The FBI Files on John Steinbeck

by Thomas C. Fensch (Editor)

J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI denied that they had ever investigated novelist John Steinbeck, yet for decades the FBI maintained a file on Steinbeck, which included the recommendation by the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Branch (G-2) that Steinbeck was unfit to be commissioned as an officer in the Armed Forces during World War Two. (Despite the evaluations by the California G-2 agent-in-charge that Steinbeck did have the honesty, loyalty and integrity to be an officer in the Armed Forces....) The FBi files on Steinbeck include vague references to communist tendencies, the fact that the communist press approved of "The Grapes of Wrath" -- and some other Steinbeck novels -- the fact that he had read the communist newspaper "The Daily Worker," notations of the fact that Steinbeck's second wife had once registered to vote as a communist and, even later, critiques by the FBI of the character of police officers in Steinbeck's 1961 novel, "The Winter of Our Discontent." John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, yet the FBI files show a pattern of distrust and guilt by innuendo. J. Edgar Hoover's denials of an investigation of Steinbeck were, at the very least disingenuous, at worst, an outright lie.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Sanjana Datla]

I would found it relevant to my reading project but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. ever

[Chuck]

So the title pretty much tells you what you need to know; this is a transcript of the files the FBI kept on Steinbeck. A lot of it's tame, a lot surprising, some creepy (Steinbeck's mail was checked). Most interesting bit: a "review" written by FBI personnel of 'Winter of our Discontent' critiquing how federal law enforcement is portrayed in the book (the Sherrif (who recieved Feeb training) people who rat out others to avoid prosecution, while Justice Department invest; investigators are 'of the highest caliber.'

The FBI actually comes off pretty well; although Steinbeck's links with Communists are noted, the file pretty consistently notes that he was not a Communist. This even handed treatment gives lie to the image of the 'out of control' FBI during the Hoover years serving as attack dogs for McCarthy's HUAC.

Interesting for people seriously intereseted in Steinbeck's bio and to people interested in the FBI in the 40s, 50s, and mid-60s. Otherwise, a pass . . .