JOHN STEINBECK: A FLAWED GENIUS

John Steinbeck: un génie imparfait

eight decades and around 50,000 copies are still bought in America every year.

5. The impact of Steinbeck’s work on the American people was momentous. Arthur Miller wrote of Steinbeck, “I can’t think of another American writer, with the possible exception of Mark Twain, who so deeply penetrated the political life of the country.” The 1940 film adaptation of the novel, starring Henry Fonda, is considered a Hollywood classic.

6. Many years later, it emerged that the FBI file had begun to keep files on the writer at this time, justifying it with claims that “many of Steinbeck’s writings portrayed an extremely sordid and poverty-stricken side of American life”. Thankfully, more enlightened minds than FBI director J. Edgar Hoover were in positions of influence when Steinbeck won literature’s most illustrious award. It is notable that the Nobel committee praised his “keen social perception”.

7. The Grapes of Wrath was making Steinbeck world famous just as the 41-year-old began to fall for a 22-year-old nightclub singer called Gwyn Conger, whom he married in 1943. Steinbeck was cruel to his wife, particularly during two difficult pregnancies. 8. After they had two children together – Thomas, born in 1944, and John Steinbeck IV, born in 1946 – the acrimony became unbearable and she divorced him in 1948. He would exact his revenge a few years later when he based Cathy, the wicked alcoholic character in East of Eden, on Conger.

9. Steinbeck, a heavy drinker, was not blind to his own failings and mood swings. Steinbeck had suffered from bouts of depression in the 1940s and even after meeting and marrying his third wife, Elaine Scott, he was frequently brought low by what he called his “what-the-hell blues”. Steinbeck said he “hit the bottom” in October 1953, a year after the publication of East of Eden. “A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ,” he remarked.

STEINBECK'S POLITICS

10. Steinbeck was certainly a progressive in a backward era of race relations. He asked for his name to be taken off the screenplay for the wartime Alfred Hitchcock film The Lifeboat, because he was furious that the “dignified and purposeful” black character he had created had been “distorted”.

11. During the 1960s Steinbeck’s politics moved away from the liberalism that had earned him a reputation as America’s social conscience. He became friends with President Johnson (helping him to write his acceptance speech) and reported sympathetically on the Vietnam war from late 1966 to early 1967.

12. With Steinbeck, the unexpected was the norm. When he was asked for his “rules for life” by a friend in Vietnam, Steinbeck replied with his four mottos: “Never make excuses. Never let them see you bleed. Never get separated from your luggage. Always find out when the bar opens.”

Oacceptance speech ici, discours d'investiture / sympathetically avec compassion. 13. unexpected inattendu / rule règle / to reply répondre / motto devise / to bleed, bled, bled saigner / to get, got, got separated from ici, perdre / luggage bagages / to find, found, found out ici, se renseigner (quant à).