Steinbeck biographer Jackson J. Benson notes that during the first two decades of the century, American and European authors were being influenced by a great deal of experimental fiction. Citing such works as Dos Passos’s
Manhattan Transfer(1925) and Joyce’s
Ulysses(1922) and
The Dubliners(1916) as representative of the experimentation that was taking place, Benson suggests that during the twenties and thirties, Steinbeck was intrigued by these innovative works; he also maintains that the construction of
The Pastures of Heaven, his second novel (1932), may have been influenced by these new structures for fiction, as well as by Sherwood Anderson’s
Winesburg, Ohio, published in 1919 and considered the first attempt in America at what was later labeled the short story cycle (201).
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Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "The Pastures of Heaven". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 April 2007; last revised 28 August 2007. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7353, accessed 18 April 2024.]
