John Steinbeck was a compulsive writer. In a letter to his editor and friend Pat Covici in 1960, he recorded his excitement about a planned trip by campervan around the United States.* Steinbeck wrote: "I nearly always write - just as I nearly always breathe". The association of writing with life itself defines Steinbeck. He wrote novels, plays, screenplays, opinion pieces, political speeches, travel journalism and war reportage. And, of course, letters. From his days as a struggling writer in the 1920s until his death in 1968, Steinbeck wrote letters almost daily: to friends and family, to his literary agent, to his editor and to the political leaders with whom he associated when he became well-known. When Steinbeck was writing a novel, letter-writing was his way of warming up for a day's work. At other times he wrote letters because this was just what he did. Steinbeck was a shy man who hated speaking on the phone and letters often took the place of conversation with the people he cared about. In addition, he didn't write an autobiography, avoided giving interviews and was terrified of public speaking, so the letters form an important record of Steinbeck's life. Reading this book was quite a project. Its 906 pages include letters written over a period of more than forty years. The first letter in the volume was written in 1926 to a college friend while Steinbeck was working as a caretaker on an estate at Lake Tahoe while writing his first novel. The last letter is incomplete: a letter to his literary agent probably begun shortly before he died in 1968. I found the book a fascinating read. The letters in it have been chosen because they have something to say. Mere letters of obligation or letters which are simply answers to other letters were not included in the collection. Steinbeck had plenty to say in his letters. The picture of him which emerges from them is of an intelligent and thoughtful man who had insight into his own failings, who was generous and compassionate and who had a genuine interest in people, in society and in the natural environment. He writes with enthusiasm about topics as diverse as gardening, dogs, boats and gadgets he has invented or things he believes should be invented. In addition, the letters deal with his debilitating bouts of depression, the despair he felt as his first two marriages failed, his deep and enduring love for his third wife, his concerns about his sons and his recurring feeling that his writing was inadequate. Steinbeck also writes a lot about writing, both reflecting on his own practice and giving encouragement and advice to other writers. I've read the collected letters of other writers in the past: Jane Austen's letters and those of Dorothy L Sayers are the ones which immediately come to mind. However, I've not found myself marking so many pages of a book with sticky notes before. This volume positively bristles with colourful plastic tabs. There are gems of wisdom and insight in it which I want to be able to read again. At the same time, part of me feels slightly uncomfortable at having read this lifetime of correspondence. Steinbeck did not write to his wife, to his sons or to his friends with an eye to publication. He was a private man and these letters reveal his private thoughts. While I'm not sure that he would have liked the idea of the general public reading his letters, I'm still very glad that the editors - Steinbeck's wife Elaine and his friend Robert Wallsten - thought that putting together the volume was a worthwhile endeavour.This is highly recommended for writers and for anyone who appreciates Steinbeck's writing, wants more insight into Steinbeck the man and has plenty of time to read a doorstopper of a book. *The record of this trip became Travels with Charley: In Search of America.
Well, he's in here--warts and all. This is a hugely large collection but it seldom lags. I read it in short, concentrated doses over the course of a couple of months. Very enlightening and endlessly fascinating. I learned quite a bit about the man, the writer, the process, and the world as he saw it. My greatest disappointment: So many times I wanted to hear both sides of the epistolary conversation, but that's not generally how these things work. My greatest sadness at its end: That he never finished his Malory/Morte d'Arthur book to his satisfaction. What a masterpiece he might have given us there. I'm left with a deeply felt need to re-read the version of the story that he did leave--the one published posthumously. I'll read it as a tribute to a great writer whose greatest dream went ultimately unfulfilled. I'll read it to share in his excitement at the Arthur legend, and to again become a willing captive to its power myself. Then I'll begin to re-read the masterpieces he did complete and learn all over again why I love them so much. If you have more than a passing interest in John Steinbeck, the man, his work, his worldview, this collection is essential reading for you.
Do You like book Steinbeck: A Life In Letters (1975)?
What a gift to be able to read the thoughts of an author as he wrote them! What a fascinating life he led. I am so thankful to his wife for putting this together. As a woman, it was especially interesting to read his thoughts on women. Interesting. I am continually fascinated by why people do what they do, so being able to actually "hear" from the source was wonderful. This method of telling a story is compelling - I wish there were more of them! This quote is one of my favorites from the book: "I assure you that only mediocrity escapes criticism."I was told once I had "a low tolerance for mediocrity" - probably why that one resonates.Funny how I will miss someone I never met. But isn't that the best compliment a book can receive?
—Teri Temme
This 900-page tome contains rare insights into Steinbeck's life and his views on writing and the creative process. Well worth the time if one is interested in these subjects.The content is chiefly Steinbeck's letters; so he is the author, but editorial comments are carefully distributed throughout, along with occasional excerpts from related correspondence. This is a selection of correspondence initiated by Steinbeck, chosen and edited with loving care by Elaine, his third wife, and Robert Wallsten. This is the meat, the good stuff, including the intimacies he was willing to reveal to those closest to him.What has been left out is as important as what was included; therefore Elaine's bias must be taken into account. To the extent possible, what is revealed is the Steinbeck that she wanted remembered. For example, I expected something of the highly public flirtation of Carol, Steinbeck's first wife, with Joseph Campbell, and of Campbell's influence on Steinbeck's writing style. There was no mention of Campbell nor the affair, which I find highly dubious, given how painful the matter was.(Stenibeck got his revenge, modeling a character in SWEET THURSDAY after Campbell.)
—Monty J Heying
I remember gasping when I opened the box and saw the book was almost two inches thick. I remember carrying it with me on a bus to Toronto. I remember after spending the days chasing down little kids that did not want to: eat, nap, or stop picking on their siblings, i would crash into my bed at night and read John's beautiful correspondences. I told a friend the language that John Steinbeck used at twenty-three writing casually to his friends will make you feel like a moron. I fell in love with him. I really did. It wasn't like reading the words of a dead person. You felt as though you could have looked him up in the white pages and if you called him, he would have been glad to hear from you. He was so down to earth, humorous and falliable. He wasn't a god. He was a guy that went hungry in NYC, and was true to his friends(and inspired friends to be true to him too), he was this guy whose creative writing teacher did not think was talented, who never graduated university, who had a hell of a time selling his work and felt like a failure and fraud. He made me feel as though this thing called writing I could do. And this thing of love and life too. I consider him a mentor. A book that saved my life.
—Stephanie Roberts
