a distinguished writer as John
until after January 1." Steinbeck, author of Cannery Row, The
A respite longer than that by more Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and
than six years appears over in the next East of Eden, to name but a few of
letter, dated May 15, 1965, and addressed his magnificent novels? Fortunately, this
to Horton. Businesslike in discussing their book has been published posthumously,
plans, it lacks Steinbeck's customary warmth and it is this fact that has made me feel
toward his editors but indicates that a able to express my honest views. It seems
serious reassessment of the project has pretty clear that Steinbeck himself was
taken place; Horton is going to Italy far from happy about this book, and the
for some new research, and Steinbeck is editor, Chase Horton, clearly acknowl-
studying the character of Arthur. edges that it was not completed, edited or
The lettersand apparently the corrected by the author. .. .
workstop two months later. . .. Steinbeck died in New York in
About this, Horton says only, "John 1968. We are left with the first draft.
did not finish King Arthur, and did not This is not strange in itself (although
say why or how he felt blocked, if indeed strange in its achievement or lack of it)
he was, when he stopped writing." One but frankly it is not good... .
is left curious to know Horton's views
of Steinbeck. Perhaps this was not the
proper place for them, but his insights
from his experience with the author, at Checklist of Additional
the very least his letters to Steinbeck, are
sorely needed to answer questions he has Reviews
raised by releasing this book. Incomplete,
the work is of more interest to American
studies than medieval; hence it seems that Alice McKenzie. "Steinbeck Tells King
Horton's impressions of Steinbeck would Arthur's Tale." Clearwater [Fla.] Sun,
make a further contribution to the field. 26 December 1976, p. 6F.
"The Acts of King Arthur and His
Noble Knights." Choice, 14 (March
1977), 64.
Roy S. Simmonds. "The Acts of King
Arthur and His Noble Knights."

540
 Steinbeck Quarterly, 10 (Spring 1977), "The Acts of King Arthur and His
52-7. Noble Knights." Horn Book, 53
Cynthia Johnson. "The Acts of King (October 1977), 561-2.
Arthur and His Noble Knights." "Paperbacks New and Noteworthy."
School Library Journal, 23 (April New York Times Book Review, 129
1977), 84. (11 December 1979), 49.
T. A. Shippey. "East of Camelot." Times
Literary Supplement [London],
29 April 1977, p. 236.

541
 WORKING DAYS:
THE JOURNALS OF THE GRAPES OF WRATH 1938-1941
John Steinbeck

WORKING DAYS
The Journals of
The Grapes of Wrath
1938-1941
Edited by Robert DeMott
Ohio University

VIKING
 anyone seeking a deeper understanding
Brian St. Pierre. of Steinbeck and his w o r k . . . .
"Steinbeck's Timeless Tale
of Migrant Suffering.55
San Francisco Chronicle, Frederick Turner.
26 March 1989, "The Wrath, the
Section 4, pp. 3-4. Discontent and the
Grapes.55
New York Post,
. .. From Working Days, the journals
Steinbeck kept while writing The Grapes
16 April 1989, p. 10.
of Wrath, comes the astonishing fact that
he wrote this dense and complex novel in
100 days, by hand, under a fair amount Almost half a century ago at the apex
of duress: His publisher was going bank- of his popularity John Steinbeck saw
rupt, a noisy housing project was being himself dismissed by Edmund Wilson as
built next door, he and his wife Carol a crude artificer unable to breathe life
were ill at times, and he was plagued to into his fictional characters. When Alfred
the point of depression by doubts about Kazin repeated and amplified this attack
his talent. No wonder he wrote, "I am in his path-breaking On Native Grounds
ready to go to work and I am glad to get (1942) the charge stuck. There Kazin
into other lives and escape from mine for wrote of the apprenticelike quality of
a while." Steinbeck's work, of his primitiveness, his
Steinbeck undertook this journal to make "slow curiosity," "simplicity of spirit" and
himself accountable ("If a day is skipped "simple indignation" at the suffering of
it will show glaringly on this record"), migrant workers in California. The Joad
and as editor Robert DeMott notes, it is family of The Grapes of Wrath, Kazin
a "hermeticeven claustrophobic" diary said, could hardly fail to interest Ameri-
of the making of a book as well as its at- can readers since there was so much of
tendant terrors and distractions. the national experience represented in
Many of the entries are rambling and these characters. But the Joads were, af-
banal, as many of anyone's days would ter all, only "symbolic marionettes."
be, but the earnest, die hard effort of writing Through the ensuing 20 years Steinbeck's
and the importance of the task have great stature with readers remained high as did
cumulative power: "I grew again to love the sales of his books, and in 1962 he
and admire the people who are so much was anointed by the international literary
stronger and purer and braver than I establishment with the Nobel Prize. If
am," he wrote of the migrants. readers applauded the award as much-
DeMott has surrounded the journal deserved and long overdue, Steinbeck's
entries with a biographical introduction, American critics remained unconvinced
commentary and illuminating notes, build- and were as baffled by this Nobel as by
ing a good book onto a narrow foun- that earlier given Pearl Buck. When
dation. While not intended for general Steinbeck died in 1968 his critical reputa-
readers, the book will be important to tion was low and rested on a single novel

545
that many critics refused to consider self-doubts. And as with the later jour-
a novel at all, choosing to regard The nal Working Days is an oddly vacant-
Grapes of Wrath instead as a sociological seeming volume. It contains few insights
phenomenon that had summed up the into the author's actual method of com-
bygone decade of the '30s. Now, pre- position. Yet in a way that is tellingly
cisely a half-century since its publication,
replicated in the novel itself, there is
here is The Grapes of Wrath again in a something noble here. Paralleling the Joad
handsome anniversary edition and ac- family's flight along Route 66 through
companied by the journal Steinbeck kept Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and in-
while working on the novel. The occa- to California is the writer's struggle through
sion tells us that whether novel, tract or the summer and early fall of 1938 to be
sociological phenomenon, The Grapes of equal to the tragedy of the story he was
Wrath remains a part of our image of evoking. And once he has the Joads in
ourselves as a people. California his struggle is theirs, too, for
Robert DeMott, who has so carefully he has to fight against his own destruc-
edited the journal now called Working tive rage at the violence and greed of the
Days, uses his introduction to chart the local agricultural organizations and their
stages of Steinbeck's thinking during the goons. June 18th's entry is typical: "This
two years of work on what DeMott calls is a huge j o b . . . . If only I could do this
the "matter of the migrants." First there book properly it would be one of the re-
were Steinbeck's research trips into the ally fine books and a truly American
fields and camps beginning in 1936, dur- book. But I am assailed with my own ig-
ing which he made contact with Tom norance and inability. If I can keep my
Collins, the Farm Security Administra- honesty it is all I can expect of my poor
tion manager who provided him with so brain.... If I can do that it will be all my
much crucial material. Also in 1936 there lack of genius can produce...."
was Steinbeck's seven-part newspaper re- By early September he thought he saw
port on migrant conditions, "The Har- himself finishing about the middle of the
vest Gypsies." He followed this with a next month. "Europe," he noted, "still
fictional treatment he was calling "The tense. Hitler waiting for heaven to speak.
Oklahomans," but abandoned it early in Maybe war but I don't think so." By
1938. Immediately afterward he tried Oct. 14, he was in fact so close his hand
again, this time with a venomous satire, was shaking. He finished Oct. 26 and felt
"U Affaire Lettuceberg," which he also it was not "the great book I had hoped it
abandoned. But what he had experienced would be."
in the fields and camps had so impressed Maybe not. Steinbeck habitually wrecked
itself on him that it would give him perfectly good characters and plots by
no rest, and so within 10 days of the forcing them to carry monstrous allegori-
abandonment of the satire he was back at cal burdens. This is what ruins East of
his desk and at work on the "big book" Eden and it is what undermines the aes-
he felt the subject demanded. Here is thetic quality of The Grapes of Wrath
where the journal begins. but not its force, its enduring claim on us.
As with his other "big book," East
of Eden (1952), Steinbeck used the jour-
nal as a warm-up exercise, beginning
each day with a few lines in which he
confided his hopes and his characteristic

546
"Bookends." Pascal Covici, Jr.
Time, 132 "Struggling to a Classic."
(24 April 1989), 86. Dallas Morning News,
14 May 1989,
pp. 10-11C.
Published 50 years ago, The Grapes of
Wrath has taken its place among the
handful of American novels (Uncle Tom's "My laziness is overwhelming," lamented
Cabin, The Jungle) that changed public John Steinbeck as he approached the final
attitudes and policy. To mark its golden chapters of his American epic. "I only
anniversary, the book's original publisher hope it is some good. I have very grave
has issued a new edition . . . and also the doubts sometimes."
journals Steinbeck kept during the five "My mind doesn't want to work
months (five months!) it took him to hates to work in fact, but I'll make it."
complete the 200,000-word manuscript. If nothing elseand there's a great
The author, then 36, used these pri- deal elseRobert DeMott has given us
vate notes as warm-up exercises for the an opportunity to know directly and
day's work. He gave himself pep talks: poignantly, and sometimes painfully, the
"This must be a good book. It simply struggles of will buried behind the seem-
must. I haven't any choice." To readers ingly pre-determined procession of words
today, the fascination of this document that make great literary art.
rests in its portrait of an artist at the peak How could John Steinbeck have done
of his skills. Steinbeck's outrage at the it? With house problems and money prob-
mistreatment of Dust Bowl migrants in lems, health problems and marriage prob-
California, which he had witnessed first- lems, with problems political, social and
hand, fused with his storytelling abilities even of friendship plaguing the writer,
to produce the most powerful book he how could The Grapes of Wrath ever
would ever write. It won him the Pulitzer have been written? Here is the revelation
Prize and contributed mightily to his of just how searing that experience of au-
Nobel Prize in 1962. Both exhilarated thorship turned out to be.
and exhausted after finishing the book, Mr. DeMott's introduction, uncover-
Steinbeck wondered whether he would ing with sure and sensitive knowledge
ever write so well again. "That part of what John Steinbeck did, how he worked
my life that made the Grapes is over." and thought, and even how he felt, sets
the scene for Working Days. This day-by-
day account of the book's progress, and
of the writer's frustrations, will fascinate
a variety of readers.
First of all, those interested in social
issues will recognize the tensions in the
kind of involvement necessary for a writer
to commit himself to what Mr. DeMott
calls the "Matter of the Migrants." For
over three years, Mr. Steinbeck worked

547
for the dispossessed and oppressed work- himself alienated from his own neigh-
ing migrants from Oklahoma in their bors. Not only the FBI, but the local
struggle simply to live despite the Associ- folks of Salinas, too, were out to get him.
ated Farmers of California and their bank- "Don't stay in a hotel room alone," a
ing allies. friendly undersheriff of Santa Clara County
But then he had to distance himself told him. "The boys got a rape case set
from demands and invasions that would for you. You get alone in a hotel and a
have made writing the book impossible. dame will come in, tear off her clothes,
Because he had acquired notoriety as scratch her face and scream and you
author of In Dubious Battle (1936) and try to talk your way out of that one.
Of Mice and Men (1937), he received They won't touch your book, but there's
countless appeals. Down-and-outersthe easier ways."
people whose stories he had told in ar- In an earlier Journals entry, he had
ticles and whose lives he would transform written: "All the growth of the fascist
into art in The Grapes of Wrathwanted tendency is heart breaking. Nothing seems
money from him because they thought to work against its stupidity and one gets
that he had both money and luck. The very tired.... I'll probably be framed be-
money had not yet arrived. As for his fore very long."
"luck," his "success," Mr. Steinbeck con- One wonders how he kept his faith in
sidered it more a matter of his "destruc- America and in democracy. This edition
tion." "The Greeks," he wrote in The of The Journals, with Mr. DeMott's su-
Journals, thinking especially of Homer perband superbly documentednotes,
and of Sophocles, "seem to have known demonstrates heart-liftingly that he did.
about this dark relationship between luck And when a writer's life is as filled with
and destruction." Mr. Steinbeck felt it incident as John Steinbeck's, the docu-
strongly. mentation, the gossip, and the record
So there is nourishment here for the become, at a distance, an odyssey of de-
reader who wonders about writing and light. The agony of the writer here be-
for the reader who wonders about suc- comes a reader's informed pleasure.
cess in America. Throughout his life,
John Steinbeck could never see himself as
the accomplished writer that he was. Suc-
cess meant mostly that he felt obliged to James D. Houston.
do more and better than he saw himself
as able to do.
"Steinbeck's Obsession.55
The Grapes of Wrath did indeed make San Francisco Review of
him rich, but it also made him a target Books, 4 (Spring 1989),
for the California that he had so greatly
offended. He told the truth about the 25-6.
banks, the Associated Farmers, the utili-
ties and their treatment of the dust-bowl
victims. Lured west by fraudulent adver- [In 1938], Steinbeck was sitting down to
tising and then exploited, the lucky ones write an as-yet-untitled novel. At the
found themselves compelled to work for same time he also began the daily journal
any wage at all, or else watch their chil- that Viking brings out on April 14 of
dren starve. The less fortunate died. this year, as a companion to the fiftieth
After the telling, Mr. Steinbeck found anniversary edition. Called Working Days:

