John Steinbeck

1902 – 1968

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American novelist whose 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature recognized "his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." His 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, depicting the Dust Bowl migration of Oklahoma tenant farmers to California, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and triggered congressional hearings on agricultural labor, while Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, and Cannery Row remain staples of American letters. His unsparing portraits of working-class poverty earned him sustained surveillance by the FBI for decades.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM