The Pearl

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the Kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security . . . A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man's nature, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love. From Library Journal February 27 marks the great Steinbeck's 100th birthday, and the publishing world is celebrating appropriately. The Library of America volume collects the author's little-known 1942 novel The Moon Is Down along with popular standards Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), and East of Eden (1952). If you prefer individual copies, Penguin is also releasing top-quality paperback Centennial Editions of several of Steinbeck's titles, which in addition to those listed above and those in the Library of America collection include his travelog Travels with Charley in Search of America (ISBN 0-14-200070-1) and the Pulitzer Prize winner The Grapes of Wrath (ISBN 0-14-200066-3), perhaps the greatest American novel of the 20th century. Penguin, which publishes Steinbeck's 26 works, reports that the volumes still sell more than one million copies annually. Happy birthday, big guy! Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review [ The Pearl ] has the distinction and sincerity that are evident in everything he writes. The New Yorker Form is the most important thing about him. It is at its best in this work. Commonweal [Steinbeck has] long trained his prose style for such a task as this: that supple unstrained, muscular power, responsive to the slightest pull of the reins. Chicago Sunday Times The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man's fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman's stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. First published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath summed up its era in the way that Uncle Tom's Cabin summed up the years of slavery before the Civil War. Sensitive to fascist and communist criticism, Steinbeck insisted that: The Battle Hymn of the Republic be printed in its entirety in the first edition of the book-which takes its title from the first verse: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck's fictional chronicle of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930's is perhaps the most American of American Classics A quest across America, from the northernmost tip of Maine to California's Monterey Peninsula To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the tress, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. And he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, on a particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and on the unexpected kindness of strangers that is also a very real part of our national identity. "Pure delight, a pungent potpourri of places and people interspersed with bittersweet essays on everything from the emotional difficulties of growing old to the reasons why giant sequoias arouse such awe." — The New York Times Book Review "Profound, sympathetic, often angry...an honest moving book by one of our great writers." — The San Francisco Examiner "This is superior Steinbeck—a muscular, evocative report of a journey of rediscovery." — John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate "The eager, sensuous pages in which he writes about what he found and whom he encountered frame a picture of our human nature in the twentieth century which will not soon be surpassed." — Edward Weeks, The Atlantic Monthly A quest across America, from the northernmost tip of Maine to Californias Monterey Peninsula To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the lightthese were John Steinbeck's goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years. With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.

in 1960, At Age 58, John Steinbeck Set Out With His French Poodle, Charley, To Rediscover The Country He Had Been Writing About For So Many Years. Together They Crossed America From The Northernmost Tip Of Maine To California's Monterey Peninsula, Stopping To Smell The Grass, To See The Lights, And To Hear The Speech Of The Real America. Steinbeck Dined With Truckers, Encountered Bears At Yellowstone, And Reflected On The American Character, Racial Hostility, And The Unexpected Kindness Of Strangers. Lyrical, Perceptive, And Surprising, It's An Indispensable Portrait Of Our National Identity.

winner Of The 1990 Tony Award And Outer Critics Circle Award. A Powerful And Deeply Affecting Stage Version Of One Of The Masterpieces Of American Literature. Holding To The Simplicity And Directness Of The Original Novel, The Play Uses The Sparest Of Technical Means To Convey Its Timeless Message Of The Persistence And Strength Of The Human Spirit As It Battles Against The Adversities Of Nature And An Uncaring Society.

the New York Times

majestic...leaves One Feeling That The Generosity Of Spirit He Saw In A Brutal Country Is Not So Much Lost As Waiting Once More To Be Found.

Steinbeck’s classic novel of the Great Depression is as vivid now as ever. The story focuses on a family of Oklahoma sharecroppers, farmers who work another man’s land for a share of the crops. Driven from their home by drought and poverty they take to the road in a battered old truck and make their way to California to look for work. When they arrive they find hundreds of others like them being forced to work for breadline wages. they begin working as fruit pickers, strike-breakers replacing the people who have been trying to establish a union but their consciences force them to leave. Steinbeck records his emotions and experiences during a journey of rediscovery in his native land