East of Eden

There are 4 great writers I study: Ernest Hemingway, Emily Bronte, John Steinbeck and James Baldwin ... Attached: Excerpt from EAST OF EDEN by the master JOHN STEINBECK..a film I've seen and book I have yet to read...so I will read it on Christmas... Steinbeck writes in a simple style like Hemingway (the way I want to storytell) ...

John Steinbeck

About John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 1902. The town is a few miles from the Pacific Coast and near the fertile Salinas Valley—an area that was to be the background of much of his fiction. He studied marine biology at Stanford University but left without taking a degree and, after a series of laboring jobs, began to write. An attempt at a free-lance literary career in New York City failed, and he returned to California, continuing to write in a lonely cottage. Popular success came to him only in 1935 with Tortilla Flat. That book’s promise was confirmed by succeeding works—In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, and especially The Grapes of Wrath, a novel so powerful that it remains among the archetypes of American culture. Often set in California, Steinbeck’s later books include Cannery Row, The Wayward Bus, East of Eden, The Short Reign of Pippin IV, and Travels with Charley. He died in 1968, having won a Nobel Prize in 1962. In announcing the award, the Swedish Academy declared: “He had no mind to be an unoffending comforter and entertainer. Instead, the topics he chose were serious and denunciatory, for instance the bitter strikes on California’s fruit and cotton plantations. ... His literary power steadily gained impetus. ... The little masterpiece Of Mice and Men ... was followed by those incomparable short stories which he collected together in the volume The Long Valley. The way had now been paved for the great work ... the epic chronicle The Grapes of Wrath.”

East of Eden excerpt

Charles’ eyes blazed. “I’ll burn your goddam house down.”
“I believe you would,” Adam said, suddenly sobered.
“I believe you really would. What are you looking like that for?” Charles said slowly, “I’ve thought about it a lot. And I’ve wanted for you to bring it up. I guess you aren’t ever going to.”
“What do you mean?”
“You remember when you sent me a telegram for a hundred dollars?”
“You bet I do. Saved my life, I guess. Why?”
“You never paid it back.”
“I must have.”
“You didn’t.”
Adam looked down at the old table where Cyrus had sat, knocking on his wooden leg with a stick. And the old oil lamp was hanging over the center of the table, shedding its unstable yellow light from the round Rochester wick. Adam said slowly, “I’ll pay you in the morning.”
“I gave you plenty of time to offer.”
“Sure you did, Charles. I should have remembered.” He paused, considering, and at last he said, “You don’t know why I needed the money.”
“I never asked.”
“And I never told. Maybe I was ashamed. I was a prisoner, Charles. I broke jail—I escaped.”
Charles’ mouth was open. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m going to tell you. I was a tramp and I got taken up for vagrancy and put on a road gang—leg irons at night. Got out in six months and picked right up again. That’s how they get their roads built. I served three days less than the second six months and then I escaped—got over the Georgia line, robbed a store for clothes, and sent you the telegram.”
“I don’t believe you,” Charles said. “Yes, I do. You don’t tell lies. Of course I believe ........."

East of Eden is a novel by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, published in September 1952. Often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½ years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors.

The Grapes of Wrath published April 14, 1939 is a novel so powerful that it remains among the archetypes of American culture.