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John Steinbeck
Program Video Clip List
Clip # Start Time End Time Description
1 00:50.5 02:25.5 Salinas, CA was the birthplace of Steinbeck; some of his more famous books and the themes of those books.
2 02:25.7 02:51.3 Steinbeck's biggest impact at the time was The Grapes Of Wrath because it rose awareness of the plights of those families.
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3 03:08.9 04:50.3 Steinbeck's family; came from a middle-class family; had three sisters and three wives
4 07:21.8 07:46.8 Steinbeck is a subtle writer; he wrote in layers.
5 07:54.7 09:07.2 Relationship between Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts; were very close and Ricketts was very influential in Steinbeck's writings; Ricketts died in 1948 after being hit by a train
6 09:11.6 10:20.9 Ricketts's influence on The Sea of Cortes; it was a collaboration between Ricketts and Steinbeck, but it was written in Steinbeck's style; one of the most important ecological texts in America
7 10:21.0 11:38.5 Salinas geographically; 20 miles from Monterey and two hours from Los Angeles; Ricketts had a lab in Monterey that he used for biological research; upstairs was used for parties
8 11:38.6 12:08.3 Ricketts was drafted during WWII; Steinbeck could not enlist, finally went to war as a correspondent.
9 12:11.9 13:12.7 Very little writing by Steinbeck that mentions the plight of Native- or African-Americans; his most extensive work about Native Americans comes from a late work called, America and Americans
10 13:59.2 14:53.0 East of Eden is Steinbeck's microcosm for America; set in the Salinas Valley; we are the children of Cain, according to Steinbeck, and therefore we live in the land East of Eden
11 14:57.3 16:02.2 Steinbeck knew Hemingway and Faulkner but never met F. Scott Fitzgerald; said Hemingway's short stories and anything by Faulkner were his favorite things to read
12 17:54.0 18:39.3 The Sea of Cortes is important because it lays an ecological foundation
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13 18:39.4 20:10.0 The National Steinbeck Center; has been open for 4 yrs. and many school groups tour it; the people of Salinas, CA hated Steinbeck for his portrayal of them in The Grapes of Wrath
14 21:15.6 22:42.7 The influence of Hemingway on Steinbeck; it was not an influence in Steinbeck's writings, but it is evident from some of his letters that Steinbeck was, in fact, influenced by Hemingway.
15 22:50.6 23:44.8 The National Steinbeck Center receives about 100,000 visitors per year and cost $11 million to build; plan to start a writing curriculum for educators
16 23:47.3 25:03.0 Critics and criticism of Steinbeck; his writings are different from many of his other peers; many of the complexities of his writings go unnoticed
17 26:35.0 28:21.6 The National Steinbeck Center is a historical museum so it creates a historical context for each of his writings; includes some diaries from his field work and a video of his third wife from the mid-ninety's; there are over 30 hours of tapes for use by the National Steinbeck Center.
18 28:24.3 29:09.0 What is meant by Steinbeck's being an "ecological writer"? He was interested in the holistic perspective of the world we live in
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19 29:12.1 30:02.2 Steinbeck's first book Cup of Gold was written in Lake Tahoe; sold very poorly even though it outsold his next two novels
20 30:02.2 30:27.8 Steinbeck lived most of his life in California and New York
21 30:27.9 32:18.6 Audio of Steinbeck discussing The Grapes of Wrath
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22 32:20.0 33:41.9 Steinbeck was furious at the social conditions that existed during the Great Depression, which led him to write The Grapes of Wrath; the Depression was not as bad in California but it affected everyone in some way.
23 33:45.1 34:37.2 Information on the Steinbeck Festival, held annually the first week of August; more information on the National Steinbeck Center
24 34:40.0 36:33.7 Of Mice and Men in contrast to The Grapes of Wrath; Of Mice and Men is about the eugenics movement of the time, which darkens the book quite a bit.
25 36:36.6 37:39.1 The Grapes of Wrath the movie came out in 1940 and is one of the better books-made-into-movies of the time; Steinbeck had very little role in the movie.
26 38:00.0 39:14.8 The gopher story at the end of Cannery Row; Malcolm Cowley called Cannery Row a "poisened cream-puff" and part of the poison lies in the gopher story.
27 39:14.5 40:04.5 Steinbeck was left-leaning in his politics and he knew FDR; he wrote speeches for LBJ and Kennedy
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28 40:21.6 40:56.0 The National Steinbeck Center sponsors a writing contest each year in conjunction with San Jose State
29 40:56.1 41:31.2 There are over 200 landmarks in Salinas named for Steinbeck or one of his characters; Steinbeck is buried in Salinas in the Garden of Memories
30 41:34.0 43:15.2 Steinbeck explores the American myth in his book The Grapes of Wrath; makes it clear that there is always more land to take away from someone else by saying, "Pa killed snakes, Grandpa killed Indians for the land."
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31 43:15.9 43:42.8 Steinbeck had two children, John IV and Thom.
32 43:45.3 44:48.8 East of Eden is a metafictional novel, a novel about its own creation;
33 44:50.0 45:30.0 Favorite part of the museum is the Red Pony with a Red Pony barn and a red pony that one can get on; it is an exhibit taken from one of Steinbeck's early short stories.
34 45:49.2 47:33.7 Steinbeck was not popular with corporate agriculture in the Salinas area because he made them look bad in many of his books; of course, he is very popular in Salinas now.
35 47:33.7 48:18.1 Visuals of Steinbeck's childhood home; started his writing career there but never wrote any books
36 48:20.9 49:04.5 Steinbeck's short story, "Nothing So Monstrous" is a story about disillusionment and naivete, the end of innocence; part of the Pastures of Heave collection
37 49:07.3 49:49.4 The Grapes of Wrath was a commentary on the excesses of capitalism; Steinbeck was also a realist taking a look at human nature through that book.
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38 49:49.5 50:40.8 Steinbeck's personality; loved people, was humble, and thought becoming too well-known would compromise his writing; died with a lot of money, but he didn't really want it
39 50:40.9 51:50.3 Cannery Row is where Ricketts's laboratory was located and is the setting for Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday; Cannery Row is a tourist attraction today, no longer an industrial area; Cannery Row sold very well and was very popular.
40 51:54.0 52:47.8 Steinbeck loved the word 'timshel', which means "thou mayest"; he used the word in East of Eden, which is a book about the war between good and evil at the heart of the American self-conception.
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41 52:47.9 53:13.0 Steinbeck was very prolific in that he wrote fiction as well as non-fiction; most famous non-fiction work is Travels With Charlie
42 53:13.2 53:45.2 Steinbeck took his truck, Rosenante, around the country to rediscover America
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43 53:55.6 54:49.4 Elementary teachers can use Travels With Charlie to teach students about writing
44 55:12.4 57:04.7 Steinbeck is influential because he explores his world and teaches us about it and how to live in the world; his writings always teach
45 57:08.0 58:23.8 The Pearl is a unique Steinbeck book in that it is a parable; it is a book purely of black and white
46 58:50.7 01:00:12 Many students have read Steinbeck in high school and in middle school; shift from studying 19th century writers to studying 20th century writers
47 01:00:16 01:02:00 Ed Ricketts's lab has been donated to the Historical Society but is not open to the public as-of-yet.
48 01:02:08 01:03:48 The Pearl is an allegory about the struggle between materialism and the desire to live in a state of innocence; not much complexity in The Pearl, as is characteristic of many of his other works
49 01:03:49 01:06:11 The Moon is Down was written as war propaganda to bolster the spirits of the resistance; critics of the book say he was too soft when describing the Nazis; Steinbeck worked for the New York Herald Tribune as a war correspondent since he could not fight in WWII.
50 01:06:38 01:09:14 There were a lot of real people represented in East of Eden; Steinbeck was progressive in Of Mice and Men in dealing with race issues
51 01:09:15 01:10:37 Bombs Away was another propaganda book that he wrote to help the U.S. war effort; never before seen photos of Steinbeck taken by John Swopes
52 01:10:40 01:12:39 Many of Steinbeck's novels have been made into successful films; he was cautious about Hollywood because they had ruined other writers' works and reputations, but he was still friends with many Hollywood insiders.
53 01:12:39 01:14:13 Visuals of Salinas, CA; The Winter of Our Discontent was a very dark book stemming from many social and political scandals of the time that Steinbeck was disillusioned with.
54 01:15:28 01:16:58 The character of Noah from The Grapes of Wrath in both the book and the movie; Noah largely forgotten in the movie
55 01:16:59 01:17:49 Steinbeck's relevance today; he is read all over the world and was very forward-thinking with his ecological perspective
56 01:17:51 01:18:48 Steinbeck in relation to Hemingway and Faulkner; he was very conscious of them both because they were his two big rivals, but he thought his writing was equal to theirs.
57 01:18:49 01:22:05 Thom Steinbeck, John's son, talks about his father; kids loved him and he was a great father
58 01:22:07 01:23:11 Steinbeck was an early post-modernist insofar as East of Eden was a self-conscious metafictional novel
59 01:23:55 01:25:00 Robinson Jeffers' influence on Steinbeck; hard to tell because they were from the same area and wrote during the same time
60 01:25:00 01:27:15 Thom and his brother both born in New York City; John Steinbeck's sentiments towards the Vietnam War; Steinbeck used his influence to get his other son to Vietnam
61 01:27:16 01:28:33 Russians and The Grapes of Wrath; not read by them because it shows the dark side of American culture, but because they love great literature
62 01:28:35 01:30:01 A common Steinbeck theme is friendship and human companionship
63 01:30:01 01:31:00 Steinbeck's relationship with Adlai Stevenson; were very good friends as well as with LBJ, even though he never completely trusted him
64 01:31:02 01:32:35 The character of Junius Maltby; the story is part of The Long Valley
65 01:32:38 01:34:38 Steinbeck was working on a translation of Sir Thomas Mallory's Death of Arthur when he died; he was fascinated with the works of Sir Thomas Mallory
66 01:34:38 01:36:18 Steinbeck the writer vs. Steinbeck the father; the writer was a professional and very serious, the father was cheerful and fun; Steinbeck's marriages
67 01:36:39 01:37:39 Some people felt that The Grapes of Wrath was promoting Communist values; more just pointing out the flaws of capitalism than promoting Communism; he was very anti-Communist
68 01:37:39 01:40:01 Steinbeck lived in New York most of his adult life; Thom Steinbeck discusses his journey for Travels With Charley; purpose of the trip was to reconnect with America
69 01:40:08 01:41:05 Steinbeck's practice of journaling; he would practice and talk about his works in his journal
70 01:41:10 01:41:48 Is Tom Joad paraphrasing Eugene Debs' words?
71 01:41:50 01:42:51 Transcendentalism and John Steinbeck; character of Jim Casey echoes Emersonian transcendentalism, but Steinbeck uses that as a way to capture part of America, not necessarily his philosophy
72 01:43:03 01:44:35 Tortilla Flat is a commentary on being independent and individuals taking initiative
73 01:44:35 01:45:48 Thom Steinbeck is writing a screenplay of Travels With Charley
74 01:45:51 01:47:36 Salinas is the setting in East of Eden, not Monterey
75 01:47:37 01:49:02 Picture of Steinbeck and his dog, Charley; Steinbeck actually did not have that many dogs, they were attracted to him
76 01:49:04 01:50:33 Steinbeck the father vs. Steinbeck the writer; he kept his writing personality pretty much to himself
77 01:51:35 01:53:14 Timeline of Steinbeck and his writings
78 01:53:17 01:54:25 Steinbeck did some writing on Sag Harbour; East of Eden's theme is for individuals to be held accountable for their actions
79 01:54:25 01:57:39 Inside Steinbeck's truck, Rosenante, that he used for Travels With Charley; discussion about the book and his travels for it

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