John Steinbeck

Morris Dickstein's "Dancing in the Dark" is not exactly the syncretic "Cultural History of the Great Depression" that its subtitle promises -- at best, the book treats inferentially the broad political and social trends of that desperate, crucial era. Let me quickly add, the book is something better than that: a collection of thoughtfully linked essays on relatively few but exemplary works and their creators -- novels, poems, plays, movies, art (both...

John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway did not know each other personally, although they had a number of friends, such as the photographer Robert Capa, in common. Both writers were nearly silent about each other's work in public; however, as one might expect from their personalities, Steinbeck spoke very well in private of Hemingway's work, referring to him several times in letters as "in many ways . . . the finest writer of our time," whereas all of Hemingway's references in his letters are disparaging of Steinbeck as a popular and prolific writer.

For theaters in the 1980s, making poverty look real is a pricey proposition. By the time Steppenwolf Theatre Company unveils its newly revised version of "The Grapes of Wrath" at La Jolla Playhouse on Sunday, nearly $1 million will have been spent translating John Steinbeck's 50-year-old Pulitzer-Prize winning novel about migrant farm workers to the stage. Half of that was spent by Steppenwolf in its original 41-character Chicago production; the Playhouse ponied up $450,000 for Steppenwolf's revised (read "pared-down")

Weary from writing "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck set sail from here in 1940 with his pal, Edward F. Ricketts, on a sardine boat that ferried them on a six-week scientific and literary adventure around the Baja California peninsula.

IF DIRECTOR Paul Lazarus had had his way, there would have been no "Of Mice and Men" opening at the Pasadena Playhouse this weekend. "I wanted to do 'Death of a Salesman,' " Lazarus admits. When old friend and Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps countered with John Steinbeck's masterwork on Depression-era ranch hands in California's Central Valley, "frankly, my heart sank," says Lazarus. "I thought, I know it so well, there's not a moment that's unexpected for me . . . but Sheldon said, 'Just read it, see if anything sparks.

No town celebrates a writer before he's dead. --John Steinbeck **** John Steinbeck knew this scrabbly little hometown of his didn't much like him. Matter of fact, folks here hated him. Hated his ugly stories. Hated his pitiful characters. He wrote of whores and tramps and drunks, and of those wrung-out crop pickers, those miserable migrants. Honored them, he did. Exalted them. And spat on the growers and shippers who built Salinas into something.

NATIONAL STEINBECK CENTER Salinas, Monterey County It is always a challenge to commemorate a life, never mind a writer's life. Unlike museums devoted to sports legends or war heroes, a museum that honors a man of arts and letters must reflect his quiet, solitary pursuit. Which is to say that such a repository may be unbearably dull.

John Steinbeck may have written "Of Mice and Men" as a novella, but he always had theatrical aspirations for it. After the book launched his literary celebrity in 1937, he turned it into a play, which began a respectable Broadway run later that year, and a critically acclaimed film followed. More stage and screen versions have been attempted, but no matter how good the dramatization, "Of Mice and Men" will always be that slim junior-high classic that (despite the teacher's harping on foreshadowing)

The literary papers of the late Los Angeles novelist John Fante have been acquired by the UCLA Library, it was announced Tuesday. The collection features his book manuscripts, short stories and screenplays, as well as personal letters, business records and memorabilia such as his typewriter, pencil and a lock of his hair. "We are delighted to announce this noteworthy acquisition in conjunction with the centennial of Fante's birth on April 8," said UCLA University Librarian Gary E. Strong in a statement.

Maria Elena Marques, 83, a Mexican actress who starred in the 1947 movie "The Pearl," died of heart failure Tuesday, her family announced in Mexico City. Marques played the long-suffering wife of a fisherman who finds a beautiful but ill-fated pearl in the film based on a book by John Steinbeck. The film, directed by Emilio Fernandez, won a Golden Globe award for the luminous cinematography of Gabriel Figueroa. One of the few surviving stars of Mexico's "Golden Age" of movies of the 1940s and early 1950s, Marques also appeared in the 1943 movie "Dona Barbara" alongside actress Maria Felix.

