John Steinbeck Audio Books

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. His hometown now embraces the literary genius as their local hero, but this was not the case during his lifetime. Although he captured the region's beauty in novels such as The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, he also uncovered its seamier side in the exploitation of farm workers and social injustice. But since that time, the same community that once encouraged burning his books at the Salinas Public Library have constructed the $13.5 million National Steinbeck Center in his honor.

Steinbeck studied writing at Stanford University, but never graduated. His first novel, Tortilla Flat, was pubished in 1935 and became a critical and financial success. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for his masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath.

John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962 and the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 1964 for his legacy of American classics that continues to resonate with readers (and audiobook listeners) throughout the world. He died in New York in 1968.