548
The Journal of The Grapes of Wrath, he is also nursing his wife through a ton-
it covers the period of actual composi- sillectomy; buying a ranch; entertaining
tion, from May to October, 1938, fol- Charlie Chaplin, Broderick Crawford,
lowed by a few post-production entries and film director Pare Lorentz; worrying
from the period October 1939 to January over reviews of The Long Valley, which
1941. These have been edited, with an came out that summer; and trying to ig-
admirable commentarythorough, read- nore reports that his New York publisher,
able, and generous-spiritedby Robert Pat Covici, was going bankrupt.
DeMott, formerly a director of San Jose What emerges from these rushed en-
State University's Steinbeck Research Center. tries is the picture of a man whose life is
As DeMott points out in his Intro- filled to overflowing, whose body is fall-
duction, the trip to Visalia and Nipomo ing apart, while his mind and heart are
was the turning point in the history of possessed with a story that will not go
[the information on migrant workers he untold.
had gathered]: the need to report, as he The published novel is over six hun-
had done for the [San Francisco] News, dred pages long. He wrote it in one hun-
gave way to something larger and much dred working days. Pacing himself relent-
more urgent. lessly, he averaged two thousand words a
day, commencing on May 31, when his
Steinbeck's leap from right-minded journal begins, "Here is the diary of a
competency to inspired vision was the book, and it will be interesting to see
result of one linked experience that hit how it works out." On October 26, the
him so hard it called forth every ounce day he completed the final scene, his en-
of his moral indignation, social anger try conveys both misery and relief:
and pity.
I am so dizzy I can hardly see the
Judging by the detail in Working page. I wonder if this flu could be
Days, this was a novel born in pain and simple and complete exhaustion. I
sustained by pain. Part of the legend of don't know.... I finished this day,
the making of The Grapes of Wrath is and I hope to God it's good.
the feverish obsession of the writing,
at the end of which Steinbeck collapsed Steinbeck didn't get his wish. You
from nervous exhaustion. His journal never hear the word good used to de-
bears this out in sometimes excruciat- scribe The Grapes of Wrath. From day
ingly intimate detail. As journals go, this one this has been a novel with devoted
is not the kind of literary speculation we friends and powerful enemies. Readers
find in The East of Eden Letters. It is as have loved it, and they have hated it.
if a closed-circuit video camera had been There are still people in Bakersfield who
mounted above his desk in the eight-by- cannot discuss it in a calm voice. They
eight foot workroom on Greenwood have not yet forgiven Steinbeck for the
Lane in the foothills outside Los Gatos. way he described working conditions
These are daily, confessional glimpses of there and for the damage they believe this
a man who, while giving voice to an did to Kern County's reputation.. . .
American legend, is sweating, brooding,
counting words and pages, blacking out,
fighting nausea.. . .
During these same five hectic months

549
 Rose of Sharon's gesture at the close of
Kenneth S. Lynn. offering her milky breast to a starving
man. He also established a writing sched-
"Book Reviews." ule of 2,000 words a day that would
American Spectator, 41 enable himthat did enable himto
complete the novel by the following Oc-
(August 1989), 41-2. tober. Finally, he decided that he would
make a map of his literary progress by
keeping a journal. Thanks to Robert
John Steinbeck's first lengthy examina- DeMott, a professor of English at Ohio
tion of the Dust Bowl migrantsa series University and a recognized authority on
of investigative reports that were pub- Steinbeck, that journal has now been
lished, alongside photos of the migrants published, with useful notes by Professor
by the Farm Security Administration's DeMott, under the title Working Days.
Dorothea Lange, in the pro-labor San It is a harrowing document. For while
Francisco News in the fall of 1936 Working Days testifies to Steinbeck's con-
made only passing allusions to their trek tinuing grasp of his organizational plan
westward from Oklahoma and concen- for The Grapes of Wrath, as well as to
trated instead on the gypsy-like existence his dogged determination to meet his per
they were reduced to in agriculturally diem quota of words, it is also a record
feudal California. Subsequently, he tried of doubts of his literary adequacy, of an-
and failed to write a novel called The ger at being interrupted by friends and
Oklahomans, in which, apparently, he strangers, of disgust with himself about
zeroed in once again on the California his drinking, cigarette smoking, and gen-
scene. His third attempt to deal with the eral lack of self-discipline, and of fears of
migrants was inspired by a bloody clash nervous collapse and insanity. Here are
between workers and growers in a lettuce some representative comments:
strike in Salinas, California, his birth- "Irritated today. People want to come
place. But UAffaire Lettuceberg, as he to see me next Monday. Can't be. Just
dubbed the manuscript he produced, was want to sit. Day not propitious. Have
nothing more, he eventually realized, a loose feeling that makes me nervous . . .
than a "vulgar" tract, and in mid-May I get nuts if not protected from all the
1938, he destroyed it. With that dark act outside stuff" (June 3). "My whole ner-
he might have lapsed into despairex- vous system is battered. Don't know why.
cept that it was immediately followed by I hope I am not headed for a nervous
the mightiest outburst of imaginative en- breakdown" (June 6). "Last night.. .
ergy he would ever experience. drank a great deal of champagne [and] . . .
Across a span of no more than ten am not in the dead sober state I could
days, between May 15 and 25, the entire wish . . . I must not be weak.... The fail-
scheme of The Grapes of Wrath was en- ure of will even for one day has a devas-
visioned by Steinbeck, beginning with the tating effect" (June 13). " . . . once this
grand outlines of the Joad family's jour- book is done I won't care how soon I die,
ney across the country, but also including because my major work will be over"
the symphonic structure of the story, (July 11). "Drank lots of whiskey . . . and
with its alternating modes of exposition now home with a little stomach ache that
and narrative, and the dramatic events of doesn't come from the stomach. Terrible
individual scenes, all the way down to feeling of lostness and loneliness" (July

550
18). "Demoralization complete and seem- prison in McAlester, Oklahoma, until his
ingly unbeatable" (August 16). "My nerves disappearance into the darkness of a
are going fast. Getting into confusion of California night near the end of the story,
many particleseach one beatable, but he is never shown in pursuit of a woman,
in company pretty formidable. And I get in contrast to his younger brother, Al,
a little crazy with all of them" (August who is constantly scratching a sexual
24). "This place has become an absolute itch. The explanation of Tom's conduct
madhouse . . . I don't know what to do. I lies not in the novel but in the diary.
wishJesus!" (August 26). "Have to cut By 1938, Steinbeck's relations with his
down smoking or something. I'm afraid wife, Carol, were frequently strained,
this book is going to pieces. If it does, even hostile, and the tension between
I do too" (September 7). "This book them was heightened during the period
has become a misery to me because of when he was writing The Grapes of
my inadequacy" (September 26). "The Wrath by his abstinence from sexual in-
disintegration lately has been terrible" tercourse with her. Not until October 7,
(October 4). as he was nearing the end of his creative
Gradually, the struggling novelist be- labors, did he feel "a change... coming
came aware that keeping the diary had a over mea goatish sexuality. The sum-
therapeutic effect upon him. "Now at last mer has just been the oppositevery
I am getting calm," he wrote on August low." So intense was Steinbeck's identifi-
2. "This diary is a marvelous method of cation with his fictional hero that, wheth-
calming me down every day." And on er consciously or unconsciously, he reduced
September 26 he noted that his stomach Tom's sex drive to the same level as
and nerves were "screaming hell in pro- his own.
test," but that he had written an excep- An even greater oddity about the good-
tionally long entry in order "to calm my- guy hero of The Grapes of Wrath is de-
self." His self-understanding, however, fined by his homicidal outbursts. Tom
never grew beyond this point. Thus in not only has done time at McAlester for
1952 he declared that when he wrote The killing a man in a social quarrel, but
Grapes of Wrath, "I was filled... with before the novel is over he will kill an-
certain angers . . . at people who were other in a labor dispute. His sidekick,
doing injustices to other people." No Jim Casy, the ex-preacher who has the
doubt he wasbut as the diary demon- same initials as Christ, is politically radi-
strates, he also brought to his writing calized in the course of the novel, and
desk each day a variety of violent emo- after Casy's symbolic crucifixion Tom
tions that had nothing to do with objec- consecrates his own life to the cause of
tive social circumstances and everything social justice. In a secular world, he will
to do with the personal life and psychic be Jim Casy's self-sacrificing disciple. But
nature of John Steinbeck. What the diary the question that Steinbeck fails to exam-
forces us to reconsider is the relationship ine is whether Tom's intentions, as out-
of the novelist to hisfictivematerials. lined in a farewell speech to his mother,
are not an ambiguous mixture of altru-
One of the odd things about the hero of ism and intoxication with violence for its
the novel, Tom Joad, is his lack of inter- own sake. "I'll be all aroun' in the dark,"
est in sex. From the time we meet him in he assures Ma Joad. "I'll be ever'where
Chapter Two, hitchhiking home to his wherever you look. Wherever they's a
parents' place after being released from fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be

551
there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up Joad's indomitability was a reincarnation
a guy, I'll be there. . . . I'll be in the of Carol's.
way guys yell when they're mad an'I'll
be in the way kids laugh when they're Working Days also contains a section
hungry an' they know supper's ready. called "Aftermath," which is composed
An' when our folks eat the stuff they of the diary entries that Steinbeck contin-
raise an' live in the houses they build ued to make in the two years following
why, I'll be there. See?" The diarist who the publication of The Grapes of Wrath.
but slenderly understood his own raw As Professor DeMott aptly observes, the
emotions ("My whole nervous system is motif of self-doubt is still prominent
battered. Don't know why.") was corre- in these entries, but is compounded by
spondingly incapable of plumbing the guilt and tempered by foreshadowing, as
mysteries of his alter ego's. though Steinbeck felt himself to be hover-
The emergence of Ma Joad as a far ing on the brink of some enormous catas-
stronger person than her husband and trophe. If the intimations of dark fatality
the other older men in the Joad family is are not fully articulated, it is because
another notable aspect of the novel on Steinbeck was fearful that the watchful
which the diary bears. "Carol does so Carol would discover the secret of his
much," Steinbeck said of his wife in the love affair with a 20-year-old showgirl
entry of August 2. Indeed she did. Al- named Gwyndolyn Conger, whom he be-
though Carol Henning was a fairly tal- gan seeing in the summer of 1939 and
ented poet, prose writer, and painter, as whom he would marry in 1943. Was
well as being more deeply involved in he already dreaming of betraying Carol
radical politics than Steinbeck ever was, while he was still writing The Grapes of
she gave up her career when she got mar- Wrathand did that dream, too, get into
ried. In addition to assuming all the the novel? Quite conceivably. For the
domestic duties of the household, the weakest link in the Joad family chain
strong-willed, tough-minded Carol did is Rose of Sharon's youthful husband, the
her best to shield her shy and easily stam- androgynously named Connie, who, when
peded husband from intrusions on his the Joads finally reach California, deserts
privacy: oversaw his business relations his drastically pregnant wife and disap-
with his agents; typed and edited his pears. An author given to sexual guilt
manuscripts; and, in the case of The and paranoia might well have created
Grapes of Wrath, made critical com- such a character as Connie, out of a ter-
ments on the manuscript and found the rible premonition of how he intended to
perfect title for it in Julia Ward Howe's reward the woman who had done so much
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic." On to bring his greatest book into being.
the dedication page of the novel Steinbeck Working Days serves, in sum, to make
wrote, "To Carol, who willed this book." The Grapes of Wrath and its author more
Just as weakness of the senior male Joads complex and more interesting. Studs Terkel's
can be linked to Steinbeck's sense of introduction to the fiftieth anniversary
his own weakness and to memories of edition of the novel accomplishes the re-
his weak father, whose mismanagement verse. Essentially, it seeks to show that
of a store ended in bankruptcy (the The Grapes of Wrath is the fictional
diarist wrote on June 16: "I dreamed a equivalent of Terkel's alleged transcripts
confused mess made up of Dad and his of the voices of downtrodden little people
failures and me and my failures"), so Ma and that that is a wonderful thing.

552
 Perhaps the chief wonder of the novel
Brad Leithauser. is that it's as good as it is. Steinbeck was
a writer of such variable strengths and
"Books." such uncertain instincts that any attempt
New Yorker, 69 at an epic novel would seem destined for
failure. What probably saved The Grapes
(21 August 1989), 90-3. of Wrath was his reservoir of rage. He
saw his fellow-Californians responding
with fear rather than charity to "the flare
. . . As is generally the case when diaries of want" in the eyes of the newcomers,
or drafts surrounding a famous literary and this inhumanity liberated him: it jus-
work come to light, Working Days: The tified his characteristic eagerness to lec-
Journals of "The Grapes of Wrath" pro- ture his readers, lent a dignity to his
vides more confirmation than revelation. indiscriminate savagings of the affluent
Most of what is here could be intuited (into whose ranks the book would irre-
from the novel itself. That the book was versibly propel him), and excused his
written rapidly, in a fiercely concentrated woolly theorizing about the collective
five-month outpouring, comes as no sur- "Manself." The book is a call to arms,
prise: the writing feels all of a piece. Nor and it manages, in the enormity of the in-
is one surprised to discover that Stein- iquity it exposes, to render irrelevant
beck did little revising. If the achievement many of the aesthetic qualifications it
of his prose is that he everywhere man- raises along the way. .. .
ages to avoid clutterno small feathe
pulls off few of those bravura touches
that arise when, over time, one stylistic
refinement unlocks another. His prose is Checklist of Additional
a bit like a cleared, swept, polished ball-
room floor on which nobody dances. Reviews
What is surprising about Working Days
is just how scanty are its collateral pleas-
ures. Precious few nuggets of humor, in- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt.
telligence, or curiosity glint within it. "Steinbeck's Grapes, with His Diary
What one primarily absorbs is Stein- of Writing It." New York Times,
beck's guilt-inspired drive, and one leaves 30 March 1989, Section B, p. 2.
the book hoping forlornly that he learned William Kennedy. "'My Work Is No
to like himself better as the years went Good.'" New York Times Book
by. He criticizes himself on page after Review, 139 (9 April 1989), 1, 44-5.
page for not working hard or fast Jonathan Yardley. "A New Pressing of
enough. He fusses interminably over self- The Grapes of Wrath." Washington
fixed schedules, word counts, and page Post, 16 April 1989, "Book World"
counts. Rarely have I entered so claustro- section, p. 2.
phobic a journal, and I'm not sure I've Alan Ryan. "50 Years Later, Steinbeck's
ever come across anything so psychologi- Works Reflect Agony, Beauty of
cally straitened in connection with an en- Writing." Salinas Californian,
during work of artwhich, for all its 29 April 1989, p. 2C.
shortcomings, The Grapes of Wrath ap- "Brief Mention." American Literature,
pears to be. 61 (October 1989), 519.

