Of Mice & Men

Author biography information for John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

• Born Feb. 27, 1902 in Salinas, CA

• Only child• Dad: county treasurer• Mom: school teacher• Star of football team • Excellent student• Accepted to Stanford

University

John Steinbeck

• Attended Stanford for 6 years, but never graduated

• Took Journalism & biology classes

• Worked as lab. assistant & farm laborer during summers

• Interested in attempting to write a novel

John Steinbeck

• 1925: decided to travel to gain experience for novel

• Deckhand on ship• San Francisco to New

York via the Panama Canal

• Pirate attack in Caribbean!

• 1929: Cup of Gold published

John Steinbeck

• Returned to Salinas• Married to Carol Henning,

1930• 1933: To a God

Unknown: poor farmer loses land due to Depression

• 1935: Tortilla Flat: winos in Monterey/ Salinas

• 1936: In Dubious Battle: grape pickers’ strike in central California

John Steinbeck

• 1937: Of Mice & Men: friendship & responsibility between 2 men, Salinas Valley

• The Dust Bowl: drought and wind in central U.S.

• Poor farmers lost their land, went to California for better life

• Steinbeck wrote articles for S.F. Chronicle, then wrote Grapes of Wrath, 1939; won Pulitzer Prize

• 1941 movie version

The Dust Bowl

John Steinbeck

• WW2, 1941: due to football injury, Steinbeck did not fight, but was journalist

• Divorced, remarried to Gwyn Conger

• 1944: Cannery Row: descriptions of life in Monterey

• 1949: The Pearl• 2nd divorce, 1950

John Steinbeck

• 1950’s: backlash from fame, Steinbeck became an alcoholic

• 1961: 3rd (final) marriage to Elaine Scott

• 1961: The Winter of our Discontent: alcohol issues with married couple

• 1962: Travels with Charley: U.S. travelogue

• 1962: Nobel Prize for Literature

• December 28, 1968, died of heart attack, New York City

Issues in Of Mice & Men

• The Depression• Stock market crashed• Unemployment• Abandonment of families

by men• “Hobos” wandered the

country– Possessions on back– Walking or jumping on

boxcar trains– Going door to door for food

or work– Loneliness & drifting

Hobos

Issues in Of Mice & Men• Controversial issues:• Foul language• Mental retardation • Racist terminology• ASSIGNMENT: Using your

Cornell notes, please write a summary of John Steinbeck’s life. You should put the information in your own words. Your summary must be a minimum of 250 words in length. The notes need to be attached to the back.

• This assignment is due on Wednesday, September 14th. The notes are worth 10 points; the summary is worth 25.

ORGANIZING/FINISHINGyour Cornell notes

• CREATE CATEGORY HEADINGS for different parts of your notes:

• CHILDHOOD-H.S.• ADVENTURE for 1st book• LISTS of published books• GRAPES of WRATH and the DUST

BOWL• WW2 – death• OF MICE & MEN issues

• SUMMARY: At the bottom of your notes, the last thing you do is SUM UP all the notes in one sentence:

• JOHN STEINBECK is an author who wrote about controversial real history issues in the 1930s.

• The author JOHN STEINBECK used real historical events as the setting and theme for many of his famous novels.

• Award-winning author JOHN STEINBECK showed Americans what life was like during the Depression with the plots of his novels.

Start your summary

• Each of your “categories” will be a SEPARATE PARAGRAPH in your summary.

• A SUMMARY tells important points. The idea is to REDUCE all the information in about ¼ to ½ its original length. Tell IMPORTANT ideas, but not every little detail.

• Your summary needs to be at least 250 words long. I count words: first two full lines, get average words per line; multiply this by all the lines that are at least half a line long; answer is within 25 words of your word length.

• Summary is due Wednesday. Completed Cornell notes are 10 points; the summary is 25 points, for a total of 35 points!