Profile of the Day: John Steinbeck

Do you remember reading The Grapes of Wrath? On this day in 1968, author John Steinbeck died at the age of 66.

Image: John Steinbeck / Wikimedia Commons

The acclaimed American novelist was born John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. His paternal grandfather, Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck, had shortened the family name to Steinbeck after immigrating to the United States.

After leaving his studies at Stanford, Steinbeck found work as a freelance writer and began writing his first novels. He found moderate success as a novelist after publishing Tortilla Flat and Of Mice and Men, but his greatest success came in 1939 when he published the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. The story followed an Oklahoma family during the Dust Bowl and their struggle to migrate to California at the height of the Great Depression. Steinbeck would win the Pulitzer Prize for the novel, which is considered to be Steinbeck’s masterpiece. In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Explore John Steinbeck’s family tree on Geni and share how you’re related to the author.

View John Steinbeck’s Geni Profile