Susan Shillinglaw – författare

The first scholarly assessment of Steinbeck’s bestselling travelogue Travels with Charley, published in 1962, a narrative that blurs the lines between nonfiction and fiction.

The effect of Steinbeck's preoccupation with ecology and marine biology on his writings.

The first critical anthology devoted solely to Travels with Charley.

From one of the foremost scholars on the subject, comes our most in-depth look at John Steinbeck as a writer deeply connected to the natural world. Among the many reasons that John Steinbeck has ascended to the highest tier of the American Literary Canon is his championing of the working man. What we don t often consider, however, is that his vision as a writer was fundamentally ecological, looking at man and nature holistically. To understand people, you had to know something about the trees and flowers they planted, the soil they tilled, the geography that shaped their consciousness the animating spirit of place. Steinbeck's Landscapes highlights the environments that the Noble Prize winning author cherished and explored throughout his life and career, and examines the iconic stories those rivers, valleys, plants, animals, and weather patterns inspired. The result is a new and fuller understanding of Steinbeck s work, and how nature serves to reflect, cast a harsh light upon, or magnify the action. As this fully illustrated treasure shows, for Steinbeck, the world around us fundamentally shapes human experience and the human spirit. All life is connected.

Carol Henning Steinbeck, writer John Steinbeck's first wife, was his creative anchor, the inspiration for his great work of the 1930s, culminating in The Grapes of Wrath. Meeting at Lake Tahoe in 1928, their attachment was immediate, their personalities meshing in creative synergy. Carol was unconventional, artistic, and compelling. In the formative years of Steinbeck's career, living in San Francisco, Pacific Grove, Los Gatos, and Monterey, their Modernist circle included Ed Ricketts, Joseph Campbell, and Lincoln Steffens. In many ways Carol's story is all too familiar: a creative and intelligent woman subsumes her own life and work into that of her husband. Together, they brought forth one of the enduring novels of the 20th century.