On February 27, 1902, John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, in California in the USA, as son of Olive and John Steinbeck Sr.  After graduating from the Salinas High School in 1919 he went to the Stanford University which he attended until 1925, but where he never graduated.

He went to New York where he had various jobs while he tried to establish himself as a writer.  His first novel was published in 1925, but those first few publications were poorly received.  He married Carol Henning in 1930, and it wasn't until 5 years later that Tortilla Flat launched his writing career.

In 1941 Carol Henning and John Steinbeck divorced, and 2 years later he married Gwyndolyn Conger.  They had two sons: Thomas "Thom" Steinbeck who was born August 2, 1944, and John Steinbeck IV who was born June 12, 1946. Conger and Steinbeck divorced in 1949.

During World War II, Steinbeck was a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.  He died in New York City in 1968.