John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck was born into a German family with parents John Ernest Steinbeck and Olive Hamilton. John Steinbeck is actually the junior in his family as he and his father share the same name. He was born in Salinas, California in 1902. His mother was a local school teacher and father was the county treasurer. He grew up in rural Salinas where he was influenced by numerous farms and open country. He graduated from Salinas’s high school in 1919 where he spent summers working on ranches nearby. John Steinbeck then moved on and attended classes at Stanford University which was then a college. He enjoyed reading and writing, however did not finish his degree at Stanford and instead went and explored the big apple. He was unsuccessful in New York City and decided to return to California. Almost immediately after returning he married Carol Henning in 1930. At this time John started to publish books and in 1937 he published Of Mice and Men.
In 1940 he took a journey around the Gulf of California with a friend and his wife. After that trip Steinbeck and Henning divorced which lead Steinbeck to his second wife Gwyndolyn Conger who he had Thomas Myles Steinbeck and John Steinbeck IV with. John then became a war correspondent in WWII and traveled all around Europe. After the war he continued his travels to the Soviet Union with the photographer Robert Capa. Steinbeck was then elected in the Academy of Arts and Letters. After returning to California he ran into his wife Gwyn who demanded a divorce immediately. Steinbeck had just lost a great friend and now was divorced so he fell into depression for a year.
The next year in 1949 he met his soon to be third and last wife Elaine Scott. John continued to write and publish books throughout the rest of his life when he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1962 for his complete work of literature. Steinbeck then died in 1968 from a heart attack caused by congestive heart failure as John was a forever smoker and had smoked away his internal organs. His ashes are buried in the Salina’s cemetery with the rest of the Steinbeck family. Elaine Scott was buried there too in 2004. Only one of his children, Myles Steinbeck is alive today. John Steinbeck IV died in 1991. John Steinbeck is a monumental writer in literature and his work will be forever known.
In 1940 he took a journey around the Gulf of California with a friend and his wife. After that trip Steinbeck and Henning divorced which lead Steinbeck to his second wife Gwyndolyn Conger who he had Thomas Myles Steinbeck and John Steinbeck IV with. John then became a war correspondent in WWII and traveled all around Europe. After the war he continued his travels to the Soviet Union with the photographer Robert Capa. Steinbeck was then elected in the Academy of Arts and Letters. After returning to California he ran into his wife Gwyn who demanded a divorce immediately. Steinbeck had just lost a great friend and now was divorced so he fell into depression for a year.
The next year in 1949 he met his soon to be third and last wife Elaine Scott. John continued to write and publish books throughout the rest of his life when he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1962 for his complete work of literature. Steinbeck then died in 1968 from a heart attack caused by congestive heart failure as John was a forever smoker and had smoked away his internal organs. His ashes are buried in the Salina’s cemetery with the rest of the Steinbeck family. Elaine Scott was buried there too in 2004. Only one of his children, Myles Steinbeck is alive today. John Steinbeck IV died in 1991. John Steinbeck is a monumental writer in literature and his work will be forever known.