John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. His father was a treasurer and his mother worked as a teacher. He loved books from a young age and often read such books as Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, or Milton's Paradise Lost and Le Morte d'Arthur. He worked on farms and ranches during his high school breaks and continued his schooling at Stanford University. He studied marine biology from 1920 to 1926 but knew he would be a writer so did not bother with a degree. A few of his short stories and poems were even published at his university, which gave him the confidence and résumé to become a reporter for the American in New York City. However, he only held this position a short time; he moved back to California to write and perform odd jobs such as picking fruit or learning to be a painter. His first...