John Steinbeck was born today, February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California in a stately home on Central Ave (now open as a popular luncheon spot). He's been called "a giant of American letters," and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature. During his writing career, he authored 33 books, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He’s widely known for Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), Of Mice and Men (1937). His Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. In the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million copies. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

Steinbeck was raised with modest means. His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, tried his hand at several different jobs to keep his family fed: He owned a feed-and-grain store, managed a flour plant and served as treasurer of Monterey