Free Steinbeck by John Steinbeck Page B

non-committal about it. Meanwhile I work at the Unknown God. I have changed the place, characters, time, theme, and thesis and name so maybe it won’t be much like the first book. It’s good fun though.
    I wonder you don’t lose faith in my future. Everyone else does. For myself, I haven’t brains enough to quit. Maybe you haven’t brains enough to get out from under the wreck. Thirty years hence I’ll still be working. I am very happy when I’m working.
    Have McBride’s relaxed their grip on that copyright?
    I’m pretty damn sick of my consistent failure. Everyone says nice things and no one buys my books. Wurra—wurra. M. and O. have been kind and have expended lots of stamps on me. I wonder how soon they’ll get sick of it.
    Please write more often.
    Affectionately,
John
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    Eleven days later, on his thirtieth birthday, big news came.
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    â€œM. and O. wired today,” he wrote Ted Miller. “They have palmed off the Pastures on somebody. I don’t know any more about it because I have only the telegram.”
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    A few days later he had more details.

To George Albee
    Pacific Grove
[March] 1932
    Dear George:
    The Pastures has been curiously fortunate. Cape and Smith accepted it with some enthusiasm within three days of its submission to them. According to M. & O. they showed a nice enthusiasm and intend to feature it on their fall list. I am very glad, more for my folks’ sake than for my own. They love it so much. Dad’s shoulders are straighter for it and mother beams. I am no longer a white elephant, you see. I am justified in the eyes of their neighbors. It is very good. I received the telegram on my birthday. It was nice of Miss O. [Elizabeth Otis] to wire. If this firm will only allow me a dedication to my parents, they will be extremely happy.
    I was going rapidly and well on the new book, but this little encouragement is bound to have a stimulating effect. In addition Carol has a job—$50.00 a month. She is deliriously happy. She’s wanted a job so badly.
    Sincerely,
John

1932 to 1936
    St “...scared and baastful and humble...”
    1932 The Pastures of Heaven published.
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    1933 To a God Unknown and the first two parts of The Red Pony published.
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    1934 His mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, died. A short story. “The Murder,” won O. Henry prize.
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    1935 His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, died. Tortilla Flat published, his first success.
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    1936 In Dubious Battle published.
    Carol Steinbeck’s job was in the laboratory of a friend who was already exerting a vital influence on Steinbeck’s life and thinking: the marine biologist, philosopher, and ecologist, Edward F. Ricketts. Steinbeck had met him in 1930 and had passed many hours on Cannery Row in Monterey at his Pacific Biological Laboratory which collected and distributed West Coast biological specimens to institutions and individuals throughout the country. This laboratory was to become the background for several of Steinbeck’s stories and novels, and Ricketts himself, under varying aliases, would appear as a character in them. He and Steinbeck collaborated on Sea of Cortez and maintained a close friendship till Ricketts’s death in 1948.

To George Albee
    Pacific Grove
[March] 1932
    Dear George:
    Thank you for sending the letter, you see I have nothing but the telegram and I have been afraid the thing had fallen through. The letter reassured me of its acceptance but was also slightly redolent of horse shit. If you believe all the nice things then you ought to believe all the nasty things that will be said later, and then they cancel each other out.
    Carol is working now and loves it. She has two rattlesnakes and about 200 white rats to love. She introduced Tillie to the rats and they ignored each other.
    I don’t know why the publication of a book should impress you. I’ve met a number of people who publish books and