Sea of Cortez

by John Steinbeck

A leisurely journal of travel and research.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Classics, Science

598 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

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

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

On March 11, 1940, John Steinbeck and his good friend, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts (who served as Steinbeck's inspiration for the character of "Doc" in Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday) cast off from Monterey Bay with a chartered crew of four aboard a 75-foot purse seiner christened the Western Flyer. Their makeshift expedition made way for the Gulf of California. Or, as the narration goes, "Once it was called the Sea of Cortez, and that is a better-sounding and a more exciting name. We stopped in many little harbors and near barren coasts to collect and preserve the marine invetrebraes of the littoral."

The expedition concluded on April 20, 1940 and the following year, Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research was published on the heels of Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Grapes of Wrath. The book consisted of Ricketts' log, based on notes he took on the voyage and that Steinbeck edited, as well as an appendix that Ricketts compiled with photographs and drawings of specimens. Ricketts would be killed in 1948 three days after a passenger train struck his car in Monterey. To honor his friend's memory, Steinbeck republished the book as The Log from the Sea of Cortez in 1951, removing the appendix and adding a preface dedicated to his friend.

If Ricketts or Steinbeck only published Sea of Cortez, they'd have contributed more to marine biology, geography and the humanities than most. As recently as 1940, the Gulf of California had been documented with only varying degrees of accuracy; the work of an 18th century Jesuit priest named Clavigero rates higher in Ricketts' esteem than the Coast Pilot, the maritime guidebook he begrudges for its "austere tone." There was no sonar, no satellite imagery. Photographic records were poor. Communication along Lower California was primitive. Ricketts and Steinbeck sailed one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world for a month (albeit the month of calmest seas) with less technology than I'm using to write this book review.



Though my mother might get a dizzy spell to see me admit this (she's a retired science teacher), the scientific passages of the book were ones that my eyes tended to glaze over. Crustaceans and other invetrebraes are simply not fascinating subject matter for me to read about. They may be for you. The marine biology portions of the book are far from dense or jargon-filled and do have a pleasant knack for appealing to the ten-year-old explorer in all of us. Many of the classifications simply started to pass by my eyes like something Willy Wonka would make up during a tour of the Chocolate Factory.

We found extremely large sponges, a yellow form (probably Cliona), superficially resembling the Monterey Lissodendoryx noxiosa, and a white one, Steletta, of the wicked spines. There were brilliant-orange nudibranchs, giant terebellid worms, some shell-less air-breathing (pulmonate) snails, a ribbon-worm, and a number of solitary corals. These were common animals and the ones in which we were most interested, for while we took rarities when we came upon them in normal observation, our interest lay in the large groups and their associations--the word "association" implying a biological assemblage, all the animals in a given habitat.

Initially, the boats that Ricketts and Steinbeck attempt to charter in Monterey Bay are owned by Italian, Slav or Japanese sardine fishermen uneasy about anything not related to fishing. The Western Flyer proves game. Her captain, Tony Berry, is intelligent and tolerant. "He was willing to let us do any crazy thing we wanted so long as we (1) paid a fair price, (2) told him where to go, (3) did not insist that he endanger the boat, (4) got back on time, and (5) didn't mix him up in our nonsense." The rest of the crew consists of "Tex" Travis, the engineer, who demonstrates an aversion to sharing dish washing duties, and two able seamen, "Sparky" Enea and "Tiny" Colletto, who "grew up together in Monterey and they were bad little boys and very happy about it."



The highlights of Sea of Cortez for me were Ricketts' picturesque accounts of his experiences in the Gulf, which transported me to that place and time. I was reminded of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in the sense that the further the boat travels, the further back in time it seems to travel. In ports of call like Cape San Lucas, the Western Flyer is welcomed with pomp by authorities as if the shrimper was the Queen Mary. In La Paz, little boys swarm the deck once word gets out that gringos are throwing away money on worthless sea creatures. In Puetro Escondido, a rancher invites the crew on a hunting trip with Indian guides in which no hunting takes place. In Loreto, a little boy takes them on a tour.

This small boy could have been an ambassador to almost any country in the world. His straight-seeing dark eyes were courteous, yet firm. He was kind and dignified. He told us something of Loreto; of its poverty, and how its church was tumbled down now; and he walked with us to the destroyed mission. The roof had fallen in and the main body of the church was a mass of rubble. From the walls hung the shreds of old paintings. But the bell-tower was intact, and we wormed our way deviously up to look at the old bells and to strike them softly with the palms of our hands so that they glowed a little with tone.

I can imagine that the only thing grander than Ricketts and Steinbeck exploring the Sea of Cortez for a month was editing Sea of Cortez. Even though Steinbeck refused to take any credit whatsoever for the log, I was able to connect this book with the travelogue Steinbeck wrote twenty years later, Travels with Charley: In Search of America. While that book was about a successful author trying to rediscover the country he'd been writing about from the comfort of his home in Long Island and autumnal in tone, Sea of Cortez is full of spring's youthful vigor, of living in the present, exploring the flora and fauna of Old Mexico with your best friend and other men.



My list of John Steinbeck books ranked from favorite to least favorite:

1. East of Eden (1952)
2. The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
3. Sweet Thursday (1954)
4. Of Mice and Men (1937)
5. The Wayward Bus (1947)
6. Tortilla Flat (1935)
7. The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
8. Cannery Row (1945)
9. Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941)
10. Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962)
11. The Pastures of Heaven (1932)

[Laura Leaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not to be confused with the edition called The Log From the Sea of Cortez, this book is a synthesis of Steinbeck's observations while traveling the Sea of Cortez, philosophical musings, and explorations into the biological life of the ocean. It integrates the specimen notes of Ed Ricketts (marine biologist) with Steinbeck's own journal. I read most of it in anticipation of my week in San Carlos, which is featured in Steinbeck's travels.

Despite bogging down a few times (the thing is lengthy!!) the biological and environmental details were beautiful. "Sulphury-green and black cucumbers," profusions of "beautiful blue sponges," "purple urchins," "brilliant-orange nudibranchs, giant terebellid worms, some shell-less air-breathing (pulmonate) snails, a ribbon-worm, and a number of solitary corals," inhabit the book. It's enough to make you leap into the water and swim to the littoral and explore the beach wracks.

Steinbeck's writing is gorgeous - and his eye for character is astonishing. I love this about Tex:

Tex, our engineer, was caught in the ways of the harbor. He was born in the Panhandle of Texas and early he grew to love Diesel engines. They are so simple and powerful, blocks of pure logic in shining metal. They appealed to some sense of neat thinking in Tex. He might be sentimental and illogical in some things, but he liked his engines to be true and logical. By an accident, possibly alcoholic, he came to the Coast in an old Ford and sat down beside the Bay, and there he discovered a wonderful thing. Here, combined in one, were the best Diesels to be found anywhere, and boats. He never recovered from his shocked pleasure.

This is not a book for everyone. I happen to get excited over good description of the natural world, I'm patient with minutiae, and I always wanted to be an adventurer (which I'm not). Still, I can see how it could be dry for readers looking for excitement and dialogue.

I feel like I've just taken a class - not so much in biology as in observation. This is the perfect way to see a Sally Lightfoot: "The very name they are called by reflects the delight of the name. These little crabs, with brilliant cloisonné carapaces, walk on their tiptoes. They have remarkable eyes and an extremely fast reaction time." I laughed at this depiction. I've never seen a living Sally Lightfoot, but I can picture them perfectly in my mind's eye.

Reading about Mexico, and especially Baja, as it used to be (1941) caused a twinge of genuine regret for a time long gone. Cabo San Lucas is no longer the rural fishing village it once was (Costco and the hotel industry have changed it permanently) - and La Paz, Guaymas, and other coastal towns have all been modernized. I wish……..I wish I could have experienced Mexico then.

This book is a treasure

[François Vigneault · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book this during a trip to Baja California Sur (shout out to Allende Books in La Paz, an English-language bookstore well worth a quick visit if you ever find yourself there).

The book is at turns charming, incisive, bizarre, rambling, and very much of its time. Due to the nature of the subject matter, the book is chock full of somewhat discomforting descriptions of the killing of animals, and not always for strictly scientific purposes. Not sure if I would say it's an essential read, but for anyone interested in biology, Baja, philosophical musings of a major American writer, or just getting a rather unique take on life far off the beaten path in the 1940s, you'll definitely find much here that's worth your time.

[David Foresi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book. The author embarks on a scientific expedition into the Sea of Cortez. His observations and musings are often quite entertaining and sometimes hilarious.

The book follows a fairly predictable pattern. A location is reached. Collecting of specimens is done and there is often considerable documentation of just what was collected. Observations are made on the location, the scenery and often the people in the area. From there, the author usually veers off into some deeply philosophical observations about practically anything that comes into his mind. Beer is consumed, as is harder drink. The dinghy engine is taken apart and put back together as punishment for its poor performance.

The writing style is relaxed even when detailed biological observations are being described. This is truly a leisurely journey. I felt as though I had been a part of this journey.

Please note that approximately 30% of this book consists of an index and foot notes so the ending sneaks up upon the reader. This was annoying because I didn’t want the adventure to end, but we all knew it was inevitable.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the passage that stayed with me:

Some time ago a Congress of honest men refused a appropriation of several hundreds of millions of dollars to feed our people. They said, and they meant it, that the economic structure of the country would collapse under the pressure of such an expenditure. And now the same men, just as honestly, are devoting many billions to the manufacture, transportation and detonation of explosives to protect the people they would not feed.

Steinbeck wrote this in 1941.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strange, rare, hybrid beast of a book, but a beautiful one. Steinbeck and Ricketts (though it's a little unclear, in this case, where one begins and the other ends) recount their trip to collect marine specimens. We end up with anecdotes (often hilarious), descriptions of marine life, and musings upon nature, philosophy, "nonteleological thinking", and art.

Not for everyone, I suppose, but a delight for the right person.

[Kevin Driskill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is refreshing for scientific prose to be so eloquently written and Steinbeck brings a deft hand to the table. There are so many memorable parts and side stories that This tale stands out as one of Steibeck's greats.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this prior to a visit with friends to Cabo San Lucas. I was thinking this book might provide a kind of overview of the place, or, at the very least, a potential conversation piece. However, this reading is much more than just an informative travel guide. This book is about the kinds of thought processes that are invoked by the nature of a place. In this regard, this reading reminds me of many trips that I have made to the uninhabited Chandeleur Islands, which lie off the coast of Louisiana, where many friends and I have bunked for days on a lazy trawler, fishing, beach combing, and just kicking back in the way that only someone like Steinbeck can adequately describe. And please note that, when I refer to Steinbeck, I wish for equal consideration be given the co-author, Mr. Edward Ricketts, as apparently both were contributive.

This book helps the reader to recognize the importance of relating and documenting our adventures with one another. Writing is perhaps the best way for establishing a cultural artifact of our existence, and for supplementing history with what we have experienced, done, and felt in this life. Certainly, most of us don’t possess the same ability to do this as Steinbeck, but that doesn’t excuse us from the obligation to make our lives accessible to others who may be interested. Modern technology makes it much easier to do this and many millions are now doing it with their Facebook and Instagram posts. As this sort of life data accumulates, our recount of history will become much more precise, and our knowledge of one another greatly amplified. This will enhance the ability of humanity to chart its way forward.

The characters in this book consist of persistent collectors of marine organisms; but the underlying theme is that we are all collecting information, in all forms, and most everyone is a collector, whether they know it or not. Most everyone today carries a phone, photographing, texting, emailing, and talking. A profuse accumulation of information is quickly amassing digitally, and its ultimate impact will become more significant to us than the industrial revolution, the Enlightenment, the invention of the printing press, or even the rise of agriculture.

One might easily speculate from reading this book that Steinbeck and his friends had to have been smoking cannabis during this voyage. There is such an abundance of inner philosophizing and contemplation that the reader quickly discerns this less as a voyage for collecting biological specimens and more as a voyage for collecting psychic specimens. Such psychic specimens often populate the contemplative persons thoughts; but are most often quickly lost within a sea of unconsciousness because they are not adequately preserved. In this work, Steinbeck succeeds in brilliantly preserving many vital psychic artifacts, in the same way the rest of the boaters are collecting living marine creatures. This review will simply annotate some of the contemplative highlights from the book.

Schools of Fishes and Collectivism

Steinbeck speculates schools of fish are a collective that bears its own apparent intelligence. Steinbeck uses the example of how the weaker and sickly fish are quickly pushed to the edges of the school so they will be the first devoured when the school is attacked by predators. Just as human cells die and are sloughed off by the body, so the individual fish in schools seem to exist like cells comprising a greater whole. Steinbeck sees the school as somehow governed by a broader life force that is directed by what he calls the “first rule of life”, which is “living”, i.e., how to preserve itself. Steinbeck writes as follows:

“There must be some fallacy in our thinking of these fish as individuals. Their functions in the school are in some yet unknown way as controlled as though the school were one unit. We cannot conceive of this intricacy until we are able to think of the school as an animal itself, reacting with all its cells to stimuli. And this larger animal, the school, seems to have a nature and drive and ends of its own. … We suspect that when the school is studied as an animal rather than as an individual fish, it will be found that certain units are assigned special functions to perform; that weaker or slower units may even take their places in placating food for predators in preservation of the school … This decrees the death and destruction of myriads of individuals for the survival of the whole. Life has one final end, to be alive, and all the tricks and mechanisms, all the successes and all the failures, are aimed at that end.

