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John
Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas2, California,
center of the California lettuce industry and sometimes called
the "salad bowl".He studied marine biology3,
literature and creative writing at Stanford University but
left without taking a degree. His poems and short stories
appeared in university publications while he was employed
as a sales clerk, fruit picker, farm laborer, ranch hand4
and factory worker. In 1925 he traveled by freighter from
Los Angeles to New York City, where he worked as a construction
laborer5. From 1926-28 he lived in Lake Tahoe6
as caretaker for a summer home, where he wrote his first novel,
Cup of Gold, which came out in 1929. It was a historical romance
based on the life of Captain Henry Morgan7.
In 1930 he
met Edward Ricketts, a marine biologist and philosopher,
who was to become a lifelong friend. Ed Ricketts had studied
at the University of Chicago but never graduated; artists
and philosophers such as Henry Miller8, myth
expert Joseph Campbell, and Jack London9 met
informally at his Monterrey10 lab.
In his youth
Steinbeck had been a shy misfit11, and in his
writing, like a scientist, he often observed characters
from outside the picture, giving insights into human nature.
His stories were formed from interactions with the downtrodden
as well as with artists and writers in Monterrey. He had
been given a copy of Malory's12 Morte d'Arthur
for his ninth birthday, and felt it developed in him a sense
of right and wrong, and sympathy for the oppressed. He had
a lifelong plan to translate the Morte d'Arthur into modern
English: his The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights
was published posthumously in 1976.
Steinbeck's
novel Pastures of Heaven came out in 1932, followed in 1933
with To A God Unknown, in which he mingled Ricketts——theory
of the interdependence of all life with Jungian13
concepts. Steinbeck knew the book would not find many readers.
But in 1934 his short story The Murder was published and
received the O. Henry Prize——he sold the movie rights for
$3,000, a good sum of money at the time.
He spent 1934 gathering
information on farm labor unions. He listened, recreating
the language of the people, and in 1935 Tortilla Flat was
his first popular success, about pleasure-loving paisanos14
who exemplified the idyllic side of poverty. The hidden
theme was of King Arthur and the forming of the Round Table.
In 1936, In Dubious Battle, a controversial novel about
a strike of migratory workers, with one character derived
from Ed Ricketts, was published. And in 1937, Of Mice and
Men, later to become a stage play in New York, came out,
with its theme of shattered dreams.
Steinbeck had
been commissioned by the San Francisco News to write about
conditions of California migrant worker camps: he thought
these articles would work better as fiction, and The Grapes
of Wrath, resulted. Published in 1939, it was the top selling
novel of that year, but was also controversial for its vulgar
language and socialist bias. The book awakened the social
consciousness to the plight of migrant workers, being compared
in force to Uncle Tom's Cabin15.
The title is
from the Battle Hymn of the Republic16, written
in 1861 as a call for change during the Civil War period
by a woman who was an abolitionist and fought for women's
suffrage17. With this reference, the Depression
is seen as an act of divine retribution——survivors must
establish a society that fulfills the promise of a democratic
life.
The ending
of the book was considered shocking, and in some states
the book was banned. In the movie version, the ending of
The Grapes of Wrath celebrates the New Deal18,
deviating from the ending in the book. Steinbeck received
both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1940
for The Grapes of Wrath, which epitomized his sensitivity
to common man. But in the 1940's he was accused of being
a dangerous revolutionary and investigated by the FBI. In
June 1957 he defended the playwright Arthur Miller and excoriated19
the House on Un-American Activities Committee.
In 1941 Steinbeck
moved to New York, which was to be his home for the rest
of his life. Ed Ricketts died in 1948, and when Steinbeck
returned to New York after his funeral, his second wife
sued him for divorce. He was drinking heavily at thistime,
and film director Elia Kazan thought he should not be living
in New York, nor writing plays. In 1950 Steinbeck married
Elaine Scott, the happiest of his three marriages.
In 1962 he
received the Nobel Prize, and President Johnson awarded
him the United States Medal of Freedom in 1964.
