Steinbeck Biography - Softcover

Parini, himself a novelist as well as a literary scholar, is a wholehearted admirer of Steinbeck, whom he describes as a "writer to the bone." Not only did Steinbeck devote himself to his work with passion and discipline, but he also suffered from the deep anxiety and feelings of unworthiness that plague so many creative people. Sadly, his fears were all too often confirmed by an influential group of critics who savaged every book he published after the phenomenal success of The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. This critical scorn was diametrically opposed to Steinbeck's worldwide popularity, but Parini does suggest that Steinbeck would have benefited from a firmer editorial hand. At any rate, Steinbeck's struggles weren't confined to literature; he experienced plenty of conflict and pain on the familial and marital fronts as well. As Parini chronicles Steinbeck's youth, key friendships, marriages, travels, and the creation of each book, play, and film (Steinbeck loved writing scripts and making movies), he traces the evolution of Steinbeck's somewhat romantic and sentimental but unquestionably significant philosophy. In sum, Parini's finely wrought portrait of Steinbeck presents a quixotic, didactic, yet heroic figure fired with "moral outrage" and centered by a profound respect for nature and belief in the importance of stories. Donna Seaman

This biography of the popular American novelist (1902-1968) is absorbing and generous. Parini, a professor of English literature and creative writing at Middlebury College, poet and novelist (Bay of Arrows), draws on interviews with dozens of people, including playwright Terrence McNally (tutor to Steinbeck's sons), actor Burgess Meredith and Steinbeck's third wife, Elaine, as well as published and unpublished letters, diaries and manuscripts. He documents the writer's slow discovery of a voice and method-terse, socially conscious and rooted in both the closely observed landscape and resonant biblical and mythological archetypes-that resulted in such powerful novels as The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck's popularity and his Pulitzer and controversial Nobel prizes attracted unflattering reassessments of his work, exacerbating his perpetual uncertainties about its value. Parini's deft, thoughtful appraisal of Steinbeck's oeuvre supplements a sympathetic but unsentimental view of a sometimes difficult man. Photos not seen by PW.
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