Haley's+Page

John Steinbeck's work was renowned as some of the greatest work of his time. But did Steinbeck feel differently about his work? It was known that Steinbeck was an austere self-editor of work intended for publication (Steinbeck Wallsten 9). Two of the books he critiqued were //Of Mice and Men //and The Grapes of Wrath, both of which were some of his most popular work. While writing his novels, Steinbeck often wrote to close friends and family and also wrote in journals he kept. In these letters and journals, he sometimes talked about his books.

When Steinbeck first sent Of Mice and Men to publishers he also wrote to his friend. He wrote saying he “had sent it off a week and a half ago and of course have heard nothing from it. I don’t know whether it is any good or not” (Steinbeck 129). Later in 1937, the same year he wrote this letter, //Of Mice and Men // was published and was chosen by the 1937 Book-of-the-Month Club. Steinbeck also said that he didn’t expect //Of Mice and Men // to make any money and that it was just a simple little thing. A short while after being published Steinbeck wrote to his friend about how //Of Mice and Men // had already sold 117,000 copies.

//The Grapes of Wrath // was considered to be Steinbeck’s greatest and most influential piece of work. Steinbeck described the book in a letter to his friend that it was, as a draft, short, just a few thousand words over sixty thousand words (Steinbeck 160). He told her that the rewriting had taken time not because it was a lot, but because it was badly done and said that it was a mean, nasty book (Steinbeck 160). He even said that if she didn’t like it they could burn the whole thing and just forget it. As Steinbeck was getting closer and closer to finishing the actual book, his publisher wanted to send a large portion of the book to publishers to look at it. Steinbeck wrote to his friend that he believed this to be a bad idea and that this book would not be popular.  While Steinbeck believed his work to be below average and not too good, many think Steinbeck to be one of the greatest writers of his time. Throughout writing his books, whether they were small ones, like //Of Mice and Men //  or huge novels such as <span style="color: #005aff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">//<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Grapes of Wrath // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Steinbeck wrote to people close to him critiquing his work. Some were of praise, but most were of negative criticism. Steinbeck even once wrote in a letter to his publisher that after finishing <span style="color: #005aff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">//<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Grapes of Wrath // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> that “at least I’m not as down-hearted about it as I usually am after finishing” (Steinbeck 176). Even through his negativity, Steinbeck received the Noble Prize for Literature in 1962 and published 29 books in total, most of which are still famous today. <span style="color: #005aff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">

__Works Cited__

Liukkonen, Petri. "John Steinbeck." <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">// Www.kirjasto.sci.fi //. 2008. Web. 06 June 2010. <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/johnstei.htm>. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Steinbeck, John, and Robert J. DeMott. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Grapes of Wrath //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print. Steinbeck, John, Elaine A. Steinbeck, and Robert Wallsten. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Steinbeck: a Life in Letters //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. London: Heinemann, 1975. Print. Steinbeck, John. //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Of Mice and Men //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. New York: Penguin, 1993. Print. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">