There, Steinbeck met Ed Ricketts, whose friendship strongly influenced Steinbeck’s work. He married Carol Henning and the newlyweds settled in staid Pacific Grove, which he sometimes satirized in his writings. In two respects, 1930 was a notable year for Steinbeck. His first novel, Cup of Gold, appeared in 1929. He returned to California and between odd jobs, he began writing his novels. He went to New York in 1925, but found it unsuitable to his temperament. He did, however, contribute some poems and short stories to the Stanford literary magazine.ĭuring his years at Stanford and immediately after his departure, Steinbeck worked at a variety of jobs. In fact, he earned very few college credits. He entered Stanford University in 1920, and even though he remained until 1925, he never graduated. His imagination was kindled by writing at a very early age partly because his mother, the schoolteacher, read to him from the famous literature of the world.ĭuring his formative years, he played various sports in high school, worked at many different jobs, and wandered around the countryside observing the phenomena of nature. Steinbeck grew up in this beautiful, fertile California valley, where he found the material for most of his novels. His mother was a schoolteacher in the public school system of Salinas. John Steinbeck was born in Salinas on February 27,1902. Steinbeck’s father settled in California shortly after the American Civil War. The scenes in this novel, from its opening with the primitive pearl fishers to the corruptness of the town, are narrated with the skill of a person who has witnessed the events. Consequently, one of the finest attributes of The Pearl is the feeling that the author knows his material and his characters in great depth and with perfect accuracy. The Pearl was based on real characters whom Steinbeck became acquainted with during one of his prolonged travels, as also noted below. When not writing about his native California and its citizens, he would use people whom he had become intimate with in other ways (see discussion of The Grapes of Wrath below). Within his novels are characters who seem to breathe the very reality of life itself. Thus, many of his works take place in California, where he lived, and they deal with subjects which he thoroughly understood. He was not content to narrate a story which had no basis in fact. John Steinbeck was the type of author who liked to know his material firsthand.
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