ENGL 1302 - Charles Miller's class: Circulating Books for Steinbeck

Hailed for his novels of post-Depression American life, John Steinbeck has received equal acclaim for his short fiction. This volume examines the reception and legacy of such enduring works as ""The Red Pony,"" ""The Pearl,"" and ""The Chrysanthemums."" Critical essays on these works and others are found in this new volume, giving students studying Steinbeck's short stories assistance in understanding and writing about this author. A chronology, bibliography, index, and introduction by Yale scholar Harold Bloom enhance this new title.

During her many years of teaching introduction to fiction courses, Ann Charters developed an acute sense of which stories work most effectively in the classroom. She also discovered that writers, not editors, have the most interesting and useful things to say about the making and the meaning of fiction. Accordingly, her choice of fiction in the first edition of her The Story and Its Writer was as notable for its student appeal as it was for its quality and range. And to complement these stories, she introduced a lasting innovation: an array of the writers' own commentaries on the craft and traditions of the short story. In subsequent editions her sense of what works was confirmed as the book evolved into the most comprehensive, diverse -- and bestselling -- introduction to fiction anthology. Instructors rely on Ann Charters' ability to assemble an authoritative and teachable anthology, and anticipate each edition's selection of new writers and stories.

Carol Henning Steinbeck, writer John Steinbeck's first wife, was his creative anchor, the inspiration for his great work of the 1930s, culminating in The Grapes of Wrath. When they met at Lake Tahoe in 1928, their attachment was immediate, their personalities meshing in creative synergy. Carol was unconventional, artistic, and compelling. During the formative years of Steinbeck's career, when they lived in San Francisco, Pacific Grove, and Los Gatos, their modernist circle included Ed Ricketts, Joseph Campbell, and Lincoln Steffens. In many ways Carol's story is all too familiar: a creative and intelligent woman subsumes her own life and work into those of her husband. Together, they brought forth one of the enduring novels of the twentieth century.

A finely wrought portrait of Steinbeck's youth, friendships, marriages, travels, & the creation of each book, play, & film.