🖋️ "Started today. New house, new desk. I shall try to get 2,000 words a day. It is going to be a long journey." — May 31, 1938
"My mind is very slow. It is like a bird in a room. It hits the walls and the windows and the ceiling. I have to bring it back and center it on the work." — June 10, 1938
"I am not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people. I know I have no talent, and I am a fraud." — June 15, 1938
"This is a huge job. But I must not think of it as a huge job. It is only the small tasks of every day. Only the page I am writing today." — July 5, 1938
"This book is a piece of crap. It is not just mediocre; it is awful. The readers will never accept this." — August 16, 1938
"I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the suffering of migrants]. The world must know the truth. My body is breaking, but I cannot stop." — September 29, 1938
"My nerves are on edge, and my stomach is in a knot. I am empty. There is nothing left to squeeze out. But I must finish this." — October 20, 1938
"The Joads are at the end of the road. So am I. My head is empty and my body is tired. But since they are still on the road, I cannot stop." — October 21, 1938
"Finished this day. 11:00 AM. I am so dizzy and tired I have no feeling of satisfaction. I only know I have put everything I have into it." — October 26, 1938
"The book is coming out soon. But I am frightened. Will people understand this anger? Or will they attack me? I just want to go fishing for a while." — February 1939
On April 14, 1939, through a grueling process of self-doubt and physical exhaustion, John Steinbeck published his masterpiece. Driven by a sense of historical mission, he turned the agony of the Great Depression into an immortal work of art.
Today, February 27, marks the 124th anniversary of the birth of John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. He gave a voice to the suffering of migrants with a prose deeply rooted in human dignity. In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his "realistic and imaginative writings."
🏆 As he stated in his Nobel acceptance speech:
"The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love."
Source: 'Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck
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