John Steinbeck

I went down to the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas today. It is an interesting place even if you aren't a fan of John Steinbeck's work. It is the only museum in the US dedicated to a single author. There is a permanent museum that has stuff about his books & life and there are also rotating exhibits on other topics that tie in some way to Steinbeck.

The museum is interactive, which makes it a great place to take kids. There is a lot of stuff for them to touch, videos showing movie excerpts and some pretty cool exhibits.

Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath. In 1962 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." Many of his books, including The Grapes of Wrath, were made into movies.

At Steinbeck's funeral in 1968, Henry Fonda read the following from a Robert Louis Stevenson poem:
Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them.
Still they are carolled and said --
On wings they are carried --
After the singer is dead
And the maker buried.

This was up at the museum and I have to agree it is a fitting epitaph for Steinbeck.

I'm sure that some of you would like to share which of his works is your favorite! To start off, I'll tell you that (I think, mostly I like everything) Cannery Row is my favorite. Share your thoughts!!!

Robin