John Steinbeck, Steinbeck: A Life in Letters

Cecilia Donohue (Independent Scholar - North America)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1968

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Letter(s)

Resources

“The telephone is a thing of horror” (183), wrote John Steinbeck to his literary agent Elizabeth Otis in 1939. Given his opinion of telecommunications (poles apart from today’s thinking), it comes as no surprise that the volume of his adult life correspondence spans 800+ pages. Published seven years after John Steinbeck’s death, Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, co-edited and curated by Elaine Steinbeck (the author’s third wife and widow) with author/writer Robert Wallsten, presents a first-person perspective of the Nobel prize-winning author. Presented chronologically, the letters begin in 1926, when Steinbeck was still a struggling writer in his early 20s. They cover Steinbeck’s life through …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2111 words

Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "Steinbeck: A Life in Letters". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 January 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1809, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article