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Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck
A resonant biography of America’s most celebrated novelist of the Great Depression.
The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, Mad at the World illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Pulitzer Prize finalist William Souder explores Steinbeck’s long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. Angered by the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants who were starving even as they toiled to harvest California’s limitless bounty, fascinated by the guileless decency of the downtrodden denizens of Cannery Row, and appalled by the country’s refusal to recognize the humanity common to all of its citizens, Steinbeck took a stand against social injustice—paradoxically given his inherent misanthropy—setting him apart from the writers of the so-called "lost generation."
A man by turns quick-tempered, compassionate, and ultimately brilliant, Steinbeck could be a difficult person to like. Obsessed with privacy, he was mistrustful of people. Next to writing, his favorite things were drinking and womanizing and getting married, which he did three times. And while he claimed indifference about success, his mid-career books and movie deals made him a lot of money—which passed through his hands as quickly as it came in. And yet Steinbeck also took aim at the corrosiveness of power, the perils of income inequality, and the urgency of ecological collapse, all of which drive public debate to this day.
Steinbeck remains our great social realist novelist, the writer who gave the dispossessed and the disenfranchised a voice in American life and letters. Eloquent, nuanced, and deeply researched, Mad at the World captures the full measure of the man and his work.
The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, Mad at the World illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Pulitzer Prize finalist William Souder explores Steinbeck’s long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. Angered by the plight of the Dust Bowl migrants who were starving even as they toiled to harvest California’s limitless bounty, fascinated by the guileless decency of the downtrodden denizens of Cannery Row, and appalled by the country’s refusal to recognize the humanity common to all of its citizens, Steinbeck took a stand against social injustice—paradoxically given his inherent misanthropy—setting him apart from the writers of the so-called "lost generation."
A man by turns quick-tempered, compassionate, and ultimately brilliant, Steinbeck could be a difficult person to like. Obsessed with privacy, he was mistrustful of people. Next to writing, his favorite things were drinking and womanizing and getting married, which he did three times. And while he claimed indifference about success, his mid-career books and movie deals made him a lot of money—which passed through his hands as quickly as it came in. And yet Steinbeck also took aim at the corrosiveness of power, the perils of income inequality, and the urgency of ecological collapse, all of which drive public debate to this day.
Steinbeck remains our great social realist novelist, the writer who gave the dispossessed and the disenfranchised a voice in American life and letters. Eloquent, nuanced, and deeply researched, Mad at the World captures the full measure of the man and his work.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 2020
About the author
William Souder
8 books45 followersWilliam Souder’s books include biographies of John Steinbeck, Rachel Carson (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year) and John James Audubon (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize). He lives in Grant, Minnesota.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
December 8, 2020
They say you should never meet your heroes. Be careful of biographies too, although no great writer's life will be as transcendent as their work. Steinbeck remains my favorite author, but there's no doubt from this well-researched and well-told bio that he was a bit of an SOB. Mad at the World is a great title, although it exaggerates STeinbeck's orientation toward the world. In truth, he was remarkably self-oriented, usually morose, highly anti-social, and occasionally cruel. His kindness and big-heartedness usually came in abstract form: his anger toward injustice and poverty, his brilliant writing on and research about the dispossessed, a deep enmity for bullies and fakes. For the people around him, you didn't know what you would get. His first two wives got passion but then odd behavior and eventually, betrayal and abandonment. His sons were mostly ignored.
The strongest part of this bio is the examination of Steinbeck as a writer. To call him a genius would eras the decades of hard work he put into his craft to reach the status of a renowned writer in the 1930s. Souder gives a great feel for how his sense of the craft evolved, how he operated and thought as a writer, and how once he finished a book it felt almost dead to him right away, and yet while writing it the world was bifurcated into inside (the writing) and outside (literally everything else in the world). Anyone who has ever lost sleep running through a story or idea in their heads (been there) has an ancestor in Steinbeck. The great works he put together (East of Eden is my favorite, although Of Mice aand Men is arguably the greatest short tragedy ever) were just that: tons of work. It is somewhat inspiring and reassuring to see just how much this titan struggled and slogged.
This is definitely a book for the already converted. If you haven't read a good deal of STeinbeck or you don't like him, don't bother with this. It is well-written, but not vivid or engaging enough that anyone should read it. part of that isn't so much Souder's fault but Steinbeck's, as a good deal of his life was devoted to writing or bumming around. I was a bit surprised that Souder didn't spend more time on his WWII experiences, although I didn't know Steinbeck had suffered TBI and 2 ruptured eardrums. Anyways, definitely worth it if you are a stan like me.
The strongest part of this bio is the examination of Steinbeck as a writer. To call him a genius would eras the decades of hard work he put into his craft to reach the status of a renowned writer in the 1930s. Souder gives a great feel for how his sense of the craft evolved, how he operated and thought as a writer, and how once he finished a book it felt almost dead to him right away, and yet while writing it the world was bifurcated into inside (the writing) and outside (literally everything else in the world). Anyone who has ever lost sleep running through a story or idea in their heads (been there) has an ancestor in Steinbeck. The great works he put together (East of Eden is my favorite, although Of Mice aand Men is arguably the greatest short tragedy ever) were just that: tons of work. It is somewhat inspiring and reassuring to see just how much this titan struggled and slogged.
This is definitely a book for the already converted. If you haven't read a good deal of STeinbeck or you don't like him, don't bother with this. It is well-written, but not vivid or engaging enough that anyone should read it. part of that isn't so much Souder's fault but Steinbeck's, as a good deal of his life was devoted to writing or bumming around. I was a bit surprised that Souder didn't spend more time on his WWII experiences, although I didn't know Steinbeck had suffered TBI and 2 ruptured eardrums. Anyways, definitely worth it if you are a stan like me.
November 12, 2023
Writers will love this biography even if they are not ardent Steinbeck fans. The studied insights into Steinbeck’s pursuit of his own writing success do not convey any sort of blueprint for achieving the New York Time’s bestseller list but rather demonstrate how a doggedly stubborn individual with an ego inflated enough to fall back upon when kicked in the gut and psyche and a willingness to suffer isolation and penury might, if the stars align, achieve the kind of writing stature he or she wants to achieve. The ingredient list might without too much effort be construed as demanding: a combination of dire circumstances afflicting an entire populace in a specific widespread part of the country might be considered as necessary as beef in Beef Wellington, and to report on that situation and show any level of empathy would turn one into a symbol of compassion. Possessing a popularly approved gender and race during a given era, and roping in an unrecognized lover/editor/typist who can give the useful, sensitive feedback are also essential ingredients. Having parents who are supportive, both financially and emotionally, also figure into the chances of a good launch for such an aspirant.
There were many elements that made this biography special for me, foremost being the author. This book could have been a boring chronicle of successes if not for William Souder’s nuanced evaluation of the circumstances and people in Steinbeck’s life. He is a writer’s writer, and makes reflections that will resonate with anyone who has ever thought about writing. Souder’s total immersion in all things Steinbeck is persuasive, so that the reader feels trusting of the author’s comments regarding all three wives and his many friends, which comments are made without damning anyone nor indeed Steinbeck. Souder keeps his distance, conveys his respect and fascination and shows without telling so that his conclusions become our own. It is a stupendous feat.
Finally, for a resident of California who lives a stone’s throw from many places that were part of Steinbeck’s early formation and his later life, I found Mad at the World (who isn’t, especially today?) a travel itinerary I intend to retrace with eyes wide open. No longer will I race from Salinas to Pacific Grove thoughtlessly, not now that I realize it took the Steinbeck family a whole day to travel the distance to their summer (Pacific Grove) vacation spot!
My books at Amazon: The Red Sea Bride by “Sylvia Fowler,” Under a Crescent Moon: Stories of Arabia, Burning Boats: The Birth of Muslim Spain, Wax Works. I am currently working on a French translation of The Jinn in the Clock.
There were many elements that made this biography special for me, foremost being the author. This book could have been a boring chronicle of successes if not for William Souder’s nuanced evaluation of the circumstances and people in Steinbeck’s life. He is a writer’s writer, and makes reflections that will resonate with anyone who has ever thought about writing. Souder’s total immersion in all things Steinbeck is persuasive, so that the reader feels trusting of the author’s comments regarding all three wives and his many friends, which comments are made without damning anyone nor indeed Steinbeck. Souder keeps his distance, conveys his respect and fascination and shows without telling so that his conclusions become our own. It is a stupendous feat.
Finally, for a resident of California who lives a stone’s throw from many places that were part of Steinbeck’s early formation and his later life, I found Mad at the World (who isn’t, especially today?) a travel itinerary I intend to retrace with eyes wide open. No longer will I race from Salinas to Pacific Grove thoughtlessly, not now that I realize it took the Steinbeck family a whole day to travel the distance to their summer (Pacific Grove) vacation spot!
My books at Amazon: The Red Sea Bride by “Sylvia Fowler,” Under a Crescent Moon: Stories of Arabia, Burning Boats: The Birth of Muslim Spain, Wax Works. I am currently working on a French translation of The Jinn in the Clock.
February 28, 2023
"No other author, Covici [Steinbeck's long-time editor] believed, could get so mad at the world with such grace."
"The critics saw book to book, but failed to detect that a link among all of them was Steinbeck's anger. He was America's most pissed-off writer. All his work steams with indignation and injustice, with contempt for false piety, scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that bridges exploitation, greed, and brutality."
William Souder's biography uses countless letters (to/from), diaries, and media to tell the story of one of the US's most well-known literary figures.
The quickest way for me to DNF a biography is when the author takes on a hagiographic tone about the subject; thankfully Souder didn't do that here, noting the full breadth of Steinbeck's shortcomings, faults, neglects, and vices. Souder quotes Steinbeck's eldest son Thomas that one of his early revelations as a child was that his father was "an asshole". Souder does not gloss over some of those [ ] moments, noting his heavy alcohol consumption, his mood swings and depressive / abusive episodes with his wives and children - with some speculation that this may have been a result of traumatic brain injuries he sustained as a war correspondent - and his constant self-doubt and self-loathing as a writer, growing even stronger the more popular and well-known he became.
Steinbeck was not interested in school, but wanted to write from an early age. He completed many classes at Stanford, but left without graduating, and kept up with many friends he met there through his life. Souder's biography describes the writing process and Steinbeck's strife over getting published, only to lead to more self-doubt and fear of failure once he was published and started having more demands for material and success.
Perhaps it was the California setting alongside the Golden Age of Hollywood, but many of Steinbeck's works were quickly adapted to the screen or stage, some within the first year after the book's release (the stage and screen for Of Mice and Men, and of course the well-known film adaptations of The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden). Steinbeck was involved with many screenwriting projects for his own work, as well as documentaries and other feature films for all sorts of venues - educational, political, entertainment.
