Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

by Rick Wartzman

Few books have caused as big a stir as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, when it was published in April 1939. By May, it was the nation’s No. 1 bestseller, flying off store shelves at a rate of 10,000 copies a week. But in Kern County, California—the Joads’ newfound home—the book was burned publicly and banned from library shelves. Obscene in the Extreme tells the remarkable story behind that fit of censorship, a moment when several lives collided as part of a larger class struggle roiling the nation. It is a superb historical narrative that serves as an engaging window into an extraordinary time of upheaval in America, when as Steinbeck put it, “A revolution is going on.”

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Books About Books, Biography

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a big ole sham. It promises to be one thing - the story of the week in which the Kern County Board of Supervisors banned Steinbeck's Grapes of Wraith for painting their locale in a bad light (and being generally obscene and sympathizing with those Okies, you know) - and instead turns out to be another - a sprawling, badly organized, occasionally vapid tale about California's political upheavals from the 20s through to the 40s. Those upheavals are worthy of attention, but had the book flap / advance told me that was the major topic under consideration, I'd have given the book a pass. I was interested in the story of the librarian who protested the banning of the book, and the town reaction to the banning, and the eventual repeal of the ban (which in fact took until 1941 to happen, not a week) - in short, the story that's being touted on NPR, and on the book flap. I call shennanigans!

It turns out this is a terribly academic book in many ways, dense with quotes and intent upon providing context to the events in Kerns County in 1939. But if wants to be an academic book, it should just be one, instead of a) being written as journalism and thereby forgoing all footnotes (AGH, HATE) and b) indulging in flights of 'perhaps' and 'maybe' and 'we can't possibly know what was on Fred's mind when he _______, but it's not impossible that it was ______.' It's like trying to read a text that's not sure if it's growing up in the shadow of E.P. Thompson or Dan Brown - The English Working Class or The Da Vinci Code; who shall I be in this sub-section?

I wanted to stab the book about one chapter in. Two, I was just bored. By Three I'd begun to skim. I only read the parts of Four and Five that were about Kern County, and then I skipped right to the end.

Do not read this book. I'm sure a better one on California industrial practices has to be out there, and that another will come along about reaction to Steinbeck's text.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title is a bit misleading, as it centers on just the burning of one copy of The Grapes of Wrath in one California county. The title made it seem as if this was a look at the burning and banning of The Grapes of Wrath all over the world, or at least America. Perhaps Kerfluffle in Kern County over The Grapes of Wrath would have been a far more accurate title.

This book is WORK to get through. About the mid-way point, I thought, "What the heck is this book supposed to be about, then?" and never quite found the answer.

Outside of some history on how John Steinbeck researched the lives of migrant workers in California, the book is just one big yawn-fest. The book jacket states that this book covers one week in Kern County, but it does not. It jumps back and forth in time to center on the history of agricultural workers in California. Some good photos, though.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where to begin! I think Susan Straight says it best in her praise for this book: "Rick Wartzman has made a dramatic and tension-filled narrative out of the story of how THE GRAPES OF WRATH was banned in Kern County, and he has given us a chapter of our history that many Americans might not know. (This) new book is invaluable and exciting". The telling of this story about America, California, the San Joaquin Valley, and Kern County in the 1930's is done through excellent reporting. This book includes stories about Steinbeck, cotton, oil, labor unions, and politics (from facists to Communists and everything inbetween). Just fascinating.

[Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love The Grapes of Wrath, and this book provides a lot of political and regional context for both Grapes itself and its banning.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about politics and how everybody dislikes everybody else. Things haven't changed very much from the 1930's. We still can't seem to get along. I did learn to be thankful that authors had intelligent first wives. John Steinbeck wanted to call his book "The Lettuce L'fair." His wife, Carol, came up with the name, "The Grapes of Wrath." Thank God for that. Can you imagine picking up a book called "The Lettuce L'fair?" If I remember nothing else about Obscene in the Extreme, I'll remember the awful title Steinbeck wanted to give to it.

