John Steinbeck bibliography

John Steinbeck
bibliography

Novels↙| 12
Novella↙| 6
Short story collections↙| 2
Nonfiction↙| 11
Screenplays↙| 5
References and footnotes
The Grapes of Wrath takes place during The Great Depression and, like many of Steinbeck's novels, is set in California

The following is a complete list of books published by John Steinbeck, one of the foremost American authors of the 20th century. Steinbeck published seventeen works of fiction and ten works of nonfiction between 1929 and 1966, as well as his work writing short stories and screenplays.[1] Born in California, his novels often center around lower-class Americans navigating life in Western states.[2] Although The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men remain his most popular novels, Steinbeck himself regarded East of Eden as his magnum opus.[3] All of these were New York Times Bestsellers along with The Moon Is Down and Cannery Row. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception".[4]

## Fiction

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### Novels

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Title  | Year  | Notes

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|

Cup of Gold | 1929 | Historical fiction based on the life of Welsh privateer Henry Morgan.
To a God Unknown | 1933 | Centers on a California rancher who develops a religious infatuation with the land around him.
Tortilla Flat | 1935 | Steinbeck's first critical and commercial success; adapted into  a film of the same name
In Dubious Battle | 1936 | Set amid a strike organized on a California farm; adapted into  a film of the same name
The Grapes of Wrath | 1939 | Set during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression in Oklahoma and California; winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize; adapted into a film of the same name
Cannery Row | 1945 | Set among canning factories in Monterey, California
The Wayward Bus | 1947 | Switches between multiple viewpoints of characters within California's Salinas valley; lacked critical praise although commercially successful
East of Eden | 1952 | Steinbeck's most ambitious novel; follows two American families in the 19th and 20th centuries
Sweet Thursday | 1954 | Sequel to Cannery Row, though generally regarded to be inferior to its predecessor
The Winter of Our Discontent | 1961 | Set among aristocrats in Sag Harbor, New York; Steinbeck's last true novel (unadapted from an existing source)
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights | 1976 | A retelling of the story of King Arthur, based on the Winchester Manuscript text of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur along with some personal letters concerning the Arthurian legend.[5] It is unfinished, containing only Tales 1 and 3, published posthumously.

### Novellas

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Title  | Year  | Notes

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The Red Pony | 1937 | Consisting of stories centring on Jody Tiflin, a boy growing up on a California ranch; originally serialized between 1933 and 1936, then as a standalone volume in 1937 by Covici Friede[6]
Of Mice and Men | 1937 | Two men's friendship on a California ranch, one of whom is mentally disabled; frequently taught in schools, though also frequently censored; subject of numerous adaptions
The Moon Is Down | 1942 | Set in a small Norwegian town occupied by the nazis during World War 2; written to be adapted for the stage; Steinbeck's first book since Cup of Gold to be set outside of California; subject of the King Haakon VII Freedom Cross
The Pearl | 1947 | Concerning pearl divers inspired by a Mexican folk tale; one of Steinbeck's most popular and most taught works
Burning Bright | 1950 | Published as an attempt to put a play into novel form
The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication | 1957 | Political satire of French politics

### Short story collections

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Title  | Year  | Notes

|
|

The Pastures of Heaven | 1932 | Series of 12 interconnected stories taking place in Monterey, California
The Long Valley | 1938 | Compilation of 12 separate short stories, many individually published previously; includes Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony

## Nonfiction

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The pick-up truck and mobile home that Steinbeck used to travel around the United States, documented in Travels with Charley

Title  | Year  | Notes

|
|

Their Blood is Strong | 1936 | Originally a series of stories written in 1936 for The San Francisco News about migrant workers in California under the title The Harvest Gypsies; collected in a pamphlet in 1938 with accompanying photos by Dorothea Lange[7]
The Log from the Sea of Cortez | 1951 | A chronicle of Steinbeck's experience collecting marine specimens in the Gulf of California with his friend Ed Ricketts; originally published as Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, which provided his account as well as portions by Ricketts
Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team | 1942 | A commissioned work, where Steinbeck wrote about U.S. bomber squads involved in World War II
A Russian Journal | 1948 | Eyewitness account of a journey through the Soviet Union during the Cold War
Once There Was a War | 1958 | War articles published in the New York Herald in 1943
Travels with Charley: In Search of America | 1962 | A chronicle of a journey across the United States with his dog, Charley; Steinbeck's best-known work of nonfiction
America and Americans | 1966 | A collection of essays focusing on America; the last book published in Steinbeck's lifetime
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters | 1966 | The letters that accompanied East of Eden, written to his friend and editor Pascal Covici
Steinbeck: A Life in Letters | 1975 | The collected letters of Steinbeck[8]
Working Days: The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath | 1989 | A journal that Steinbeck kept while writing The Grapes of Wrath in 1938 [9]
Steinbeck in Vietnam: Dispatches from the War | 2012 | A collection of dispatches written by Steinbeck for Newsday during the Vietnam War

## Screenplays

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Title  | Year  | Notes

|
|

The Forgotten Village | 1941 | Documentary depicting life in a small Mexican village, and changes brought by modernization
Lifeboat | 1944 | Follows a group of survivors of a German U-boat attack adrift on a lifeboat; screenplay written by Steinbeck on request from director Alfred Hitchcock, though he later criticized the film's direction[10]
The Pearl | 1947 | Based on Steinbeck's 1947 novella of the same name about pearl divers in a fishing village; Steinbeck also co-wrote the screenplay
The Red Pony | 1949 | Based on Steinbeck's 1937 work of the same name, set on a ranch in Salinas Valley, California; Steinbeck also co-wrote the screenplay
Viva Zapata! | 1952 | Fictionalization of the life of Emiliano Zapata, a key revolutionary in the Mexican Revolution

## References

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1. ^ "John Steinbeck - Bibliography". The Nobel Prize. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
2. ^ "John Steinbeck, American Writer". The Steinbeck Institute. Stanford University. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
3. ^ Ditsky, John (1977). Essays on East of Eden. Muncie, Indiana: Steinbeck Society of America, Ball State University. p. 3. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
4. ^ "Nobel Prize in Literature 1962". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on October 21, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
5. ^ John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, ed. Chase Horton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976), Introduction by John Steinbeck, pp. xiii–xiv; see also Appendix, letter dated July 7, 1958, p. 318.
6. ^ "Three. Short Stories by John Steinbeck; THE RED PONY. By John Steinbeck. 81 pp. Edition limited to 699 copies, signed by the author. New York: Covic-". The New York Times.
7. ^ Brian E. Railsback, Michael J. Meyer, eds. A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2006), 148.
8. ^ Popova, Maria (13 January 2012). "Author John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter". The Atlantic. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
9. ^ "Working Days by John Steinbeck". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
10. ^ Temple, Emily (Feb 4, 2012). "John Steinbeck Wanted His Name Taken Off Hitchcock's 'Lifeboat'". Flavorpill Productions, LLC. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2014.