Working Days by John Steinbeck Read Free Book Online

with a similarly exalted conception and theme. A less hardy writer might have become an anachronism after the success of a celebrated novel like The Grapes of Wrath, but Steinbeck showed the capacity to survive through change. His new writing lacked the aggressive bite of his earlier work (he adamantly refused to repeat himself), but it had the virtue of being so different that it generally kept him from becoming a parody of himself. After 1940 much of his important writing centered on explorations of a new topic—the dimensions of individual choice and imaginative consciousness. A prophetic post-modernist, Steinbeck’s real subject in Cannery Row, East of Eden, Sweet Thursday, The Winter of Our Discontent, and Journal of a Novel was the creative process itself.
    The mystery of creativity was on his mind during Christmas Week 1950, when Steinbeck was sifting through the memorabilia of his past. His impending marriage to Elaine Scott was about to signal another major turn in his life. He had been married twice before—to Carol Henning (1930-1943), and to Gwyn Conger (1943-1948). The first marriage resulted in some of his most famous books; the second marriage produced two sons and much of the material for East of Eden, which he would begin writing a month after his wedding to Elaine. The third, and last, marriage promoted emotional stability, and coincided with the international spread of his fame. One of the items Steinbeck came across in his nostalgic mood was the handwritten journal he had kept when he worked on The Grapes of Wrath. He sent it to Pat Covici at The Viking Press, with a letter that read in part: “Very many times I have been tempted to destroy this book. It is an account very personal and in many instances purposely obscure. But recently I reread it and only after all this time did the unconscious pattern emerge. It is true that this book is full of my own weaknesses, of complaints and violence. These are just as apparent as they ever were. What a complainer I am. But in rereading, those became less important and the times and the little histories seemed to be more apparent.... I had not realized that so much happened during the short period of the actual writing of The Grapes of Wrath —things that happened to me and to you and to the world. But a browsing through will refresh your memory.” Steinbeck had two requests: that the journal not be printed in his lifetime; and that it should be made available to his children, Thom (aged 6) and John (aged 4), if they should ever want to “look behind the myth and hearsay and flattery and slander a disappeared man becomes and to know to some extent what manner of man their father was.” 16
    Steinbeck’s paternalistic concern formed one of the basic impulses for East of Eden, which was written in 1951 expressly for his sons. The process of its composition, recorded in the same oversized ledger book with the novel, was published separately, and posthumously, as Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. Although the compulsion to write East of Eden had been on his mind for several years, its particular ambience was prompted by Steinbeck’s rediscovery of his Grapes of Wrath journal. Even as he stood poised to enter the longest writing job of his life ( Grapes took five months of sustained labor, East of Eden required nine; both were consummate acts of faith), Steinbeck couldn’t quite escape the influence of his earlier life. The passage from California in 1938 to New York in 1950 wasn’t as long, or as far, as he imagined, though getting back was another matter.

NOTES
    1. The most useful compendium on the controversial background, reception, and reputation of Steinbeck’s book is Warren French’s A Companion to The Grapes of Wrath (New York: The Viking Press, 1963), which includes ample selections of historical, factual, and critical material, all linked with an excellent running commentary. (French’s invaluable little book deserves to be updated