[Schnaucl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was clearly a thoroughly researched book and it does an excellent job of giving the reader a feel for the time period when the banning and burning took place. Wartzman did a particularly good job explaining the background behind how Steinbeck researched The Grapes of Wrath. He makes it clear that those who claimed that Steinbeck was simply making things up were wrong.

At one point he makes a remark about how amazing it was that so much attention was paid to trying to prove a work of fiction was wrong. I can't recall what book he compared it to, but I think a more apt comparison would be The Da Vinci Code. Certainly much ink was spilled and television time devoted to proving that work of fiction was . . . a work of fiction.

Wartzman goes in depth on many of the key players in Kern County and California State politics and by the end of the book the reader certainly should have a feel for how things were in that time and place.

However, where the book falls down is actually talking about the burning and banning of the book. There's plenty of discussion about which class/organization wanted the book banned and why, just as there is plenty of discussion about which class/groups would want the book widely disseminated. There's even some discussion about contemporary worries that burning books was too close to what the Nazis did. All that is well and good and even very interesting. But there's very little focus on the fight to ban or unban the book in Kern County.

The book is divided into chapters that essentially cover the days of the week between the first and second council session. Monday actually discusses the session, how the vote went, etc. But Tuesday has a lot of background on various people and the book itself and almost nothing about the situation in Kern County. The rest of the chapters are similarly light on information about what is happening in Kern County on any given day of the week.

The book purports to show that the librarian, Ms. Knief, was a courageous fighter against the book ban. That very well may be but it certainly isn't apparent from the text. She was the head librarian for Kern, that is true, and she opposed the ban, that is also true. I believe she wrote a strong letter protesting the ban. But that's really about it. The book burning was one guy burning one copy of one book that was a staged photo-op.

Again, it's a well researched, well written book, but the subtitle and summary on the back are somewhat misleading.

[Carin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for Banned Books Week, and sadly did not quite finish it in time. Like most straight nonfiction, it was a little dry, which made for slower reading. But a topic I was very interested in helped immensely. I should say that not only do you not need to have read The Grapes of Wrath to enjoy this book, but personally, I didn't like TGoW, which didn't detact from this at all. (I'll bet a large part of why I didn't like it was that I was 16 when I read it, but no one's going to convince me to give it another try.)

The book was published in 1939, and the county supervisors in the California county where most of the book takes place, voted to remove the book from the local library system. Unlike most book bans, this one wasn't about obscenity, language, sex, drugs, or those kinds of things. It was banned because it made Kern County look bad. Yes, obscenity was the ostensible reason, but it was plainly obvious that wasn't the true reason for the ban.

Mr. Wartzman uses this example as a jump-off point to give a history of book banning. He goes into great detail about all the characters involved in the fight, the ramifications of the book and of the banning around the country. It was fascinating to read all the parallels between the Great Depression and what's going on right now in America with the Great Recession. The book was almost more about The Grapes of Wrath itself than the banning. In fact, the rescission of the banning isn't even addressed until the concluding chapter as almost an aside. This is an excellent example that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Banning The Grapes of Wrath completely backfired, as it normally does, by giving the book even more publicity, and probably helping spur sales. A thorough and detailed history of a small moment in history which illuminates larger issues that resonate today.

[Graceann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The librarian in Kern County, California, where a great deal of The Grapes of Wrath is set, returned from vacation in the summer of 1939 to find that the Board had voted to ban the book from library and school shelves. That's where Obscene in the Extreme begins.

Some folks in Kern County (the ones with the money, naturally) were none too pleased with the way John Steinbeck had depicted their business operations, and the story was treated as a communist manifesto rather than a depiction of one family's hardscrabble life. Surprisingly, some of the migrants Steinbeck wrote about weren't pleased, either. The man was attacked from the right, from the left and everywhere in between.

