John Steinbeck

1) His first novel Cup of Gold was turned down by most publishers not because it was not written well but because of the Great Depression. He and his wife struggled during that era living one day at a time. When finally published, this and his second book, The Pastures of Heaven did not sell well primarily because of the same reason. One day publisher Covitt was visiting a bookstore and heard an owner suggesting to his customer to try Steinbeck’s books. This made Covitt interested on Steinbeck. He financed the publication of Tortilla Flat and it became Steinbeck’s first clear literary success so Covitt also re-published the first two books. However, after few years, Covitt also folded up his publishing business.

2) Steinbeck was an intuitive writer. He did not outline his plot. He allocated at least 4 hours a day to fill up at least 20 pages of his journal. At the early part of his career in writing, he paid more attention on how his sentences sounded and let the proofreaders catch his errors in spelling, syntax or grammar. But later when there was a big push to be a better writer, he changed this and made sure that his grammar, spelling and syntax were correct.

3) He listened to classical music while writing. He noticed that when he played Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake he finished more pages than when he played other classical tunes.

4) That novel that made him interested in writing was Sir Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. He and his younger sister Carol played knights in search of the chalice during their childhood years riding a pony in Salinas Valley.

5) He was branded as a communist during the height of The Grapes of Wrath-created controversy. His detractors were only silenced when he supported the US government stand during the Vietnam war and for a while, this made him unpopular among the masses.