John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression follows the western moevement of wone family and a nation in search of work and human dignity. This completely updated Viking Critical Library Edition of The Grapes of Wrath includes the full text of the novel, corrected in 1996, as well as extensive and contextual material including:
- Essays placing The Grapes of Wrath in social context, including a 1942 essay by Carey McWilliams about migrant workers and working conditions and a Martin Schockley piece on the reception of The Grapes of Wrath in Oklahoma
- Eight new essays by John Ditsky, Nellie Y. McKay, MimiReisel Gladstein, Louis Owens, and others
- An essay on the background to the composition of The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck's biographer, Jackson J. Benson
- An introduction by the editor, a chronology, a list of topics for discussion and papers, and a bibliography
The Grapes of Wrath
Editor's Preface to the Second Edition
Chronology
A Note on the Text
I. The Grapes of Wrath: The Text
Map of the Joads' Journey
II. The Social Context
Frank J. Taylor, California's Grapes of Wrath
Carey McWilliams, California Pastoral
Martin Shockley, The Reception of The Grapes of Wrath in Oklahoma
III. The Creative Context
Jackson J. Benson, The Background to the Composition of The Grapes of Wrath
Robert DeMott, "Working Days and Hours": Steinbeck's Writing of The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck, Suggestion for an Interview with Joseph Henry Jackson
IV. Criticism
Editors' Introduction: The Pattern of Criticism
Frederic I. Carpenter, The Philosophical Joads
Peter Lisca, The Grapes of Wrath as Fiction
Robert J. Griffin and William A. Freedman, Machines and Animals: Pervasive Motifs in The Grapes of Wrath
John R. Reed, The Grapes of Wrath and the Esthetics of Indigence
Patrick W. Shaw, Tom's Other Trip: Psycho-Physical Questing in The Grapes of Wrath
John J. Conder, Steinbeck and Nature's Self: The Grapes of Wrath
Louis Owens, The American Joads
John Ditsky, The Ending of The Grapes of Wrath: A Further Commentary
Nellie Y. McKay, From "Happy [?]-Wife-and-Motherdom": The Portrayal of Ma Joad in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
Mimi Reisel Gladstein, The Grapes of Wrath: Steinbeck and the Eternal Immigrant
Topics for Discussion and Papers
Bibliography
“Steinbeck is a poet. . . . Everything is real, everything perfect.” —Upton Sinclair, Common Sense
“I think, and with earnest and honest consideration . . . that The Grapes of Wrath is the greatest American novel I have ever read." — Dorothy Parker
“It seems to me as great a book as has yet come out of America.” —Alexander Woollcott
