Scott Bradfield

No writer was better suited to chronicle the Depression than John Steinbeck

William Souder reminds us not only of Steinbeck’s empathy for the dispossessed but of how deeply he researched his novels, living for months in migrant camps

Steinbeck always expressed empathy for those sad, aspiring, doomed creatures that were so much like himself. Credit: Getty Images
  • Comments

  • Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck

    William Souder

    Norton, pp. 446, £25

Already a subscriber? Log in

This article is for subscribers only

Subscribe today and get a £30 Amazon gift card if you correctly predict the next US president.

Offer ends in ${days} days ${hours} hrs ${minutes} mins ${seconds} secs
  • The weekly edition delivered, via the Spectator app
  • Unlimited access to spectator.co.uk
  • Spectator newsletters and exclusive events
  • The chance to win a case of Pol Roger Champagne

Read next

Trending

Martin Gayford

How a single year in Florence changed art forever

From the magazine
The story goes that one day early in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci was strolling through Florence with a friend. Near the Ponte Santa Trinita they came across a group of gentlemen disputing a point in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Seeing Leonardo, they asked him to explain the passage. At that same moment, Michelangelo Buonarroti

Because you read about american literature

Also by Scott Bradfield

Latest

Comments

Join the debate today

Guess the new US president when you subscribe, and get a £30 Amazon gift card.

Already a subscriber? Log in