The Stories of His Life: John Steinbeck

             John Steinbeck, a well-celebrated American author, wrote about the hard life of common people. His stories were fiction to readers like you and me, but he knew what he was talking about since he lived trough the hard times, and worked with the people he had based his characters on. His life was full of excitement, due to his travels, and agony, as a result of his numerous marriages. Some of John Steinbecks writing was very much criticize as a consequence to his vulgar language. A very good example of which would be The Grapes of Wrath. For some time this story was banned by libraries, churches, schools and even U.S. senators. Some people even said that there are constant jibes of bureaucracy in this novel. John Steinbeck, in his novels, depicted life of workers and other common men as it is.

             John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902. He grew up with three sisters having no brother. After attending Salinas High School, he went to Stanford. Steinbeck did not get a degree at Stanford since he did not graduate. After Stanford he worked at many jobs, including sales clerk, farm laborer, ranch hand and a factory worker. (San Jose, 1) John Steinbeck had many relationships with women. Altogether he had three wives, and two sons. The first two wives, Carol Henning and Gwendolin Canger, could not handle his temper and divorced him because of it. Carol Henning was married to him for twelve years but did not have any children. Gwendolin Canger was married to him for five years, and together they had two sons, Thomas and John. His last wife, Elaine Scott, stayed married to him until his last moments. They did not have any children. (DLB, 9) John Steinbeck traveled very much. At one point in his life, when he was older, he took his poodle for a vacation in Europe. That was when his career was near top and he had quite a fortune from his publications. In the pass time he liked to make inventions, just like his father, but he could not make a living out of it.

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