Feburary 27 just so happens to be the birthday of John Steinbeck, the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author whose vivid, imaginative writing brought tales of California to life in several novels and short stories. Steinbeck is widely considered one of the greatest American novelists who ever lived, but, as with many early 20th-century heavy hitters, readers often don't find an occasion to delve into his work outside of a high school English class. Well, Steinbeck's 115th birthday is as good an occasion as ever to jump in: we'll help you get started with Steinbeck, with these titles available at your local library.

The Grapes of Wrath, 1939

This realist novel is probably Steinbeck's most famous work; it netted him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940 and is considered by many to be among the most influential American novels. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of a family of impoverished farmers during the Great Depression who lose their livelihood and are forced to trek from Oklahoma to California, looking for work and trying to survive. Upon its release, Steinbeck was lambasted for his sympathetic attitude towards the poor, and was even accused of having communist sympathies.

Nevertheless, the book has retained its relevance for decades and remains widely discussed and read in schools across the country. If you missed out on reading The Grapes of Wrath, you should definitely give it a shot!



 

Of Mice and Men, 1937

Steinbeck's second most famous book is probably Of Mice and Men, which tracks a similar narrative to The Grapes of Wrath. This book, which was conceived as a hybrid between a play and a novella, tells the story of two farmhands, George and Lennie, and is based off some of Steinbeck's own experience as a migrant worker during the Depression. 

Lennie is good-natured and hardworking, but his mental disability exposes him to prejudice, and his friend George tries to protect him from the world while they struggle to make enough money to buy their own land.





 

The Pearl, 1947

Rather than his typical stomping grounds of California, Steinbeck set The Pearl in Mexico, where a pearl diver, Kino, can't afford to pay the town doctor to save his sick infant son. Fortuitously, Kino finds an enormous pearl to cover the cost of the medicine, but the gem quickly brings more trouble than Kino bargained for.

This slim novella, based on a Mexican folktale, is a spare and tragic tale of the price we pay for greed.









 

Cannery Row, 1945

On a lighter note, Cannery Row is an impressionistic novel about the colorful cast of characters that inhabit a poor neighborhood of Monterey known as Cannery Row. Through a series of vignettes, we meet Dora, the proprietor of the neighborhood brothel; Doc, the marine biologist who collects and preserves fish from the Pacific Ocean; and Mack and his gang of poor friends, who roam the neighborhood stirring up trouble and merriment in equal measure.

It's more comical than his other work, so if you want to dig into some exciting, colorful prose without the heavy tragedy typical of Steinbeck, then this is the novel for you.




 

East of Eden, 1952

What's your favorite Steinbeck read? Shout it out in the comments, if you don't mind!