East of Eden
is based on the story of Cain and Abel20, portraying two
families in rural California at the turn of the century
when "The Church and the whorehouse arrived in the
Far West simultaneously.?nbsp;Steinbeck wanted to tackle
the question of good versus evil " does mankind have
free will? ?nbsp;but the book is not considered one of his
best, having a tortuous21 story line with often clumsy description.
In his later
years he had problems with drugs and alcohol: critics considered
him exhausted, and his 1961 novel The Winter of Our Discontent
was not well received. Even after he received the Nobel
Prize, the New York Times asked in an editorial whether
the prize committee couldn't have made a better choice.
He wrote no more novels, but did special reporting abroad,
going to Vietnam to report on the war; the New York Post
then attacked him for betraying his liberal past. He died
ofa heart attack in New York in 1968, and is buried in Salinas.
1. John
Steinbeck: 约翰·斯坦贝克（1902-1968），美国小说家，作品多以农业工人为题材，代表作为《愤怒的葡萄》。1962年获诺贝尔文学奖，1964年获得美国总统自由勋章。
2. Salinas:
萨利纳斯，加利福尼亚州西部城市。
3. marine biology:
海洋生物学。
4. ranch hand:
牧场工人。
5. construction laborer:
建筑工人。
6. Lake Tahoe:
塔霍湖，位于加利福尼亚州与内华达州交界处，为游览和休养胜地。
7.Captain Henry Morgan:
摩根（1635-1688），威尔士海盗，劫掠西属加勒比殖民地的著名冒险家之一，被英王查理一世敕封为爵士[1674]，并被委派为驻牙买加副总督。
8. Henry Miller:
亨利·米勒（1891-1980），美国小说家，作品涉及许多哲理和社会问题，代表作有《北回归线》和《南回归线》。
9. Jack London:
杰克·伦敦（1876-1916），美国作家，作品以浪漫主义手法描写争取生存的原始斗争，主要作品有自传体小说《马丁·伊登》及《野性的呼唤》、《铁蹄》等。
10. Monterrey:
蒙特雷，墨西哥东北部城市。
11. misfit: 不适应环境的人。
12. Malory: 马洛礼（？-1471），英国作家，《亚瑟王之死》（Morte
d' Arthur）的编著者。
13. Jungian:
荣格精神分析法的。荣格为瑞士心理学家、精神病学家，首创分析心理学。
14. paisano: 同胞，同乡，乡下人。
15. Uncle Tom's Cabin:
《汤姆叔叔的小屋》，斯托夫人著。
16. The Battle Hymn of
the Republic: 《共和国战歌》，Julia
Ward Howe作。
17. suffrage:
投票，选举权。
18. New Deal:
新政，1933年美国总统罗斯福执政后为挽救当时严重的经济危机而采取的施政纲领。
19. excoriate:
批判。
20. Cain and Abel: 该隐与亚伯，亚当和夏娃的儿子，该隐杀死了弟弟亚伯。见基督教《圣经·创世纪》。
21. tortuous:
曲折的，转弯抹角的。
文中提到的斯坦贝克作品列表：
Cup of Gold:
《金杯》（1929），斯坦贝克的第一部作品，写17世纪海盗亨利·摩根爵士（Sir
Henry Morgan）的历史传奇。
Pastures of Heaven: 《天堂的牧场》（1932）
To A God Unknown:
《献给一位无名的神》（1933）
The Murder: 《谋杀》（1934），短篇小说，获欧·亨利文学奖。
Tortilla Flat:
《托蒂亚平地》(1935)
In Dubious Battle: 《胜负未决的战斗》(1936)
Of Mice and Men:
《鼠与人》（1937）
The Grapes of Wrath:
《愤怒的葡萄》（1939），斯坦贝克的代表作，是美国30年代大萧条时期的一部史诗。它所反映的社会问题在美国人民中引起了十分强烈的反响。1940年获普利策小说奖。
East of Eden:
《伊甸园以东》(1952)
The Winter of Our Discontent:
《我们的不满的冬天》(1961)
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