John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1907. He was the third of four children, the only son born to John Sr. and Olivia "Olive" Steinbeck, the manager of a flour mill and a former schoolteacher. It was Olive's goal that her son be cultured and intellectual; although he struggled socially in elementary school, she made sure that he was consistently exposed to music and to literature. Steinbeck's father, by the same token, urged him to be self-sufficient, to learn to care for land and for animals. Steinbeck was a shy elementary school student and was often timid and anxious, qualities that never fully left him.
After attending high school, during which time he struggled with...
