{"product_id":"steinbecks-landscapes-where-story-meets-place-9781643260044","title":"Steinbeck's Landscapes: Where Story Meets Place","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom one of the foremost scholars on the subject, comes our most in-depth look at John Steinbeck as a writer deeply connected to the natural world. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Among the many reasons that John Steinbeck has reached the highest tier of the American literary canon is what we have come to understand as his prescient progressivism: human dignity in the face of industrialization, a celebration of the migrant laborer, and support of the poor and working class versus the owning classes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e His vision as a writer was also fundamentally ecological, looking at man and nature holistically. To understand people, Steinbeck insisted, you must appreciate the environments they inhabit: the local trees and flowers, soil and rocks, invertebrates and frogs. Always in Steinbeck's books natural and cultural histories overlap with an animating spirit of place. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSteinbeck's Landscapes\u003c\/i\u003e is the first major work to focus on Steinbeck as a predominantly environmental writer. It highlights the places that the Nobel Prize-winning author cherished and explored throughout his life and examines the iconic stories they inspired. We learn how the Salinas Valley of his youth shaped \u003ci\u003eEast of Eden;\u003c\/i\u003e how, in \u003ci\u003eCannery Row\u003c\/i\u003e, the improbable diversity of human life washed together in a tight community not unlike a Monterey tidepool; and how, in \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e, various human connections to land and soil inform every page of Steinbeck's monumental novel. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The result is a new and fuller understanding of Steinbeck and his work, arguing that the resonant power of his prose owes much to this writer's keen and abiding sense of place.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Timber Press (OR)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781643260044\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 284\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.25h x 7.25w x 0.99d","brand":"Susan Shillinglaw","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52801263861941,"sku":"9781643260044","price":29.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/steinbecks-landscapes-where-story-meets-place-9781643260044","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}