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John Ernst Steinbeck 1963John Ernst Steinbeck
(1902-1968)

John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902. Steinbeck attended Stanford University and worked odd jobs as a ranch hand and fruit picker. Originally enrolled in school as an English major, he changed to independant study and left Stanford in 1925. He wrote his first book in 1929, "Cup of Gold", romantisizing the life of the Welsh Pirate Henry Morgan. He is more well known for his books during the Great Depression. Steinbeck wrote of people caught in an uncaring world who, in defeat, remain heroic and sympathetic. Steinbeck was committed to social progress, he used his writing to raise issues of labor exploitation and the plight of the common man. John Steinbeck's writings, along with Woody Guthrie's folk music, became both symbolic and part of the "Dust Bowl" era mythology of the American mid west. Steinbecks most famous novel, "Grapes of Wrath", won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and was later made into a movie of the same name. In 1962, John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception."

Steinbeck's work was belittled by academics as too sentimental to be "high art", that he simply was not a good writer. Harold Bloom did not include any of Steinbeck's works in the Western Literary Canon, saying that John Ford's movie "The Grapes of Wrath" was better than the book. "You can't read three paragraphs of Steinbeck without thinking of a poorer Hemingway, with characterizations that are contrived" Bloom noted. As for Steinbeck's Nobel Prize, "The People in Stockholm seem to have a dusty file on people no one ever heard of that they pull out when making the awards". Martin Arnold wrote in the New York Times "Steinbeck's sentimentallity ...although criticized, made him popular." Professor Laura Browder, director of creative writing at Virginia Commonwealth University says "Steinbeck works on lots of levels...he is accessible in dramatizing social issues and wasn't afraid to use sentimental devices the way Stowe did in "Uncle Tom's Cabin"".

In any case, Steinbeck's novels remain in print today and perhaps raise different controversies than when they were first published.

 

John Steinbeck on DVD

O Henry's Full House by 20th Century Fox O Henry's Full House - 20th Century Fox -

O. Henry’s Full House is a recently repolished cinema gem, a must for film fans and for those who love the short stories of O. Henry (born William Sidney Porter). This collection features five of O. Henry’s tales made into short films, and released in theaters in 1952 as a collection--an experiment in adapting short stories as simple short films, not padded out to theatrical lengths. The collection features a stable of 20th Century Fox’s top contract players, including Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Farley Granger, and a dewy-cheeked Marilyn Monroe, and five topnotch directors including Henry Hathaway and Howard Hawks. The five stories include O. Henry’s signature tale of grace and selflessness, "The Gift of the Magi," as well as "The Cop and the Anthem" (in which a hobo literally can’t get himself arrested); "The Clarion Call" (a noirish crime mystery with loads of side-of-the-mouth cracks, like calling a guy "You clamhead!"); "The Last Leaf" (with a radiant Baxter and Jean Peters); and "The Ransom of Red Chief," a kidnap cautionary tale. The twists that O. Henry’s stories are famous for perhaps work better on the page than on film, and yet the acting and production values are so superb the tales are moving and their short lengths are just right.

The extras are another literary treasure trove. The stories are introduced and narrated by none other than a chain-smoking John Steinbeck, whose admiration for O. Henry permeates his speeches. Other features include a commentary by Dr. Jenny Lind Porter, a featurette on the life and writing of O. Henry (every bit as tragic as his most bittersweet fiction), galleries, stills, and two additional shorts from 1927, "Girls" and "Man About Town." --A.T. Hurley


Beyond O. Henry's Full House

The Best Short Stories of O. Henry
Short Stories
Fox "Film Noir" DVD Series

Stills from O. Henry's Full House (click for larger image)





Release Date: 21 November, 2006
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Return to Treasure Island by Alpha Video Return to Treasure Island - Alpha Video -

Release Date: 26 October, 2004
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Legendary Pirate Movies (Captain Kidd / The Son Of Monte Cristo / Long John Silver's Return To Treasure Island) by Bfs Entertainment Legendary Pirate Movies (Captain Kidd / The Son Of Monte Cristo / Long John Silver's Return To Treasure Island) - Bfs Entertainment -

Release Date: 28 January, 2003
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Biography - John Steinbeck: An American Writer (A&E DVD Archives) by A&E Home Video Biography - John Steinbeck: An American Writer (A&E DVD Archives) - A&E Home Video -
A&E's Biography takes a close look at the life and career of the legendary American writer whose name evokes dust bowl-era images of Salinas, Monterey, and migrant farm workers. John Steinbeck's life story is revealed in personal photos and interviews with friends, family, and contemporaries, along with footage of the locations that inspired him. Also surveyed are the writer's foray into filmmaking and his Hollywood experiences. Discover why he was motivated to write about the land and the people who belonged to it. Learn of the trials and persecution he endured for his unwillingness to compromise the truth and the rocky personal life that accompanied his artistic struggles. A&E provides a truly comprehensive and sensitive depiction of this Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author. --Amy Levine
Release Date: 10 August, 2004
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Long John Silver by VCI Entertainment Long John Silver - VCI Entertainment -

Release Date: 10 July, 2006
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Long John Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Delta Long John Silver: Return to Treasure Island - Delta -

Release Date: 20 January, 2004
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Famous Authors - John Steinbeck by Kultur Video Famous Authors - John Steinbeck - Kultur Video -

Release Date: 25 April, 2006
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Great Writers: John Steinbeck by Kultur Video Great Writers: John Steinbeck - Kultur Video -

Release Date: 30 May, 2006
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The Adventures of Long John Silver, Vol. 1&2 - Platinum Disc -

Release Date: 17 August, 2004
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Long John Silver/Captain Kidd by Marengo Films Long John Silver/Captain Kidd - Marengo Films -

Release Date: 28 February, 2001
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John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics)
When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, America, still recovering from the Great Depression, came face to face with itself in a startling, lyrical way. John Steinbeck gathered the country's recent shames and devastations--the Hoovervilles, the desperate, dirty children, the dissolution of kin, the oppressive labor conditions--in the Joad family. Then he set them down on a westward-running road, local dialect and all, for the world to acknowledge. For this marvel of observation and perception, he won the Pulitzer in 1940.

The prize must have come, at least in part, because alongside the poverty and dispossession, Steinbeck chronicled the Joads' refusal, even inability, to let go of their faltering but unmistakable hold on human dignity. Witnessing their degeneration from Oklahoma farmers to a diminished band of migrant workers is nothing short of crushing. The Joads lose family members to death and cowardice as they go, and are challenged by everything from weather to the authorities to the California locals themselves. As Tom Joad puts it: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency."

The point, though, is that decency remains intact, if somewhat battle-scarred, and this, as much as the depression and the plight of the "Okies," is a part of American history. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than edenic, Ma tells Tom: "You got to have patience. Why, Tom--us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people--we go on." It's almost as if she's talking about the very novel she inhabits, for Steinbeck's characters, more than most literary creations, do go on. They continue, now as much as ever, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who, thankfully, have no experiential point of reference for understanding the depression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon--Rosasharn, as they call her--the eldest Joad daughter, forcing the milk intended for her stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandest scale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all. --Melanie Rehak
Release Date: 03 January, 2002
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Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck
Penguin

Release Date: 03 January, 2002
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East of Eden by John Steinbeck East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics)

Release Date: 18 June, 2003
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Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck Cannery Row: (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics)

Release Date: 05 February, 2002
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The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics) by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin Classics) by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott
Penguin Classics

Release Date: 28 March, 2006
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The Pearl by John Steinbeck The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics)

Release Date: 06 April, 2000
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Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics)

Release Date: 05 February, 2002
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East of Eden by John Steinbeck East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Penguin (Non-Classics)

Release Date: 05 February, 2002
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The Log from the Sea of Cortez (Penguin Classics) by John Steinbeck, Richard Astro The Log from the Sea of Cortez (Penguin Classics) by John Steinbeck, Richard Astro
Penguin Classics

Release Date: 01 November, 1995
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The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by John Steinbeck The Winter of Our Discontent (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by John Steinbeck
Penguin Classics

Release Date: 01 April, 1996
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