One aspect of the biography that I did not like was Souder's inclusion of a summary and major plot points of (nearly) every single book and short story that Steinbeck wrote - some are books I am still planning to read (namely The Pastures of Heaven, In Dubious Battle, and The Moon is Down, so once I knew that Souder was going to spend paragraphs spoiling the books and characters, I would skip ahead to the next section. It was a lazy biographical tactic to rehash numerous plot points of fictional books within an author's biography - larger themes and concurrent issues in Steinbeck's life and world, sure - but anything else is spoilerific, even if these books were published 80+ years ago.
Often assigned for school reading, it's obvious that Steinbeck's works and their larger social, economic, and political themes are likely lost on the young, but could plant the seed to revisit later in life. That's what happened for me. I read Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, The Pearl, and The Grapes of Wrath through middle and high school in the 1990s, but only returned to his work with East of Eden about 3 years ago, and read this biography concurrently with a reread (25 years later) of The Grapes of Wrath. Souder's biography has made me all the more eager to read more of his stories, nonfictions and travelogues, and the "lesser"/shorter novels early and later in his prolific career.
**Other interesting tidbits learned through Mad at the World:
- Before his professional writing career, Steinbeck worked on a cement crew that built Madison Square Gardens in NYC in the inter-war years. He wheelbarrowed cement mixtures up countless ramps, and saw many workers injured and fall to their deaths.
- The Grapes of Wrath title (and according to Souder large portions of the book) were created or heavily influenced by his first wife, Carol. She thought of the title when reading the first verse to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
- Steinbeck traveled and visited many migrant camps in the rural areas of California, meeting the Okies and other migrants who came to California on the false promise of work during The Great Depression. Other writers and journalists were also there at the time, and while some of them published their work, many were rejected after Grapes came out thinking it was too close to Steinbeck's material.
- There were various threats by "corporate entities" who did not like the pro-union and labor stance of his writings (Grapes and In Dubious Battle), and Steinbeck was encouraged to always travel with a trusted companion / alibi to avoid any scandal or threats on his life.
- Charlie Chaplin was a neighbor when Steinbeck lived in LA and frequently visited. He was also a big fan of his books.
- The well-known mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell was a friend, but he and Steinbeck had a serious fracture after Campbell declared his love for Carol, Steinbeck's first wife.
- Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck's best friend and the inspiration behind some of his fictional characters ("Doc" in Cannery Row, was a marine biologist, and worked in a lab in Monterey, California that Steinbeck frequently visited. He set one of his short stories "The Snake" in this lab.
"The critics saw book to book, but failed to detect that a link among all of them was Steinbeck's anger. He was America's most pissed-off writer. All his work steams with indignation and injustice, with contempt for false piety, scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that bridges exploitation, greed, and brutality."
William Souder's biography uses countless letters (to/from), diaries, and media to tell the story of one of the US's most well-known literary figures.
The quickest way for me to DNF a biography is when the author takes on a hagiographic tone about the subject; thankfully Souder didn't do that here, noting the full breadth of Steinbeck's shortcomings, faults, neglects, and vices. Souder quotes Steinbeck's eldest son Thomas that one of his early revelations as a child was that his father was "an asshole". Souder does not gloss over some of those [ ] moments, noting his heavy alcohol consumption, his mood swings and depressive / abusive episodes with his wives and children - with some speculation that this may have been a result of traumatic brain injuries he sustained as a war correspondent - and his constant self-doubt and self-loathing as a writer, growing even stronger the more popular and well-known he became.
Steinbeck was not interested in school, but wanted to write from an early age. He completed many classes at Stanford, but left without graduating, and kept up with many friends he met there through his life. Souder's biography describes the writing process and Steinbeck's strife over getting published, only to lead to more self-doubt and fear of failure once he was published and started having more demands for material and success.
Perhaps it was the California setting alongside the Golden Age of Hollywood, but many of Steinbeck's works were quickly adapted to the screen or stage, some within the first year after the book's release (the stage and screen for Of Mice and Men, and of course the well-known film adaptations of The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden). Steinbeck was involved with many screenwriting projects for his own work, as well as documentaries and other feature films for all sorts of venues - educational, political, entertainment.
One aspect of the biography that I did not like was Souder's inclusion of a summary and major plot points of (nearly) every single book and short story that Steinbeck wrote - some are books I am still planning to read (namely The Pastures of Heaven, In Dubious Battle, and The Moon is Down, so once I knew that Souder was going to spend paragraphs spoiling the books and characters, I would skip ahead to the next section. It was a lazy biographical tactic to rehash numerous plot points of fictional books within an author's biography - larger themes and concurrent issues in Steinbeck's life and world, sure - but anything else is spoilerific, even if these books were published 80+ years ago.
Often assigned for school reading, it's obvious that Steinbeck's works and their larger social, economic, and political themes are likely lost on the young, but could plant the seed to revisit later in life. That's what happened for me. I read Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, The Pearl, and The Grapes of Wrath through middle and high school in the 1990s, but only returned to his work with East of Eden about 3 years ago, and read this biography concurrently with a reread (25 years later) of The Grapes of Wrath. Souder's biography has made me all the more eager to read more of his stories, nonfictions and travelogues, and the "lesser"/shorter novels early and later in his prolific career.
**Other interesting tidbits learned through Mad at the World:
- Before his professional writing career, Steinbeck worked on a cement crew that built Madison Square Gardens in NYC in the inter-war years. He wheelbarrowed cement mixtures up countless ramps, and saw many workers injured and fall to their deaths.
- The Grapes of Wrath title (and according to Souder large portions of the book) were created or heavily influenced by his first wife, Carol. She thought of the title when reading the first verse to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
- Steinbeck traveled and visited many migrant camps in the rural areas of California, meeting the Okies and other migrants who came to California on the false promise of work during The Great Depression. Other writers and journalists were also there at the time, and while some of them published their work, many were rejected after Grapes came out thinking it was too close to Steinbeck's material.
- There were various threats by "corporate entities" who did not like the pro-union and labor stance of his writings (Grapes and In Dubious Battle), and Steinbeck was encouraged to always travel with a trusted companion / alibi to avoid any scandal or threats on his life.
- Charlie Chaplin was a neighbor when Steinbeck lived in LA and frequently visited. He was also a big fan of his books.
- The well-known mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell was a friend, but he and Steinbeck had a serious fracture after Campbell declared his love for Carol, Steinbeck's first wife.
- Ed Ricketts, Steinbeck's best friend and the inspiration behind some of his fictional characters ("Doc" in Cannery Row, was a marine biologist, and worked in a lab in Monterey, California that Steinbeck frequently visited. He set one of his short stories "The Snake" in this lab.
September 14, 2020
Read if you: Want a lyrical and thorough biography of one of America's greatest novelists.
Librarians/booksellers: This is the first major biography of Steinbeck in about 25 years. Your classics fans will definitely want to read this.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and Edelweiss for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Librarians/booksellers: This is the first major biography of Steinbeck in about 25 years. Your classics fans will definitely want to read this.
Many thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and Edelweiss for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 20, 2022
Wonderfully written, supremely compelling. My favorite book about my favorite angry man who happened to write books.
February 5, 2021
https://thebestbiographies.com/2021/0...
Published last fall, William Souder’s “Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck” is the first comprehensive biography of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck in twenty-five years. Souder is a journalist and the author of three previous books including biographies of John James Audubon (a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist) and conservationist Rachel Carson.
Given his exalted standing in American literature it is surprising there are so few places to turn for cradle-to-grave insight into Steinbeck. The classic biography of his life is Jackson J. Benson’s monumental tome “John Steinbeck, Writer” which was first published in 1984. The most notable other biography is Jay Parini’s 1995 “John Steinbeck: A Biography.” So to suggest that Souder’s biography of John Steinbeck was widely-anticipated may be an understatement.
With a 368-page narrative, Souder’s well-researched and refreshingly clear biography is easily the most concise of the bunch. It also proves extremely balanced. For all of Steinbeck’s marvelous literary talent, there is much about him not to be admired and his flaws (most conspicuously as a husband and father) are fully exposed.
Unlike F. Scott Fitzgerald – whose definitive biography I recently read – John Steinbeck is not an especially lively or colorful figure. More often than not he isn’t even a very interesting one. But even dour, self-doubting artists can make compelling biographical subjects and Steinbeck is no exception. And the way Souder connects Steinbeck’s personality and life experiences to his writing is often masterful.
But Souder’s writing style is both economical and straightforward in a way that will strike many readers as too informal. In addition, his narrative tends to lack the depth and penetrating insight offered by some of the very best biographies. This may be intentional, though, as “Mad at the World” appears to have been written for a broad audience likely to find the casual style more accessible and unpretentious.
Steinbeck’s early life does not seem particularly well-covered…or revealing. But the biography becomes more compelling once Steinbeck begins achieving success as a writer. And by the time his writing career has fully matured (and his personal life has largely disintegrated) the biography hits full stride. But despite the book’s title Steinbeck never seems “mad at the world” – just sour, oddly reclusive and decidedly insecure.
The last two decades of Steinbeck’s life – from just before his third marriage to his death in 1968 – feel rushed. Whether little of consequence unfolded during this period is not entirely clear, but it almost seems as though the book’s length was arbitrarily limited and Souder simply ran out of space. Unfortunately, the biography also lacks a backward looking review or assessment of Steinbeck’s life and legacy.
Overall, “Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck” provides readers a fine overview of the life of one of America’s most acclaimed 20th century authors. Readers seeking an easy introduction to this perpetually gloomy writer will find the biography wonderfully accessible. But anyone seeking a more nuanced, colorful or detailed exploration of Steinbeck’s life may wish to turn to other alternatives for a deeper dive.
Overall rating: 3¼ stars
Published last fall, William Souder’s “Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck” is the first comprehensive biography of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck in twenty-five years. Souder is a journalist and the author of three previous books including biographies of John James Audubon (a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist) and conservationist Rachel Carson.
Given his exalted standing in American literature it is surprising there are so few places to turn for cradle-to-grave insight into Steinbeck. The classic biography of his life is Jackson J. Benson’s monumental tome “John Steinbeck, Writer” which was first published in 1984. The most notable other biography is Jay Parini’s 1995 “John Steinbeck: A Biography.” So to suggest that Souder’s biography of John Steinbeck was widely-anticipated may be an understatement.
With a 368-page narrative, Souder’s well-researched and refreshingly clear biography is easily the most concise of the bunch. It also proves extremely balanced. For all of Steinbeck’s marvelous literary talent, there is much about him not to be admired and his flaws (most conspicuously as a husband and father) are fully exposed.
Unlike F. Scott Fitzgerald – whose definitive biography I recently read – John Steinbeck is not an especially lively or colorful figure. More often than not he isn’t even a very interesting one. But even dour, self-doubting artists can make compelling biographical subjects and Steinbeck is no exception. And the way Souder connects Steinbeck’s personality and life experiences to his writing is often masterful.
But Souder’s writing style is both economical and straightforward in a way that will strike many readers as too informal. In addition, his narrative tends to lack the depth and penetrating insight offered by some of the very best biographies. This may be intentional, though, as “Mad at the World” appears to have been written for a broad audience likely to find the casual style more accessible and unpretentious.
Steinbeck’s early life does not seem particularly well-covered…or revealing. But the biography becomes more compelling once Steinbeck begins achieving success as a writer. And by the time his writing career has fully matured (and his personal life has largely disintegrated) the biography hits full stride. But despite the book’s title Steinbeck never seems “mad at the world” – just sour, oddly reclusive and decidedly insecure.
The last two decades of Steinbeck’s life – from just before his third marriage to his death in 1968 – feel rushed. Whether little of consequence unfolded during this period is not entirely clear, but it almost seems as though the book’s length was arbitrarily limited and Souder simply ran out of space. Unfortunately, the biography also lacks a backward looking review or assessment of Steinbeck’s life and legacy.
Overall, “Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck” provides readers a fine overview of the life of one of America’s most acclaimed 20th century authors. Readers seeking an easy introduction to this perpetually gloomy writer will find the biography wonderfully accessible. But anyone seeking a more nuanced, colorful or detailed exploration of Steinbeck’s life may wish to turn to other alternatives for a deeper dive.
Overall rating: 3¼ stars
December 7, 2022
Wiele razy słyszałam o tym, by uważać, gdy pragnie się poznać swojego ulubionego autora. Nasze wyobrażenie często zderza się z rzeczywistością w sposób, jaki sprawia zawód. Poznanie biografii Steinbecka dało mi mieszankę zrozumienia oraz zmieszania. Zaskoczyło mnie jego podejście do krytyki, używek czy kobiet. Jego wyrażanie frustracji czy snobistyczne zachowanie. A jednak znalazłam też w sobie wiele zrozumienia. Historia życia Steinbecka to odbicie prozy, jaką podarował światu. Jego lęków, nadziei i uważnego obserwowania świata. Z ogromną wrażliwością podchodził do ludzi, rewelacyjnie odbijał na papierze kolejne sylwetki, a niezgoda na niesprawiedliwość, jaka ich dotykała, wylewała się z jego tekstów. Nazywany „sumieniem Ameryki" stawał w obronie niższych klas w sposób, jaki potrafił, czyli za pomocą pióra. Ale. Pisarska pasja momentami przybierała autodestrukcyjne oblicze. Frustrowała i zabierała oddech. Opanowywała jego myśli i nie dawała spokoju niezależnie od okoliczności.
Stainbeck zdobył nagrodę Pulitzera, Literacką Nagrodę Nobla oraz Medal Wolności Stanów Zjednoczonych. Pomimo trudnych początków, gdy musiał mierzyć się z odrzuceniem i dużą krytyką, stał się sylwetką ponadczasową. Często idealizowaną, podczas gdy był tylko człowiekiem. Człowiekiem, który odczuwał lęk, zwątpienie i wiele, wiele, wiele nadziei.
Większość biografii, jakie dotychczas przeczytałam, było dość płytkich... A potem na mojej drodze stanął William Souder. Człowiek, który nie zapominał o kontekście historycznym czy społecznym. Przytaczał listy i inne wypowiedzi. Odnalazł ślady życia Steinbecka tam, gdzie nie każdemu chciałoby się szukać. Mam ogromny szacunek dla ludzi, którzy poważnie i entuzjastycznie podchodzą do swojej pracy. Którzy potrafią stworzyć tekst tak dobry nie tylko przez wzgląd na zasób informacji, ale też jego własny styl pisania — nieco poetycki i bardzo zgrabny.
Jako fanka prozy Steinbecka musiałam sięgnąć po „Wściekły na świat“, ale znalazłam tutaj więcej niż się spodziewałam. Mam wrażenie, że dopiero od teraz stałam się ŚWIADOMĄ czytelniczką jego twórczości.
przekł. Hanna Jankowska
Psst, ale tej miękkiej okładki to wydawnictwu nie wybaczę.
Stainbeck zdobył nagrodę Pulitzera, Literacką Nagrodę Nobla oraz Medal Wolności Stanów Zjednoczonych. Pomimo trudnych początków, gdy musiał mierzyć się z odrzuceniem i dużą krytyką, stał się sylwetką ponadczasową. Często idealizowaną, podczas gdy był tylko człowiekiem. Człowiekiem, który odczuwał lęk, zwątpienie i wiele, wiele, wiele nadziei.
Większość biografii, jakie dotychczas przeczytałam, było dość płytkich... A potem na mojej drodze stanął William Souder. Człowiek, który nie zapominał o kontekście historycznym czy społecznym. Przytaczał listy i inne wypowiedzi. Odnalazł ślady życia Steinbecka tam, gdzie nie każdemu chciałoby się szukać. Mam ogromny szacunek dla ludzi, którzy poważnie i entuzjastycznie podchodzą do swojej pracy. Którzy potrafią stworzyć tekst tak dobry nie tylko przez wzgląd na zasób informacji, ale też jego własny styl pisania — nieco poetycki i bardzo zgrabny.
Jako fanka prozy Steinbecka musiałam sięgnąć po „Wściekły na świat“, ale znalazłam tutaj więcej niż się spodziewałam. Mam wrażenie, że dopiero od teraz stałam się ŚWIADOMĄ czytelniczką jego twórczości.
przekł. Hanna Jankowska
Psst, ale tej miękkiej okładki to wydawnictwu nie wybaczę.
January 24, 2023
Lubię od czasu do czasu przeczytać biografie inspirującej osoby, a jak to jest pisarka/pisarz to jeszcze bardziej mnie do niej ciągnie. Steinbecka nie mogę nazwać swoim ulubionym autorem, przeczytałam dopiero dwie jego powieści, słynną „Na wschód od Edenu” i „Myszy i ludzie” - obie świetne, ale to za mało by uplasować się w grupie „naj”. Niemniej to na tyle ważne nazwisko dla literatury, że sięgnęłam po nią z ogromną ciekawością. I było warto, bo Stenbeck to bardzo interesująca choć nie powiedziałabym, że w pełni pozytywna. Bo to prywatnie drań, gbur i mizogin, a dla świata najbardziej wkurzony pisarz - ale pieruńsko dobry i zaangażowany pisarz komentujący w swoich książkach ówczesną sytuację społeczną i polityczną, a był znakomitym obserwatorem rzeczywistości. Ale to nie jedyny powód jego sukcesu, bo był też po prostu upartym zapracowanym rzemieślnikiem, poprawiającym swoje teksty wielo(wielo!)krotnie by osiągnąć ich perfekcyjną wersję. I się opłacało - w 1962 roku otrzymał Literackiego Nobla, a my czytamy go nadal po kilkudziesięciu latach.
Autor biografii. William Souder wykonał kawał świetnej roboty i wciąga czytelnika we wściekły świat Steinbecka - ten prywatny, ale przede wszystkim twórczy, bo sporo tu o procesie pisania i tego jak ten proces wpływał na autora jako człowieka. A to wszystko z pozycji obiektywnego obserwatora, który to nam czytelnikom pozostawia prawo do refleksji i własnych wniosków. Czytajcie!
Autor biografii. William Souder wykonał kawał świetnej roboty i wciąga czytelnika we wściekły świat Steinbecka - ten prywatny, ale przede wszystkim twórczy, bo sporo tu o procesie pisania i tego jak ten proces wpływał na autora jako człowieka. A to wszystko z pozycji obiektywnego obserwatora, który to nam czytelnikom pozostawia prawo do refleksji i własnych wniosków. Czytajcie!
May 9, 2022
This is the best biography I have ever read. Souder's writing is exceptional and I often felt as if
I was reading a novel because it was so immersive. I loved how this work explored Steinbeck as a person AND a writer. The integration of historical context was done masterfully and Souder provided detailed overviews of Steinbeck's works amidst the circumstances they were written. A highlight -- the origin story of East of Eden and the arduous writing process that brought it to life.
Steinbeck was, to put it mildly, a complicated person and reading this book about one of my favorite authors reminded me that to "know" someone is to knock them off their pedestal. Steinbeck fell short in many ways, especially as a husband and a father and yet "no other author...could get so mad at the world with such grace." It was fascinating to discover that his strong sense of morality did not stem from religious conviction, but rather indignation and anger at the mistreatment of the poor and vulnerable.
I have never had an emotional response to the ending of a biography before this book. The last paragraph is perfection. Now planning a pilgrimage to the Salinas Valley.
To remember:
- "Nothing is harder to live up to than your own finest moment, and when it comes early--as it did to John Steinbeck with The Grapes of Wrath--the way forward can be long and difficult."
- "The book dies a real death for me when I write the last word. I have a little sorrow and then go on to a new book which is alive."
- "He was America's most pissed-off writer. All his work steams with indignation at injustice, with contempt for false piety, with scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that encourages exploitation, greed, and brutality."
-Nicknamed his son Catbird
- People said he looked like "an unmade bed" as a boy
I was reading a novel because it was so immersive. I loved how this work explored Steinbeck as a person AND a writer. The integration of historical context was done masterfully and Souder provided detailed overviews of Steinbeck's works amidst the circumstances they were written. A highlight -- the origin story of East of Eden and the arduous writing process that brought it to life.
Steinbeck was, to put it mildly, a complicated person and reading this book about one of my favorite authors reminded me that to "know" someone is to knock them off their pedestal. Steinbeck fell short in many ways, especially as a husband and a father and yet "no other author...could get so mad at the world with such grace." It was fascinating to discover that his strong sense of morality did not stem from religious conviction, but rather indignation and anger at the mistreatment of the poor and vulnerable.
I have never had an emotional response to the ending of a biography before this book. The last paragraph is perfection. Now planning a pilgrimage to the Salinas Valley.
To remember:
- "Nothing is harder to live up to than your own finest moment, and when it comes early--as it did to John Steinbeck with The Grapes of Wrath--the way forward can be long and difficult."
- "The book dies a real death for me when I write the last word. I have a little sorrow and then go on to a new book which is alive."
- "He was America's most pissed-off writer. All his work steams with indignation at injustice, with contempt for false piety, with scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that encourages exploitation, greed, and brutality."
