Term Papers on Steinbeck

Term Paper Title	Steinbeck
# of Words	3137
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	12.55

Steinbeck

     John Ernst Steinbeck was an American author,  famous for his  novels  concerning the poor and  the oppressed Californian farmers  and laborers of the 1930's and 1940's, who were victimized  by industry  and  finance.  His most famous novel,  The Grapes of Wrath,  won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize.  His main themes  involved  the  struggles of the poor and the oppressed to survive in modern society, and the  confrontation between man and his destiny.1       Steinbeck wrote 17 novels,  numerous short stories, several plays, and  some nonfiction .  He won the  Nobel prize for literature in 1962.2
     John Steinbeck was  born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California.  Salinas is in  a fertile agricultural valley about 25 miles from the Pacific Coast.  His childhood was spent in   California  near Monterey.  The Salinas area provided the setting for most of his fiction.   He was an intelligent, sensitive boy and spent much time exploring nature.3      His parents were  of German and Irish parentage.  They were  neither rich not poor,  but lived a comfortable existence in Salinas.4    His father,  John Ernst,  a county treasurer,  was sympathetic to his son's wanting to become a writer.5   His mother,  Olive Ernst (nee Hamilton),  was a schoolteacher and did much to encourage him to read.  He was provided with an  extensive library at home1      and spent much of his time reading when he was not outside exploring nature.
     All his childhood schooling was in the Salinas area.  He graduated  from Salinas High School in 1919.2    He had been president of  his senior class,  active on both the track and basketball teams, and had wrote for the El Gabilan, the  Salinas High School  paper. 3   After graduation, he attended Stanford University in California.  He was a special student from 1919-1925.   Steinbeck  off and on  took courses in literature and   courses  in writing,  but he earned less than half the required  credits,4   and did not receive a degree from Stanford.  He left school in  November of 1925 for New York City.   He hoped  to become a writer but was  he was soon back in California.5
     Steinbeck was a very private person and his married life seems sketchy in most profiles.  He married Carol Henning  in 1930  and they were divorced in  1943.  He next married  Gwyn Conger, who was  a writer, singer, and composer, on March 29, 1943, but they were divorced in 1948.  He had two children, Tom and John, in this marriage.  He married one more time, this time to Elaine Scott on  December 29, 1950.  He stayed married til he died on December 20, 1968, in New York City.1
     John Steinbeck had a very varied job description by the time he made it as a writer.  Constantly doing various odd, occasional jobs to support himself, he managed to be a rancher, road worker, deck hand, cotton picker,2   hod-carrier, fruit-picker, apprentice painter, laboratory  assistant, caretaker, surveyor, reporter, and writer. 3    These various odd jobs supplied him with much of the material for his early novels and his observations lent authenticity and realism to the working men and their women  in his stories.
      Aside from being a writer of books, Steinbeck held other writing jobs during his career as a writer.  These writing jobs include that of a Foreign correspondent in North Africa and Italy for the New York Herald Tribune, in 1943.  He was also a special writer for the United States Army Air Forces, during World War II.  He later became a correspondent in Vietnam for Newday from 1966-1967.   Over the years he was also a contributor of numerous short stories, essays, and articles to popular magazines and periodicals. 4
     John Steinbeck received many awards, honors  and recognition for his work.    He received the   General Literature Gold Medal from the  Commonwealth Club of California three times: in 1936, for Tortilla Flat,  in 1937, for Of Mice and Men,  and in 1940, for Grapes of Wrath.    The  New York Drama critics Circle Award was awarded to him in 1938, for the  play, "Of Mice and Men".    The coveted and prestigious  P...

This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Digital Term Papers. Please register below now!

Digital Term Papers has over 63,000 essays, term papers, and book notes online. Many paper sites will charge you hundreds of dollars for a single paper. Digital Term Papers only charges $14.95 for a one month membership with instant account activation!

Don't waste anymore time! Join NOW!!!

1 Month (automatic renewal) ($14.95)

3 Months (automatic renewal) ($29.95)

6 Months (one-time billing) ($39.95)

Pay by: