Steinbeck (22 page)

Norwegian rights pay more than British. Maybe the income tax is less.

John.

[Los Gatos]
[July 1938]

Dear Annie Laurie:

Your good letter came this morning. I am very much pleased that the cast will remain intact or nearly [for the road tour of
Of Mice and Men].
I'm afraid George K. is angry with me for what he must think is a lack of interest. It isn't, but I had this new book on my soul. When it is done I'll be free to do a lot of things.

I am quite sure no picture company would want this new book whole and it is not for sale any other way. It pulls no punches at all and may get us all into trouble but if so—so. That's the way it is. Think I'll print a foreword warning sensitive people to let it alone. I took three days off over the fourth. Getting back to work today. I've just scratched the surface so far. Carol thinks it is pretty good.

Can you get M & M licensed in England? I doubt it for general showing.

Please tell George K. he can make the changes he wishes in script.

 

I hope Pat doesn't lose money on the short stories. Competing with Hemingway isn't my idea of good business. [Ernest Hemingway's
The Fifth Column and The First Forty-Nine Stories
came out this year.]

I'll bet it is hot there now. Thank goodness I'm not there. But once this work is done I might do anything. It's the culmination of three years of work.

Have fun. I'm sick of holding a pen. I've done 2,200 words today. So long. Write often.

John

Los Gatos
July 22, 1938

Dear Elizabeth:

Your letter came this morning. I hope to God that Pat survives.

Eight more days and if nothing happens I should have half of my first draft of this novel done. Again that is not to be told. I'm glad about it though. With crossed fingers, I should have the whole first draft done in about two months and a half. But I've been lucky this far.

In the event the worst happens to Pat I think it would be just as well to be ready. Please use your own judgment entirely in picking a new publisher. I have no choice. I have one or two dislikes but I don't even know that they are fair. Get a Bradstreet report on whoever you pick. All things else being equal, pick the one who makes the highest offer. We'll have to pick up a year of royalties if Pat goes bankrupt. I think that hereafter, if I can get it, it might be a good idea to get all the advance possible. Why shouldn't we be getting the interest as well as the publisher? I'm not being grabby but printers practically always get paid. Writers are an afterthought.

Frankly this hasn't worried me a bit. We have enough to eat on for a long time to come. It does stop negotiations we were making for a little ranch in the hills. Have to stop that until the thing clears or doesn't. This place is getting built up and we have to move. Houses all around us now and so we will get back farther in the country. But next time we'll be in the middle of fifty acres, not two. I can hear the neighbors' stomachs rumbling. I hope to God Pat can do it and I will do anything to help him but hereafter I think the publisher will be the natural enemy. Pat is different.

Don't worry about it. We love you too and trust you and your judgment completely.

Bye. I'm sorry this is being a bother to you.

John

[Los Gatos]
[September 1938]

Dear Louis and Mary:

We have a title at last. See how you like it. The Grapes of Wrath from Battle Hymn of the Republic. I think it is swell. Do you? Now both of us are working. Carol started typing from handwritten ms. She hopes to catch up before I am done. And at the rate she goes she surely will. Then we'll have a clear copy to work on. I'm even working today—Sat. Hope my energy holds out. Another 6 weeks should do it.

Love
John

Los Gatos
September 10, 1938

Dear Elizabeth:

Your letter came this morning—Monday. I don't much understand the meaning of this new contract arrangement but with you there, thank heaven I don't have to. About the title —Pat wired that he liked it. And I too am glad because I like it better all the time. I think it is Carol's best title so far. I like it because it is a march and this book is a kind of march—because it is in our own revolutionary tradition and because in reference to this book it has a large meaning. And I like it because people know the Battle Hymn who don't know the Star Spangled Banner.

You are quite right, we are nearly nuts. The foundations of the new house are going in. Carol is typing mss (2nd draft) and I'm working on first. I can't tell when I will be done but Carol will have second done almost at the same time I have first. And—this is a secret—the 2nd draft is so clear and good that it, carefully and clearly corrected, will be what I submit. Carol's time is too valuable to do purely stenographic work. It will be very easy to read and what more can they want? And still I can't tell how much longer it will be nor how much time and I don't intend to think about it but I am fairly sure that another sixty days will see it done. I hope so. I've been sitting down so long I'm getting office spread. And I'm desperately tired but I want to finish. And meanwhile I feel as though shrapnel were bursting about my head. I only hope the book is some good. Can't tell yet at all. And I can't tell whether it is balanced. It is a slow, plodding book but I don't think it is dull.

I haven't left this desk since March, what with the other book and this one. When I'm done I'll probably go nuts like a spring lamb. Never have worked so hard and so long in my life. Probably good for me but I'm soft now physically and must get in some hard digging work when I finish. To harden up.

Elizabeth, I wish you would come out here to help us celebrate its finish. Couldn't you and Larry [Lawrence Kiser, Elizabeth Otis's husband] come out for Thanksgiving? We would have fun. Probably have to camp more or less but it would be a fine thing. You got very little rest this summer.

Love to all,
John

Los Gatos
[October 1938]
Monday

Dear Pat:

We were in S. F. for a few days. Just got back today and found your letter waiting. We've been camping in the old kitchen. Carol hasn't been able to type because of the mess. Today, however, our rooms are done and she began work. I don't know how long it will take her. There have been delays about the house. I note your suggestion that I send pieces of the ms. Really I'd rather not. I want it all together and will send it all just as soon as I can. If you aren't planning to publish before April, there'll be plenty of time. But I'd rather not split it up.

Of course I would like to believe your enthusiasm justified. I'm still tired and it seems. pretty bad. And I am sure it will not be a popular book. I feel very sure of that. I think to the large numbers of readers it will be an outrageous book. I only hope it is better than it seems to me now. I'm rested enough now to start revisions. We'll get it done just as soon as possible.

Love to Dorothy and Paco [Covici's wife and his son, Pascal, Jr.] and to you

John

[Los Gatos]
[1938]

Dear Elizabeth:

This afternoon by express we are sending you the manuscript of The Grapes of Wrath. We hope to God you like it. Will you let us know first that you received it and second what you think of it. I forgot to put the enclosed in [the words and music of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”]. I should like the whole thing to go in as a page at the beginning. All the verses and the music. This is one of the great songs of the world, and as you read the book you will realize that the words have a special meaning in this book. And I should like the music to be put there in case anyone, any one forgets. The title, Battle Hymn of the Republic, in itself has a special meaning in the light of this book.

Anyway there it is, and we will be hanging on your opinions because we know so well they will be honest and untouched by publicity.

Love to all of you,
John

Los Gatos
January i, 1939

Dear Pat:

I'm laid low for the first time in twenty years. Have to stay in bed for two weeks. Metabolic rate shockingly low. I think I worked myself past the danger point on that book. Broke out in a neuritis and only a basal metabolism test showed the reason. Anyway I'm in bed and can get some letters written for the first time in ages.

We met Elizabeth and Larry in L.A. and brought them up. Enjoyed having them so much. E. and I went over some parts of the book and made a few minor changes. I've never heard whether you like the book so well now that it is finished. I think it is a pretty good job technically. At least I'm not as down-hearted about it as I usually am after finishing.

I hope our wire made sense. The point is this—The fascist crowd will try to sabotage this book because it is revolutionary. They try to give it the communist angle. However, The Battle Hymn is American and intensely so. Further, every American child learns it and then forgets the words. So if both words and music are there the book is keyed into the American scene from the beginning. Besides it is one of the finest hymns I know.

By the way—are there any cheap editions of In Dubious Battle? It has been made required reading in a number of English courses of the University of California and one of the Professors asked and I didn't know. I seem to remember that Blue Ribbon was going to do it. Did they?

It is beautiful here. I can look out the window at the valley below. But I want to get out and plant things.

Write when you have time. It's so long since I've been able to write a letter that I'm rusty at it.

love to all
John

Los Gatos
January [3] 1939

Dear Pat:

Your wire came this morning and I was going to answer it but it is hard to say anything in a wire and besides the clerks have been getting things pretty garbled lately. Elizabeth and I went over the mss and made some changes. I made what I could. There are some I cannot make. When the tone or overtone of normal speech requires a word, it is going in no matter what the audience thinks. This book wasn't written for delicate ladies. If they read it at all they're messing in something not their business. I've never changed a word to fit the prejudices of a group and I never will. The words I changed were those which Carol and Elizabeth said stopped the reader's mind. I've never wanted to be a popular writer—you know that. And those readers who are insulted by normal events or language mean nothing to me. Look over the changes and I think they will be the ones you made. The epithet shit-heads used on the people in the hamburger stand, I will not change. There is no term like it. And if it stops the reader the hell with him. It means something precise and I won't trade preciseness even if it's colloquial preciseness.