John Steinbeck

As a youth in Salinas, California, John Steinbeck spent his summers working on nearby ranches. Working with migrant workers on the ranches, he became aware of the darker aspects of migrant life and of human nature, an awareness he later expressed in novels such as Of Mice and Men. After high school, Steinbeck went to Stanford for five years, but did not earn a degree. He took odd jobs while he tried to write, living in a cottage owned by his father in Pacific Grove, California. Finally, Steinbeck achieved commercial success with his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat, followed by In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath.