Subsequent novels proved anticlimactic--Sweet Thursday (1954), a sentimental sequel to Cannery Row; The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957), a burlesque; and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), a moralistic tale about a decaying Long Island seaport. Steinbeck wrote popular sketches of his travels in Once There Was a War (1958), Travels with Charley (1962), and America and Americans (1966). He spent many of his later years writing a modern version of Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, which was published, incomplete and posthumously, as The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976). He has remained popular principally, however, for his compassionate portrayal of America's forgotten poor.(griolers) The works of Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by U.S. novelist John Steinbeck is one of the most powerful chronicles in American literature of the Depression of the 1930s. It deals with the Joads, a family that loses its farm through foreclosure and leaves the Oklahoma Dust Bowl for California in the hope of finding work. The eldest generation has the comfort of religion, the next one has a dogged perseverance, but the youngest has little to believe in. Embittered by the brutal exploitation of migrant workers, Tom, who had been jailed for murder and who later kills again, becomes a labor organizer. In this Pulitzer Prize-winning (1940) novel, Steinbeck alternates his narrative with serious discussion of the problems of migrant laborers.(Groliers) Of Mice and Men (1937; film, 1939), a short novel by John Steinbeck set in Salinas, Calif., has been called Steinbeck's most successful work. The novel deals with two migrant workers: Lennie, a physically powerful but mentally retarded giant, and George, his friend and protector. They share the dream of someday buying a farm together. The dream is shattered when Lennie accidentally kills the wife of a rich farmer and is then sought by a lynch mob.
