The second volume in The Library of America's authoritative edition of
John Steinbeck features his acknowledged masterpiece, The Grapes of
Wrath. Written in an incredibly compressed five-month period, the novel
had an electrifying impact upon publication in 1939. Tracing the journey
of the Joad family from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the migrant camps
of California, Steinbeck creates an American epic, spacious,
impassioned, and pulsating with the rhythms of living speech. The novel
won the Pulitzer Prize and has since sold millions of copies worldwide.
This text of The Grapes of Wrath has been newly edited based on
Steinbeck's manuscript, typescript, and proofs. Many errors have been
corrected, and words omitted or misconstrued by his typist have been
restored. In addition, The Harvest Gypsies, his 1936 investigative
report on migrant workers, which laid the groundwork for the novel, is
included as an appendix.
*
The Long Valley* (1938) displays Steinbeck's brilliance as a writer of
short stories, including such classics as "The Chrysanthemums," "The
White Quail," "Flight," and "The Red Pony." Set in the Salinas Valley
landscape that was Steinbeck's enduring inspiration, the stories explore
moments of fear, tenderness, isolation, and violence with poetic
intensity.
*
The Log from the Sea of Cortez*, an account of the 1940 marine
biological expedition in which Steinbeck participated with his close
friend Ed Ricketts, is a unique blend of science, philosophy, and
adventure, as well as one of Steinbeck's most revealing expositions of
his core beliefs. First published in 1941 as part of the collaborative
volume Sea of Cortez, Steinbeck's narrative was reissued separately a
decade later, augmented by the moving tribute "About Ed Ricketts."
This volume contains a newly researched chronology, notes, and an essay
on textual selection. It is the second of four volumes in The Library of
America edition of John Steinbeck's writings.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization
founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by
publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most
significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than
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