John steinbeck biography quiz for kids

When Steinbeck became emotionally upset, Ricketts sometimes played music for him. Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Goldpublished inis loosely based on the life and death of privateer Henry Morgan. InSteinbeck wrote a werewolf murder mystery, Murder at Full Moonthat has never been published because Steinbeck considered it unworthy of publication.

Between andSteinbeck produced three shorter works. The Pastures of Heavenpublished inconsists of twelve interconnected stories about a valley near Monterey, which was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway Indian slaves. In Steinbeck published The Red Ponya page, four-chapter story weaving in memories of Steinbeck's childhood. To a God Unknownnamed after a Vedic hymn, follows the life of a homesteader and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works.

Although he had not achieved the status of a well-known writer, he never doubted that he would achieve greatness. Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with Tortilla Flata novel set in post-war Monterey, California, that won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal. It portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after World War Ijust before U.

They are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest and reject nearly all the standard mores of American society. In presenting the Nobel Prize to Steinbeck, the Swedish Academy cited "spicy and comic tales about a gang of paisanosasocial individuals who, in their wild revels, are almost caricatures of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.

It has been said that in the United States this john steinbeck biography quiz for kids came as a welcome antidote to the gloom of the then prevailing depression. With some of the proceeds, he built a summer ranch-home in Los Gatos. Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression.

He also wrote an article series called The Harvest Gypsies for the San Francisco News about the plight of the migrant worker. Of Mice and Men was a drama about the dreams of two migrant agricultural laborers in California. It was critically acclaimed and Steinbeck's Nobel Prize citation called it a "little masterpiece". Its stage production was a hit, starring Wallace Ford as George and Broderick Crawford as George's companion, the mentally childlike, but physically powerful itinerant farmhand Lennie.

Steinbeck refused to travel from his home in California to attend any performance of the play during its New York run, telling director George S. Kaufman that the play as it existed in his own mind was "perfect" and that anything presented on stage would only be a disappointment. Meredith and Steinbeck became close friends for the next two decades.

Steinbeck followed this wave of success with The Grapes of Wrathbased on newspaper articles about migrant agricultural workers that he had written in San Francisco. It is commonly considered his greatest work. According to The New York Timesit was the best-selling book of andcopies had been printed by February In that month, it won the National Book Award, favorite fiction book ofvoted by members of the American Booksellers Association.

Grapes was controversial. Steinbeck's New Deal john steinbeck biography quiz for kids views, negative portrayal of aspects of capitalism, and sympathy for the plight of workers, led to a backlash against the author, especially close to home. The Kern County Board of Supervisors banned the book from the county's publicly funded schools and libraries in August This ban lasted until January The film versions of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men by two different movie studios were in production simultaneously, allowing Steinbeck to spend a full day on the set of The Grapes of Wrath and the next day on the set of Of Mice and Men.

In the s and s, Ed Ricketts strongly influenced Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast to give himself time off from his writing and to collect biological specimens, which Ricketts sold for a living. Their coauthored book, Sea of Cortez Decemberabout a collecting expedition to the Gulf of California inwhich was part travelogue and part natural history, published just as the U.

However, inSteinbeck republished the narrative portion of the book as The Log from the Sea of Cortezunder his name only though Ricketts had written some of it. This work remains in print today. Although Carol accompanied Steinbeck on the trip, their marriage was beginning to suffer, and ended a year later, ineven as Steinbeck worked on the manuscript for the book.

Inafter his divorce from Carol he married Gwyndolyn "Gwyn" Conger. Ecological themes recur in Steinbeck's novels of the period. Steinbeck's close relations with Ricketts ended in when Steinbeck moved away from Pacific Grove and divorced his wife Carol. Ricketts' biographer Eric Enno Tamm opined that, except for East of EdenSteinbeck's writing declined after Ricketts' untimely death in Steinbeck's novel The Moon Is Downabout the Socrates -inspired spirit of resistance in an occupied village in Northern Europewas made into a film almost immediately.

It was presumed that the unnamed country of the novel was Norway and the occupiers the Germans. It was at that time he became friends with Will Lang, Jr. During the war, Steinbeck accompanied the commando raids of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. At one point, he accompanied Fairbanks on an invasion of an island off the coast of Italy and used a Thompson submachine gun to help capture Italian and German prisoners.

Some of his writings from this period were incorporated in the documentary Once There Was a War Steinbeck returned from the war with a number of wounds from shrapnel and some psychological trauma. He treated himself, as ever, by writing. He later requested that his name be removed from the credits of Lifeboat, because he believed the final version of the film had racist undertones.

After the war, he wrote The Pearlknowing it would be filmed eventually. It was illustrated by John Alan Maxwell. The novel is an imaginative telling of a story which Steinbeck had heard in La Paz inas related in The Log From the Sea of Cortezwhich he described in Chapter 11 as being "so much like a parable that it almost can't be".

Steinbeck traveled to CuernavacaMexico for the filming with Wagner who helped with the script; on this trip he would be inspired by the story of Emiliano Zapataand subsequently wrote a film script Viva Zapata! Steinbeck's book about their experiences, A Russian Journalwas illustrated with Capa's photos. Inthe year the book was published, Steinbeck was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

What movement did his friends support? During the Vietnam war John Steinbeck lost some friends, why? Because he supported the war. Because he was a solider in the war. Because he refused to accept the war existed. Because he started the war. He became discouraged and suffered a slight stroke. Because he had a poor diet. His work received poor reviews.

When did Steinbeck marry his third wife? Which of the following was Steinbeck's childhood influence? What was Steinbeck writing about that critics didn't approve of? American values in modern society. Behind the scenes at the White House. University of San Francisco c. University of California, Berkeley d. Stanford University. What was the name of the first book John Steinbeck published?

Which of John Steinbeck's novels told the story of young men in Monterey during the Great Depression? How many of John Steinbeck's works were made into movies? None b. Which U. John F. Kennedy b. Richard Nixon c. Lyndon Johnson d. Dwight Eisenhower. John Steinbeck was a liberal who drew the attention of the FBI for his political and social leanings.

True b. What is the name of the family? The Smiths b. The Shones c. The Joads d. The Trasks. The famous director Alfred Hitchcock directed which movie made from one of Steinbeck's novels? In recognition of John Steinbeck's work with a marine biologist, a species of sea slug was named after him. John Steinbeck had how many siblings? What city was Steinbeck born in?

Los Angeles.

John steinbeck biography quiz for kids

His mother. His father. His brother. His sister. Morte D'Arthur. Wuthering Heights. Ethan Frome. King Arthur's Tales. Grimm Fairy Tales. Little Miss and Mr Men. What did Steinbeck's books offer to people? Social attribution. Global politics. Social protest.