Awards and Controversy

John Steinbeck is an American novelist, story writer, playwright, and essayist. Mr. Steinbeck's awards and achievements for his novels and short stories secured him a place among the great American writers of the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 for the socially-conscious novels he wrote in the 1930's. Two of these well-known books, Of Mice and Men, written in 1937, and The Grapes of Wrath, written in 1939, earned him Pulitzer Prizes. He also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's movie Lifeboat. In September 1964, Steinbeck was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon B. Johnson. On February 27, 1979, on what would have been his 77th birthday, he was honored by being placed on a U.S. postage stamp, starting the Postal Service's Literary Arts series honoring American writers. John Steinbeck is commemorated in his home town of Salinas Valley, California with The National Steinbeck Center; the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to a single author. His childhood home has been preserved and restored, and is open for tours during summer on Sunday afternoons. On December 5, 2007 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger inducted Steinbeck into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts. In addition, the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University presents the Steinbeck Award to writers and artists whose work captures the spirit of Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of people who by circumstance are pushed to the fringes.

Many of Steinbeck's works are on required reading lists in American high schools. A study by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Literature in the United States found that Of Mice and Men was one of the ten most frequently read books in public high schools. Ironically, this book is usually ranked second in each year's list of most frequently banned books. The reason is for using offensive language and being unsuited to age group. The Grapes of Wrath has been one of the most vilified works since its publication. It has been burned and banned in libraries and schools since 1939 on charges of profanity and vulgarity, and continues to be one of the most challenged books in schools and libraries. John Steinbeck is a celebrated and honored American author who happens to be one of the most frequently banned authors, but he is in good company in that regard. Other novelists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemmingway, Mark Twain, and even Ben Franklin, among many others, have had that same distinction.