Synopses & Reviews
April 2014 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Viking hardcover publication of Steinbecks crowning literary achievement
First published in 1939, Steinbecks Pulitzer Prizewinning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from 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.
A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one mans fierce reaction to injustice, and of one womans stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes the very nature of equality and justice in America. As Don DeLillo has claimed, Steinbeck shaped a geography of conscience” with this novel where there is something at stake in every sentence.” Beyond thatfor emotional urgency, evocative power, sustained impact, prophetic reach, and continued controversyThe Grapes of Wrath is perhaps the most American of American classics. This is a commemorative edition specially designed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath. It features color endpapers and a leather case with black foil stamping specially designed by Michael Schwab, as well as a gilded top and a California Poppy-orange ribbon.
Review
"It is Steinbeck's best novel, i.e., his toughest and tenderest, his roughest written and most mellifluous, his most realistic and, in its ending, his most melodramatic, his angriest and most idyllic. It is great in the way that
Unlce Tom's Cabin was great. One of the most impassioned and exciting books of the year." —
Time "One comes away moved, indignant, protesting, pitying. A fiery document of protest and compassion, as a story that had to be told, as a book that must be read." —Louis Kronenberger, The Nation
Synopsis
John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression follows the western moevement of wone family and a nation in search of work and human dignity. This completely updated Viking Critical Library Edition of
The Grapes of Wrath includes the full text of the novel, corrected in 1996, as well as extensive and contextual material including:
- Essays placing The Grapes of Wrath in social context, including a 1942 essay by Carey McWilliams about migrant workers and working conditions and a Martin Schockley piece on the reception of The Grapes of Wrath in Oklahoma
- Eight new essays by John Ditsky, Nellie Y. McKay, MimiReisel Gladstein, Louis Owens, and others
- An essay on the background to the composition of The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck's biographer, Jackson J. Benson
- An introduction by the editor, a chronology, a list of topics for discussion and papers, and a bibliography
Synopsis
First published in 1939,
The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature, This Pultizer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead by the "land companies" and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. A portrait of conflict between the powerful and the powerless, the novel captures the horrors of the Depression and probes the very nature of equality in America.
"It is Steinbeck's best novel, i.e., his toughest and tenderest, his roughest written and most mellifluous, his most realistic and, in its ending, his most melodramatic, his angriest and most idyllic. It is great in the way that Unlce Tom's Cabin was great. One of the most impassioned and exciting books of the year." —Time
"One comes away moved, indignant, protesting, pitying. A fiery document of protest and compassion, as a story that had to be told, as a book that must be read." —Louis Kronenberger, The Nation
About the Author
John Steinbeck (19021968) was born in Salinas, California, and died in New York City. He remains one of the most prolific and influential authors of his generation and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
Table of Contents
The Grapes of Wrath Editor's Preface to the Second Edition
Chronology
A Note on the Text
I. The Grapes of Wrath: The Text
Map of the Joads' Journey
II. The Social Context
Frank J. Taylor, California's Grapes of Wrath
Carey McWilliams, California Pastoral
Martin Shockley, The Reception of The Grapes of Wrath in Oklahoma
III. The Creative Context
Jackson J. Benson, The Background to the Composition of The Grapes of Wrath
Robert DeMott, "Working Days and Hours": Steinbeck's Writing of The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck, Suggestion for an Interview with Joseph Henry Jackson
IV. Criticism
Editors' Introduction: The Pattern of Criticism
Frederic I. Carpenter, The Philosophical Joads
Peter Lisca, The Grapes of Wrath as Fiction
Robert J. Griffin and William A. Freedman, Machines and Animals: Pervasive Motifs in The Grapes of Wrath
John R. Reed, The Grapes of Wrath and the Esthetics of Indigence
Patrick W. Shaw, Tom's Other Trip: Psycho-Physical Questing in The Grapes of Wrath
John J. Conder, Steinbeck and Nature's Self: The Grapes of Wrath
Louis Owens, The American Joads
John Ditsky, The Ending of The Grapes of Wrath: A Further Commentary
Nellie Y. McKay, From "Happy [?]-Wife-and-Motherdom": The Portrayal of Ma Joad in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Mimi Reisel Gladstein, The Grapes of Wrath: Steinbeck and the Eternal Immigrant
Topics for Discussion and Papers
Bibliography