Celebrating Steinbeck, ‘bard of the people’

Even in a county of bounty, the voice of a writer who spoke out

for the poor and oppressed still rings true. Readers can hear it in

his masterwork, “The Grapes of Wrath.” More than 60 years after its

publication, John Steinbeck’s chronicle of the Joads’ forced exodus

from Dust Bowl-era Oklahoma and their plight as migrant farm workers

in California sells more than 300,000 copies annually.

While set in the Great Depression, the Pulitzer Prize-winning

classic reverberates with themes that are as relevant today as they

were in the 1930s and ‘40s: homelessness, poverty, migration, moral

responsibility and the underside of the American Dream.

The film adaptation of this 1939 classic, directed by John Ford

and starring Henry Fonda, will be shown at the Newport Beach Central

Library at 5 p.m. Wednesday. The free screening is part of “Bard of

the People: The Life and Times of John Steinbeck,” a nationwide

celebration honoring the legacy of a writer who perhaps most

thoroughly explored the social, political and cultural issues of his

day.

Issues born of the Depression are also the backdrop of “In Dubious

Battle,” Steinbeck’s 1936 novel about striking workers in a

California apple orchard. The book launched his career as an “artiste

engage.” Together with “The Grapes of Wrath,” and “Of Mice and Men”

-- his portrayal of itinerant ranch hands who develop a complex bond

-- it forms a trilogy that solidified Steinbeck as a spokesperson for

the common man.

While best known for portrayals of those on the margins of

society, Steinbeck also illuminated the beauty and cultural diversity

of the Central California coast in novels set in mountain ranches and

rural hideaways. Young adult readers can share this vision in “The

Red Pony,” four coming-of-age stories about the connection a young

boy forms with a hot-tempered colt.

For more mature audiences, “Tortilla Flat” depicts a California

Camelot above Monterey, inhabited by a gang of penniless paisanos.

Also set in Monterey, amid its sardine canneries, vacant lots and

flophouses, is “Cannery Row,” featuring such memorable denizens as

grocer Lee Chong, marine biologist Doc and bordello proprietress Dora

Flood.

In 1960, after suffering heart problems, Steinbeck decided he

needed to travel across the U.S. in a camper, to immerse himself in

the fabric of the country he documented so sympathetically in his

fiction. He chronicled his journey with his third wife Elaine’s

standard poodle in “Travels with Charley.” Shortly after its

publication in 1962, he received the Nobel Prize, “for his realistic

and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and

keen social perception.”

On accepting the award, the 60 year-old author observed,

“Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it and

it has not changed except to become more needed.”

Readers can find works commemorating the birth anniversary of the

“bard of the people” in a first floor display at the Central Library,

1000 Avocado Ave., Newport Beach.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach

Public Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams. All titles

may be reserved by accessing the catalog at

www.newportbeachlibrary.org.