553
 Index
A., W. L., 191 Becker, Charlotte, 94, 187
Abels, Cyrilly, 16-18 Becker, May Lamberton, 106
Ackerley, J. R., 448-9 Bedell, Bill, 325
Adams, J. Donald, 290, 311 Bedell, W. D., 3 7 3 ^
Adams, Phoebe-Lou, 528 Beebe, William, 211-13
Adams, Scott, 340 Belfast [Me.] Republican Journal, 189
Adey, Alvin, 227-8 Belloli, Joseph A., 187
Akron Beacon Journal, 187 Benet, William Rose, 34-5, 56-7
Albany [N.Y.] Times-Union, 189 Bentley, Phyllis, 190
Alexander, Irene, 402, 439 Bernstein, Edgar, 190
Altoona Tribune, 189 Bernstein, Victor H., 340
America, 411, 472, 490-1 Binder, Gertrude, 189
American Literature, 522, 553 Birney, Earle, 168-70
American Mercury, 189, 237, 402 Bixler, Paul, 230-2
American Review, 90-1 Black, Robert, 535-8
American Spectator, 550-2 Black and White, 189
Anderson, John, 447-8 Bloomfield, Paul, 400-1
Angoff, Charles, 171-2 Booklist, 18, 143, 187, 198, 213, 237, 267,
Antioch Review, 230-2, 237 290, 311, 321, 340, 354, 380, 402, 425,
Appel, David, 187, 290 439, 443, 478, 495
Arrowsmith, J. E. S., 20 Bookman, 16-18
Asheville Citizen, 237 Bookmark, 237, 402, 439, 478
Astro, Richard, 517-19 Books Abroad, 476
Atkinson, Brooks, 112-13, 116-18, 130, Books and Bookmen [England], 468-9, 517,
241-3, 357, 360-2 540
Atkinson, Oriana, 335-6 Boren, Lyle H., 191
Atkinson, Ted, 504-6 Boston Daily Globe, 221-3
Atlanta Constitution, 189 Boston Evening Transcript, 10, 55-6, 187
Atlanta Georgian, 187 Boston Herald, 188, 189
Atlanta Journal, 188, 277-8 Boyle, Frances Alter, 217, 419
Atlantic, 91-2, 170, 189, 191, 228, 300-1, Bracker, Milton, 255
319, 402, 425, 438, 469-70, 488-9, 528 Bradley, Van Allen, 495
Atlantic Monthly, see Atlantic Breit, Harvey, 439
Brewer, Rose Loyeman, 189
B., A., 437 Brickell, Herschel, 69, 94
Baker, Carlos, 67-9, 295-6, 318-19, 413-14, Brighouse, Harold, 18-19, 26-7, 92-3, 235,
460-1 308
Baker, Frances, 311 Brooklyn Citizen, 47, 187, 267
Bakersfield Californian, 190 Brooklyn Eagle, 69, 94, 325
Barney, Virginia, 24-5 Brophy, John, 190
Barretto, Larry, 190 Broun, Heywood, 87-8
Barron, Louise, 425 Brown, Clarence, 510-12
Barron, Mark, 130, 425 Brown, John Mason, 130, 311
Barry, Iris, 340 Brunn, Robert R., 396-7
Bartlett, Randolph, 97-8, 187 Brynes, Asher, 472-3
Beck, Clyde, 402 Buffalo Courier-Express, 187

555
Buffalo Evening News, 187 Coates, Robert M., 13
Buffalo Times, 94 Cockburn, Helen, 190
Bugbee, Willis, 189 Cockburn, W. E., 190-1
Burnham, David, 246-7 Cody, W. E, 290
Burton [England] Observer, 190 Colby, Harriet, 36-7
Butcher, Fanny, 35, 75-6, 187, 267, 311, Cole, Elizabeth M., 380
430, 478, 482-4 Coleman, John, 377-8
Butler, E. M., 229 Collier's, 174-5
Bystander [England], 190 Collins, Dorothea Brande, 90-2
Columbus [Ohio] Citizen, 311, 402
C, J. H., 100-1 Columbus [Ga.] Enquirer-Sun, 84-5
Calhoun, Annie, 311 Columbus [Ohio] Evening Dispatch, 188
Calta, Louis, 130 Columbus Ohio State Journal, 3-4, 188
Cameron, May, 187 Commonweal, 114-15, 124, 173-4, 190,
Canadian Forum, 168-70, 191, 200, 308, 199, 226-7, 246-7, 282-3, 307-8, 323,
437 352-3, 363-5, 419
Canby, Henry Seidel, 76-7 Concord Daily Monitor and New Hampshire
Carew, Harold D., 213 Patriot, 188
Carmel Pine Cone, 165 Congressional Record, 191
Carter, Ruth Hinman, 187 Conroy, Jack, 187
Caskey, J. Homer, 189 Conterno, Larry, 474-5
Catholic Library World, 500 Cooke, Alistair, 495
Catholic World, 123, 191, 229, 251-2, 267, Cooke, Robert J., 500
283, 366, 399, 420-1, 437-8, 474-5 Cooper, Lettice, 190
Cattani, Richard J., 515-16 Corona Independent, 94
Caughey, John Walton, 190 Cousins, Norman, 223-^, 284-5, 301-3,
Chamberlain, John, 47, 53-5, 69, 189, 213, 350-1
236, 290 Covici, Pascal, Jr., 547-8
Chancellor, Richard, 339-40 Cowley, Malcolm, 166-7, 290, 311
Charlotte News, 92, 290 Crandell, Richard E, 195-6
Charques, R. D., 400 Crane, Milton, 351-2
Chattanooga News, 189 Cuppy, Will, 3
Chattanooga Times, 94, 130 Current History, 69, 227-8, 247-50
Chicago Daily News, 94 Currie, George, 69
Chicago Daily Tribune, 14-15, 35, 75-6, 267 Curtiss, Thomas Quinn, 191
Chicago News, 149, 188, 213, 290, 495
Chicago Sun, 266, 311, 334 D., A., 124-5
Chicago Sun Book Week, 105-6, 279-80, D., M., 14-15
316 Daiches, David, 237
Chicago Sun-Times, 439, 478, 495 Daily Worker, 311
Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books,Dallas Morning News, 439, 547-8
351-2, 390-1, 414-15, 430, 443, 482-4 Dallas News, 94
Chicago Times, 297 Dallas Times Herald, 311
Chicago Tribune, 94, 187, 311, 478, 506 Daniel, Frank, 277-8
Chico Record, 94 Davies, Pearce, 188
Choice, 503-4, 522, 540 Davies, Robertson, 425
Christian Century, 23, 228-9, 477-8 Davis, Bennett, 187
Christian Herald, 475 Davis, Elinor, 139
Christian Science Monitor, 168, 217, 396-7, Dawson, Margaret Cheney, 13-14, 23-4
464-5, 489-90, 515-16, 530-1 Dayton Daily News, 189
Clare, Ben, 331-2 Dayton Journal-Herald, 189
Clark, Eleanor, 305-7 Daytona Beach News-Journal, 187
Clayton North Georgia Recruiter, 181-3 De Mott, Benjamin, 475
Clearwater Sun, 540 Dent, Alan, 255
Cleveland News, 187 Denver Quarterly, 535-8
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 290 Denver Rocky Mountain News, 495
Cleveland Press, 190, 402, 478 Des Moines Sunday Register, 486-7