The initial vote to ban The Grapes of Wrath, and then the reevaluation of the ballot, takes place over the course of a week, and while the discussion of the back-and-forth between those who wanted to repress it and those who thought it should be available is very interesting, there isn't enough to it to fill out a whole book. Thus Mr. Wartzman fills in the gaps by providing background on the labor movement in general and the deplorable conditions that led Steinbeck to write his seminal novel in the first place. Some of this is truly necessary to understand why The Grapes of Wrath is important, but it seems as if most of Obscene in the Extreme is taken up with it, and it gets to be dry reading fairly quickly.

All in all the stuff directly relating to The Grapes of Wrath and to Steinbeck is fascinating, but there just isn't enough of it to make a book. It would have been an excellent article in Smithsonian or American Heritage, but it feels too padded for 230 pages.

[Tory Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obscene in the Extreme:The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Rick Wartzman covers the time in American history when the Dust Bowl forced many migrant workers to flee to California in hopes of finding jobs. Most of the events take place in Kern County which was the site of the banning of John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath as well as the gross misuse of laborers by both wealthy landowners and the government. As a librarian, I was particularly interested in the topic of banned books, however most of the book dealt with labor issues and the Communist influence in the formation of labor unions. Interesting, but not what I was expecting.

[Kevin McAllister · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Grapes of Wrath is one of my all time favorite books and judging by the blurb on the back of Wartaman's book I was expecting to be reading an in debt examination of Steinbeck's writing of The Grapes of Wrath, focusing on the literary merit of the novel. Turns out though, that I wound up reading more of an historical examination of politics, economics, and labor movements during 1930ies California. The work itself, is well done, unfortunately it's just not what I was expecting or hoping for.

[Ali Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wartzman has done a thorough job of researching the events and the lives of all the major players in the polemic that "The Grapes of Wrath" managed to stir up when Steinbeck published it, this contention reaching far beyond the simple banning of the novel in the public library by the Kern County Board of Supervisors in Bakersfield, CA. The work is well organized and gives insight into why the novel was so controversial at the time of its publication. As far as I could tell, there was only one copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" burned that is mentioned in this book, so we can't really say that there was a "book burning" in the true sense. Thus, the title was a bit misleading for me.
While I enjoyed reading it for the sake of the knowledge contained therein, I can't say that it's a "must read", i.e., we can get the message contained in the novel without knowing all of the details surrounding the controversy. The "must read", indeed, is Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath".

[Mark Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was it Balzac or Zola who said that a novel is merely a carriage rolling down the street with mirrors on all sides? Wartzman's book is about the carriage holding up a mirror to Californian society in August 1939, when The Grapes of Wrath was published. Reading it, I learned several arcane facts and buttery details about all the characters swept up in the controversy.

Another benefit of reading this was appreciating how little things have changed in nearly a century. Americans still live by their ideologies and the polar divisions that exist today have a long heritage, deep root system.

And last, I was surprised to discover the book burning was merely a photo op with two guys watching a third burn the novel. Oh, well. A picture is worth 169,481 words--the word count of the novel, according to a short Google search.

[ea304gt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't get Tom Joad out of my head for a while. I downloaded the 1940 film. Got an album by Woody Guthrie. Discovered The ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen.

Extremely well written. Read it in two weeks. Could've finished faster, but I had some finals to take care of. Funny how the psyche to slap Steinbeck as a communist in the 1940s feels familiar compared to current affairs.

Perhaps what I find most fascinating of all Grapes of Wrath is that it portrays the first class-based conflict in modern US. It seems that most of US conflicts can be reduced to a racial problem. But in the Okie migration, it was white vs white.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exhaustively researched — and equally exhausting to read — this is a deep deep dive into one summer in 1939 in Kern County (whose reputation as a home for arch-conservative big agribusiness is well deserved.) About an interesting moment in time, it could have condensed into a long-ish essay without losing anything though. The best thing about it is that I realized the same author wrote one of my favorite histories, “King Cotton,” about the same agri-business titans that gobbled up Central Valley water and land to build their cotton empire.

[Patrick Gugerty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating inside look at the backstory of Steinbeck's classic!

Rick Wartzman's ability to sift through facts and details and present them in a engaging and interesting way is quite special.

