John Steinbeck (Up Close) - Hardcover

Meltzer, Milton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670061395 ISBN 13: 9780670061396

Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 2008

Synopsis

John Steinbeck consistently appears on class reading lists across the U.S., and his work has influenced generations. Steinbeck lived and wrote during some of the most eventful and controversial eras of twentieth-century America, including the struggles of California?s migrant workers during the 1930s, which led to his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath.

A complicated man whose personal life often took a backseat to his writing?he fought his way through three marriages, was a distant father, and battled with alcoholism?Steinbeck wrote because he was compelled to. Yet he always doubted his abilities, and lived in fear of never writing a decent book.

Milton Meltzer?s biography includes numerous excerpts of this iconic author?s writing, and is the latest addition to the Up Close series.

About this title

About the Author

Milton Meltzer, author of over eighty books and recipient of five nominations for the National Book Award, lives in New York City.

From Booklist

Throughout this entry in the Up Close biography series, distinguished historian Meltzer mines journals, correspondence, and critics’ reviews to illuminate the controversial Nobel Prize winner’s life, a “mad mixture of the greatest praise and the most scurrilous abuse.” As in other titles in the series, the book features occasional black-and-white photos, and the narrative extends intriguingly into its subject’s troubled personal life. In this case, many assertions (about one violent drunken rage, for instance) would have benefited from better sourcing, which is limited here to a bibliography and citations for quotes. Given Meltzer’s terse plot summaries and his stinting inclusion of excerpts, few newcomers to Steinbeck will be led from this treatment to the works themselves, collected in a concluding list. As supplemental reading, however, the strong historical perspective Meltzer offers, especially about the novels’ characteristic California and Depression backdrops, will enhance appreciation of any of Steinbeck’s frequently assigned titles, from The Red Pony (1937) to The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Grades 6-9. --Jennifer Mattson

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Juvenile
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0670061395
• ISBN 13: 9780670061396
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208