-Nicknamed his son Catbird
- People said he looked like "an unmade bed" as a boy
December 14, 2022
I have always been draw to Steinbeck's writing, maybe because he's a California boi. And after reading this biography, I want to read all of his works.
“When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, once a bum always a bum. I fear this disease incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself….A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we not take a trip; a trip takes us. - John Steinbeck
This is a very standard biography, plotted chronologically through Steinbeck's life and works. I actually appreciated that the author didn't try to do anything fancy, but just gave a solid and interesting biography. Steinbeck clearly had a flawed life and some flawed beliefs, and the author acknowledges this in the context of the time.
“What the critics saw from book to book—but failed to detect as a linkage among all of them—was Steinbeck’s anger. He was America’s most pissed-off writer. “All his work,” Gray wrote, “steams with indignation at injustice, with contempt for false piety, with scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that encourages exploitation, greed, and brutality.”
“When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. In other words, once a bum always a bum. I fear this disease incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself….A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we not take a trip; a trip takes us. - John Steinbeck
This is a very standard biography, plotted chronologically through Steinbeck's life and works. I actually appreciated that the author didn't try to do anything fancy, but just gave a solid and interesting biography. Steinbeck clearly had a flawed life and some flawed beliefs, and the author acknowledges this in the context of the time.
“What the critics saw from book to book—but failed to detect as a linkage among all of them—was Steinbeck’s anger. He was America’s most pissed-off writer. “All his work,” Gray wrote, “steams with indignation at injustice, with contempt for false piety, with scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that encourages exploitation, greed, and brutality.”
November 29, 2020
I was fully prepared to just skim this one, but I ended up getting quite invested. William Souder has done great research, and this book is full of rich selections from Steinbeck's correspondence and excerpts from reviewers that capture the impression his books made on the world. I loved that Souder took the time to lay some minimal historical context for Steinbeck's life and work, anchoring all of his writing in the events going on around him. I liked that Steinbeck came across as entirely human, at times he was both carefree and incredibly anxious. This is a respectful biography, but it doesn't hesitate to point out his flaws. I think even Steinbeck, notoriously shy about sharing personal details and perpetually questioning his talent, would enjoy this honest portrayal. I think the best biographies are the ones that give *just enough* detail for context without going overboard and veering into boring territory. This gets that balance exactly right. Also, it made me want to reread all of his books, even the ones I've already read more than once.
December 3, 2021
As a kid, I had the belief that all biographies were inherently boring, thus I avoided them at all costs. After reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, that view changed. I could not get enough of it. This, on the other hand, is a boring book. If my hold on a book lapses or I have to renew it, you know there’s an issue.
I suppose the life of Hamilton is far more dramatic than that of Steinbeck, so this leaves me unsure if it’s just his life I was bored with (how awful does that sound?) or the writing. While Hamilton’s biography was written more like a real-life story with a complete arc and passion, this one was essentially a long list of “this happens. And then this happens. And then this happens.” It was dry and I just found this difficult to get through. And you know what they say, never meet your heroes! I am a big fan of Steinbeck’s novels, but maybe not so much of the man himself.
I suppose the life of Hamilton is far more dramatic than that of Steinbeck, so this leaves me unsure if it’s just his life I was bored with (how awful does that sound?) or the writing. While Hamilton’s biography was written more like a real-life story with a complete arc and passion, this one was essentially a long list of “this happens. And then this happens. And then this happens.” It was dry and I just found this difficult to get through. And you know what they say, never meet your heroes! I am a big fan of Steinbeck’s novels, but maybe not so much of the man himself.
October 24, 2020
The beats of a famous writer's life, especially if we're talking about male writers who live a long time, is depressingly familiar: they struggle early on to find an audience, they find that audience but lose family members along the way (sometimes to death, but more usually as a response to the creative writer's tendency to neglect or abuse said family member, especially spouses), they have a middle period of great work and personal torment, and they eventually die either neglected as writers or acclaimed but producing nothing much to sing about compared to their earlier, more famous work. As it turns out, John Steinbeck is another in a long list of creative types whose muse often led him to produce some of the most incisive, arresting works in American literature. But it also led him to be a cruel asshole to his loved ones, more often than not.
William Souder, who is almost penning a Steinbeck novel himself with his prose, posits Steinbeck as one of the most important authors in American history, and makes a good argument for it. Though in some ways the later years of Steinbeck's life, from roughly 1948 to 1968, are rushed through, Souder does lavish attention on the period when Steinbeck first started writing and the years of toil and struggle that led to his masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath." Along the way of his long life, he married three times and had affairs because in some ways he was the prototypical American writer, whose books were huge because his ego was (and his libido was a pretty healthy size, too). Steinbeck was not a gregarious sort; he was moody and often depressed, in some ways perhaps more so because of an injury sustained while working as a war correspondent in WWII. But his moods led him to create some great works of American and world literature, and his Nobel Prize for Literature was well-deserved. I'm personally familiar with "Of Mice and Men" (yes, it was assigned in high school), as well as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden" (which I'd argue is *the* Steinbeck book). Souder provides rich details on the background of each of Steinbeck's major and minor works, and it's weird how even when he touches briefly on one of Steinbeck's works, he makes me as the reader that much more eager to seek out said book or story.
Like I said, the postwar years (which arguably aren't among Steinbeck's most creative anyway, aside from "East of Eden") get a rush job compared with the time spent on Steinbeck's formation as a writer and his rise to fame and success, but that's just as well. Because the parts dealing with his childhood (as well as his friendships with folks who would crop up in his fictions, and his difficult relationship with his first wife, who was also a creative partner) are almost as steeped in beautiful prose as if Steinbeck himself had written it. Among the many things this book inspires me to do is to seek out the Steinbeck titles I haven't read, because Souder makes most of them sound interesting.
I think it's been quite a while since Steinbeck was afforded a major study like this, and it's a great look into the forces that made him who he was. If you've been moved by any of Steinbeck's work, you'll be moved by the book here.
William Souder, who is almost penning a Steinbeck novel himself with his prose, posits Steinbeck as one of the most important authors in American history, and makes a good argument for it. Though in some ways the later years of Steinbeck's life, from roughly 1948 to 1968, are rushed through, Souder does lavish attention on the period when Steinbeck first started writing and the years of toil and struggle that led to his masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath." Along the way of his long life, he married three times and had affairs because in some ways he was the prototypical American writer, whose books were huge because his ego was (and his libido was a pretty healthy size, too). Steinbeck was not a gregarious sort; he was moody and often depressed, in some ways perhaps more so because of an injury sustained while working as a war correspondent in WWII. But his moods led him to create some great works of American and world literature, and his Nobel Prize for Literature was well-deserved. I'm personally familiar with "Of Mice and Men" (yes, it was assigned in high school), as well as "The Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden" (which I'd argue is *the* Steinbeck book). Souder provides rich details on the background of each of Steinbeck's major and minor works, and it's weird how even when he touches briefly on one of Steinbeck's works, he makes me as the reader that much more eager to seek out said book or story.
Like I said, the postwar years (which arguably aren't among Steinbeck's most creative anyway, aside from "East of Eden") get a rush job compared with the time spent on Steinbeck's formation as a writer and his rise to fame and success, but that's just as well. Because the parts dealing with his childhood (as well as his friendships with folks who would crop up in his fictions, and his difficult relationship with his first wife, who was also a creative partner) are almost as steeped in beautiful prose as if Steinbeck himself had written it. Among the many things this book inspires me to do is to seek out the Steinbeck titles I haven't read, because Souder makes most of them sound interesting.
I think it's been quite a while since Steinbeck was afforded a major study like this, and it's a great look into the forces that made him who he was. If you've been moved by any of Steinbeck's work, you'll be moved by the book here.
May 14, 2021
Based on the many letters Steinbeck exhanges with his publisher, editor, friends and family, William Souder has written a very interesting report of the author's life. What I particularly liked was the fact that Souder also mingled Steinbecks life with world events - both World Wars, the banking crisis and the Great Depression, the Cold War, the rise of Communism, the Korea conflict and the likes. It is within this context that Steinbeck created his stories, and his anger towards injustice finds its source within events like these. I very much enjoyed the chronological order, the personal events alternating with the writing process and the short summaries of his novels, novellas and short stories.
The book is also very beautiful visually.
The book is also very beautiful visually.
January 18, 2021
Apart from the fact that a number of Steinbeck's works have entered the pantheon of the greatest novels I've read, I knew little about the author himself. This wonderful biography has changed that. It's a highly readable, well-researched, vivid story of the man, his places, and his time. I do occasionally enjoy a good biography, but I found myself turning to this one for the same solace and escape I usually find in novels. Souder not only knows his way around historical archives, he's a born storyteller. Highly recommended!
April 25, 2021
I was nervous to read Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck because John Steinbeck has been one of my favorite authors since high school when I read Grapes of Wrath.
John Steinbeck was haunted by depression, disillusion, feelings of inferiority, fear of failure, fear of success, and alcoholism but in spite of or because of all his ghosts he became a literary GIANT.
My only critique of William Souder's biography is that he did not spend enough time with Steinbeck's opus, East of Eden. This is probably personal as East of Eden is my favorite novel, which I have read 5 times.
John Steinbeck was haunted by depression, disillusion, feelings of inferiority, fear of failure, fear of success, and alcoholism but in spite of or because of all his ghosts he became a literary GIANT.
My only critique of William Souder's biography is that he did not spend enough time with Steinbeck's opus, East of Eden. This is probably personal as East of Eden is my favorite novel, which I have read 5 times.
October 24, 2020
John Steinbeck is a national treasure and to capture his essence and life in a few hundred pages is near impossible. He may very well be my favorite American writer and thus my expectations were high. Biographer William Souder, who had previously written works on Rachel Carson and James Audubon, was up for the challenge.
He lived only sixty-six years, was married three times, and passed on the legacy of his own name to one of his two children --- John Steinbeck IV. During this time he published thirty-three novels, mostly fiction, as well as a handful of adaptations for the stage of his work. Steinbeck even wrote the screenplay for Elia Kazan's 1952 version of 'Viva Zapata!' that starred Marlon Brando. He had so much impact on America and the world during the time he was here. From the majority of his work, you would have thought he and his family grew up destitute. For those fans of his work who thought that this work by Souder will certainly fill in the blanks and open your eyes to the life of John Steinbeck.
He was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California --- an area that left such an impression on him that much of his work was based on it. Unlike many of the families and individuals he wrote about, the Steinbeck family was fortunate to not have had to ever really struggled. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck II was born during the Civil War and was a practicing accountant. He spun that into a life of office service that included work in local government as Monterey County Treasurer, an electable position. Because they lived amongst ranches and 'dust bowl' territory, Steinbeck was able to quench his desire about the people who lived there by spending many hours speaking with ranch hands and foreman to learn about their livelihood.
