The Portable Steinbeck

by John Steinbeck, Pascal Covici (Introduction), Susan Shillinglaw (Introduction)

It would be impossible to overstate John Steinbeck's enduring influence on American letters. Profuse with a richness of language, sly humor, and empathy for even his most flawed characters, Steinbeck's books are still widely read and deeply relevant today.

The Portable Steinbeck is a grand sampling of his most important and popular works. Here are the complete novels Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony, together with self-contained excerpts from several longer novels, the text of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and a fascinating introduction by Pascal Covici, Jr., son of Steinbeck's longtime editor.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Short Stories, Literature, Novels

640 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1943

About the author

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception". He has been called "a giant of American letters."
During his writing career, he authored 33 books, with one book coauthored alongside Edward F. Ricketts, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas The Red Pony (1933) and Of Mice and Men (1937). The Pulitzer Prize–winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. By the 75th anniversary of its publishing date, it had sold 14 million copies.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in central California, particularly in the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden or everyman protagonists.

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The editor of this collection is actually Pascal Covici Jr., son of the Romanian Jewish-American book publisher and editor, best known for his close associations with authors such as John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, and many more noted American literary figures. In continuing and honoring celebration of Steinbeck's creativity, Covici, Jr. footnotes and introduces the various excerpt with a light touch and in enlightening ways. I did not know that

[Allan MacDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I became aware of trigger warnings at university level literature classes, I’ve had this nagging feeling that I’d been done wrong early in my young reader life. The Portable Steinbeck proves me, once again, correct. The Portable Steinbeck is a suitcase’s worth of material from Nobel winner and California native John Steinbeck. The collection includes the novels The Red Pony and Of Mice and Men in their entireties. The rest of my unremarkable classmates and I were assigned to read these two timeless masterworks of American fiction in our, respectively, seventh and tenth grade English classes. At the risk of triggering a spoiler, the titular red pony dies a painful, grotesque, lingering death by attrition—just like so many of us will. Jody, the boy who raises but never knows the joy of riding the pony, murders a buzzard seized in the act of slurping goop from the eye of the beloved pony’s cadaver. Later in this slim volume of verities, a ranch hand stuns a pregnant mare with two strikes of a ball-peen hammer to the forehead and slices the mama horse’s belly open. As the child, and the adult I’ve become, continues reading, the ranch hand extracts a bloody colt from the mama horse’s belly and thrusts the slimy orphaned horse into the arms of boy Jody. This Red Pony butchery, and George’s mercy murder of his best friend, Lenny, in Of Mice and Men, are beautiful, bracing summations of all the richness that life has in store for the kid in seventh grade and for the old malcontent rereading from the formative canon. Filling out some of the bulk of The Portable Steinbeck, gray John takes on the guise of the wise old white man sharing secrets of the mindful enlightened soul, and I’m happy enough not to be spared that either.

[Sonia Ruseler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nobody writes better about dogs- love that.
Nor with such attention to detail to nature- plants, wild critters.
This selection is a great overview to JS.
Why two stars? It is great to discover which JS you want to read whole.
But unsatisfying to have random selections.
And his lack of women and total lack of insight into women is really grating. All men all the time, except the women who wake up to make their coffee.
And when he writes with so much insight and love to dogs, it makes me wonder about his total disregard or empathy to women.

[Sandi Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

includes his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Language of Awareness from East of Eden
short stories: The Affair at 7, Rue de M- and How Mr Hogan Robbed a Bank

[Marianne Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbeck simply lifts me from my state of being and transfers me to another time and place where I can sit back and enjoy the atmosphere. This collection is kind of a disappointment in that it's just samples of his greater writings. At the same time it's a treat to take another bite of the wonderful readings I've already enjoyed so thoroughly.

[Jenny O · Rating 4 out of 5]

As long as he's not writing racist stories about lazy, wine-swilling Mexicans (see my review of Tortilla Flat), Steinbeck is great. I never read much Steinbeck before this summer, and I'm sorry I've missed him. One of my favorites so far is the story "Flight." There's not a lot of dialogue or action, but the character changes so dramatically. I'm looking forward to teaching this!

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book tremendously, even though I've read several of his classics on their own, this one excerpted the best of the best. It was a treat to experience some short stories I hadn't read, some reflections from late in his life, and the Nobel acceptance speech. A must for any Steinbeck fan.

[Sheila Rocha · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like STeinbeck, you'll appreciate this diverse sampling of his works. If you don't like STeinbeck, you'll appreciate even more so the brief, more poignant writing moments that erupt from his work.

[Monica Madaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like his novels better. I liked the short stories Molly Morgan and Humbert.

I think The Snake is sort of silly. One carnivore scandalized by another carnivore's fascination with the carnivorousness of a carnivore?

[Inggita]

a collection of works

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like reading a little of a lot of stuff. So if you want a quick intro to Steinbeck read this.

[Ambermoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extracts from many Steinbecks. Made me want to read the full versions; a bit frustrating.

[Larry Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading in bits and pieces!