John Steinbeck

Dalton Green
Mrs. Harrison
February 4, 2008
Research on John Steinbeck
      John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902. He was the third child born to John Ernst Steinbeck and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck. The name Steinbeck came from his grandfather when he changed the family name from Grossteinbeck to Steinbeck while he was migrating to the United States. Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley region of California; he was a farmer, yet a very different culturally of rich migratory and immigrant history. He lived in this house at Salinas until he was seventeen years old. This upbringing put a specific region flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place. His father, John Steinbeck, Sr., served as the Monterey County Treasurer while his mother, Olive Steinbeck, a former school teacher, fostered Steinbeck's love of reading and writing. While living in Salinas, Steinbeck spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrants on the huge Spreckels ranch. During this time, Steinbeck noticed the harsher aspects of the migrant life in the region and of the darker side of human nature. He really liked to explore the surrounding Salinas Valley, walking across local forests, fields and farms. This abandoned valley was the setting to a lot of his short stories.
      Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919. After high school he attended Stanford University off and on until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree. After Stanford, he traveled to New York City and held a large variety of temporary jobs while pursuing his dream as a writer. He wrote on the side but nothing big. He was unable to get any of his work published and he soon returned back to California where for a time he was a resort handyman in Lake Tahoe. Even though the roof collapsed on the cabin because the weight of the snow, the stay was not a complete disaster. While working at a fish hatchery in the summer of 1928, Steinbeck met Carol Henning who... [continues]

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