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John Steinbeck
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Portrait of John Steinbeck in a suit and tie, looking downward with a serious expression. Gary Sinise and John Malkovich stand outdoors in rural work clothes in a publicity still from the 1992 film Of Mice and Men, with a barn in the background. Dust jacket of The Grapes of Wrath Henry Fonda stands in the center wearing a cap and jacket, with Darryl Hickman and Shirley Mills looking up at him in a scene from The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Steinbeck with a sampling of his life's work
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Portrait of John Steinbeck in a suit and tie, looking downward with a serious expression.
John Steinbeck summary
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Summer red bird, Tanager from The Birds of America by John James Audubon, 4 vol. (435 hand-coloured plates, 1827-38), pl. 44, London. Engraver Robert Havell. Engraving, hand-colored.
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Portrait of John Steinbeck in a suit and tie, looking downward with a serious expression.
John Steinbeck American novelist John Steinbeck.

John Steinbeck

American novelist
Also known as: John Ernst Steinbeck
Written by
René Ostberg
RenĂ© Ostberg is an associate editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
René Ostberg
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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‱History

John Steinbeck (born February 27, 1902, Salinas, California, U.S.—died December 20, 1968, Manhattan, New York) was an American novelist best known for The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which summed up the bitterness of the Great Depression and aroused widespread sympathy for the plight of migratory farmworkers. His other works include the novella Of Mice and Men (1937) and the sweeping historical novel East of Eden (1952). Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962...

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