Steinbeck A Life in Letters

New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1975. BOOK: Non-Sticky Adhesive Tape Residue to Front, Rear Free Endpapers; Corners, Spine Bumped; Heavy Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Moderately Soiled. DUST JACKET: Heavily Rippled (From Previous Owner's Use of Non-Archival Jacket Cover); Lightly Creased; Lightly Chipped; Slight Yellowing Due to Age; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. BOOK NUMBER: 1075. EDITED BY: Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten. FRONTISPIECE PHOTOGRAPH BY: Toni Frissell. MAPS BY: Libra Graphics, Inc. JACKET DESIGN BY: Mel Williamson. CONTENTS: Preface; Note; 1923-1932; 1932-1936; 1936-1939; 1939-1943; 1943-1948; 1948-1949; 1950-1952; 1952-1954; 1955-1957; 1957-1959; 1959; 1960-1961; 1961-1963; 1963-1965; 1965-1968; Appendix; Index. SYNOPSIS: "In sixty years I've left a lot of tracks," John Steinbeck wrote in 1962, six years before he died. His letters are a record of those tracks, and a fascinatingly alive record it is. The first major collection of Steinbeck's letters, most of which have never been published anywhere, this book constitutes a swift-currented autobiographical narrative and is imbued with all the passionate force Steinbeck brought to his life and art. It opens with the early years in California, when he said, "I think I shall write some very good books indeed." It extends through the writing of the plays and novels (twenty-nine in all)--"We have a title at last. See how you like it. The Grapes of Wrath from Battle Hymn of the Republic." And it continues through the winning of the Nobel Prize and closes with a last 1968 note from Sag Harbor that ends in mid-sentence. To John Steinbeck, diffident in person and hating the telephone, letter-writing was not only a warm-up for his work but also his most natural means of communication. "I have never been able to trust speech as communication of anything except love and desire or hustling." This, then, is not Steinbeck the careful worker, the chooser of words, the balancer of phrases; this is the spontaneous, inadvertent, private man, the man behind the scenes who put down whatever came into his head without afterthought, pouring observation, ambition, and feeling into his letters. Here are the often irreverent and humorous accounts of journeys made, people met and loved and hated, his state of mind, his thoughts on women and marriage, on children and the condition of the world--but chiefly and always this is the record of a man learning his craft. Distilled from more than five thousand letters, this book is part of the living legacy of one of America's greatest writers, and its reader will emerge an absorbed and moved beneficiary. Elaine Steinbeck comes from Fort Worth, Texas, where her father was a pioneer in the Texas oil fields. Formerly the wife of actor Zachary Scott, she worked in casting and stage-management with the Theatre Guild. She was married to John Steinbeck from 1950 until his death in December 1968. They lived in New York with her daughter, Waverly Scott, and his sons, Thom and John. Mrs. Steinbeck now divides her time between New York and the little house in Sag Harbor, Long Island. It was while working for the Theatre Guild that Mrs. Steinbeck met her collaborator, Robert Wallsten, then a professional actor performing on Broadway, on tour, and in summer stock, and writing at the same time. His play Eight o'Clock Tuesday (written in collaboration with Mignon G. Eberhart) appeared on Broadway; others were performed in stock. After service in the Nave in World War II, Mr. Wallsten turned to writing exclusively: stories, television plays, translations, even a stint of film writing in Rome. He and his late wife were friends of the Steinbecks.. First Edition 1st Printing. Hard Cover. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.