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No Hey there on the stein bro author John steinbeck's

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number 1 fan check out my tat I know more

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about steinback than anyone on the planet I wouldn't just

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be able to teach a course on the guy i'd

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be ableto found an entire college dedicated to him so

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if you're looking for a crash course in all things

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steinback well then you're in the right place biography time

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While john ernst steinbeck the third was born on february

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twenty seventh nineteen o teu in salinas california he was

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the second of four children and the on ly boy

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His father john steinbeck sr was the treasurer of monterey

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county his mother all of hamilton steinbeck a former teacher

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and still then her son A deep love for reading

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and writing Salinas was a farming town surrounded by landscapes

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of broad yellow valleys and rich green fields There's a

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reason why it's official nickname is the salad bowl of

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america although young johnny enjoyed a comfortable middle class existence

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he first encountered really hardship while working during the summers

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at a local beet farm Well many of his co

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workers were migrant laborers and just about all of them

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live Difficult lives years later these experiences would form the

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basis of his first great book tortilla flat but let's

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not get ahead of ourselves here Well after graduating from

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high school in nineteen nineteen steinbeck enrolled at stanford university

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Back then the computer science building was really small Although

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stand back thoroughly enjoyed his english glasses he found college

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life to be pretentious and phony Well stand back would

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study off and on at stanford for six years leaving

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campus frequently to take odd jobs at farms factories or

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ranches He never would end up getting that degree After

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quitting college once and for all sandack hopped on a

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freighter to new york city where he worked in construction

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and had a brief stint writing for a new york

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american magazine But all signing was always a californian at

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hard He just had to go back By nineteen twenty

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six he was back in the golden state living besides

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scenic lake tahoe and working as a handyman at a

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resort About three years later he published his first novel

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cup of gold quays a historical account of famous pirate

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henry morgan's exploits in panama a country steinbeck had never

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visited In his life ready for a shocker cup of

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gold was a total dud Steinbeck was at his best

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when he was minding his own personal experiences which doesn't

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apply to a pirate story set in a central american

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country Well steinbeck married carol benning and moved into a

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tiny cottage and coastal pacific grove california Over the following

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decades steinbeck would write some of his most legendary work

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in that tiny shack His next two novels were set

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in his childhood home of the salinas valley The pastures

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of heaven took inspiration from steinbeck's friendships with poor farm

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workers while to a god unknown focused on man's relationship

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with nature Then in nineteen thirty five steinbeck released his

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fourth novel tortilla flat sounds delicious set in monterey california

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the novel focused on a group of paisanos which are

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men of mexican indian spanish and caucasian background according to

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steinbeck and their exploits in the years after world war

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tortilla flat was a massive commercial and critical success Earning

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steinbeck is first gold medal from the california commonwealth club

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honoring californian writers which he would win again the following

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year for his novel in dubious battle Well steinback got

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his Inspiration for the novel after meeting to labor organizer

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is hiding in california after participating in a strike at

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this point in u s history things weren't looking so

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good for workers The great depression had hit six years

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prior destroying banks businesses and life savings across the country

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At the same time a fearsome weather phenomenon known as

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the dust herbal was tearing his way across the midwest

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causing droughts galore and kicking off monumental dust storms In

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nineteen thirty six steinbeck spent part of the year traveling

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with migrant workers who fled the dust bowl for san

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francisco and wrote a newspaper siri's on them here's good

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quote from it They are men who have worked hard

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on their own farms and have felt the pride of

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possessing and living incl close touch with the land In

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nineteen thirty seven steinbeck released one of his most famous

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works the novella of mice and men which two was

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inspired by the plight of migrant farm workers While of

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mice and men is one of steinbeck's most famous and

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beloved works the book has been criticized and even banned

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many times over sometimes due to its political message which

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was seen as anti business orth perceived racism or vulgarity

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or even its supposed promotion of euthanasia Well good books

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get censored all the time for silly reasons Remember when

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harry potter was accused of leading the world in her

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witchcraft And then in nineteen thirty nine steinbeck published the

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real whopper the grapes of wrath like of mice and

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men The grapes of wrath was inspired by the struggling

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migrants that steinbeck befriended in his younger years The novel

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was another massive success moving half a million copies in

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its first year and winning the pulitzer prize and national

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book award Well not everybody loved the novel The associated

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farmers america thought that the book was overly critical of

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big farmers leading many to perceive steinbeck's critique of business

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as being supportive of socialism Well steinbeck wasn't even a

