An American author and winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature, John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr., b. Salinas, Calif., Feb. 27, 1902, d. Dec. 20, 1968, based most of his novels on the American experience, often with sympathetic focus on the poor, the eccentric, or the dispossessed. Early Life and Works Steinbeck grew up in Salinas Valley, a rich agricultural area of Monterey County and the setting of many of his works, where he learned firsthand of the difficulties of …showed first 75 words of 989 total…

…showed last 75 words of 989 total…of someday buying a farm together. The dream is shattered when Lennie accidentally kills the wife of a rich farmer and is then sought by a lynch mob. He and George tenderly recall their dream just before George shoots Lennie to save him from the crueler death he will inevitably face at the hands of the mob. The book established Steinbeck as a writer of distinction. It was made into a play shortly after publication.