Steinbeck suggests that this same sort of collectivism is growing in human beings, none of which individually wish to go to war, but nevertheless follow the larger school to war, like zombies, void of individual, conscious thought. The same is true for other despicable things we allow to linger about us, such as environmental degradation, abject poverty, or child exploitation. Humans have a difficult enough time wrestling with just themselves, but the power of peer pressure is almost impossible to resist. In the end, the larger schools of people are nothing like an individual person, just as the individual cells of the body are not like the person, or as the school is much more than the single fish.

Steinbeck the Jungian

In the opening pages of the novel Steinbeck describes the boat as an archetype, i.e. something fashioned instinctively out of the human subconsciousness. Later, Steinbeck refers to the ocean as “blackened depths from which arise dream symbols”, an obvious reference to Jung’s idea of the “collective unconscious”. Steinbeck sees the “collective unconscious” as a massive sea-memory or sea-thoughts which live deep in the inheritable instincts of the human mind, which can emerge both visually and audibly.

This sort of psyche memory is something beyond the realm of physical experience that is unconsciously tapped into as one perceives the proper design for a boat, a hut, or even in how they adorn and carry themselves. In the process of biological collecting, Steinbeck recognizes the instinctual activities of marine animals as evidence of this psyche memory, and he also attributes it to higher animals, including mankind. Echoing Jung, Steinbeck writes: “The harvest of symbols in our minds seems to have been planted in the soft rich soil of our pre-humanity.”

Similarly, Steinbeck doesn’t neglect Jung’s idea of the “personal unconscious”, remarking that scientists, theologians, and philosophers throw everything they can’t explain into a “taboo-box” called “mysticism” or “supernaturalism”, so that it may be easily dismissed, and they don’t have to deal with it. In the same way, Jung suggests that all humans file away disliked aspects of themselves into their “personal unconsciousness” where they can forget about them.

Jung’s idea was that we gain awareness, or grow psychically, when we learn to recognize and deal with the things we have disposed of in our “personal unconsciousness”. Even scientists and theologians hide their deficiencies in this manner, like witch doctors have done in the past, with chants, masks, powders, potions, esoteric language, and bizarre symbology. Such things are unnecessary complexity, contributing to a fog against awareness.

The Mirages

Steinbeck reports that mirages are common occurrences on the Sea of Cortez, and they invoke in him an awareness of the thin veil that exists between what we call reality and the supernatural. Steinbeck is invoked into this awareness when the mirages: “distort the land, suck up the land, and disgorge it into a brooding kind of hallucination”. Steinbeck sees that the mirages are composed of light, air, and moisture, which together conspire to perpetrate an alternate reality; thereby drawing into question what it is that humans should believe. The symbology of the Trinity is not to be missed here.

As he remarks about the mirages, Steinbeck can’t help but remember stories he has heard about invisible kingdoms, wherein heroes drift in and out of alternative existences, such as in the reported apparitions of saints, holy virgins, and Christs, all beckoning to us out of some other hazy dimension. Cruising about in the gulf, amidst these mirages, Steinbeck contemplates how physical matter blends into spirituality, and vice-versa. Life itself exists in relation to matter, as one form merges into another, like when non-life meets and enters into life, such as a rock and barnacle. Similarly, physical existence eventually merges into spiritual existence.

Lifeforms maintain energy reserves which are stolen by other lifeforms that consume them; but there is no actual waste, simply varying forms of energy. Life constantly writhes and shape-shifts in ever changing creative forms. Pain and strife arise because there is an on-going war against nonexistence, as matter seeks the energy to move, or as life forms began to lose energy and dissipate back into matter.

The Monotony of Collecting & the Coming into Awareness

On the surface, this book is simply about a group of men who circumvent the Gulf of California by trawler in order to collect various samples of all different sorts of marine life. Steinbeck mentions how very easy it is to grow tired of this collecting process. As one’s attention begins to weary, one becomes focused upon a narrower observation and may therefore miss many things that are right in front of them. Steinbeck suggests this same thing happens to people all the time, in all fields of endeavor, as enthusiasm becomes dulled with weariness.

