Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage

by Susan Shillinglaw

Overview

Carol Henning Steinbeck, writer John Steinbeck’s first wife, was his creative anchor and the inspiration for his great works of the 1930s, which culminated with the publication of The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. When Carol and John met at Lake Tahoe in 1928, their personalities immediately meshed in creative synergy. In the next decade, the formative years that brought forth The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men, Carol and John lived in San Francisco, Eagle Rock, Pacific Grove, and Los Gatos. Their modernist circle of friends included Ed Ricketts, Joseph Campbell, John Cage, and Lincoln Steffens. But above all it was Carol who was essential in helping the novelist find his voice, leading him to write of his home, California, and the plight of the people around him. In many ways, Carol’s story is all too familiar: a creative and intelligent woman subsumes her own life and work into those of her husband. Together, they brought forth one of the most enduring novels of the twentieth century. 

Susan Shillinglaw’s extensive research for this biography included new interviews as well as previously unpublished Steinbeck and Ricketts manuscripts and letters, and Carol Henning’s own artworks, scrapbooks, and poetry. Carol and John Steinbeck is the first book to focus on the writer’s first marriage and its decisive early influences on his work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647791803
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	11/19/2024
Series:	Western Literature and Fiction Series
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Susan Shillinglaw, one of the leading experts on John Steinbeck’s life and work, directed the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University from 1987 to 2005, and the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas from 2015 to.2018. She is coeditor of John Steinbeck’s America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction; Steinbeck and the Environment; as well as Steinbeck’s Uneasy America: Re-Reading Travels with Charley. She is also the author of A Journey into Steinbeck’s California, On Reading the Grapes of Wrath. She is professor emerita of English at San Jose State University, where she was named President’s Scholar. Currently, she serves on the boards of Western Flyer Foundation and the Tor House Foundation. 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

Introduction 1

1 Renegades 10

2 Make It New: Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and Eagle Rock 34

3 Home in Pacific Grove 60

4 At Ed Ricketts's Lab 84

5 Wave Shock, 1932-35 119

6 "Viva Mexico!" 148

7 California Is a "Bomb Right Now …Highly Explosive" Writing The Grapes of Wrath 164

8 Enter Gwen Conger 202

9 On the Sea of Cortez 217

10 Life in Fragments 237

Coda 257

Notes 263

Selected Bibliography 295

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

Shillinglaw presents the first comprehensive portrait of this dynamic couple. Scholars will benefit from the extensive notes and bibliography; others will particularly appreciate the selection of photographs, some of them especially candid and revealing. Highly recommended.”—Choice Magazine

Choice Magazine

Shillinglaw presents the first comprehensive portrait of this dynamic couple. Scholars will benefit from the extensive notes and bibliography; others will particularly appreciate the selection of photographs, some of them especially candid and revealing. Highly recommended.”
—Choice Magazine 

"Shillinglaw contends the Pulitzer Prize-winning Grapes of Wrath is their 'shared creation.' She argues that Carol was a much larger influence on the novelist’s life and work than has been previously acknowledged. In this lively, absorbing biography, she describes John’s and Carol’s families, the impact of friends and travel, and the creative process that culminated in John’s writing. Carol left few written records or letters, thus her life is portrayed here from previously unavailable scrapbooks, photographs, and poetry. . . . Recommended for Steinbeck enthusiasts as well as readers interested in 20th-century American novelists."
—Library Journal, Nov. 13, 2013


"In Portrait of a Marriage, Shillinglaw sets out to reveal the impact Carol Henning Steinbeck (1906-83) had on John Steinbeck's (1902-68) early works, particularly The Grapes of Wrath. This marks the first time Shillinglaw, or any academic for that matter, has so comprehensively researched the role Carol Steinbeck played in the literary work of her husband. Through extensive research, she tracks the creative synergy of the Steinbeck partnership, which inspired some of the greatest works in the American literary canon."
—Resources for American Literary Study


"Scholars and fans of John Steinbeck are fortunate to have two fine biographies available—Jackson Benson’s (1990) and Jay Parini’s (1995). . . .  And now another indispensable source can be placed beside these classics, Susan Shillinglaw’s Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage published by the University of Nevada Press."
—Tom Barden, The Steinbeck Review, Fall 2013


"Nobody knows more or writes better about the life of Steinbeck than Susan Shillinglaw . . . Her superb scholarship and elegant style are equally evident in Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage, the biography of Steinbeck's marriage to Carol Henning, a Jazz Age rebel with a Great Depression conscience. As Shillinglaw observes, John and Carol were no Scott and Zelda. But their dramatic story book reads like a novel — unfortunately, one with a similarly unhappy ending."
—William Ray, Steinbeck Now


“A fascinating story that needs to be made known widely . . . Not just the story of Carol and her relationship to John, but a new and revealing look at Steinbeck himself. So much is new here, and the manuscript pushes so deep into the lives of the Steinbecks, that it might well become the primary biography of that period.”
—Jackson Benson, author of John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography


"Shillinglaw's primary research makes this book impressive, and her writing is wonderfully clear and effective. A book that will appeal both to sophisticated scholars and the general public. I loved this book!"
—Melody Graulich, editor of Western American Literature


"Fascinating as it lays open the background of two intriguing personalities"
—New York Journal of Books


"Shillinglaw — resident scholar at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas and professor of English at San Jose State — draws a compelling portrait of this intelligent modern woman."
—San Jose Mercury News

"As biographer Susan Shillinglaw reminds us in her insightful, important, and necessary new work, there was a time when the man who wrote The Grapes of Wrath was a mere struggling writer; an acknowledged talent, yes, but always on the edge of failure with an uncertain future. Thus we have Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage. And in this new book, Shillinglaw makes a powerful case for the idea that Steinbeck’s first wife had everything to do with his ability to persevere, to create a body of work that drew notice to his burgeoning talent, and to carry on despite all the pressures (fiscal, psychological, and otherwise) that plague serious writers attempting to emerge. . . . This wonderful new biography offers plenty of echoes of Steinbeck, but its real value is in restoring to memory the voice, style, and persona of Carol Henning Steinbeck."
—M. J. Moore in Neworld Review, vol. 7 no. 48

 

From the Publisher

09/16/2013
As portrayed by San Jose State University English professor and Steinbeck expert Shillinglaw (A Journey into Steinbeck's California), John Steinbeck's first wife, Carol Henning Steinbeck, was witty, gifted, and fiercely practical. In addition, she loved the limelight and was adept at grand gesture. Her husband, though driven, tended to be moody and self-absorbed. Carol, according to this impressive biography, was also the driving force behind John's political conscience, and assisted him with The Grapes of Wrath ("To Carol who willed it," the dedication reads in part). But the wealth and fame brought by the novel's success also brought disappointment, estrangement, and divorce. "In another era," Shillinglaw writes with eloquence and grace, " might have run a small company, shaped something larger than John into a force for good but she could not or would not imagine great things for herself." In later life, Carol Steinbeck took offence at comparisons to Zelda Fitzgerald, but like Zelda, she has been blessed with a terrific biographer. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly