Of Mice and Men and McTeague: Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Frank Norris

OF MICE AND MEN AND McTEAGUE: STEINBECK, FITZGERALD, AND FRANK NORRIS Richard Allan Davison University of Delaware The rare book collection at the University of Oklahoma includes a special limited edition of Frank Norris’ McTeague1 with an unsigned nota­ tion handwritten on the inside of the front cover: “This was given me by Scott Fitzgerald to show Steinbeck had borrowed from Norris.” Another handwritten notation under the title of the title page reads “Pps 126,127, 48 ect [sic].” Extended vertical lines mark the margins of these pages. A third handwritten notation (on the top margin of p. 126) states that “this is how George in ‘Mice and Men’ described the farm and the rabbits to the feebleminded Lennie, the big effect of the piece.” Both circumstantial and calligraphical evidence reveal that Edmund (Bunny) Wilson penned the front cover notation, and did so in response to the markings and marginalia of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The copy of McTeague (which bears the stamp of the Satyr Book Shop, 1620 N. Vine, Hollywood2) is clearly the one Fitzgerald promised to Edmund Wilson in what was to be one of his last letters, a November 25, 1940 note from Hollywood to his friend and former Princeton classmate, the man he called his intellectual conscience.3 Fitzgerald wrote: Dear Bunny: I’ve been reading your new essays'* with interest and if you expect (as Max Perkins hinted) to republish them sometime, I’d like to put you on to something about Steinbeck. He is a rather cagey cribber. Most of us begin as imitators but it is something else for a man of his years and reputation to steal a whole scene as he did in “Mice and Men.” I’m sending you a marked copy of Norris’ “McTeague” to show you what I mean. His debt to “The Octupus” [sic] is also enormous and his balls, when he uses them are usually clipped from Lawrence’s “Kangaroo.” I’ve always encouraged young writers—I put Max Perkins on to Caldwell, Callaghan and God knows how many others but Steinbeck bothers me. I suppose he cribs for the glory of the party. . . .s As well as illustrating the defensive, often testy, side of Fitzgerald’s nature during the last months of his life, the letter and the marked copy of McTeague he sent to Wilson provide evidence for an influence that neither scholars nor critics have documented or discussed.6 Fitzgerald’s admira­ tion for and debt to both Frank Norris and Charles G. Norris have been firmly established.7 The nature of Steinbeck’s debt to Frank Norris, alleged by Fitzgerald and echoed by Wilson, deserves comparable attention. A close parallel study of McTeague and Of Mice and Men does, in fact, reveal strong similarities that suggest Steinbeck’s use of McTeague. The most obvious similarity is that noted by Fitzgerald in the dominant recurring parallel scenes involving Maria Macapa’s story of the gold service that Zerkow covets (and for which he marries the obsessed cleaning woman) and Lennie Small’s dream of a piece of land where he can live with his friend and mentor George Milton and tend his rabbits. Maria describes the imaginary gold service in such sensuous detail that the Polish junk dealer Zerkow remains certain of its existence, imploring her to tell him about it repeatedly until he knows her story by heart. The key passages Fitzgerald marked in McTeague include the following: “Go on, go on,” he whispered; “let’s have it all over again. Polished like a mirror, hey, and heavy? Yes, I know, I know. A punch-bowl worth a fortune. Ah! and you saw it, you had it all!” . . . “Come again, come again,” he croaked. . . . “Come any time you feel like it, and tell me more about the plate.” ... “How much do you think it was worth?” he inquired, anxiously (p. 48).« “Think of it, Maria, five thousand dollars, all bright, heavy pieces------” “Bright as a sunset,” interrupted Maria. . . . “Such a glory, and heavy. Yes, every piece was heavy, and it was all you could do to lift the punch-bowl. Why, that punch-bowl was worth a fortune alone------” “And it rang...