[Michael Golightly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book banning in 1930's California based almost entirely on economic issues and of course communists.

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath.



The hook, as Alfred Hitchcock used to call it, in this book, is the banning of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and the symbolic burning of one copy in California’s Kern County in the summer of 1939. The story is about California’s farming corporations’ oppression of the migrant labor they hired to pick their crops. They stuck them in over-crowded camps and paid them a below living wage. The story is also about the struggle to end that mistreatment by organizing those laborers, and providing State subsidies for them, such as Relief (known today as Unemployment Insurance).


Kern County Corporate farmers did like the depiction of their general relationship with their workers and their greed for profits above all. They also depicted the book as being coarse, the language obscene. The Conservative Republicans in California objected to subsidies for the unemployed laborers (not much has changed with them, even today.)


On the side of the book were the Kern County Librarian, Gretchen Knief and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).


It was a restless time, not only in America, but around the world. The world was in the midst of the Great Depression and Hitler was gathering troops along the German-Polish border. The American Communist Party was gathering strength as a political force and Charles Coughlin, a Catholic Priest was using radio broadcasts to spew anti-Semitism and to justify policies of German and Italian Fascism. It was uncertain which way the country might go.


Steinbeck’s Joad family has become part of the American lore and their like is still with us. The American worker still strains to make a decent life for their family and the moneyed class, the corporate monsters, are, still, drinking the venom that is greed, cheating, stealing and lying to keep their fur-lined pockets full of the green.


At this period in our history, a time when banks and corporations have looted this country, indeed the world, without punishment, without having to answer for the crimes they have committed, this is a great book to read.



The hook, as Alfred Hitchcock used to call it, in this book, is the banning of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and the symbolic burning of one copy in California’s Kern County in the summer of 1939. The story is about California’s farming corporations’ oppression of the migrant labor they hired to pick their crops. They stuck them in over-crowded camps and paid them a below living wage. The story is also about the struggle to end that mistreatment by organizing those laborers, and providing State subsidies for them, such as Relief (known today as Unemployment Insurance).


Kern County Corporate farmers did like the depiction of their general relationship with their workers and their greed for profits above all. They also depicted the book as being coarse, the language obscene. The Conservative Republicans in California objected to subsidies for the unemployed laborers (not much has changed with them, even today.)


On the side of the book were the Kern County Librarian, Gretchen Knief and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).


It was a restless time, not only in America, but around the world. The world was in the midst of the Great Depression and Hitler was gathering troops along the German-Polish border. The American Communist Party was gathering strength as a political force and Charles Coughlin, a Catholic Priest was using radio broadcasts to spew anti-Semitism and to justify policies of German and Italian Fascism. It was uncertain which way the country might go.


Steinbeck’s Joad family has become part of the American lore and their like is still with us. The American worker still strains to make a decent life for their family and the moneyed class, the corporate monsters, are, still, drinking the venom that is greed, cheating, stealing and lying to keep their fur-lined pockets full of the green.


At this period in our history, a time when banks and corporations have looted this country, indeed the world, without punishment, without having to answer for the crimes they have committed, this is a great book to read.

[Amy L. Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obscene in the Extreme does an excellent job of setting the political, economic, and literary context for the banning of The Grapes of Wrath. It provides all the necessary background for understanding how and why it was banned, and overturned in the county of Kern, California. Some of the topics covered include Steinbeck's biographical information and political involvement, labor union history, the struggles of the Oklahomans during the depression and how they were perceived by others due to the novel and other propaganda, motivations of corporations to prevent the spread of unions and other works sympathetic to the workers. It discusses local politics, national politics, and even some international in terms of the oncoming World War. All of this and much more.

Despite the vast amounts of content, it is very accessible. Wartzman does not bog us down with too much opinion or critical analysis, he provides enough to put facts into context without attempting to sway the reader to one side or the other. The bibliography is extensive and shows Wartzman's commitment to in-depth research. This would be a valuable addition to any library collection.


