John Steinbeck

One of the most widely-read American authors of the 20th century, John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1939 novel 'The Grapes of Wrath' and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, just six years before his death. Many of his novels were adapted by Hollywood, and he sometimes also worked as a screenwriter, even garnering an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's 'Lifeboat'. His large body of work reflected his diverse interests which included Marine Biology, jazz, politics, philosophy and history. Born in California in 1902, Steinbeck remained a private person, and a keen observer of the human condition til his death in New York CIty in 1968. "Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck