Although John Steinbeck actually observed combat while serving as a correspondent for the government’s Office of Strategic Services during the later years of World War II, surprisingly he only wrote one war novel, a work entitled The Moon Is Down. Composed during 1941, before America had even entered the war, and published in 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, this novel was Steinbeck’s fourteenth work and his second attempt (Of Mice and Men was the first) to be composed in what he called the play-novelette form. Initially, The Moon Is Down grew out of the author’s volunteer work with several governmental intelligence and information agencies during 1940 and 1941. Motivated by a deep …
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Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "The Moon is Down". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 December 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=133, accessed 25 November 2024.]
