BIB_ID
269934
Accession number
MA 6426.19
Creator
Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968.
Display Date
undated [shortly after 1938 Apr. 9].
Credit line
Purchased on the John F. Fleming Fund, 2007.
Description
1 item (1 p.) ; 27.9 cm
Notes
In April 1938 the Broadway play "Of Mice and Men" won the New York Drama Critics' Circle award for best play of 1937.
Letter is incomplete, and is dated by its reference to the typed letter (carbon) from Pare Lorentz to John Steinbeck, dated 9 April 1938 (MA 6426.18), to which this is the reply.
Part of a collection of letters and telegrams primarily between John Steinbeck and Pare Lorentz.
The "long novel" may be Steinbeck's as yet untitled "Grapes of Wrath" (which he wrote between May and October, 1938) and the shorter work is probably his later abandoned satire "L'Affaire Lettuceberg."
This letter was stapled to a typed letter (MA 6426.20) from John Steinbeck to Pare Lorentz. Both, otherwise undated, are marked in pencil "rec'd [received] Apr 24 1938." MA 6426.20 was written after MA 6426.19, and was enclosed and mailed with MA 6426.20. When originally stapled, MA 6426.20 appeared as p. 1.
Letter is incomplete, and is dated by its reference to the typed letter (carbon) from Pare Lorentz to John Steinbeck, dated 9 April 1938 (MA 6426.18), to which this is the reply.
Part of a collection of letters and telegrams primarily between John Steinbeck and Pare Lorentz.
The "long novel" may be Steinbeck's as yet untitled "Grapes of Wrath" (which he wrote between May and October, 1938) and the shorter work is probably his later abandoned satire "L'Affaire Lettuceberg."
This letter was stapled to a typed letter (MA 6426.20) from John Steinbeck to Pare Lorentz. Both, otherwise undated, are marked in pencil "rec'd [received] Apr 24 1938." MA 6426.20 was written after MA 6426.19, and was enclosed and mailed with MA 6426.20. When originally stapled, MA 6426.20 appeared as p. 1.
Provenance
Sale (New York, Bonhams, 20 June 2007, lot 5233).
Summary
Concerning the delayed publication of Steinbeck's article ["Starvation Under The Orange Trees."] Speculating that the San Francisco News refused to publish the article because his "thesis was that California agriculture could not carry on for one season without serf labor and that the present fight is to maintain the serf labor and to force the migrants into a serfdom." Also reporting that he has "abandoned the long novel for the moment and [is] doing a short quick one." Expressing pessimism about the popular and critical response to his play [the dramatic version of "Of Mice and Men"]: "I imagine they are holding it open until the announcements of awards and that seems like a lost cause to me. We picked too good a season. There are too many good plays this year." Mentioning guitars and Mexico.
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