early life
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was of German, English, and Irish descent.[2] Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck, Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck when he emigrated to the United States. The family farm in Heiligenhaus, Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is still today named "Großsteinbeck."
His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, served as Monterey County treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion of reading and writing.[3] The Steinbecks were members of the Episcopal Church,[4] although Steinbeck would later become an agnostic.[5] Steinbeck lived in a small rural town, no more than a frontier settlement, set in some of the world's most fertile land.[6] He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels ranch. There he became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which supplied him with material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men.[6] He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.[6]
The Steinbeck House at 132 Central Avenue, Salinas, California, the Victorian home where Steinbeck spent his childhood.
Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919 and went from there to Stanford University in Palo Alto where he stayed for five years until 1925, leaving without a degree. He traveled to New York City where he took odd jobs while trying to write. When he failed to have his work published, he returned to California and worked in 1928 as a tour guide and caretaker at the fish hatchery in Tahoe City, where he met Carol Henning, his first wife.[3][7][8] The two were married in January 1930, and for most of the Great Depression and during his marriage to Carol, Steinbeck lived in a cottage owned by his father in Pacific Grove, California, on the Monterey Peninsula a few blocks from the border of
His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, served as Monterey County treasurer. John's mother, Olive Hamilton, a former school teacher, shared Steinbeck's passion of reading and writing.[3] The Steinbecks were members of the Episcopal Church,[4] although Steinbeck would later become an agnostic.[5] Steinbeck lived in a small rural town, no more than a frontier settlement, set in some of the world's most fertile land.[6] He spent his summers working on nearby ranches and later with migrant workers on Spreckels ranch. There he became aware of the harsher aspects of migrant life and the darker side of human nature, which supplied him with material expressed in such works as Of Mice and Men.[6] He also explored his surroundings, walking across local forests, fields, and farms.[6]
The Steinbeck House at 132 Central Avenue, Salinas, California, the Victorian home where Steinbeck spent his childhood.
Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919 and went from there to Stanford University in Palo Alto where he stayed for five years until 1925, leaving without a degree. He traveled to New York City where he took odd jobs while trying to write. When he failed to have his work published, he returned to California and worked in 1928 as a tour guide and caretaker at the fish hatchery in Tahoe City, where he met Carol Henning, his first wife.[3][7][8] The two were married in January 1930, and for most of the Great Depression and during his marriage to Carol, Steinbeck lived in a cottage owned by his father in Pacific Grove, California, on the Monterey Peninsula a few blocks from the border of