556
Detroit News, 402 Gilder, Rosamond, 250-1
De Voto, Bernard, 191, 311 Gill, Brendan, 419-20
Didion, Joan, 477 Gilroy, Harry, 371
Direction, 198, 237 Goldberg, Albert, 368
Dolbier, Maurice, 499 Goldberg, Isaac, 122-3
Doughty, Howard N., 206-7 Goldman, Eric E, 485-6
Doull, James, 340 Goldstein, Albert, 188
Dow, Hume, 94 Gordon, Ernest, 478
Dublin Magazine [Ireland], 425 Gordon, W Max, 383
DuBois, William, 432-3 Gorer, Geoffrey, 340
Duchene, Anne, 423-4 Goshen Republican, 190
Duffus, R. L., 213, 220-1 Govan, Gilbert E., 94, 130
Duffy, Charles, 226-7 Graef, Richard, 267
Dunbar, Maurice, 354 Green Bay Press-Gazette, 189
Dunton, Edith K., 188 Greensboro News, 190, 237
Durham Morning Herald, 188 Gunther, John, 236-7
Dvorak, Jarmila, 476 Gurko, Leo, 385-6
Guzman, Don, 402, 415-16
Eastman, Max, 237
Edgett, Edwin Francis, 10 H., E. C, 190
Education [England], 190 H., V. P., 478
Eigo Seinen [Japan], 287-90 Habas, Ralph, 297, 316
Elting, M. L., 173 Haines, Helen E., 94, 188
Engle, Paul, 390-1, 414-15 Halsband, Robert, 311
English Journal, 130, 504 Hampson, John, 286
Hansen, Harry, 31-2, 94, 137, 187, 213,
E, P. G., 188 262-3
Fadiman, Clifton, 140, 154-5, 204-5, Harcourt, Peter, 453-5
217-19, 237, 261-2 Harper's, 189, 213, 290, 354, 402, 425, 439,
Fairley, Barker, 200 478, 488, 499-500
Fane, Vernon, 190 Harris, John, 495
Farrelly, John, 322 Hart, Eugene D., 213
Fausset, Hugh FA., 287 Hart, Evelyn, 189
First Reader, 10 Hartford Times, 187
Fischer, Louis, 336-7 Hartmus, Laurence, 149
Fitzgerald, Gerry, 20 Hartt, J. N., 476-7
Florida Historical Quarterly, 494-5 Hartung, Philip T., 199
Foote, Robert O., 402 Harvard Advocate, 94
Forum, 26, 173, 191 Havighurst, Walter, 506
Frontier and Midland, 149, 189-90 Hayes, Sibyl, 69
Fuller, Edmund, 529-30 Hedgpeth, Joel W, 208-9, 375-7
Helmer, George E, 299, 402
Gannett, Lewis, 34, 73-4, 135-7, 187, 189, Hersey, John, 325
200, 236, 237, 259-61, 311, 354, 402, Hicks, Granville, 189, 458-60
425, 484-5 Highet, Gilbert, 402, 425
Gardiner, Harold C, 403, 411, 472 Hobart, John, 130
Gardner, John, 526-8 Hodgart, Matthew, 466-7
Gardner, Josephine, 290 Hodgart, Patricia, 436
Garrard, Maxine, 84-5 Hogan, William, 439, 478, 495, 509
Garrison, W. E., 228-9 Holiday, 495
Garside, E. B., 187 Hollywood Tribune, 188
Gassner, John, 247-50 Holman, Hugh, 407-10
Geismar, Maxwell, 315-16, 344-5, 439 Honolulu Advertiser, 189
George, Daniel, 435 Hoover, Gladys, 41
Gerber, Rudolph J., 490-1 Horn Book, 541
Gibbs, Wolcott, 237 Houlihan, T., 443
Gibson, Wilfrid, 175-6, 191 Houston, James D., 548-9

557
Houston Post, 237, 325, 373-4 Lalley, J. M., 299-300
Howden, Benjamin, 237 Langewiesche, Wolfgang, 265-6
Hozeski, Bruce W., 380 Lardner, John, 358-9
Hudson Review, 425, 475 LaRocque, Geraldine, 504
Hughes, Riley, 399, 420-1, 437-8 Lee, Charles, 188, 189
Huie, William Bradford, 264-5 Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher, 553
Hunter, Anne, 323 Leithauser, Brad, 553
Hutchens, John K., 456-7 Levau, Olett, 189
Hyman, Stanley Edgar, 213, 237 Levenson, Samuel, 191
Levitas, M. R., 374-5
Illustrated London News, 380, 448, 471, 492 Library Journal, 213, 217, 253, 267, 290,
In All Conscience, 403 311, 315, 340, 380, 402, 425, 439, 443,
Ingels, Beth, 205-6, 267 478, 481, 503, 516, 526
Inverness [Scotland] Courier, 190 Life, 189, 237
Isaacs, Edith J. R., 130 Life and Letters To-day, 129-30
Isherwood, Christopher, 190 Lindauer, Sidney, 189
Lisca, Peter, 520-1
Jack, Peter Monro, 159-61 Listener [England], 190, 448-9, 465-6
Jackson, Joseph Henry, 7-9, 32-3, 43-4, 47, Literary Digest, 57-8, 121-2, 290
51-3, 58, 78-80, 94, 103-5, 119-20, Littell, Robert, 237
142-3, 161-3, 188, 197-8, 237, 259, 290, Liverpool [England] Echo, 190-1
311,348-50,402,418-19 Lloyd,* Marjory, 165
Jackson, R. Alton, 188 Lockridge, Richard, 346
Jackson, Robert B., 478 London Daily Telegraph, 190
Jackson [Miss.] News, 311 London Mercury, 20, 28, 93, 149
Jackson [Tenn.] Sun, 188 London News Chronicle, 190
Jane way, Elizabeth, 430-1 London Observer, 190
Johnson, Cynthia, 541 London Times, 125-6, 148, 176-7, 190, 191,
Johnson, Robert V., 237 253-4, 399-400, 435, 465
Jones, E. B. C , 19 Long, Louise, 190
Jones, Lawrence William, 512-15 Longaker, Mark, 283
Jones, Pamela Hansford, 438-9 Longstreet, Stephen, 352
Jordan, Philip, 190 Los Angeles Daily News, 402
Los Angeles Times, 7, 20, 47, 59, 81-2,
K., S. J., 190 100-1, 125-6, 133, 148, 188, 237, 297,
Kelley, H.Gilbert, 311 331-2, 352, 368, 402, 415-16, 439,
Kennedy, William, 553 446-7, 495
Kenyon Review, 149, 190, 237 Los Gatos Times, 191
Keown, Eric, 129, 470 Lovejoy, Ritch, 290, 325
Kerr, Walter, 363-5 Lynn, Kenneth, 550-2
Keyes, Emilie C , 189
King, Richard, 190 M., A., 4-5
King, Robin, 310 M., F. H., 4
Kingery, Robert E., 315 M., K.J., 189
Kingsbury, William, 188 M., P. D., 10
Kirkus Reviews, 522, 525 MacAfee, Helen, 20, 94
Kiteley, John E, 540 MacCarthy, Desmond, 127-8
Klissner, Harry, 446-7 McCarthy, Mary, 64-5
Knoxville Journal, 94, 188 McClure, Robert E., 188
Krank, Charles Raymond, 47, 267 McCreedy, Sister Mary Lucille, 500
Kronenberger, Louis, 155-7 McDaniel, Barbara, 538-40
Krutch, Joseph Wood, 115-16, 273-4, McDonald, Walter R., 521-2
McFee, William, 330-1
Kuhl, Art, 191 McHugh, Vincent, 189
Kupferberg, Herbert, 446 McKelvery, Betty Lou, 189
McKenzie, Alice, 540
L., D. K., 188 McManus, Patricia, 402
Laker, J. H. C , 191 Macon Telegraph, 188

