The Moon Is Down
of 20th century America, which he had experienced first-hand as a reporter. Steinbeck often
populated his stories with struggling characters; his works examined the lives of the working class
and migrant workers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. His later body of work
reflected his wide range of interests, including marine biology, politics, religion, history, and
mythology. One of his last published works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue of a road trip he
took in 1960 to rediscover America. He died in 1968 in New York of a heart attack and his ashes
are interred in Salinas.
Seventeen of his works, including The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl
(1947), and East of Eden (1952), went on to become Hollywood films (some appeared multiple
times, and Steinbeck also achieved success as a Hollywood writer, receiving an Academy Award
nomination for Best Story in 1944 for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat.