“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 1968, the year he died. The earliest communiqués in the collection are written mostly…
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Citation: Donohue, Cecilia. "Steinbeck: A Life in Letters". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 January 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1809, accessed 24 April 2024.]
