John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902 of German and Irish ancestry. When he graduated from Salinas High School in 1919, Steinbeck attended Stanford University. Steinbeck majored in English and preferred to study his subjects alone as his attendance at school was infrequent so during this time he worked periodically at many different jobs and eventually left Stanford university permanently in 1925 to pursue hi writing career in New York which was very unsuccessful in …showed first 75 words of 403 total…

…showed last 75 words of 403 total…York Herald tribune and was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1962 "...for his realistic as well as imaginative writings which distinguished by a sympathetic humor and keen social perception." Throughout his life Steinbeck remained a private person who shunned publicity. He died December 20, 1968, in New York City and is survived by his third and last wife, Elaine Steinbeck and one son, Thomas, His ashes were placed in the garden of memories Cemetery in Salinas.