My Life With John Steinbeck - Softcover

Steinbeck, Gwyn Conger; Brown, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1999675207 ISBN 13: 9781999675202

Publisher: Lawson Publishing Ltd, 2018

Synopsis

Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. Memoir. For the first time the story of John Steinbeck's forgotten second wife, unmentioned in standard editions of his classics such as The Grapes of Wrath. Their 1943 war-time marriage ended when she divorced him in 1948. The book reveals the missing voice of Gwyn, during a six-year marriage which included the tumult of World War Two.

When she met Steinbeck in 1939, Gwyn was a professional singer, working for CBS in Los Angeles. She was an independent young woman, lively and radiant in her love for the great man wooing her--fourteen years her senior. He was captivated by her beauty and magnetic presence. For women of her era, many of whom had to leave jobs after the war, marriage was considered a woman's true career. This journal is her story of that adventure, often "on the road" with a restless Steinbeck, criss-crossing continents and making homes.

Full of insight, MY LIFE WITH JOHN STEINBECK is funny and on target about people and places. Gwyn says Steinbeck was "in love with love." But for much of their time together, she was completely in love with both the great writer and the flawed man. She gave him complete quiet to work and, when needed, her full attention. The Moon is Down, Cannery Row, The Pearl and The Wayward Bus were written during their years together and much of the planning of East of Eden. Gwyn tried to be the "Amazon" Steinbeck expected; until their sons' births, which she linked with the mysterious "death of their love." When she asked for a divorce (finalised in 1949) she could no longer live with him. He may never have forgiven her.

How often do we hear about the cost of being with a famous man? When is "trading up" self-abandonment? Gwyn's story is an enigmatic look at an "everywoman" of her time, who took marriage as her vocation and enabled a great man to pursue his work. Yet the ideology of giving "all" came at a steep price. 2018, the fiftieth anniversary of John Steinbeck's death in 1968, may be the year of the woman. How fitting for Gwyn Steinbeck's journal to be published.

"A genuinely important literary discovery that illumines part of Steinbeck's life, that has been in shadow for half a century. I found it impossible to get a good take on Gwyn. Obviously Steinbeck was wildly attracted to her: she was beautiful, tall and willowy, but as she had passed away it was impossible to know how she really felt about her famous husband and what that marriage was really like. Did Steinbeck value her? Did he treat her well?"--Jay Parini, Steinbeck biographer

"Finally, we have the story of Gwen also known as Gwyn, John Steinbeck's second wife and mother of his two sons. Her story is the missing piece of the jigsaw that was John Steinbeck, a flawed genius. Hold on tight. It's a bit of a bumpy ride."--James (Jim) M. Dourgarian, Bookseller and Steinbeck specialist

"In this fiftieth anniversary year of John Steinbeck's death, it is irresistible to be swept along by this forgotten Forties love affair. This memoir reads like a film of the era, complete with Route 66, drunken parties, cigarettes, railroad journeys, hangovers and sex."--London Daily Mail -- Book of the Week

About this title

About the Author:

Gwyn (originally Gwendolyne) Conger Steinbeck was born in 1916. Her forbears had been wealthy, and she met John Steinbeck in Hollywood, where she had gone looking for work. She was a night club singer, film extra and staff singer on CBS. She sang at the 1938(?) San Francisco Exposition, which led Steinbeck to pursue her again after an initial affair. They criss-crossed the USA and married in New Orleans in 1943 when he was forty and she just twenty-six, but he left her unannounced for Europe where he was a war correspondent. Gwyn bore two children, Thom and John Junior. The marriage deteriorated after John Junior was born. His father largely ignored him and wished Gwyn to be totally at home, while he himself was frequently away and increasingly remote from his sons. Following a gift from her husband of a Hammond organ Gwyn composed songs, but despite a demonstration disc, was forbidden to explore their publication as her husband hated any form of competition. Gwyn took their sons to Nevada and divorced John Steinbeck in 1948 on the grounds of incompatibility, the only grounds he would accept. She moved later from New York to Palm Springs, where she lived until moving to Boulder, Colorado, late in life. She never remarried and died in 1975, still loving her former husband.
Doug Brown (1939- 1997) was born in England, where he received a degree in journalism from the University of London. After serving in the Royal Air Force, he moved to the US and became the editor of The Palm Springs Desert Post and the art editor of Sand to Sea Magazine. He also worked as a feature writer and columnist. He authored two books and had his own radio show.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lawson Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1999675207
• ISBN 13: 9781999675202
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 292