It is well-known that John Steinbeck had a life-long love for dogs and most of his life was spent with several who had a huge impact on him. Their family was also fortunate to have a pony named Jill who became an instant infatuation for John and his younger sister, Mary. Jill also would later be the impetus for Steinbeck's beloved story, THE RED PONY. Following High School, John was accepted to Stanford University where he would pursue the only thing he had ever really wanted to do --- write. He had joined the ROTC, made the football team, and even took up boat rowing/crew work. None of this appealed much to him and he gave up on each endeavor almost as quickly as he started it. Steinbeck just wanted to write. His only trepidation about Stanford and College, in general, is that he did not need to learn how to become a writer, he was already quite confident in that ability, he needed to know how to take things to the next level and become a published author.
John became intimidated by some of the other young American authors of the time who were already seeing success while he was laboring in classrooms --- writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. In fact, he could not even bring himself to read their best-selling novels. He left Stanford and moved to NYC. His older sister, Beth, was living in Brooklyn and offered to put him up until he was established. He supported himself with work as a laborer and actually poured the cement and helped to build what is the current incarnation of Madison Square Garden. John enjoyed this work and the time spent amongst other laborers who were the lifeblood of the country as well as most of his fiction. He finally got a break when his first published short story was placed in The Smoker's Companion magazine. This was the opportunity he needed to get things going.
He met his first wife, Carol, and she became a huge supporter of his writing. She also helped John to get his first full-length novel, CUP OF GOLD, out there. She typed up the manuscript and got it in the right hands. The Steinbeck's were certain of its' inevitable success. Unfortunately, the 1929 novel was not well-received and his first big novel was still yet to be written. What got things rolling was a change of scenery and a move back to California. Here, John and Carol were among contemporaries that were artists and workers in many different areas and this was inspiring without the pressure of the big city. One of his life-long friends from this time, Ed Ricketts, even worked with John on a novel --- THE SEA OF CORTEZ --- and other research work.
On his thirtieth birthday, John received the best news of his career to that point --- the announcement of the publication of his first big novel, THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN in 1932. Now, the floodgates were opened and soon led to his next successes with the 1933 publications of two novels --- THE RED PONY and TO A GOD UNKNOWN. He was enjoying writing more than ever and his next novel, TORTILLA FLAT, opened up a new avenue for him --- Hollywood. Many of Steinbeck's work is known for their award-winning screen adaptations --- THE GRAPES OF WRATH, OF MICE AND MEN, EAST OF EDEN --- but it was the film version of TORTILLA FLAT that started all of this and the film with Oscar-winner Spencer Tracy was well-received.
John's mother, unfortunately, grew ill and passed away in the midst of this period of great success. Soon after, his father became deathly ill and passed on as well. John had never been extremely close with his father but what moved him more than anything was the deathbed confession his father made when he told his son that his life had been insignificant and he had never done what he really wanted to do. He'd missed everything. That sentiment really had quite an impact on John and he would transcribe these feelings through many of the fictional characters he would later create.
The next area of success for Steinbeck's work would be the stage. Even though OF MICE AND MEN was adapted into an outstanding film starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr. it also was the first of his novels also adapted for the stage. In 1937, the stage version of OF MICE AND MEN won the NYC Drama Critics Circle Best New Play --- an honor it took over another American classic, "Our Town". In recent decades it was also revived on Broadway in another award-winning adaptation that starred Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
His longest book up to that point was one that many consider his masterpiece. The only problem was that he could not come up with a title for it. His wife Carol actually suggested a title that was taken from a line of the Civil War-era tune, "The Battle Hymn Of the Republic". That title was THE GRAPES OF WRATH and the novel spoke to a nation that had come through the great depression. His character, Tom Joad, was symbolic of the struggling American everyman, desperate to keep his family together and alive. This character was indelibly portrayed on the big screen by the legendary Henry Fonda and also was the subject of a song by Bruce Springsteen.
Steinbeck mused that a book has two lives. The first is with the author when it is like a difficult child being coaxed to behave. In the second, it leaves home and makes its way in an uncertain world as the author watches and hopes for the best. He really got to experience that with THE GRAPES OF WRATH and this was also the period in time when he met his second wife, Gwen. She would also later become the mother to John Steinbeck IV. Success followed Steinbeck at every turn and he saw himself winning awards that authors like Hemingway had done decades earlier when he claimed both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and later the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Prior to his passing in 1968, Steinbeck penned one of my personal favorite books, the non-fiction delight TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY. It was about him and his poodle, Charley, and their journey cross-country and back again to their Long Island home. Along the way, he would depict an America he loved and revel at how similar people were wherever they went. I once again hail William Souder for taking a beloved and complex character like John Steinbeck and showing why he was so revered by all who knew him. I never really saw any of the 'angry young man' sentiment that the title of the biography might suggest. Instead, I saw a man who was driven and never gave up on his only dream and how fortunate we all have been to have shared this dream through the many works he left behind.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
He lived only sixty-six years, was married three times, and passed on the legacy of his own name to one of his two children --- John Steinbeck IV. During this time he published thirty-three novels, mostly fiction, as well as a handful of adaptations for the stage of his work. Steinbeck even wrote the screenplay for Elia Kazan's 1952 version of 'Viva Zapata!' that starred Marlon Brando. He had so much impact on America and the world during the time he was here. From the majority of his work, you would have thought he and his family grew up destitute. For those fans of his work who thought that this work by Souder will certainly fill in the blanks and open your eyes to the life of John Steinbeck.
He was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California --- an area that left such an impression on him that much of his work was based on it. Unlike many of the families and individuals he wrote about, the Steinbeck family was fortunate to not have had to ever really struggled. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck II was born during the Civil War and was a practicing accountant. He spun that into a life of office service that included work in local government as Monterey County Treasurer, an electable position. Because they lived amongst ranches and 'dust bowl' territory, Steinbeck was able to quench his desire about the people who lived there by spending many hours speaking with ranch hands and foreman to learn about their livelihood.
It is well-known that John Steinbeck had a life-long love for dogs and most of his life was spent with several who had a huge impact on him. Their family was also fortunate to have a pony named Jill who became an instant infatuation for John and his younger sister, Mary. Jill also would later be the impetus for Steinbeck's beloved story, THE RED PONY. Following High School, John was accepted to Stanford University where he would pursue the only thing he had ever really wanted to do --- write. He had joined the ROTC, made the football team, and even took up boat rowing/crew work. None of this appealed much to him and he gave up on each endeavor almost as quickly as he started it. Steinbeck just wanted to write. His only trepidation about Stanford and College, in general, is that he did not need to learn how to become a writer, he was already quite confident in that ability, he needed to know how to take things to the next level and become a published author.
John became intimidated by some of the other young American authors of the time who were already seeing success while he was laboring in classrooms --- writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. In fact, he could not even bring himself to read their best-selling novels. He left Stanford and moved to NYC. His older sister, Beth, was living in Brooklyn and offered to put him up until he was established. He supported himself with work as a laborer and actually poured the cement and helped to build what is the current incarnation of Madison Square Garden. John enjoyed this work and the time spent amongst other laborers who were the lifeblood of the country as well as most of his fiction. He finally got a break when his first published short story was placed in The Smoker's Companion magazine. This was the opportunity he needed to get things going.
He met his first wife, Carol, and she became a huge supporter of his writing. She also helped John to get his first full-length novel, CUP OF GOLD, out there. She typed up the manuscript and got it in the right hands. The Steinbeck's were certain of its' inevitable success. Unfortunately, the 1929 novel was not well-received and his first big novel was still yet to be written. What got things rolling was a change of scenery and a move back to California. Here, John and Carol were among contemporaries that were artists and workers in many different areas and this was inspiring without the pressure of the big city. One of his life-long friends from this time, Ed Ricketts, even worked with John on a novel --- THE SEA OF CORTEZ --- and other research work.
On his thirtieth birthday, John received the best news of his career to that point --- the announcement of the publication of his first big novel, THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN in 1932. Now, the floodgates were opened and soon led to his next successes with the 1933 publications of two novels --- THE RED PONY and TO A GOD UNKNOWN. He was enjoying writing more than ever and his next novel, TORTILLA FLAT, opened up a new avenue for him --- Hollywood. Many of Steinbeck's work is known for their award-winning screen adaptations --- THE GRAPES OF WRATH, OF MICE AND MEN, EAST OF EDEN --- but it was the film version of TORTILLA FLAT that started all of this and the film with Oscar-winner Spencer Tracy was well-received.
John's mother, unfortunately, grew ill and passed away in the midst of this period of great success. Soon after, his father became deathly ill and passed on as well. John had never been extremely close with his father but what moved him more than anything was the deathbed confession his father made when he told his son that his life had been insignificant and he had never done what he really wanted to do. He'd missed everything. That sentiment really had quite an impact on John and he would transcribe these feelings through many of the fictional characters he would later create.
The next area of success for Steinbeck's work would be the stage. Even though OF MICE AND MEN was adapted into an outstanding film starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr. it also was the first of his novels also adapted for the stage. In 1937, the stage version of OF MICE AND MEN won the NYC Drama Critics Circle Best New Play --- an honor it took over another American classic, "Our Town". In recent decades it was also revived on Broadway in another award-winning adaptation that starred Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
His longest book up to that point was one that many consider his masterpiece. The only problem was that he could not come up with a title for it. His wife Carol actually suggested a title that was taken from a line of the Civil War-era tune, "The Battle Hymn Of the Republic". That title was THE GRAPES OF WRATH and the novel spoke to a nation that had come through the great depression. His character, Tom Joad, was symbolic of the struggling American everyman, desperate to keep his family together and alive. This character was indelibly portrayed on the big screen by the legendary Henry Fonda and also was the subject of a song by Bruce Springsteen.
Steinbeck mused that a book has two lives. The first is with the author when it is like a difficult child being coaxed to behave. In the second, it leaves home and makes its way in an uncertain world as the author watches and hopes for the best. He really got to experience that with THE GRAPES OF WRATH and this was also the period in time when he met his second wife, Gwen. She would also later become the mother to John Steinbeck IV. Success followed Steinbeck at every turn and he saw himself winning awards that authors like Hemingway had done decades earlier when he claimed both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and later the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Prior to his passing in 1968, Steinbeck penned one of my personal favorite books, the non-fiction delight TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY. It was about him and his poodle, Charley, and their journey cross-country and back again to their Long Island home. Along the way, he would depict an America he loved and revel at how similar people were wherever they went. I once again hail William Souder for taking a beloved and complex character like John Steinbeck and showing why he was so revered by all who knew him. I never really saw any of the 'angry young man' sentiment that the title of the biography might suggest. Instead, I saw a man who was driven and never gave up on his only dream and how fortunate we all have been to have shared this dream through the many works he left behind.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
January 9, 2023
The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.Reading Of Mice and Men in eighth grade was probably the first time in my life that I was aware of what great literature actually was. I distinctly remember being alone in my room and having tears well up in my eyes the first time I read the concluding pages. Boy was I glad I was alone. Not a good look for a boy growing up. It’s probably because of that awareness that John Steinbeck has been a constant, nebulous part of my life; how he wrote, how he thought about injustice, how he consistently aroused emotions in me that were clear and convoluted at the same time. But everything I thought I knew about him was through his words. They were thoroughly human. Often they represented Steinbeck’s innermost thoughts. But, as William Souder explains in just as clear a biographical prose as that of Steinbeck, he was very human, one who somehow knew he was destined to write at an early age. Combined with that was a lifelong narcissism that genius seems to require and human foibles to which anyone can relate, Steinbeck was one of a kind while being one of us.
Furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit – for gallantry in defeat – for courage, compassion and love...
Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
- John Steinbeck, Nobel Prize Banquet Speech
Through anecdotes that thematically demonstrate an inconsistent consistency, Souder makes clear that it was the writing process that kept Steinbeck going. He would go through periods of thinking through ideas, sometimes for months at a time, and others of disciplined writing, churning out a regular output of about 2,000 words or less a day. Like all good writers, he was a reviser and mostly lost interest in his works once they were finished. But he did enjoy the riches they provided him, even as his refrain about paying taxes became an annual tradition. His themes were diverse, most of the geographical settings were in the California and Mexico he loved, even when he was living and writing in New York City. But they all contained a sense of outrage at the conditions of humans, some of whom lived on the edges of society, others who helped shape theirs.
Steinbeck’s literature was the embodiment of Wallace Stegner’s observation that writing, if it is about anything, is about people. Like other great American authors like Twain, Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Richard Wright, Bellow, and Roth, his characters embody living, breathing people and problems in ways nonfiction cannot. The depth of Steinbeck’s writing seems beguilingly simple at first glance. Thanks in large part to this very readable biography, that simplicity was the result of who he was, how hard he worked, how seriously he took his time to think and enjoy life, and most importantly, a core conviction of loving humanity when he really had a hard time loving many of the people closest to him.
July 17, 2020
Review TK
November 19, 2022
Not my favorite biography I've ever read, but the prose was beautiful at times and I really enjoyed the commentary on Souders perception of Steinbeck at different points. I feel like it's probably a very good look at not just his life, but how he actually was as a person, both good and bad.
That said, it wasn't necessarily easy to get through. It feels quite dense, and doesn't make me constantly want to turn the page to find out more immediately.
At the very least, I'm glad to learn more about an author who has written some of my favorite classics, and don't regret spending time reading it.
That said, it wasn't necessarily easy to get through. It feels quite dense, and doesn't make me constantly want to turn the page to find out more immediately.
At the very least, I'm glad to learn more about an author who has written some of my favorite classics, and don't regret spending time reading it.
December 28, 2020
An engaging look at one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century, though not without flaws.
Takeaways:
1) Steinbeck always (at least from high school) wanted to be a writer and he was laser-focused on that goal. Immediately after high school he went to Stanford to learn how to get better at writing. Through most of his 20s & early 30s he was quite poor and wouldn't have been able to continue down the writing path were it not for his father sending money.
2) He moved a lot. Like really a lot. After he did have money he'd buy a house, live there for maybe a year and then decide it was time to move on. Restless. Not one to allow moss to gather.
3) He could be a jerk, especially while engaged in writing (that laser-focus). There's a quote from his namesake son about realizing as a child that his father was an asshole. Maybe it was just the era, but he comes across as something of a misogynist as well.
4) His first wife, Carol, probably deserved some kind of credit or co-author status for some of the books like Grapes of Wrath. She would type up his manuscripts and make changes as she typed them and then pass the changes back to Steinbeck for his approval - he generally agreed that her changes made the books better.
5) Steinbeck did not like negative opinions of his work. There are instances where he'd ask friends to read a manuscript to get their opinion and if they were negative he'd ignore them. In some cases he'd stop talking to them - for years.
6) Conversely, he did not trust positive reviews of his books in the press. Combined with #5 he lived in a kind of writer's hell so maybe that explains some of #3?
7) He did not want to be famous or recognizable. He would have preferred to remain obscure. Publishers of his early books would ask him for a bio and photo to put in the book. He refused - he'd send their bio forms back empty. He feared how being famous would change his life, and to a large extent those fears were justified. When his early books would win awards he'd refuse to attend the awards ceremonies - the thought of attending them and/or having to make a speech made him physically ill.
Flaws:
The biographer seems to often jump in to make personal judgements about various aspects of Steinbeck's life. Sure, those judgements might seem correct, but it does seem unusual for a biographer to do this - this is primarily why I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 4. Another flaw is that while there are end notes, there are no numbers in the text to match with the corresponding end notes.
Takeaways:
1) Steinbeck always (at least from high school) wanted to be a writer and he was laser-focused on that goal. Immediately after high school he went to Stanford to learn how to get better at writing. Through most of his 20s & early 30s he was quite poor and wouldn't have been able to continue down the writing path were it not for his father sending money.
2) He moved a lot. Like really a lot. After he did have money he'd buy a house, live there for maybe a year and then decide it was time to move on. Restless. Not one to allow moss to gather.
3) He could be a jerk, especially while engaged in writing (that laser-focus). There's a quote from his namesake son about realizing as a child that his father was an asshole. Maybe it was just the era, but he comes across as something of a misogynist as well.
4) His first wife, Carol, probably deserved some kind of credit or co-author status for some of the books like Grapes of Wrath. She would type up his manuscripts and make changes as she typed them and then pass the changes back to Steinbeck for his approval - he generally agreed that her changes made the books better.
5) Steinbeck did not like negative opinions of his work. There are instances where he'd ask friends to read a manuscript to get their opinion and if they were negative he'd ignore them. In some cases he'd stop talking to them - for years.
6) Conversely, he did not trust positive reviews of his books in the press. Combined with #5 he lived in a kind of writer's hell so maybe that explains some of #3?
7) He did not want to be famous or recognizable. He would have preferred to remain obscure. Publishers of his early books would ask him for a bio and photo to put in the book. He refused - he'd send their bio forms back empty. He feared how being famous would change his life, and to a large extent those fears were justified. When his early books would win awards he'd refuse to attend the awards ceremonies - the thought of attending them and/or having to make a speech made him physically ill.
Flaws:
The biographer seems to often jump in to make personal judgements about various aspects of Steinbeck's life. Sure, those judgements might seem correct, but it does seem unusual for a biographer to do this - this is primarily why I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 4. Another flaw is that while there are end notes, there are no numbers in the text to match with the corresponding end notes.
November 1, 2021
The angry young/middle-aged/old man
One of the major themes that William Souder emphasizes in his 2020 biography of John Steinbeck (the first in over 30 years) is the thread of righteous anger that pulsed throughout his entire life. Souder refers to him as the “most pissed off writer” of his generation. Another is the antisocial aspect of Steinbeck’s personality. Even as a child he was largely a loner and kept his deepest feelings to himself.
He felt drawn to writing while still in his teens but wasn’t keen on college. He went to Stanford University to study English literature but did not finish, partly because he couldn’t simply take courses that interested him. He took various jobs throughout the 20’s, culminating in a job at Lake Tahoe where he was a caretaker. This entailed many hours of solitude at night, which was perfect for his writing, as well as introducing him to his first wife, Carol.
He was out of step with many of his contemporaries from the “lost generation” such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Dos Passos. His first novel, ‘Cup of Gold’ was an historical tale of the pirate Henry Morgan. He quickly distanced himself from such an irrelevant book, even though it was accepted for publication. He realized that he would get better results by writing stories set closer to home. He had grown up in the Salinas Valley and saw first hand the plight of the migrant workers mostly from the Dust Bowl in the middle of the Depression.
He and Carol struggled for years, raising vegetables and getting loans from his parents. Even after a few books were published he got miniscule royalties. Then, with the publication of ‘Tortilla Flat’, he got famous and started earning much more money, especially after the sales of a few works to Hollywood.
He was commissioned to report on the migrant struggles and wrote a journalistic piece, ‘The Harvest Gypsies’, then ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, which brought him to the attention of the agribusiness owners that profited off the backs of the starving workers, forcing him to keep a low profile. This actually suited Steinbeck as he shunned publicity and sought anonymity, even as his books sold more copies.
Souder brings up one concept that occurred to Steinbeck and influenced most of his work from this time—the phalanx:
‘For Steinbeck, the group unit is the product of a dynamic transformation that makes a new entity. Whether it’s good or bad—a mob, or the cavalry to the rescue—it is a thing capable of independent action and therefore a fitting subject…Steinbeck eventually came to believe that you could not understand humankind by looking at individuals—any more than you could interpret a human being’s behavior by looking at one of their cells. The answers were all in the phalanx, the superorganism, the group unit—that unique, surprising, ceaselessly fascinating thing that is collectively us. “Man,” Steinbeck said, “is the unit of the greater beast, the phalanx.’
This sheds some insight into the behavior of the strikers as well as the strike-breakers of ‘In Dubious Battle’, the Joads and the other migrants of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ (literally in the case of Tom Joad’s “I’ll be there” speech upon fleeing from the law), even George and Lennie’s actions in ‘Of Mice and Men’. It also plays a role in Steinbeck’s persisting fight against injustice, both in his work and in his life.
Having recently read a biography of Ernest Hemingway, I was struck by the parallels between him and Steinbeck. They were both boys surrounded by sisters, although Hemingway did have a much younger brother. They both married three times. They both received concussions from artillery fire as war correspondents in World War II. They also both suffered from severe depression although Steinbeck continued to persist by moving on to the next book and didn’t suffer from the loss of self-esteem to the extent of taking his own life. Souder reinforced this association by writing at some length about what Hemingway was doing during the same period that Steinbeck had his first flush of success, enough to make me think that I’d been suddenly thrust back into the Hemingway biography.
Steinbeck, as alluded to earlier, was less successful in marriage than with his writing. He boasted about his sexual prowess when he was young and his first wife, Carol, apparently had a libido that matched his, at least for a few years. One of the people that entered their social circle in the lean years of the Depression was the young mythologist Joseph Campbell, who fell in love with Carol but was very directly warned away from pursuing the matter further by Steinbeck. Carol was indispensable to Steinbeck’s early success, typing and editing his early manuscripts. She even came up with the title “The Grapes of Wrath”. As the years wore on, she began to get on his nerves and was, in his view, almost constantly criticizing him. At the first sign of flirtatious interest from the young and beautiful Gwen Conger, he dropped Carol and began living with Gwen.
