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New Video from San Jose State University on John Steinbeck: A Writer’s Vision

San Jose State University’s Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies continues four decades of distinguished service to scholars, teachers, and students with John Steinbeck: A Writer’s Vision. The recently released video was written by Susan Shillinglaw and produced by the Center’s staff, led by Peter Van Coutren, the Center’s curator. Tracing Steinbeck’s life and work … [Read More...]

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Celebrate! Western Flyer Returns to Monterey Bay

Western Flyer—the 77-foot fishing boat John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts took on their famous 1940 trip to the Sea of Cortez—recently returned to Monterey Bay after … [Read More...]

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A Chance Christmas Dinner with John Steinbeck in 1947

A chance Christmas dinner with John Steinbeck helped set the course of a young man’s life as an adventurer and Pan American pilot who crisscrossed the world many … [Read More...]

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For John Steinbeck, the Rains in Pajaro Hit Home

The word pajaro means bird in Spanish, and Central California’s Pajaro Valley may have inspired the setting of John Steinbeck’s 1936 American strike novel, In Dubious Battle. But the town of Pajaro, California, in Monterey County—the setting of so much great … [Read More...]

A Steinbeck Vade Mecum by Steinbeck’s Great Evangelist

The November 2022 publication of Steinbeck’s Imaginarium was propitious. Its publisher, the University of New Mexico Press, published Steinbeck and His Critics: A Record of Twenty-Five Years in 1957, when Steinbeck was still in touch with “Skunkfoot Hill,” his … [Read More...]

Why Harry Spared Steinbeck

J.R. Moehringer was worth the million dollars he reportedly received for ghostwriting Spare, Prince Harry’s account of life in the House of Windsor as this generation’s prodigal son. The Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist knows all about books, and … [Read More...]

Jacqueline Woodson to Receive John Steinbeck Award on October 18, 2022

Together with the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, the Center for Literary Arts at San Jose State University will present the 2022 John Steinbeck "In the Souls of the People" Award to Jacqueline Woodson, author of the 2014 memoir novel Brown … [Read More...]