558
MacRae, Donald, 189-90 Needham, Wilbur, 7, 47, 59, 81-2, 99, 133,
McVicker, Daphne Alloway, 311 188, 189
Maddocks, Melvin, 464-5, 489-90 Neville, Helen, 42-3
Madeo, Frederick, 522 New English Weekly [England], 191
Magny, Claude-Edmonde, 402-3 New Haven Journal-Courier, 188
Mahon, Derek, 533-4 New Haven Register, 188-9
Mair, John, 148 New Leader, 374-5
Manchester Guardian, 9, 18-19, 26-7, 92-3, New Masses, 130, 189
124-5, 147-8, 175-6, 191, 235, 287, 308, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 188
400-1, 423-4, 436, 447-8, 467-8, 495 New Republic, 16, 44-5, 63-4, 86-7,
Mangione, Jerre, 44-5 118-19, 144-6, 166-7, 183-7, 225-6,
March, Michael, 187 229-30, 252-3, 266-7, 280, 303-5, 322,
Marriott, Charles, 9 332-4, 397-9, 407-10, 434-5, 472-3,
Marsh, Fred X, 38-9, 59-61, 80-1 510-12, 531-3
Marshall, Margaret, 191, 199, 219-20, New Statesman [England], 438-9, 466-7,
280-2, 290, 359-60 533-4
Martin, Jean, 478 New Statesman and Nation [England], 19,
Masterton, G. A., 526 65, 93, 94, 127-8, 130, 148, 180-1,
Matheny, Ralston, 188 233-4, 254-5, 290, 310-11, 324, 340,
Matthiessen, F. O., 274-6 401-2, 424
Mayberry, George, 280 New York Daily Mirror, 188
Merryn, Anthony, 129-30 New York Daily News, 187
Miami Herald, 506 New York Evening Post, 4
Miller, Max, 188 New York Herald Tribune, 3, 13-14, 23-4,
Mills, George, 486-7 34, 36-7, 61-3, 7 3 ^ , 8 2 ^ , 134-7, 161-3,
Milwaukee Journal, 189 187, 195-6, 200, 206-7, 236, 237,
Milwaukee Post, 188 259-61, 265-6, 311, 325, 354, 402, 425,
Mitgang, Herbert, 445 456-7
Mizener, Arthur, 397-9 New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book
Modern Fiction Studies, 520-1 Review, 106, 273-4, 311, 320-1, 340, 346,
Moffett, Anita, 15-16 393-5, 416-17, 432, 446, 462-3, 484-5
Monterey Peninsula Herald, 74-5, 205-6, New York Mirror, 73
267, 290, 325, 402, 439, 478 New York Post, 69, 94, 187, 545-6
Moon, Eric, 481, 503 New York Sun, 97-8, 187, 330-1
Moore, Harry X, 63-4, 86-7, 434-5 New York Times, 10, 47, 53-5, 77-8, 86, 99,
Moore, Leslie, 187 112-13, 116-18, 130, 137-8, 153-4, 190,
Moore, Ward, 421-3 191, 195, 203-4, 236, 237, 241-3, 255,
Morgan, Charles, 130 261, 276-7, 298, 317-18, 331, 343-4,
Moria, Howard, 297 357-8, 360-2, 371-2, 383-5, 410-11,
Morley, Christopher, 97 432-3, 457-8, 481-2, 522, 553
Morris, Alice S., 346-7 New York Times Book Review, 15-16, 24-5,
Morsberger, Robert E., 534-5 38-9, 59-61, 67-9, 80-1, 101-2, 140-1,
Morse, Edrie Ann, 189 159-61, 196, 213, 220-1, 263^1, 274-6,
Moult, Xhomas, 147-8 290, 295-6, 311, 318-19, 335-6, 346-7,
Muir, Edwin, 190 371, 391-3, 413-14, 430-1, 439, 445,
Muller, Herbert J., 149 460-1, 485-6, 503, 526-8, 540, 541, 553
Munz, Charles Curtis, 209-10 New York World-Herald, 478
Murray, Marian, 187 New York World Journal Tribune, 499
New York World-Telegram, 31-2, 90, 137,
N., D. A., 69 187, 262-3
N., R. W., 188 New Yorker, 13, 140, 154-5, 198, 204-5,
Nashville Tennessean, 188 217-19, 237, 262-3, 278, 299-300, 322,
Nathan, George Jean, 366-8 340, 358-9, 372-3, 387-9, 419-20, 430,
Nation, 18, 25, 42-3, 64-5, 88-9, 99-100, 445, 473, 495, 553
115-16, 155-7, 191, 199, 209-10, 219-20, Newhall, Scott, 207-8
243-4, 280-2, 290, 305-7, 359-60, 385-6, Newsweek, 41-2, 59, 94, 142, 164-5, 189,
420-3, 434 213, 245-6, 267, 290, 311, 362, 402, 425,
National Review, All 439, 463-4, 487, 522

559
Nicholas, Louis, 188 R., S., 188
Norfolk Pilot, 213 Rahv, Philip, 166
Norris, Hoke, 495 Raleigh Times, 10
North, Sterling, 94, 149, 188, 213, 325, 402, Rascoe, Burton, 130, 164-5, 189
425 Raven, Simon, 467
North American Review, 171-2, 521-2 Raymont, Henry, 522
Red Bluff Daily News, 189
Oakland, Post-Enquirer, 188 Redfern, James, 254
Oakland Tribune, 189 Redman, Ben Ray, 429
O'Brien, E. D., 380, 448, 471, 492 Rey, David, 434
O'Brien, Kate, 178-80, 235-6 Rhodes, Russell, 113-14
O'Hara, Frank, 130 Richardson, Maurice, 424
Oliver, James Ross, 74-5 Richter, Conrad, 499-500
O'Malley, Frank, 307-8 Rintaro, Fukuhara, 287-90
One Act Play, 122-3 Rivers, William, 491-2
Riverside News, 189
Pacific Discovery, 375-7 Robinson, Ted, 290
Pacific Grove Tide, 187 Roddan, Samuel, 308
Pacific Grove Tribune, 290 Rolo, Charles, 402
Pacific Historical Review, 190 Roosevelt, Eleanor, 90
Partisan Review, 166, 402 Ross, Mary Lowrey, 478
Pasadena Star-News, 94, 188, 213, 402 Rothman, Nathan L., 271-2
Patterson, Alicia, 188 Rowan, Diana, 530-1
Paul, Louis, 82-4 Rugoff, Milton, 416-17
Paulding, C. G., 282-3 Russell, Cara Green, 237
Perkin, Robert L., 495 Rutland Daily Herald, 188
Perspectives USA, 402-3 Rutson, Robert, 188
Perthshire [Scotland] Constitutional, 191 Ryan, Alan, 553
Peters, Richard, 190
Peterson, Virgilia, 462-3 S., 190
Pflaum, Irving, 334 S., C, 25-6
Philadelphia Inquirer, 89, 94 S., J., 148
Philadelphia Record, 188 S., L. A., 168, 217
Phillips, William, 402 S., R. W, 55-6
Pickrel, Paul, 402, 425, 439, 478, 488 S., W. T., 187
Pittsburgh Press, 94 Sacramento Bee, 237, 299, 340, 402
Plomer, William, 45-6, 65-6 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 402
PM, 290, 311, 340 St. Louis Star, 3
Poling, Daniel A., 475 St. Paul Daily News, 87-8
Poole, Robert, 468-9 St. Pierre, Brian, 545
Poore, Charles, 10, 153-4, 190, 203-4, 354, Salinas Californian, 383, 495, 522, 553
371-2,410-11 Salt Lake [City] Telegram, 10
Pope,J. S., 188 Salt Lake [City] Tribune, 189
Portland [Me.] Evening Express, 187 San Diego Union, 188
Prescott, Orville, 261, 276-7, 298, 311, San Francisco Call, 77
317-18, 331, 343-4, 383-5, 457-8, 481-2 San Francisco Call-Bulletin, 187
Price, Emerson, 402, 478 San Francisco Chronicle, 7-9, 32-3, 39-40,
Princeton Seminary Bulletin, 478 43-4, 47, 51-3, 58, 78-80, 94, 103-5,
Pritchett, V. S., 27, 93, 190 119-20, 130, 142-3, 161-3, 188, 197-8,
Providence Journal, 187 207-9, 237, 259, 290, 311, 325, 348-50,
Publishers' Weekly, 190, 522, 525 402, 418-19, 439, 478, 495, 509, 545
Punch [England], 129, 255, 470 San Francisco Examiner, 171
San Francisco News, 47, 69, 94, 189, 311
Quennell, Peter, 65 San Francisco People's World, 187
Quincy [111.] Herald-Whig, 10 San Francisco Review of Books, 548-9
Quinn, Patrick, 425 San Jose Mercury-Herald, 5-7, 41, 69, 188