Gwen’s moods swung from one extreme to another. She was the only wife to bear him children, sons Thomas and John IV. After they separated and he left her with the children and discovered that her erratic behavior and drinking increased, he was not happy about paying Gwen alimony and child support. By the time they reached their teens, both boys had had enough of her alcoholic rages and asked to move in with their father and Elaine and Steinbeck agreed to it. It is said that Gwen inspired the creation of his character Cathy Ames, from ‘East of Eden’, one of the most irredeemably evil characters in American literature.
He moved on to wife number 3, Elaine Anderson, at the time when he was financially solvent and a best-selling author. He stayed with Elaine until his death in 1968. He was known to be emotionally, if not, physically abusive to each of his first two wives but seemed to have settled down and cut down on his drinking with Elaine.
In his last years he was famous and one of the most successful and well-paid writers in America. He also received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. When he was asked if he thought he deserved the prize he said no. He did not think writers should be in competition with each other and that, once a work of his was published, it was dead to him and he was already thinking about the next project.
‘Mad at the World’ is a very well-written, insightful biography of John Steinbeck. Souder sheds light on Steinbeck’s personality as well as the themes and people that informed his work. He does write a bit too extensively about other writers such as Hemingway and about external factors such as the Depression and the Dust Bowl although he can probably be forgiven for providing a context for what prompted Steinbeck to write the works that he did. Based on what Souder has written about him, I can see that ‘Mad at the World’ is a very appropriate title for a book about America’s most pissed off writer.
One of the major themes that William Souder emphasizes in his 2020 biography of John Steinbeck (the first in over 30 years) is the thread of righteous anger that pulsed throughout his entire life. Souder refers to him as the “most pissed off writer” of his generation. Another is the antisocial aspect of Steinbeck’s personality. Even as a child he was largely a loner and kept his deepest feelings to himself.
He felt drawn to writing while still in his teens but wasn’t keen on college. He went to Stanford University to study English literature but did not finish, partly because he couldn’t simply take courses that interested him. He took various jobs throughout the 20’s, culminating in a job at Lake Tahoe where he was a caretaker. This entailed many hours of solitude at night, which was perfect for his writing, as well as introducing him to his first wife, Carol.
He was out of step with many of his contemporaries from the “lost generation” such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Dos Passos. His first novel, ‘Cup of Gold’ was an historical tale of the pirate Henry Morgan. He quickly distanced himself from such an irrelevant book, even though it was accepted for publication. He realized that he would get better results by writing stories set closer to home. He had grown up in the Salinas Valley and saw first hand the plight of the migrant workers mostly from the Dust Bowl in the middle of the Depression.
He and Carol struggled for years, raising vegetables and getting loans from his parents. Even after a few books were published he got miniscule royalties. Then, with the publication of ‘Tortilla Flat’, he got famous and started earning much more money, especially after the sales of a few works to Hollywood.
He was commissioned to report on the migrant struggles and wrote a journalistic piece, ‘The Harvest Gypsies’, then ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, which brought him to the attention of the agribusiness owners that profited off the backs of the starving workers, forcing him to keep a low profile. This actually suited Steinbeck as he shunned publicity and sought anonymity, even as his books sold more copies.
Souder brings up one concept that occurred to Steinbeck and influenced most of his work from this time—the phalanx:
‘For Steinbeck, the group unit is the product of a dynamic transformation that makes a new entity. Whether it’s good or bad—a mob, or the cavalry to the rescue—it is a thing capable of independent action and therefore a fitting subject…Steinbeck eventually came to believe that you could not understand humankind by looking at individuals—any more than you could interpret a human being’s behavior by looking at one of their cells. The answers were all in the phalanx, the superorganism, the group unit—that unique, surprising, ceaselessly fascinating thing that is collectively us. “Man,” Steinbeck said, “is the unit of the greater beast, the phalanx.’
This sheds some insight into the behavior of the strikers as well as the strike-breakers of ‘In Dubious Battle’, the Joads and the other migrants of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ (literally in the case of Tom Joad’s “I’ll be there” speech upon fleeing from the law), even George and Lennie’s actions in ‘Of Mice and Men’. It also plays a role in Steinbeck’s persisting fight against injustice, both in his work and in his life.
Having recently read a biography of Ernest Hemingway, I was struck by the parallels between him and Steinbeck. They were both boys surrounded by sisters, although Hemingway did have a much younger brother. They both married three times. They both received concussions from artillery fire as war correspondents in World War II. They also both suffered from severe depression although Steinbeck continued to persist by moving on to the next book and didn’t suffer from the loss of self-esteem to the extent of taking his own life. Souder reinforced this association by writing at some length about what Hemingway was doing during the same period that Steinbeck had his first flush of success, enough to make me think that I’d been suddenly thrust back into the Hemingway biography.
Steinbeck, as alluded to earlier, was less successful in marriage than with his writing. He boasted about his sexual prowess when he was young and his first wife, Carol, apparently had a libido that matched his, at least for a few years. One of the people that entered their social circle in the lean years of the Depression was the young mythologist Joseph Campbell, who fell in love with Carol but was very directly warned away from pursuing the matter further by Steinbeck. Carol was indispensable to Steinbeck’s early success, typing and editing his early manuscripts. She even came up with the title “The Grapes of Wrath”. As the years wore on, she began to get on his nerves and was, in his view, almost constantly criticizing him. At the first sign of flirtatious interest from the young and beautiful Gwen Conger, he dropped Carol and began living with Gwen.
Gwen’s moods swung from one extreme to another. She was the only wife to bear him children, sons Thomas and John IV. After they separated and he left her with the children and discovered that her erratic behavior and drinking increased, he was not happy about paying Gwen alimony and child support. By the time they reached their teens, both boys had had enough of her alcoholic rages and asked to move in with their father and Elaine and Steinbeck agreed to it. It is said that Gwen inspired the creation of his character Cathy Ames, from ‘East of Eden’, one of the most irredeemably evil characters in American literature.
He moved on to wife number 3, Elaine Anderson, at the time when he was financially solvent and a best-selling author. He stayed with Elaine until his death in 1968. He was known to be emotionally, if not, physically abusive to each of his first two wives but seemed to have settled down and cut down on his drinking with Elaine.
In his last years he was famous and one of the most successful and well-paid writers in America. He also received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. When he was asked if he thought he deserved the prize he said no. He did not think writers should be in competition with each other and that, once a work of his was published, it was dead to him and he was already thinking about the next project.
‘Mad at the World’ is a very well-written, insightful biography of John Steinbeck. Souder sheds light on Steinbeck’s personality as well as the themes and people that informed his work. He does write a bit too extensively about other writers such as Hemingway and about external factors such as the Depression and the Dust Bowl although he can probably be forgiven for providing a context for what prompted Steinbeck to write the works that he did. Based on what Souder has written about him, I can see that ‘Mad at the World’ is a very appropriate title for a book about America’s most pissed off writer.
October 25, 2020
John Steinbeck is a national treasure, and to capture his essence and life in a few hundred pages is nearly impossible. He very well may be my favorite American writer, so my expectations for MAD AT THE WORLD were high. It turns out that biographer William Souder, who previously had written books about Rachel Carson and James Audubon, was up for the challenge.
Steinbeck lived only 66 years, was married three times, and passed on the legacy of his own name to one of his two children: John Steinbeck IV. During this time, he published 33 books and a handful of adaptations of his work for the stage, and even wrote the screenplay for Elia Kazan's 1952 version of Viva Zapata! that starred Marlon Brando. Based on the majority of his work, some would think that he and his family grew up destitute. In MAD AT THE WORLD, Souder will fill in the blanks and open your eyes to this legendary author’s life and times.
Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, an area that left such an impression on him that much of his work was based on it. Unlike many about whom he wrote, his family was fortunate not to have struggled. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck II, was a practicing accountant, which he spun into a life of office service that included work in local government as Monterey County treasurer, an electable position. Because they lived amongst ranches and Dust Bowl territory, Steinbeck spent many hours speaking with ranch hands and foremen to learn about their livelihood.
It is well-known that Steinbeck loved dogs, and most of his life was spent with several who had a huge impact on him. His family was also fortunate to have a pony named Jill who became an instant infatuation for him and his younger sister, Mary. Jill also would be the impetus for his beloved story, THE RED PONY.
Following high school, Steinbeck was accepted to Stanford University where he would pursue the only thing he ever really wanted to do --- write. He had joined the ROTC, made the football team and even took up boat rowing/crew work. None of these activities appealed much to him, and he gave up on them almost as quickly as he started them. He was quite confident in his ability to be a writer, but needed to know how to take things to the next level and become a published author. He was intimidated by some of the other young American authors of the time who already were seeing success while he was laboring in classrooms, namely Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In fact, he could not even bring himself to read their bestselling novels.
Steinbeck eventually left Stanford and moved to New York City. His older sister, Beth, was living in Brooklyn and offered to put him up until he was established. He supported himself as a laborer, actually pouring the cement and helping to build what is the current incarnation of Madison Square Garden. He enjoyed this work and the time spent among other laborers who were the lifeblood of the country, as well as most of his fiction. He finally got a break when his first published short story was placed in The Smokers Companion magazine.
Steinbeck met his first wife, Carol, and she became a huge supporter of his writing. She also helped him get his first full-length novel, CUP OF GOLD, out there, typing up the manuscript and placing it in the right hands. Unfortunately, it was not well-received. What got things rolling was a change of scenery and a move back to California. Here, they were among contemporaries --- artists and workers in many different areas --- and they didn’t feel the pressure of the big city. One of Steinbeck’s lifelong friends during this time, Ed Ricketts, even worked with him on the novel SEA OF CORTEZ and other research projects.
On his 30th birthday, Steinbeck received the best news of his career thus far --- the announcement of the publication of his first big novel, THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN, in 1932. Now, the floodgates were opened and soon led to THE RED PONY and TO A GOD UNKNOWN. He was enjoying writing more than ever, and his next novel, TORTILLA FLAT, opened up a new avenue for him: Hollywood. Many of his books were turned into award-winning screen adaptations --- including THE GRAPES OF WRATH, OF MICE AND MEN and EAST OF EDEN --- but it was the well-received film version of TORTILLA FLAT, starring Oscar winner Spencer Tracy, that started it all.
Sadly, Steinbeck lost both of his parents in the midst of this period of great success. Right before passing away, his father admitted that he never did what he really wanted to do in life and felt like he missed out on everything. This deathbed confession had quite an impact on Steinbeck, and he would transcribe these feelings through many of the characters he would later create.
