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| Carol and John Steinbeck
ISBN: 9780874179316
Platform/Publisher: Project MUSE / University of Nevada Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Chapters; Download: Chapters
Subjects: Novelists American;
As portrayed by San Jose State University English professor and Steinbeck expert Shillinglaw (A Journey into Steinbeck's California), John Steinbeck's first wife, Carol Henning Steinbeck, was witty, gifted, and fiercely practical. In addition, she loved the limelight and was adept at grand gesture. Her husband, though driven, tended to be moody and self-absorbed. Carol, according to this impressive biography, was also the driving force behind John's political conscience, and assisted him with The Grapes of Wrath ("To Carol who willed it," the dedication reads in part). But the wealth and fame brought by the novel's success also brought disappointment, estrangement, and divorce. "In another era," Shillinglaw writes with eloquence and grace, "[Carol] might have run a small company, shaped something larger than John into a force for good but she could not or would not imagine great things for herself." In later life, Carol Steinbeck took offence at comparisons to Zelda Fitzgerald, but like Zelda, she has been blessed with a terrific biographer. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Susan Shillinglaw, professor of English at San Jose State University, directed the Center for Steinbeck Studies there from 1987 to 2005. Her published works include A Journey Into Steinbeck's California and introductions to The Portable Steinbeck and other Penguin Classic editions. She is currently scholar in residence at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas and lives in Pacific Grove, CA. |
