John Steinbeck: O’ Rare Werewolf Writer

YOU CAN’T ALWAYS BELIEVE IN SYNTAX, the internet, biographers or trivia blogs. It is documented that John Steinbeck used 300 pencils to write East of Eden. Okay. Fine. But then, a biographer claimed he used, “…up to 60 pencils in a day. So. If my math’s correct, it took Steiny just five days to write East of Eden? He won a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer Prize and two Oscars for his work. His first book was a failed werewolf novel, set in Lake Tahoe. He mentions this in a meeting with Mike Fenberg, protagonist in Naked Came The Novelist. You’ve heard that old kid’s excuse of “My dog ate my homework?” That happened to Steinbeck, but it was a novel. His dog, Toby, ate a good chunk of his original manuscript, written in pencil, “Of Mice and Men.” Toby’s aperitif caused Steinbeck to have to rewrite from memory and delayed publication of the 1937 classic.

Steinbeck made three trips to the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His pro-labor writings earned him a tale from the FBI.

Betcha didn’t know Johnny’s real name wasn’t Steinbeck. It’s “Grossteinbeck.” His paternal grandpapa knocked off the “Gross” when he immigrated from Germany to America.

John was one unhealthy kid. At 16, he almost died from pleural pneumonia and a doctor saved his life by cutting through his rib cage to drain fluid from his lungs. Same year? Had his appendix removed. (Steinbeck; not the doctor) He had a fractured knee cap, back injuries, a renal infection, stroke, a compromised immune system, and, worse? He finally died, in December of 1968.

Seventeen of Steinbeck’s works were turned into films, including the above. In high school, I played the Burgess Meredith character of George. My pal, Jim Brandt, played Lenny. I’d like to tease that Jim wasn’t acting, but, actually, Master Brandt, besides being huge, was brain scientist smart….