Bibliography: Durable Steinbeck

Figure 1.

Tom (Jody), played by Peter Miles, listens to Billy, played by Robert Mitchum, in this scene from The Red Pony (1949), Directed by Louis Mileston

Two scholarly journals devoted solely to the study of Steinbeck's life and art brought forth a wealth of new material in 2004. Steinbeck Studies, beginning with volume 15, changed over from a large magazine format to a standard journal format, but Editor Susan Shillinglaw retained the use of archival photographs helpful to understanding the man and his milieu. (A cumulative index of the journal's essays, articles, and reviews follows this essay.) Steinbeck Review (SR), edited by Stephen K. George and Barbara A. Heavilin, is a brand-new offering, also in standard journal format, and started off with the broad perspectives noted individually herein by subject.

Heavilin and George also produced Steinbeck Yearbook: Steinbeck's Sense of Place (Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 2003), Vol. 3 in the series (SY3). The editors' individual introductions point to the new spirit and the power of place in Steinbeck studies. The volume divides thematically into five essays on sense of place and three on comparative studies, several of which are reprints; the new essays are documented herein. Memorial tributes recognize Elaine Steinbeck and recently deceased Steinbeck scholars. Seven peer reviews conclude the volume.

Significant new selections from other sources, published over the previous two-to-three years, but not reported here, provide evidence of Steinbeck's continuing—and ameliorating—appeal in the twenty-first century. By far the greatest attention has been directed to The Grapes of Wrath, but an abundance of cultural, philosophical, psychological, and ecological studies display an outpouring of interest in Steinbeck's work, overall.

On The Grapes of Wrath

From a cultural standpoint, which comprised the preponderance of focus on Grapes, evaluations of the novel's social value, combined with personal reflections attest to its durability. Patricia Leigh Brown's "Oklahomans Try to Save Their California Culture" (New York Times 5 Feb. 2002, sec. A: 22) tells of former occupants of the Weedpatch camp who describe life as it was—while members of the Dust Bowl Historical Foundation attempt to restore the remaining buildings. Michael Kinsman's column (Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Nov. 2002: Item 02307015) points to social injustices toward migrant workers in present-day California that parallel those found in the struggles of the Joad family. In "The Lingering Shadow: The Grapes of Wrath and Oklahoma leaders in the Post-Depression Era" (Chronicles of Oklahoma 81.1 [2003]: 80-103), Jennifer J. Collins examines how the stereotyped image of an Okie, forever characterized by Steinbeck as a Dust Bowl migrant, shaped Oklahoma's economic, educational, and political policies after the 1930s. Personal essays by Tracy Daugherty in Five Shades of Shadow (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2003), which are primarily reflections on the grief brought about by the bombing of Oklahoma City's Murrah building, mention Steinbeck throughout the book. Daugherty gives credit to reading Grapes for his first understanding of the power of language to evoke the world, thus illuminating the struggles of women and men.

"The Meredith March" by Paul Good (Reporting Civil Rights. Vol. 2. New York: Library of America, 2003. 510), briefly compares the 1966 gas mask attack by highway patrolmen on civil rights marchers at Canton, Mississippi, to the masked tractor drivers in Grapes. Robert W. Snyder, in his chapter "John Steinbeck" in American Rebels (ed. Jack Newfield. New York: Nation Books, 2003. 173-80), states that in Grapes Steinbeck's detailed knowledge of the migrants' struggles united fact and fiction with a vitality that should not be obscured by a reputation battered by critics since the Depression. By scalding America's injustices and affirming the strength of its working people, Steinbeck's best work echoes through his successors in American culture.

In a brief mention by activist Anita Roddick in "My Five Most Influential Books" (Ecologist Oct. 2003: 61), she says she has campaigned for the past twenty-five years against "free-trade-at-all-costs" and identifies Grapes as...