John Steinbeck, Episcopalian: St. Paul’s, Salinas: Part Two, After World War II

John Steinbeck’s background as a lifelong Episcopalian and his childhood experiences at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Salinas, California, strongly influenced significant events in his later life, the language and structure of his greatest works, his treatment of belief in some of his most memorable characters, and the meaning of certain key passages in his fiction and nonfiction. An original interpretive examination of the pre-Episcopal religious history of his father’s and mother’s families, the history and career of Willard Hill and his relationship with John Steinbeck, the reasons for his mother’s involvement in their adopted church, errors in certain parish records, connections among passages of fiction and nonfiction and personal letters, decisions about Thom Steinbeck’s baptism and John Steinbeck’s funeral and family memorial, and key passages in In Dubious Battle, The Grapes of Wrath, Bombs Away, East of Eden, Travels with Charley, The Winter of Our Discontent, and America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction are supported by the close reading of relevant primary sources, a critical reading of selected secondary sources, and personal interviews, e-mails, and telephone conversations to provide data and detail required for a more balanced and complete consideration of Steinbeck’s childhood religion and adult agnosticism.