American novelist John Steinbeck fiercely critiqued capitalism in such works as The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Although business and government leaders accused him of promoting communism in that novel, he deplored that system too. The Grapes of Wrath found a fan in first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who recommended the book to readers of her nationally syndicated newspaper column.
During World War II Steinbeck was a war correspondent and wrote anti-Nazi propaganda, such as the novel The Moon Is Down (1942).
Steinbeck later supported U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, helping to write Johnson’s acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination in the 1964 presidential campaign. That September Steinbeck received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Johnson. The novelist also supported the president’s Great Society program and the Vietnam War.