Published in 1989, twenty-one years after the author’s death and a half-century after the appearance of his masterpiece, John Steinbeck’s Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath is a fascinating look behind-the-scenes of the composition of a novel.
Edited by Robert DeMott, the volume is divided into two parts, including those entries written from May through October 1938 during the actual composition of Grapes. A second series of journal entries—making up part II of this volume—were written the following year, after the novel’s widespread success, as Steinbeck attempted a new project in the face of unwanted attention.
Priceless Look Behind-the-Scenes of The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck was a relatively reclusive man, an artist who shied away from the public eye even as he was being recognized worldwide for his masterful works like as Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, and The Grapes of Wrath. As such, texts like Working Days and 1969’s Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters are priceless peeks into not only his writing process, but his psyche as well.
Readers expecting to learn a great deal about the how the author “created” the story of the Joad family’s migrant experience, how it unfolded in his mind, or insight into the characterizations, may be disappointed with Working Days. When he sat down on May 31st, 1938 to write the novel in a five-month burst of creative energy, he’d already had two unsuccessful attempts at it, and the story was firmly entrenched in his mind. Not even a written outline has ever been found, let alone notes.
Steinbeck Wrote Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel in Five Months
In fact, Steinbeck initially assumed the entire composition would take just 100 days. It ultimately required all of 148 days (with just a handful of off-days) to write The Grapes of Wrath, winner of the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
What readers will find is a testament to the daily grind of writing an extended work of fiction. Steinbeck considered the journal entries to be a sort of warm-up for the day’s writing session. It is unlikely he ever thought they would be read by anyone, much less published. "...It is rather like a prison term. Must not think too much of the end but of the immediate story...it is a long haul...when this book is finished a goodly part of my life will be finished with it."
Steinbeck's Daily Complaints and Self-Doubt
As the author loosened up his hand and mind in the late morning with these page-long entries, he wrote mostly of the daily goings-on in and around his and his wife Carol's Los Gatos, California home. Much of it reads like anyone's journal: news of the world (and imminent war in Europe), news of friends via the day's mail, and even complaints about the neighbors and the noise coming from nearby home construction.
Even more revealing in these entries is Steinbeck’s harsh self-criticism, sometimes to an almost-stunning degree for a writer of his stature and obvious talent. He seems to be worried that he'll be "found out," not a real writer at all! The self-doubt seems to then push him toward his work.
Finally, near the end of most entries, the author talks himself into getting to work, and this is where any insight into the actual novel comes. "I simply must get these people across the desert and into the field," or "I think I'll plug them into California today." It's often only a sentence of two per entry, but over a hundred entries it adds up to some interesting background of the writing of a literary classic, The Grapes of Wrath.
Steinbeck, John. Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1989, Penguin Books, 213 pages.
Dale Van Every - Dale Van Every is a freelance and fiction writer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his Masters Degree in English Literature from ...
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