John Steinbeck Biography | Author of East of Eden

This Study Guide consists of approximately 73 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of East of Eden.

John Steinbeck Biography | Author of East of Eden

This Study Guide consists of approximately 73 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of East of Eden.
This section contains 485 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the East of Eden Study Guide

John Ernst Steinbeck was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, the son of John Ernst Steinbeck and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck. Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919, and enrolled at Stanford University. He attended classes sporadically but left the university in 1925 without a degree. He moved to New York City to pursue a career as a writer but met with little success. Returning to California, he married Carol Henning in 1930.

Steinbeck supported himself by doing various odd jobs, including caretaker of an estate and fruit-picker. His first novel Cup of Gold (1929) went largely unnoticed and did not even recoup the very small advance the publisher gave him. Two subsequent novels The Pastures of Heaven (1932) and To a God Unknown (1933) fared no better. The first of Steinbeck's novels to attract attention was Tortilla Flat (1935), which received the Commonwealth Club of California's General Literature Gold Medal for best novel...

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This section contains 485 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the East of Eden Study Guide
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East of Eden from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.