Beschreibung:

STEINBECK, JOHN. 1902-1968. Autograph Manuscript Signed ("John Steinbeck"), his journal for February-March 1938 as he struggles with Salinas and the Associated Farmers, the dawning of an idea for a new novel which became "L'Affaire Lettuceburg," 7 pp, February-March 1938, in a commercially printed journal, front cover labeled 1933, and inside the front cover in Steinbeck's hand: "New m.s.s. whatever they may be / John Steinbeck 1933 / The story of the red pony," journal begins on page numbered 95, the first 94 pages torn away.
STEINBECK'S JOURNAL AS HE PREPARES FOR HIS MASTERPIECE THE GRAPES OF WRATH. The manuscript begins under the heading simply "February – 1938" beginning with the writer attempting to write his way out of his problem: "It is good to write to oneself – not to talk out loud for there are echoes in that and one is doubly alone, but to write out of confusion – some solution might appear – like in detective stories. All right then. There were the years of work and no reaction to my work. Three novels written published and remaindered. A pile of stories no one would buy..." The problem however is not lack of success but too much of it, "... the reason for putting all this down is not boastfulness, but an attempt to find why all this fame is so full of misery...."
In the next entry, headed "Feb 28 38," he begins describing a party, as well as an article on the "starvation in the valleys." He records a visit from a reporter from Fortune magazine to discuss migrants, and notes: "Must be careful. Must not get angry. I know perfectly well the danger I am running in exposing the Associated Farmers. They are quite capable of murder or of faking a criminal charge. And if they do, I will be alone ... Carol does not understand the seriousness of the matter. The fight will be soon now."
Following on the same page, but headed "March," he notes his trip to Visalia, and turns to writing: "The old fire is beginning to burn...." He speaks cryptically of the gas masks in relation to the lettuce strikes in Salinas, relating the act of writing to his own gas mask: "Kill a man and he retains his dignity but gas him and he becomes ridiculous." Interestingly he turns to Hitler and the war in Europe ("a business man's war"), and provides a 2-page analysis of the war and his predictions for its shape ("Hitler will be so frightened at what he has done that his orders will become insane ... Hitler dies, or commits suicide"). Importantly, he relates the horrors and stupidity of war to the horrors of the migrants in Salinas Valley, and the stupidity of their bosses: "Sooner or later I will have to take my sock at Salinas. Why not now? Why not a short satirical book about the lettuce strike ... I can hurt them more with satire than any other way. I don't see why not. About sixty-thousand words. The whole stupid pig-like thing. Never show anything but the employer group and show them as stupidly as they are."
Here Steinbeck has struck upon the idea that would become the "L'affaire de Lettuceburg," an early attempt to tell the Salinas migrants' story and paving the way for The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck worked on the manuscript from March to May, writing 70,000 words, but abandoned it as too mean. He wrote to Elizabeth Otis, the book was "full of tricks to make people ridiculous ... I'm not ready to be a hack yet." But having purged his anger with the bosses, Steinbeck was now ready to hone his focus on the story of the migrants, imbuing it with empathy and understanding and conveying the richness and pain of their experience.
Steinbeck kept a daily journal of his writing of The Grapes of Wrath, published as Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938-1941. The published journal begins with a single entry for February 7, 1938, and then jumps immediately to May 31, 1938, as he embarks on the final version of his new novel. The notebook pages preceding the present manuscript have been removed, perhaps containing the February 7 entry. Why these entries were not published is open to speculation, but toward the end of this manuscript, called by Steinbeck "the howling page," he notes, "Must put it all down here and then someday burn this book." In any case, this heretofore unknown Steinbeck journal provides a raw and important look at the writer's journey as he works his way toward his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath.