Steinbeck and the Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Many people helped implement the conference "Steinbeck and the Environment," which was held on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, in May 1992 and was the original source of the papers presented in this anthology. The conference was cosponsored by the Steinbeck Research Center of San Jose State University, San Jose, California, and the University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station. Our thanks to Dean John K. Crane of the College of Humanities and Arts and former library head Ruth Hafter, San Jose State University, for financial support. Craig Kochersberger of SJSU designed the program . Douglas F. Beattie of the UMASS Field Station staff provided essential logistical support. A number of people helped make the conference a special occasion . Particular thanks are due to Elaine Steinbeck, a real trouper about fog and lost luggage. She generously attended every session of the conference and enriched the experience of all with her delightful contributions to our discussions. Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Thrower kindly hosted a reception for conference participants at their home, "Footlight," the Nantucket cottage where John Steinbeck wrote much of East of Eden. John and Elaine Steinbeck's friend, Mrs. Nathaniel Benchley, together with Mr. Livingston D. Watrous, helped us to reconstruct that summer of 1951, while marine biologist Dr. James T. Carlton, director of the Williams College/Mystic Seaport Program in Maritime Studies, connected us with Dr. Joel Hedgpeth and Virginia Scardigli, who knew John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts during their Cannery Row days. The Nantucket community welcomed visiting scholars. Albert F. Egan, Jr., and the Egan Foundation made available the historic Admiral Coffin School as a meeting place. Mary K. Beman of Mitchell's Book Corner provided publicity and a topical book exhibit. Philip Read.and the staff of the Jared Coffin House hotel extended exemplary hospitality to conference participants. Dr. Joseph P. xiv Acknowledgments Grochowski of the Nantucket Research and Education Foundation opened the doors of the Town of Nantucket Marine Laboratory. Nathaniel and Melissa Philbrick led a walking tour of historic Nartucket . Mary Ellen Mack provided hospitality and essential services at an end-of-conference picnic held on the UMASS Field Station grounds. Folksinger Geoff Kaufman, director of Music Programs at Connecticut 's Mystic Seaport Museum, gave an outstanding concert of environmental ballads and authentic 1930s songs from his days aboard the Clearwater. Once Steinbeck scholars begin singing it's hard to stop them, and Geoff gave us memorable music long after the concert had officially ended, and into the small hours of the morning. Finally, our sincere thanks to all the Steinbeck conference participants who contributed in so many ways to discussion, collegiality, and fellowship both during the academic program and after hours. We feel the result of everyone's contributions was a conference and a collection of papers that John Steinbeck himself would have enjoyed. Susan F. Beegel Susan Shillinglaw Wesley N. Tiffney, Jr. Permissions We thank those who kindly gave permission to reproduce the following materials: David N. Cassuto's "Turning Wine into Water: Water as Privileged Signifier in The Grapes ofWrath" appeared originally in Papers on Language and Literature, V. 29, No.1, Winter 1993. Copyright © 1993 By the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University. Reprinted by permission . Brian Railsback's "Searching for 'What Is': Charles Darwin and John ?teinbeck" appeared originally in Brian Railsback, Parallel Expeditions : Charles Darwin and the Art ofJohn Steinbeck (Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1995). Robert DeMott's "Working at the Impossible: Moby-Dick's Presence in East of Eden" appeared originally in Steinbeck's Typewriter: A Collection of Essays (Troy, New York: Whitson Publishing, 1996). Acknowledgments xv Excerpts from the work of John Steinbeck: From The Log from the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck. Copyright 1941 by John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts. Copyright renewed© 1969 by John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts, Jr. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. From The Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. Copyright 1941 by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts; renewed copyright © 1969 by John Steinbeck and Edward F. Ricketts, Jr. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. From The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Copyright 1939, renewed © 1967 by John Steinbeck. Used by permission of Viking Penguin , a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. From America and Americans by John Steinbeck. Copyright © 1966 by John Steinbeck, text. Copyright © 1966 by Viking Penguin...