560
San Jose Mercury News, 439 Sphere [England], 190
Santa Barbara News-Press, 402 Springfield [Mass.] Union and Republican,
Santa Monica Evening Outlook, 188 188
Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, 190 Stanford, Derek, 517
Saturday Night, 425, 478 Stanford Daily, 4
Saturday Review, 16, 25-6, 34-5, 56-7, Stegner, Wallace, 221-3
76-7, 94, 97, 139, 157-9, 189, 211-13, Steinbeck Newsletter, 506
223-4, 264-5, 271-2, 284-5, 290, 293-5, Steinbeck Quarterly, 340, 354, 380, 504-6,
301-3, 311, 315-16, 336-7, 344-5, 350-1, 517-19, 540-1
386-7, 412-13, 429, 444, 458-60, 491-2, Stevens, George, 157-9
512-15, 522 Strachey, Jules, 310-11
Saturday Review [England], 45 Straus, Ralph, 190, 191
Sayers, Michael, 130 Strong, L. A. G., 353-4
Scherman, David E., 503 Sugrue, Thomas, 320-1
Schofield, Harry, 188 Survey Graphic, 189
Scholastic, 247 Sussman, Corrine, 237
School Library Journal, 541 Swinnerton, Frank, 190
Schorer, Mark, 391-3 Swinton, Stan, 444
Schwartz, Delmore, 402
Scott, J. D., 401-2 Tatler [England], 190
Seaver, Edwin, 198, 237 Taylor, Frank J., 191
Selby, Hazel, 189 Teal, Paul G., 5-7
Selby,John, 187 Tetsumaro Hayashi, 501-3, 506
Shedd, Margaret, 109-12 Theatre Arts, 109-12, 130, 250-1, 365-6
Sherman, Thomas B., 402 Theatre Book of the Year: 1950-51, 366-8
Shippey, T. A., 541 Thompson, Francis J., 494-5
Shrapnel, Norman, 467-8 Thompson, John H., 443
Sidney, Walter, 94 Thompson, Ralph, 77-8, 86, 99, 137-8, 146,
Sillen, Samuel, 311 190, 195
Simmonds, Roy S., 540-1 Thurber, James, 225-6
Simpson, Arthur L., Jr., 340 Time, 85-6, 102-3, 163, 198, 210-11,
Singer, Burns, 465-6 234-5, 237, 244-5, 253, 290, 311, 321-2,
Smith, Bernard, 61-3 329-30, 362-3, 395-6, 417-18, 433,
Smith, Eleanor Touhey, 402, 439 455-6, 491, 547
Smith, Harrison, 293-5, 347-8, 402 Time and Tide [England], 190, 453-5
Smith, Russell, 94 Times Literary Supplement [London], 9-10,
Smith, Stevie, 323 19, 28, 46, 66-7, 93-4, 146-7, 149,
Smith, Theodore, 47, 69, 94, 189, 311 177-8, 191, 232-3, 286-7, 309, 3 2 3 ^ ,
Smits, Anna Mary, 189 338, 354, 378-9, 401, 424, 436, 448,
Snelling, Paula, 181-3 470-1, 493^4, 500-1, 541
Social Education, 500 Tinkle, Lon, 439
Social Work Today, 189 Today in American Drama, 130
Solomon, Gladys, 188-9 Tooil, Kenneth D., 188
Soskin, William, 134-5 Toynbee, Philip, 233-4, 290
South African Jewish Times, 190 Trannett, Virginia H., 188
South Bend Tribune, 10 Turner, Frederick, 545-6
South Wales Evening Post, 190 Two on the Aisle, 130
Southport [England] Guardian, 190
Southwest Review, 190 Unity, 191
Spartan Daily, 189
Spearman, Arthur D., 171, 189 Van Doren, Mark, 88-9, 243-4
Spectator [England], 27, 45-6, 65-6, Varese, Louise, 402-3
126-9, 178-80, 235-6, 254, 286, 310, Vaughan, James N., 173-4
323, 339^*0, 353-4, 377-8, 400, 435, Vera, Dorothy H., 522
467, 493 Vernon, Grenville, 114-15, 124
Spectorsky, A. C, 105-6, 266, 279-80 Verschoyle, Derek, 126-9

561
Virginia Quarterly Review, 473-4, 516 Whipple, Leon, 189
Visvabharati Quarterly [India], 501-3 Whipple, Thomas King, 144-6
Vogel, Kathryn James, 188 Whitford, R. C, 325
Wickenden, Dick, 432
W., K., 189 Wiegand, Louise V., 10
W., S., 89 Williams, Mary C, 531-3
Wagner, Charles A., 73, 187 Williamson, S. T., 263-4
Wall Street journal, 529-30 Willingham, John R., 516
Walton, Eda Lou, 99-100 Wilson, Edmund, 183-7, 278
Walton, Edith H., 101-2 Wilson, Emma, 94
Washburn, Beatrice, 506 Wilson Library Bulletin, 190
Washington Evening Star, 187 Winston-Salem Journal-Sentinel, 188
Washington News, 10 Winter, Ella, 39-40
Washington Post, 94, 325, 347-8, 553 Withington, W. W, 190
Washington Post and Times-Herald, 425 Wollaston, Nicholas, 493
Waterbury American, 187 Wooster, Harold A., 290
Watson, Phil, 439 Worcester Telegram, 187
Watts, Richard, Jr., 303-5, 332-4 Work, Robert, 189
Webster, Harvey Curtis, 386-7, 412-13 Worsley, T. C, 94
Weeks, Donald, 325 Wyatt, Euphemia, 123, 251-2, 366
Weeks, Edward, 91-2, 170, 189, 228, 300-1,
319, 425, 438, 469-70, 488-9 Yale Review, 20, 94, 146, 190, 237, 311,
Weiss, Carol H., 352-3 402, 425, 476-7
West, Anthony, 180-1, 387-9 Yardley, Jonathan, 553
West Coast Review, 538-40 Yorkshire [England] Post, 190, 191
West Palm Beach Post-Times, 189 Young, Stanley, 140-1
Western American Literature, 534-5 Young, Stark, 118-19, 252-3
Westfield Valley Herald, 189 Youngstown Vindicator, 237
Westwood, Horace, 191
Whereto Go, 113-14 Zolotow, Sam, 357-8

562