The reviewer is a 2009 graduate of Kent State University's Master of Library and Information Sciences program, an alumna of Antioch College, and the author of the blog A Librarian's Life in Books.

[Claudiu · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, I'm really grateful to LibraryThing's EarlyReviewers program: if not for you guys, I would've never read this book. Even when I started reading it I kept thinking: I know this great book (Grapes of Wrath) was banned like many others before and after its time, what else is there to know.[return][return]Boy, was I wrong! There is so much more. All the historical background, the people, the politics behind this book and its banning.[return][return]I loved the way some of the main characters were presented in detail: people instrumental in banning the book like Bill Camp or Stanley Abel or opposed to it, Raymond Henderson or Gretchen Knief. I also loved some of the images created, for example the mention of the American flag in the background of the supervisors meeting when they voted to ban Grapes of Wrath. End the ending was great, ending which if doesn't justify by any means the banning if the book puts everything in a larger perspective.[return][return]I am not saying this book is perfect - I would've liked to see more details about Gretchen Knief, the librarian and more about the libraries in that time. However, there is much information that is new to me that I am very happy I've read it.[return][return]Thanks again guys for sending me this book!

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me so angry. I probably should not have been reading it in the days before a contentious election.

John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" brought to light the appalling conditions endured by migrants from the Dust Bowl States who came to California in search of work. The controversy surrounding the book forms the backbone of this book about the conditions and politics of Depression-era California, a time even more politically polarized than today.

I enjoyed this book, despite its clear bias, and took heart from the brave men and women who were willing to take great risks to reveal and eradicate the gross injustices of the time.

[Eileen]

I read about this at NPR.org and find it useful because I live in the same part of the globe as the Joad family's destination. I sympathized with Steinbeck's Tom Joad, especially his political turn towards the end, but the book banning mentality is more what I associate with their descendants these days. It will be a project for some summer to figure out how and why. This looks to be part of that project.

[Elizabeth☮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i teach this book (The Grapes of Wrath) to my AP classes and so i found the background to the politics of the united states, in particularly california, quite insightful. there are many key players that i'd be interesting in reading about in a seperate book. i think wartzman did a good job of giving the background of the migrants, members of the board, etc. while still explaining the significance of the novel and its ban in kern county.

[Eugene Peery]

Reading this book makes me reflect on the question, " What is great literature?" Certainly, all fiction is not literature. Literature, although it is fiction, has the potential to create strong emotion ,passions, in the reader because it tells the truth. Many people can or will not handle the truth.

[Steph (loves water) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well researched, an in depth look at California economy in the '20s and '30s, and what inspired Mr. Steinbeck to write one of my most favorite novels of all time. Absolutely fascinating to learn about the hostilities that ensued after publication. It was also gratifying to know that it was a nationwide bestseller of the time and that it has endured to this day. Fascinating read.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting, sometimes fascinating, examination of the political environment and the battles between farmers and workers, and the nerve Steinbeck touched with his book. This is probably not a book for everyone, but those of us who would like to better understand The Grapes of Wrath in the context of its own time will find it indispensable.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the censorship of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath which started within two
months of its release. The players in this small town where it started basically were small town
bigots. It is amazing how they can control what people read! If you are at all interested in the censorship of books this is a book for you.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no idea the extent of the censorship Steinbeck underwent after publication of the Grapes of Wrath. This book does an excellent job reporting it, but it's still a bit dry and not exactly a compelling read.

[Joella Tunnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author gave a lot of details about the people involved, and the political climate at the time of the banning of Steinbeck's book. I first read it in the mid '40's but really wasn't that aware of how controversial it was, so was interesting to read about it all. Good factual writing.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good one for librarians, of which I am one. They really are heroes, like the one in this book, when people attempt to ban books. Lots of good social, political, literary, and cinematic history interwoven into the story of the attempt to ban The Grapes of Wrath.

[Leigh Koonce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually started reading this some time ago, but finally finished it. I was more interested in the political decisions behind the ban, vs. the actual ban itself. Some of that was covered, but I would have liked more. Still, glad I read it.