Just as my old university professor used to encourage us by saying “arrest routine in a state of consciousness”, so Steinbeck remarks that: “when one has strength and energy of mind, their perception of the tide pools is vastly enhanced, such that it’s diversity becomes as overwhelming as the universe itself”. The same is true of not just the tide pools, but in every aspect of our lives. Too often we move through our daily tasks mindlessly and we miss so many intricate things.

If we can learn to practice something the existentialists called “phenomenology”, we can become much more enthusiastic about our environment, more appreciative, and more taken aback by the ineffable nature of it all. Steinbeck calls this “non-teleological thinking”, where one concerns themselves not with what should be, or could be, or might be, but rather with what actually is.

Non-teleological thinking necessitates seeing beyond traditional social indoctrinations, which seek to imply a predetermined causation for all that happens. Steinbeck uses the example of a recluse living near a stone quarry who hears the foreman blow a loud whistle before each blast of dynamite that is used to loosen up the stones. Having never ventured beyond his own property boundaries, the recluse has never been to the quarry and has no idea about it whatsoever; so, the recluse soon concludes that the whistle he hears causes the subsequent blast. He is thus careful never to emit a whistle. Steinbeck uses this example to discount the reality of causality, pointing out that most things have many of their relations and origins so far back into the string of causes that we can never actually discern the true cause and any attempt to do so is simply teleological pontificating.

Because of the difficulty in understanding causes, Steinbeck suggests that we take a break from trying to figure out the “why” of everything because it can make us judgmental. Steinbeck encourages us to rely more upon feeling than thinking, i.e. responding with compassion instead of judgmentalism. Steinbeck suggests that this sort of non-causal or non-blaming viewpoint arises out of the interaction of the physical and spiritual realms, and that it is the ultimate message of Christ.

What fundamentalists insist are “answers” are merely symbols, things assumed via “teleological pontificating” that is based only upon a viewpoint that is incapable of seeing the entire line of causality. Truly, something may be so because of thousands of reasons of greater or lesser importance. The one who claims to understand them all is either disillusioned, or otherwise thinks himself God.

Hope Directing Evolution

Steinbeck suggests that all things are infected with hope, which implies a change from a present condition to a future better one, i.e. the slave hopes for freedom, the weary for rest, the hungry for food, etc. Man inherently believes that he grows toward perfection or that the bad grows toward the good, even though we see that evolutionary mutations have just as often had a destructive effect.

Man is the only animal who has exerted his powers significantly beyond himself by furrowing, cutting, tearing, and blasting the world about him. Men create property, houses, money, cities, factories, businesses, jobs, art, etc. This direction for the drive and preoccupation of humanity is, Steinbeck asserts, the evolutionary direction of mankind. Steinbeck ultimately reduces this to a tendency toward collectivism: “the collecting of the human species into school-like nations of tight socialism”. But Steinbeck sees nothing in this direction that ensures it is for the better.

On the contrary, Steinbeck cites a rule in paleontology that such complications within a species often precede its extinction. In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, many believe that the human species will ultimately tear itself free of animality, march up into the stars toward perfection, and take its place beside God, purportedly assisting in the directing and ordering of the universe. And this wild belief entails there will be certain degenerated groups who are left behind. Steinbeck wonders if those left behind might not eat and starve and sleep and reproduce while bearing forth a persistent myth about a great race of people who became great and went away, like those of Atlantis.

Certainly, significant ideas like this do survive in the form of legend and myth. The spirit and thoughts of people like Socrates, Plato, Jesus, Newton, Gandhi, Einstein, MLK, etc. survive and continue among us as living entities. An idea exists only if it lives in someone, otherwise it is nonexistent. Ideas like wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility are alive, but also are ideas of war, narcissism, power, and greed. These ideas remain alive only because we continue to incubate them to live within us. Such ideas, good, evil, or somewhere in between, incubate within human forms, and, like unseen persons, endure within the “collective unconsciousness”, from whence they gain personality and emerge dramatically into our culture as what Jung referred to as “archetypes”.

