On John Steinbeck, the greatest American writer

[Latimer]

Review of a new biography:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mad-at-the-world-a-life-of-john-steinbeck-review

If you haven't read Steinbeck you should. Not simply for the stories and characters but the prose, which is amongst the most beautiful in the language:

https://genius.com/John-steinbeck-east-of-eden-chapter-one-annotated

I'd start with Cannery Row:

https://mspeacockescapes.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/cannery-row

 

[LeicsDom]

I read Of Mice and Men after seeing the play. It is not the easiest of reads because he writes in the vernacular of the mid west

 

[NotHardUp1]

Steinbeck has been justly acclaimed for his contributions to fiction.

There is no such thing as a greatest writer of a nation, a language, or the world. All great writers have strengths they bring to the effort, and their works appeal to different readers.

Appealing to the broadest spectrum or simply the most readers is one sort of achievement, but many an esoteric author may well be a greater writer but less appreciated.

After all, championship wrestling is watched and by far more people, as is Nascar, than many plays, operas, concerts, and literary broadcasts.

 

[ronboy]

Steinbeck is my favorite American author.
I read The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men when I was a high school freshmen.
I read Cannery Row as a sophomore.
Over the years, I read many of his other books.
The man was a genius, and his characters were memorable.

 

[me203]

There is no such thing as a greatest writer of a nation, a language,

How about a situation where a nation or language has only one writer?

 

[Latimer]

@ Not Hard Up What other American writers would you suggest?

 

[Cormac135]

Meh he's okay, i prefer more American Gothic writers like James Purdy.

 

[NotHardUp1]

How about a situation where a nation or language has only one writer?

On a serious note, there's no such thing. If there is a language group, there are people telling stories in that language. Whether they are written down or not, published or not, the stories live and are being perpetuated. Oral tradition goes back as far as language goes back.

@ Not Hard Up What other American writers would you suggest?

I was an English major, but have never thought of literature in terms of the greatest. Each one is significant for a different reason, in a different time, from a different vantage point.

One is great because she captured gritty reality in a universally recognizable form, another for compelling character development, and yet another for subplot management and diverging story lines.

I tend to enjoy short stories as a genre, as I like the ability to get through a story in a sitting, as well as liking the economy that an author must exercise to achieve a great work in a short amount of pages. Sagas and novels do appeal to me, but I prefer them in cinema, as I just don't enjoy being tied to a story for days and days, as it makes me feel uneasy or divided when I must do chores, go to work, or whatever, until I can finish it. And, I've never enjoyed reading on the beach, so vacation novel reading just isn't for me.

I have some favorites, but they aren't better than other writers, just wrote stories I liked.

Also really love a well-written OpEd or essay.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
John Updike
Saul Bellow
Sylvia Plath
Dorothy Parker
Flannery O'Connor
Art Buchwald
Eugene Oneill
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
Samuel Clemens
Jack London

 

[DepravedMuscleFTL]

lest we forget

Poe
Dickens
Wilde
Hemmingway
Shakespeare
Twain

 

[NotHardUp1]

Respectfully, Wilde, Shakespeare, and Dickens were not Americans nor did they live or write here.

 

[Thad1527]

I'm a reader.

It's been a long time since I've read any Steinbeck. Next library visit I'll check one out

I read James Purdy's In A Shallow Grave and decided his work isn't for me.

I've loved Anne Tyler for years, and have her latest, Clock Dance, on my desk.