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socialist just wanted everyone to play fair but then it

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picked up some steam and first lady eleanor roosevelt praised

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the book and congress began having hearings over the conditions

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of migrant camps In nineteen forty one steinbeck divorced his

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first wife and moved back to new york city with

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new boo gwendolyn conger couple married in nineteen forty three

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and had two sons steinbeck's only children in nineteen forty

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four forty six A couple divorced in nineteen forty eight

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and in nineteen fifty steinbeck married elaine anderson scott wife

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number three the final one sign back wasn't interested in

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easing into retirement however with wide ranging interests like marine

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biology history war and poodles He explored whatever topic ing

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treat him at the moment you know like when he

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spent six weeks in the gulf of mexico with a

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marine biologist bro and co wrote a book about it

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called the sea of cortez steinbeck wrote more than just

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books He was the new york herald tribunes war correspondent

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during the early years of world war two and wrote

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several movies including alfred hitchcock's nineteen forty four picture lifeboat

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well don't think he abandoned the rural california novels that

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to find his career he wrote cannery row in nineteen

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forty five and a wayward bus in nineteen forty seven

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Well that same year steinbeck took his first trip to

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the soviet union as a journalist i know people were

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a tad suspicious about his reasons for going was he

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really there is a journalist Or was he one of

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them Commies so many interpreted The pro worker sentiment of

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his novels is being pro communist which eventually got him

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monitored by the fbi Well apparently they weren't too subtle

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because steinbeck knew all about it Even wrote a letter

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to the us attorney general in nineteen forty two complaining

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about it Time for my best steinbeck impression Here we

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go Do you suppose you could ask edgar's boys to

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stop stepping on my heels They think i am an

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enemy alien is getting tiresome Well the edgar he's referring

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to his fbi director j edgar hoover by the way

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to critics of steinback his trip to the soviet union

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was proof that the guy was a dirty kami What

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other reason could he have to give the russkies face

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time Well it didn't seem to matter that sign back

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never joined the communist or socialist parties of america despite

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coming into contact with them frequently during his time with

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labor activists Ironically steinbeck would later be criticized for being

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too conservative due to his friendship with his good old

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buddy president lyndon b johnson and his pro war reporting

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during the vietnam war well in nineteen fifty to steinbeck

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published east of eden an epic novel that he considered

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his masterpiece this tale spans from the civil war the

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world war one and follows generations of two families that

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trask ce and the hamiltons and later of which is

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said to be based on steinbeck's own family A young

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steinbeck even makes a brief appearance but east of eden

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isn't just a personal book for steinbeck It also develops

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the themes and ideas he'd been working on his entire

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career Well in his later years steinbeck's books became more

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philosophical The winter of our discontent steinbeck's final novel was

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published in nineteen sixty one and in nineteen sixty two

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he published the travelogue travels with charlie which strange as

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it sounds is about a road trip he took with

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his dog That same year steinbeck won the nobel prize

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for literature for the whole of his writing output Steinbeck

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described his philosophy on writing in his acceptance speech saying

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that the writer is delegated to declare in to celebrate

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man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit for

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gallantry in defeat for courage compassion and love Two years

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later he received the presidential medal of freedom from lyndon

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johnson Along with a note declaring steinbeck had helped america

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toe understand herself by finding universal themes and the experience

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of men and women everywhere Then on december twentieth nineteen

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sixty eight steinbeck died of a heart attack in new

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york city Fittingly his ashes were buried in salinas california

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the place he had immortalized in countless boats during his

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long and illustrious career As we'll see the grapes of

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wrath is heavily rooted in steinbeck's personal experiences from his

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teenage days working with exploited foreign farm workers who appear

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several times in the novel to his time is a

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journalist following okies whose lives were destroyed by the decibel

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Well the grapes of wrath takes all of these deeply

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personal experiences from steinbeck's life and uses them to give

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us a broader understanding of america as a whole not

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shabby at all Which brings us to the end of

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our foray into the world of steinbeck Here are a

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few things to remember before you go John steinbeck was

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1 of the most important american writers of the twentieth

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century as evidenced by his nineteen sixty two nobel prize

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victory which honored his works commitment toward fighting injustice also

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learning about steinbeck's Personal life will help us better understand

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the grapes of wrath Once we start reading it it's

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not the end All be all but it's A nice

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headstart Alright time Start reading because there ain't no party

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like a steinbeck party because the steinbeck party don't stop

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