The Valley of the World

7 min readDec 18, 2020

“I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and the ranches in the wilder hills. I can see how I would like to do it so that it would be the valley of the world. But that will have to be sometime in the future. I would take so very long” (Steinbeck: A Life in Letters 73). Having a defining objective for all of one’s work is an admirable yet difficult method of creating art. John Steinbeck made this resolutely ambitious goal in a letter to fellow aspiring author George Albee in 1933, at which point Steinbeck had only written two moderately successful novels and was working incessantly on what would become his third, The Red Pony. Such an aspiration would have seemed daunting for anyone familiar with his middling success at the time. Yet Steinbeck understood writing is an art form that demands hard work and consistency, as indicated by those self-aware last two lines of the opening excerpt, and was willing to commit himself to actualizing his goal of creating universality within specificity. Indeed, Steinbeck went on to write the stories of the Salinas Valley region for the rest of his life, becoming an icon of American letters and a veritable patron saint of his own hometown of Salinas. His authentic evocations of place and people made him one of the greatest authors of modern American literature.

Steinbeck wrote about common people’s everyday struggles, and hopes for a better future. His most significant and lauded novels were set in California farm communities in the 1930s, during the economic hardships of the Great Depression. The ecological disaster that was the Dust Bowl pushed many American workers from the barren Great Plains to the fertile coastal valleys of the west coast. Steinbeck, a Californian who worked as a laborer to support himself financially at times, was uniquely positioned to write authentic works of fiction during this time period (“John Steinbeck” par. 2). These Depression-era novels, namely The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle, and Tortilla Flat, were sympathetic to the struggles of the working class (“John Steinbeck” par. 6). Steinbeck’s work was commended for this by writer Don DeLillo, in the collection John Steinbeck: Centennial Reflections by American Writers, saying Steinbeck “gave you a sense of dusty struggling people who’d been invisible” (Shillinglaw 34). Steinbeck shed light on the forgotten laborers of America, the working class that had been struck by economic ruin. In spite of criticism from literary pundits, he gradually became a household name and acclaimed author worldwide (Johnson par. 17). When Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, Anders Österling, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, remarked that The Grapes of Wrath provided a “poignant description” of a struggling Oklahoma family moving west during this “tragic episode” in American history (Österling par. 3). Steinbeck’s fictional tales, based on real events, of the dashed hopes of working people reflected the economic reality of America at the time of the Great Depression.

Due to a clearly defined literary style focused on the common man, Steinbeck had a notable, lasting influence on successive generations of American authors. Rudolfo Anaya, an acclaimed author best known for his coming-of-age novel Bless Me Ultima, commented that he has “tried to write honestly about the people of my community, as Steinbeck wrote about the people of his time” (Shillinglaw 3). Steinbeck inspired Anaya’s straightforward authenticity in his work, showing the impact of Steinbeck’s simple writing ethos. Furthermore, in the collection of letters Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, Steinbeck himself explained that his objective was to write “in detail but in sparse detail so that there can be a real feeling of it” (Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters 7). Steinbeck sought to communicate the physical landscape as it related to his characters, which inspired the next generation of authors to do the same. Another author, Barry Lopez, remarked that “Steinbeck’s influence on me…was like a prompt…Steinbeck made a lifetime of writing seem possible” (Shillinglaw 60). This is a great testament to Steinbeck’s literary greatness and influence as any, as his work was used as inspiration rather than being susceptible to tired, fleeting emulation. The last phrase of the quotation in particular attests to Steinbeck’s dedication to his craft, and shows that other authors drew confidence from his work ethic.

Steinbeck was not only a famed writer but a controversial political figure in his time. The proletarian themes in his Depression-era novels were seen as sympathetic to Marxism by many during the time period. In reality, Steinbeck was as anti-communist as he was anti-fascist (Johnson par. 4). Nonetheless, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began a file on Steinbeck in the 1940s, resulting in an investigation into him that banned Steinbeck from enlisting in the military (Barden xi). Despite this, Steinbeck went on to meet and exchange letters with several Presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson (Barden xii-xiv). Moreover, Steinbeck went to work as a war journalist in the European theatre of World War Two, writing The Moon Is Down, an anti-authoritarian tale of the Nazi invasion and occupation of a Scandinavian village (Barden xii). Later in his career, in the 1960s, Steinbeck was a war correspondent in Vietnam for Newsday (Barden xviii). His writings from this time were largely positive about the Vietnam war, which upset his readership (“’Steinbeck In Vietnam’: A Great Writer’s Last Reports” par. 5–6). However, Steinbeck did not write merely to please his audience, but to express his own convictions. Playwright Arthur Miller, an acquaintance of Steinbeck’s, respected his position on the war, even though Miller personally disagreed with him: “[e]ven when mistaken…when declaring support for Lyndon Johnson’s doomed Vietnam policies — the way he chose was far from easy” (Shillinglaw 67). Rather than staying neutral when faced with challenging situations, Steinbeck consistently took the position he believed to be right, even when it was unpopular to do so. Steinbeck’s political perspectives demonstrate his unwavering commitment to his beliefs, which made his writing compelling and contributed to his distinctive voice.

John Steinbeck’s literary style was unique because of his authentic, vivid descriptions of landscape and humanity alike. Steinbeck distilled the myriad stories of the eponymous Steinbeck Country onto paper, transforming it into the Valley of the World he aimed to create. His dedication to the exploration of the human spirit enabled him to create art in the form of social commentaries, presented through a sympathetic, philosophical lens. Writing is, at its core, a method of communicating stories, and Steinbeck’s unpretentious voice made his work particularly suited to a broad audience. Literature serves as a valuable artistic window into society, providing a means of expression that endures for future generations.

Works Cited

Barden, Thomas E. Introduction. Steinbeck in Vietnam: Dispatches from the War, edited by Barden. University of Virginia Press, 2012.

Johnson, Eric. “John Steinbeck, Despised and Dismissed by the Right and the Left, Was a Real American Radical.” Monterey County Weekly. 17 May 2013, Accessed 10 March 2020.

“John Steinbeck.” Encyclopædia Britannica. December 16, 2019, Accessed 4 February 2020.

Österling, Anders. The Nobel Prize in Literature, 10 December 1962, Stockholm City Hall, Stockholm, Sweden. Award Ceremony Speech. The Nobel Prize. Accessed 4 February 2020.

Shillinglaw, Susan, editor. John Steinbeck: Centennial Reflections by American Writers. University Press of Mississippi, 1988.

“’Steinbeck In Vietnam’: A Great Writer’s Last Reports.” NPR. 21 April 2012, Accessed 10 March 2020.

Steinbeck, John. Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. The Viking Press, Inc, 1969.

Steinbeck, John. Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten. The Viking Press, Inc, 1975.

The Valley of the World

Works Cited

Written by David da-phntipe