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Foreword Elaine Steinbeck Since·my husband John Steinbeck died in 1968, I have, I am thankful to say, led a very busy life. I have an apartment in New York to manage and a little house near the sea in Sag Harbor, Long Island. I am the matriarch of a large and scattered family, and I have a happy sociallife with many dear friends. Most important of all, I am concerned with the work of John Steinbeck. That's the part of my life I like best. I enj~y working with his literary agents, his publishers at home and abroad; I love talking about his books on television and in all kinds of interviews. In fact, for years I kept myself so busy with this aspect of his literary career that I had never been able to attend any of the Steinbeck seminars and festivals held in various parts of the country. Then, in 1992, there came a special invitation from Susan Beegel, Wes Tiffney of the UMASS Nantucket Field Station, and my friend Susan Shillinglaw of the Steinbeck Research Center, San Jose State University. A three-day meeting was to be held to discuss Steinbeck and the environment-and it would take place on Nantucket, one of John's very favorite spots in the world. We spent the first summer of our marriage on the island in 1951, in a little house on a bluff high above the Atlantic Ocean, next to the Sankaty Lighthouse. John wrote a great part of East of Eden there, and he spent as much time as possible on the sea, in the sea, and studying that particular bit of sea. He became involved with the Marine Biology Station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, marine biology being the second love of his life, just after writing. So I accepted with enthusiasm the invitation to go to Nantucket. It was a delightful affair, attended by many interesting Steinbeckians of all ages, scholars and students. The meetings were long, and the speeches were often intense and absorbing. I had a wonderful time, and I am happy to invite you to share some of the experience of the seminar as expressed in this book. ...

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