OF MICE AND MEN, which was adapted into an outstanding film starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr., also was the first of Steinbeck’s novels to appear on the stage. In 1937, it won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play and in recent decades was revived on Broadway in another award-winning adaptation that starred Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
His longest book up to that point was one that many consider his masterpiece, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, which spoke to a nation that had come through the Great Depression. His character, Tom Joad, was symbolic of the struggling American everyman, desperate to keep his family together and alive. He was indelibly portrayed on the big screen by the legendary Henry Fonda and was the subject of a song by Bruce Springsteen.
Steinbeck mused that a book has two lives. The first is with the author when it is like a difficult child being coaxed to behave. In the second, it leaves home and makes its way in an uncertain world as the author watches and hopes for the best. He really got to experience that with THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and it was around this time that he met his second wife, Gwen. Success followed Steinbeck at every turn, and he saw himself winning awards that authors like Hemingway had done decades earlier when he claimed both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and later the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Prior to his passing in 1968, Steinbeck penned one of my favorite books, the nonfiction delight TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY. It revolved around him and his poodle, Charley, and their journey cross-country and back again to their Long Island home. Along the way, he would depict an America he loved and revel at how similar people were wherever they went.
I salute William Souder for taking a beloved and complex character like John Steinbeck and showing why he was so revered by all who knew him. I never really saw any of the “angry young man” sentiment that the biography’s title might suggest. Instead, I saw a man who was driven and never gave up on his only dream. How fortunate we all have been to have shared in this dream through the many works he left behind.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
Steinbeck lived only 66 years, was married three times, and passed on the legacy of his own name to one of his two children: John Steinbeck IV. During this time, he published 33 books and a handful of adaptations of his work for the stage, and even wrote the screenplay for Elia Kazan's 1952 version of Viva Zapata! that starred Marlon Brando. Based on the majority of his work, some would think that he and his family grew up destitute. In MAD AT THE WORLD, Souder will fill in the blanks and open your eyes to this legendary author’s life and times.
Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, an area that left such an impression on him that much of his work was based on it. Unlike many about whom he wrote, his family was fortunate not to have struggled. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck II, was a practicing accountant, which he spun into a life of office service that included work in local government as Monterey County treasurer, an electable position. Because they lived amongst ranches and Dust Bowl territory, Steinbeck spent many hours speaking with ranch hands and foremen to learn about their livelihood.
It is well-known that Steinbeck loved dogs, and most of his life was spent with several who had a huge impact on him. His family was also fortunate to have a pony named Jill who became an instant infatuation for him and his younger sister, Mary. Jill also would be the impetus for his beloved story, THE RED PONY.
Following high school, Steinbeck was accepted to Stanford University where he would pursue the only thing he ever really wanted to do --- write. He had joined the ROTC, made the football team and even took up boat rowing/crew work. None of these activities appealed much to him, and he gave up on them almost as quickly as he started them. He was quite confident in his ability to be a writer, but needed to know how to take things to the next level and become a published author. He was intimidated by some of the other young American authors of the time who already were seeing success while he was laboring in classrooms, namely Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In fact, he could not even bring himself to read their bestselling novels.
Steinbeck eventually left Stanford and moved to New York City. His older sister, Beth, was living in Brooklyn and offered to put him up until he was established. He supported himself as a laborer, actually pouring the cement and helping to build what is the current incarnation of Madison Square Garden. He enjoyed this work and the time spent among other laborers who were the lifeblood of the country, as well as most of his fiction. He finally got a break when his first published short story was placed in The Smokers Companion magazine.
Steinbeck met his first wife, Carol, and she became a huge supporter of his writing. She also helped him get his first full-length novel, CUP OF GOLD, out there, typing up the manuscript and placing it in the right hands. Unfortunately, it was not well-received. What got things rolling was a change of scenery and a move back to California. Here, they were among contemporaries --- artists and workers in many different areas --- and they didn’t feel the pressure of the big city. One of Steinbeck’s lifelong friends during this time, Ed Ricketts, even worked with him on the novel SEA OF CORTEZ and other research projects.
On his 30th birthday, Steinbeck received the best news of his career thus far --- the announcement of the publication of his first big novel, THE PASTURES OF HEAVEN, in 1932. Now, the floodgates were opened and soon led to THE RED PONY and TO A GOD UNKNOWN. He was enjoying writing more than ever, and his next novel, TORTILLA FLAT, opened up a new avenue for him: Hollywood. Many of his books were turned into award-winning screen adaptations --- including THE GRAPES OF WRATH, OF MICE AND MEN and EAST OF EDEN --- but it was the well-received film version of TORTILLA FLAT, starring Oscar winner Spencer Tracy, that started it all.
Sadly, Steinbeck lost both of his parents in the midst of this period of great success. Right before passing away, his father admitted that he never did what he really wanted to do in life and felt like he missed out on everything. This deathbed confession had quite an impact on Steinbeck, and he would transcribe these feelings through many of the characters he would later create.
OF MICE AND MEN, which was adapted into an outstanding film starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr., also was the first of Steinbeck’s novels to appear on the stage. In 1937, it won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play and in recent decades was revived on Broadway in another award-winning adaptation that starred Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
His longest book up to that point was one that many consider his masterpiece, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, which spoke to a nation that had come through the Great Depression. His character, Tom Joad, was symbolic of the struggling American everyman, desperate to keep his family together and alive. He was indelibly portrayed on the big screen by the legendary Henry Fonda and was the subject of a song by Bruce Springsteen.
Steinbeck mused that a book has two lives. The first is with the author when it is like a difficult child being coaxed to behave. In the second, it leaves home and makes its way in an uncertain world as the author watches and hopes for the best. He really got to experience that with THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and it was around this time that he met his second wife, Gwen. Success followed Steinbeck at every turn, and he saw himself winning awards that authors like Hemingway had done decades earlier when he claimed both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and later the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Prior to his passing in 1968, Steinbeck penned one of my favorite books, the nonfiction delight TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY. It revolved around him and his poodle, Charley, and their journey cross-country and back again to their Long Island home. Along the way, he would depict an America he loved and revel at how similar people were wherever they went.
I salute William Souder for taking a beloved and complex character like John Steinbeck and showing why he was so revered by all who knew him. I never really saw any of the “angry young man” sentiment that the biography’s title might suggest. Instead, I saw a man who was driven and never gave up on his only dream. How fortunate we all have been to have shared in this dream through the many works he left behind.
Reviewed by Ray Palen
January 27, 2021
I've loved John Steinbeck since Middle School when I first read "The Red Pony," then High School with "Grapes of Wrath." "East of Eden" is one of my favorite books. I've read other biographies, but was struck by this title--Mad at the World--and thought, rightly, that there would be a new perspective here. "All his work," says Scholar James Gray, "steams with indignation at injustice, with contempt for false piety, with scorn for the cunning and self-righteousness of an economic system that encourages exploitation, greed and brutality."
What I appreciated about this book was the strong writing style that captivated and included Steinbeck's writing process, his career in the context of American history, the careers of other writers of the time--Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis--the development of the publishing industry, and of course, his relationships with family and friends. Still, his writing was not a product of any of these things. He was as afraid of success as he was of failure. Even though he insisted on isolation to do his work, he hated being alone. "I come toward the ending of my life," he said, "with the same ache for perfection I had as a child."
The other thing I appreciated is that the book did not try to paint him as a perfect human being. He was married 3 times and had two sons who cared little for him due to his hard drinking and bullying at times. But his humanity does come through in his work, which I have always loved.
What I appreciated about this book was the strong writing style that captivated and included Steinbeck's writing process, his career in the context of American history, the careers of other writers of the time--Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis--the development of the publishing industry, and of course, his relationships with family and friends. Still, his writing was not a product of any of these things. He was as afraid of success as he was of failure. Even though he insisted on isolation to do his work, he hated being alone. "I come toward the ending of my life," he said, "with the same ache for perfection I had as a child."
The other thing I appreciated is that the book did not try to paint him as a perfect human being. He was married 3 times and had two sons who cared little for him due to his hard drinking and bullying at times. But his humanity does come through in his work, which I have always loved.
December 15, 2023
A revealing book full of praise for Steinbeck's deep literary talents and brutal honesty in showing us all his vices, cruelties, and faults. And as in most cases when you read about your artistic heroes, there are more of the latter then I'd hoped for. Still, a fascinating and wonderfully told biography. I do have qualms over the weirdly bitter pot-shots Souder takes at Travels With Charley, as Steinbeck himself admits openly that it was never journalism and would not be the same tale if anyone else took the trip, so the harsh barrage of criticisms at that book's fictional elements feels bizarre and personal. The bio also tapers off quickly in the latter years and doesn't have the depth of his early life and career, but it is still a fascinating look at one of the most important authors of the 20th century. Warts and all, he remains a favorite. And the bio is well worth reading.
September 27, 2022
An excellent book. The author's research is as good as his prose. Not only is it about Steinbeck, but also about the struggles and satisfactions writing. History is appropriately woven in, too, which sheds light on how Steinbeck fits in--or doesn't fit in, really--with other 20th century writers.
January 21, 2024
Great biography of Steinbeck which gives context to my current reading of East of Eden.
Next, I will try to read the notebook/letters Steinbeck wrote to his editor Pat during the months he created East of Eden.
Next, I will try to read the notebook/letters Steinbeck wrote to his editor Pat during the months he created East of Eden.
October 19, 2020
A very readable and involving bio, well-researched, thoughtfully analytic, and very informative about Steinbeck. I learned about him and his works. Souder describes Steinbeck's struggle to produce every book, each time a different struggle and each time telling me more about him. I also appreciated the synopses of book plots and insights to themes, the summaries of communications with agents and publishers and critical reactions to the works. Souder provided just enough information about Steinbeck's private life and internal turmoil to help me understand his books and the arc of his oeuvre. A good bio tells the reader about the times of its subject too. Through Steinbeck's life, Souder provides a picture of America emerging from internal growth to a world-wide focus that gives welcome perspective to the crises America faces today.
November 18, 2020
While I wouldn’t call Steinbeck my favorite author (not sure I have a single favorite), he did write my favorite novel, one that garnered little to no acclaim, Sweet Thursday, the sequel to Cannery Row. I was eager to read this biography, but like most biographies of authors, what I most learned was that Steinbeck was a difficult, not very admirable man who happened to be a great writer. I found his development as a writer very interesting, as were the experiences that nurtured his innate intolerance for injustice and unfairness in society. I still love his compassion for the common man, and find his writing intensely enjoyable, though I now think a bit less of him as a man. The book moved along pretty well, and overall was worth the effort. Recommended for anyone interested in writers.
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