The Collective

Jung termed the obvious storehouse of persisting ideas the “collective unconscious” and purported that it was actually hereditarily embedded in us, in an instinctual way, forming a vast and mysterious source from which emerge dreams, intuitions, myths, and archetypes, the latter of which impute modes of personality, ways of existing, or, as Steinbeck sees it, as Platonic ideas of perfection, such as how to build a boat.

But Steinbeck recognizes that the overriding factor within all of this is the motivation toward survival at all costs. While we love abstract good qualities and detest bad ones, we nevertheless praise the person who, though possessing the bad qualities, has succeeded economically and socially, and we hold in contempt the person whose good qualities have caused failure. While we love the good and hate the bad, we deep down prefer more to be successful than good. We are thus a paradox.

Our subconscious motivations are always oriented toward survival and so we persistently find ourselves doing things we hate. We have not yet become fully accustomed to the miracle of consciousness that would allow us to fully love things just as they are. Our species is still evolving and remains in a state of “becoming”. Steinbeck sees this as coming into collectivism because the sins we hate arise out of our individuality, the desire to be better than others, to excel beyond the typical person, to have more, to celebrate our individual merit. Yet, when the instinct of individualism is negated in favor of the broader mass of the entire species, the result isn’t always good.

Just as the schools of fish push the weaker and deteriorating fish to the edges to be first consumed by predators, so there is no reason to expect the schools of humans to be different, once collectivism comes to flourish. As we have said, it’s not individuals, but groups of people who conduct wars. The collective will not be expected to waste valuable resources keeping an aged, ill, or deformed person alive for any length of time. The collective will not be expected to allow divergent forms of thought to proliferate if it expects that it threatens the cohesiveness of the collective in any way. One may easily expect progressive limitations of freedom in the collective such as banned books, a profusion of generic products, forced education, income limitations, etc.

The result of the collective is a sacrifice of individual consciousness in favor of nurturing a broader consciousness that will do all of the thinking. Do we really want such a beastly thing to emerge among us? Would it not be an abomination of desolation, turning us all into automatons? Hmmmm … while I still have the freedom to do so, I think that I’ll go on over to the Sea of Cortez and think on this some more.

-End-

[Paul Lindstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a scientific report as you will ever come across anywhere else. Steinbeck mix reporting on what they find on this trip to "Sea of Cortez"/Gulf of California with a wide range of random thoughts and philosophy. And very often he is very funny. Well worth a read.

[Gustavo Montero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mar, ciencia y mucha cerveza. Me lo hubiera pasado chachi en la expedición del Western Flyer.

[Lorenzo Savona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is actually a collaboration with the self taught marine biologist E.F. Rickets. It was fascinating to read how John Steinbeck made this trip and how well versed he was in marine biology. It's also interesting to see the seeds of his future characters in his fellow travelers. His views on the natural world were also very contemporary, meaning now contemporary, not pre-WW2 America contemporary. And Steinbeck's careful observations of the different people on the voyage were more open and accepting than I was expecting (that's my narrow minded view of past lives).
The book can be a bit long at times, however, the time put in reading the journal is rewarded in the Epilog. This book will be with me for a long while and has made me curious to read more of John Steinbeck's novels.

[Sheri-lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun mix of marine biology, human reflection, and story telling.

Here's an example of classic Steinbeck story telling:

"Hearing a burst of chicken voices, we looked over a mud wall and saw that there were indeed chickens in the yard behind it. We asked then of a woman if we might buy several. They could be sold, she said, but they were not what one calls "for sale." We entered her yard. One of the proofs that they were not for sale was that we had to catch them ourselves. We pick out two which looked a little less muscular than the others, and went for them. Whatever has been said, true or not, of the indolence of the Lower Californian is entirely untrue of his chickens. They were athletes highly trained both in speed and in methods of escape. They could run, fly, and when cornered, disappear entirely and re-materialize in another part of the yard. If the owner did not want to catch them, that hesitance was not shared by the rest of La Paz. People and children came from everywhere; a mob collected, first to give excited advice and then to help. A pillar of dust arose out of that yard. Small boys hurled themselves at the chickens like football-players. We were bound to catch them sooner or later, for as one group became exhausted, another took up the chase. If we had played fair and given those chickens rest periods, we would never have caught them. But by keeping at them, we finally wore them down and they were caught, completely exhausted and almost shorn of their feathers. Everyone in the mob felt good and happy then and we paid for the chickens and left.
On board it was Sparky's job to kill them and he hated it. But finally he cut their heads off and was sick. He hung them over the side to bleed and a boat came along and mashed them flat against our side. But even then they were tough. They had the most highly developed muscles we have ever seen. Their legs were like those of ballet dancers and there was no softness in their breasts. We stewed them for many hours and it did not good whatever. We were sorry to kill them, for they were gallant, fast chickens. In our country they could easily have got scholarships in one of our great universities and had collegiate careers for they had spirit and fight and, for all we know, loyalty."

