John Steinbeck was born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California. He was the third child of Olive Hamilton, a school teacher, and John Ernst Steinbeck, the Monterey County treasurer.
In Steinbeck’s prime Salinas was very prosperous in farming. Every aspect of where and when he lived greatly played a big role in what he wrote and how he wrote it. Even his characters tied back to where and when he lived. Steinbeck even mentioned that he would like to write a story of the whole valley. “I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and the ranches in the wilder hills.” He also wrote to George Albee in 1933 saying“ I can see how I would like to do it so that it would be the valley of the world.” (Steinbeck 73.) His childhood was pretty good but when he got to his teenage years his father lost his job. He was the manager of Sperry Flour, it sold grain and wheat but failed, thus leading to his final job as Monterey County Treasurer. John also had a pony named Jill which inspired him to write The Red Pony. This proves that his life has led him to write many great novels.
When Steinbeck was nine he received a book which led him to writing Tortilla Flat, that book was called Le Morte d’Arthur. He was inspired because him and his sister Mary imagined them in Camelot. As you can tell John Steinbeck had a love for writing, during high school he would stay up all hours of the night so he could write. He wrote in his attic room in Salinas. He would write little stories and little pieces and send them out to magazines with a different name because he was scared of rejection. In his high school newsletter he finally let others know about his love for writing and that was what he was going to college for. So he did it, he enrolled at Stanford University in 1919 because he wanted to sharpen his skills of writing. He did not get his degree from Stanford but he was going off and on for five years in 1925. Later he...