Susan Shillinglaw

About Susan Shillinglaw

Susan Shillinglaw is an internationally recognized scholar, editor, and speaker on John Steinbeck. A graduate of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, where she majored in English and art, she received her MA and PhD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and taught at Wake Forest before becoming a professor of English at San Jose State University. The former director of San Jose's Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, and the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, she is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage. She lives in Pacific Grove, California, with her husband, the biologist William Gilley, and is currently at work on a personal book about John Steinbeck's landscapes.

Who Added the “SLUT” to The Grapes of Wrath?

facsimile-edition-grapes-of-wrath

First, let me say that the recently released facsimile edition of John Steinbeck’s handwritten manuscript for The Grapes of Wrath is stunning. Published by SP books in France, it’s the same size as the original (an oversized journal), printed on fine paper, and boxed. It reproduces all the red editorial comments—including a puzzling addition to Steinbeck’s manuscript: the word “SLUT,” in block-cap letters, on the last page. Who wrote that?

I first learned of the pale red “SLUT” several years ago when I received a call from an archivist at the University of Virginia, where the manuscript is housed. He sent me the scanned image and asked what I thought of the “SLUT” at the end. But I had no idea. Perhaps a rogue scholar scrawled the word as a response to Steinbeck’s controversial closing scene, I suggested. Although I had examined the manuscript when I visited the University of Virginia, where my daughter went to college, I didn’t study it closely. So hearing about “SLUT” came as a surprise.

When the publisher of SP books, Editions des Saints Peres, wrote me last year with questions about the manuscript, I was asked about the final page. I still had no clue as to the origin of “SLUT,” nor did the other Steinbeck scholars I consulted at the time. The publisher reproduced the final page, “SLUT” included, in the facsimile edition that came out this fall.

The October 4, 2021 review of the facsimile edition in The Guardian speculated on the strange appearance of the word at the end of Steinbeck’s manuscript. I received an email from a Swedish scholar, and soon after emails from three other readers—one in Denmark and two in Sweden. All four noted that in Swedish and Danish the word “SLUT” (pronounced sloot) means End. I loved each email, all four adding a bit about the prevalence of “SLUT” in films and books, and what Steinbeck might have known about its meaning when he wrote the novel.

Carol and John Steinbeck Would Have Known the Swedish

carol-john-steinbeck-susan-shillinglawThe late English scholar Roy Simmonds failed to mention the “SLUT” mystery in a long article he wrote on the manuscript of The Grapes of Wrath. (Perhaps it didn’t show up in his Xeroxed copy). As I told my email correspondents—and The Guardian, which did a follow-up piece— my guess is that Steinbeck’s wife Carol penciled it, perhaps when she finished typing the manuscript in the fall of 1938, perhaps after the couple’s acrimonious divorce in 1943, perhaps years later, in jest, before she sold the manuscript to a San Francisco book dealer. She and John must have known the meaning of “SLUT” in Swedish: they visited Sweden in 1937 and knew the Swedish artist Bo Beskow, whose mother was a children’s author. Carol loved word play, and the double meaning would have delighted her.

But it’s anyone’s guess.

Composite image of facsimile edition of John Steinbeck’s handwritten manuscript for The Grapes of Wrath courtesy of The Guardian. Cover image of Susan Shillinglaw’s Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage courtesy University of Nevada Press.

 

 

Remembering Carol Robles, “Great Heart,” 1937-2016

Image of Peter Hoss and Carol Robles at Steinbeck House

Carol Robles died at the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital just before 7:00 AM on October 28, 2016. Her great heart failed.

Carol called herself “just an Idaho farm girl,” and that’s what she was.

Carol Joyce Hansen was born in Emmett, Idaho on December 24, 1937. She attended Boise State University for a year, married, and then moved to San Jose. In 1978, she moved to Salinas and worked at the Sears store on South Main and served as Human Resources manager until 1992. After leaving Sears, she decided to complete her B.A. degree, and went to Hartnell College and then to Golden Gate University, graduating in 1994 summa cum laude with a degree in human relations. She later helped set up the Golden Gate University extension in Monterey.

She spent the past two decades traveling the world. And she also devoted herself to the Salinas community, particularly John Steinbeck’s legacy. She was deeply involved in the National Steinbeck Center from its inception, really “part of the heart and soul of the Center,” as her friend and traveling companion, Peter Hoss, noted. “She was the world’s expert on John Steinbeck’s life,” he continued. And that was so. Carol spent hours tracing details of the Steinbeck and Hamilton family history, and many consulted her about his life. She also trained NSC docents and volunteers and gave many, many tours of Steinbeck County-land that she loved. Carol’s bus tours were unforgettable; she sat in the front and regaled people with in-depth stories about Steinbeck’s life and career. Her tours of the Steinbeck House in Salinas were equally detailed and lively. Those who were fortunate enough to hear Carol talk about Steinbeck will never forget her passion.

Carol was also active in the Salinas Chamber of Commerce, Dixieland Monterey, and Mensa.

She is survived by her stepson, Robert Robles and wife Bertha, as well as six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial will be held at the National Steinbeck Center, Sunday, November 13 at 1:00 pm.

Donations can be made in Carol’s name to the National Steinbeck Center (1 Main Street, Salinas, 93901) or to the Valley Guild for the Steinbeck House (132 Central Ave. Salinas, California 93901).

Peter Hoss contributed to this post. Photograph of Peter Hoss and Carol Robles at the Steinbeck House by Susan Shillinglaw.

Sea of Cortez at 75: Salinas, California Celebrates John Steinbeck on Land and Sea

Cover image from 1941 Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts

The annual Steinbeck Festival held in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, California is back. In celebration of Steinbeck’s enduring legacy as a writer-activist-ecologist, and the land-and-sea ethic exemplified in his 1941 work Sea of Cortez, the May 6-8, 2016 festival—“Steinbeck on Land and Sea”—features activities designed for a variety of tastes, including informal “JON talks,” documentary films, and tours of the Red Pony Ranch, Ed Ricketts’s lab, and Steinbeck’s Salinas. Whale-watching off the Monterey coast is also part of the mix.

Image of the 2016 John Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California

Image of the 2016 John Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California

Guest speakers exemplify the festival’s land-and-sea theme from a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. They include the distinguished Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott talking about a favorite subject, Steinbeck and fishing; William Souder, the critically acclaimed biographer of Rachel Carson and John James Audubon, introducing his biography-in-progress of John Steinbeck; Katie Rodger, an expert on Ed Ricketts, discussing a newly published essay by Steinbeck’s close friend and collaborator; Kyle Van Houtan, Director of Science at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, on the land-and-sea-and-culture link found in studying sea turtle populations in Hawaii; Gavin Jones, chair of the English department at Stanford University, on Steinbeck, land, drought, and race; and the writer Mary Ellen Hannibal talking about her new book on citizen science and its connections to Steinbeck, Ricketts, and their acquaintance Joseph Campbell.

Image of John Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez collaborator Ed Ricketts

The multicultural character of this year’s festival line-up matches the population of Salinas, California—and a pattern in John Steinbeck’s life and work, including Sea of Cortez. The author Sergio Chavez, the photographer Daniel Ruanova, and the documentary filmmaker Ignacio Rodriguez will discuss the cultural impact of braceros in the Salinas Valley, Jean Vengua will talk about Fillipino newspapers, and Eric Palmer will show a “teaser” of his new documentary film about Japanese flower growers in the area. John Gregg, owner of the boat Steinbeck and Ricketts sailed to the Sea of Cortez in 1940, will update festival-goers about restoration work on The Western Flyer. Harold Augenbraum, former Director of the National Book Award, will discuss Steinbeck’s frequently-taught novel The Pearl in English and Spanish. Stanford biology professor William Gilly will recount his 2004 trip retracing Steinbeck and Ricketts’s expedition to Baja, and how the Sea of Cortez has changed since Steinbeck and Ricketts made their voyage and wrote their book.

Image of The Western Flyer

Beer was consumed on The Western Flyer, and Steinbeck once appeared in a magazine ad for Ballantine Ale. This connection to Steinbeck’s life on land and sea will be celebrated in Steinbeck Home Brew Fest, staged in the National Steinbeck Center’s beer garden in collaboration with the Steinbeck Rotary Club, and in “Craft Beer 101,” one of several half-hour “JON talks” planned for this year’s festival. In a related tribute to California’s land-and-sea culture, David Dennis of Ventana Surfboards will show how he makes surfboards from Steinbeck-themed wood.

One-day and three-day tickets can be purchased online at the National Steinbeck Center website or by calling 831-775-4721.