John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) was among the most influential American authors in modern history, best known for his stirring and realistic portrayals of life in California's Salinas Valley during the Great Depression. His most acclaimed works include Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, East of Eden, and The Grapes of Wrath, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940. Steinbeck also won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, and in 1998, the American publishing house Modern Library listed The Grapes of Wrath as the tenth-best English-language novel of the 20th century. Born in Salinas, California, Steinbeck wrote twenty-seven books before his death at the age of 66.