Morris Dickstein's "Dancing in the Dark" is not exactly the syncretic "Cultural History of the Great Depression" that its subtitle promises -- at best, the book treats inferentially the broad political and social trends of that desperate, crucial era. Let me quickly add, the book is something better than that: a collection of thoughtfully linked essays on relatively few but exemplary works and their creators -- novels, poems, plays, movies, art (both...

The literary papers of the late Los Angeles novelist John Fante have been acquired by the UCLA Library, it was announced Tuesday. The collection features his book manuscripts, short stories and screenplays, as well as personal letters, business records and memorabilia such as his typewriter, pencil and a lock of his hair. "We are delighted to announce this noteworthy acquisition in conjunction with the centennial of Fante's birth on April 8," said UCLA University Librarian Gary E. Strong in a statement.

Maria Elena Marques, 83, a Mexican actress who starred in the 1947 movie "The Pearl," died of heart failure Tuesday, her family announced in Mexico City. Marques played the long-suffering wife of a fisherman who finds a beautiful but ill-fated pearl in the film based on a book by John Steinbeck. The film, directed by Emilio Fernandez, won a Golden Globe award for the luminous cinematography of Gabriel Figueroa. One of the few surviving stars of Mexico's "Golden Age" of movies of the 1940s and early 1950s, Marques also appeared in the 1943 movie "Dona Barbara" alongside actress Maria Felix.

A federal appeals court has reversed a ruling that awarded John Steinbeck's son and granddaughter publishing rights to 10 of the author's early works, including "The Grapes of Wrath." The appeals court said Wednesday that a judge made a mistake when he ruled the works belonged to the son, Thomas Steinbeck, and granddaughter Blake Smyle. The two had won rights previously held by various individuals and organizations, including Penguin Group Inc. and the heirs of John Steinbeck's widow, Elaine.

John Steinbeck may have written "Of Mice and Men" as a novella, but he always had theatrical aspirations for it. After the book launched his literary celebrity in 1937, he turned it into a play, which began a respectable Broadway run later that year, and a critically acclaimed film followed. More stage and screen versions have been attempted, but no matter how good the dramatization, "Of Mice and Men" will always be that slim junior-high classic that (despite the teacher's harping on foreshadowing)

IF DIRECTOR Paul Lazarus had had his way, there would have been no "Of Mice and Men" opening at the Pasadena Playhouse this weekend. "I wanted to do 'Death of a Salesman,' " Lazarus admits. When old friend and Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps countered with John Steinbeck's masterwork on Depression-era ranch hands in California's Central Valley, "frankly, my heart sank," says Lazarus. "I thought, I know it so well, there's not a moment that's unexpected for me . . . but Sheldon said, 'Just read it, see if anything sparks.

NATIONAL STEINBECK CENTER Salinas, Monterey County It is always a challenge to commemorate a life, never mind a writer's life. Unlike museums devoted to sports legends or war heroes, a museum that honors a man of arts and letters must reflect his quiet, solitary pursuit. Which is to say that such a repository may be unbearably dull.

The Last Cavalier Being the Adventures of Count Sainte Hermine in the Age of Napoleon Alexandre Dumas, translated from the French by Lauren Yoder Pegasus Books: 752 pp., $32 "I imagine myself as fortunate as if I had discovered El Dorado," wrote Claude Schopp, the scholar who found the manuscript of Alexandre Dumas' "The Last Cavalier" in the dark depths of the Archives de la Seine sometime in the late 1980s.

For 50 years, the old box of documents collected dust in Twyla Martin's West Hollywood garage. She knew the cursive scribblings on stacks of crumbling, sepia-toned pages had something to do with Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, but never looked. In the 1950s, her husband, producer Ernest H. Martin, had briefly worked with Steinbeck, a longtime friend. Martin died in 1995, and after moving the box to a hallway closet, his widow finally peeked inside.

Re "Shape up, poor people," Opinion, April 30 Joe Queenan's piece on the dignified poor: brilliant. But it seems to me there's one thing he chose not to mention. In the time of John Steinbeck he writes about, the prototypical impoverished American could be illustrated by Henry Fonda. Give this guy a little money and he'd be indistinguishable from someone you run into at a country club. Is that true anymore? Could the prototypical impoverished American of 2007 be played by Tom Cruise?