Hahaha. Gallant chickens.

Caveats: The teleological vs non-teleological methods in Chapter 14 kind of made my eyes glaze over, but thankfully that was mostly limited to that chapter. I also barely skimmed the Annotated Phyletic Catalogue, mostly looking at the summaries.

Post script: I also found a copy of "The Log from the Sea of Cortez" (ISBN 0141186070) which does not have the Annotated Phyletic Catalogue but does have a lovely introduction by Richard Astro and an appendix titled "About Ed Ricketts" both of which brought more enjoyment to the original reading.

[Kurtie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically a journal from a trip Steinbeck took with his friend Ed Ricketts to the Gulf of California in 1940. The goal was to study and collect the biology of the region. Aside from that, Steinbeck add philosophical musings and humour. Because this is a factual account of their voyage, the log provides a good picture of Steinbeck himself.

Humour comes out early when Steinbeck describes in great detail the equipment brought on this expedition. He claims to have included this because he feels expeditions would be much easier if explorers, scientists, etc would publish lists of equipment used on their expeditions. He and Ricketts didn't find it easy compiling six-months worth of equipment and supplies. I love Steinbeck's line in chapter one, "The camera equipment was more than adequate, for it was never used."

His sarcasm comes out when describing the cormorants in Cabo San Lucas, that is, the description of the locals' treatment of these birds, "And they are rightly slaughtered, as all radicals should be."

I found humour in the swings from the serious to the banal. He will go on a long discussion of man's discomfort with discomfort, then pivot to comments on dinner and how "Sparky cooked the tuna in a sauce of tomatoes..." He presents these incredibly cerebral arguments only to drop them and comment on everyday things like what he had for dinner. This back and forth in the narrative is carried through the work. Steinbeck really saw all elements of this voyage as one thing made up of collecting, drinking beer, everything.

There are several editions of this book, some of which contain images and descriptions of all collected specimens. Those which omit this data do include an appendix written by Steinbeck about Ed Ricketts. I think this later appendix was written as a tribute to Ricketts who had since died as a way to make up for publishers eliminating Ricketts' original appendices. This latter appendix by Steinbeck is all about Ricketts but beyond that, paints a great picture of Cannery Row in Monterey. The reader sees what life was like there through the drunks, whores, housewives, children... Also, it really reveals a lot about Steinbeck as a person through his reactions to and relationship with Ricketts.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure how I feel about this edition. While the copious notes, photographs and illustrations are interesting, I’m not sure how useful they were and they didn’t seem well labeled – meaning that I wasn’t often able to find the photograph that corresponded to the animal collected on the expedition. That may also be because of the photographic failures by the crew. The biggest crime committed by this edition is that it omits the essay about Ed Rickets that is contained in the Penguin Classics edition of “The Log From the Sea of Cortez”. Luckily, in my zealousness I had bought that edition several months before I’d learned of this one, and it’s the only sighting of Rickets that we get as he is left out of the log for some reason or another, I don’t remember the reason given. Steinbeck’s log writing though is wonderful. His lists of animals at the collection sites ease into deckhand philosophy. With the exception of one section on teleology that bogs down a bit, this is elegant, witty and perfect. I sometimes think, when I’m reading Steinbeck’s nonfiction that I enjoy it more than his fiction, but the opposite is true when I’m reading his fiction. He is so complex and contradictory and I can’t imagine enjoying that much from a fictional character. Probably, Steinbeck is one of the five authors that I would most like to go to dinner / a dive bar with.

I advise that people buy the Penguin Classics edition of “The Log from the Sea of Cortez” as it contains the essay on Rickets, which is much more important than the photographs, along with a good introduction. The introductions in both books are good, actually. But the Classics edition is cheaper and more readily available.

[Joe McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lyrical and funny travelogue of a biological collecting trip to Baja California.

This version is probably mostly written by Ed Ricketts, not Steinbeck himself; Steinbeck did edit it. There are definite resemblances in style, most likely due to Steinbeck's editing, but there's a lift and solidity to the philosophical sections that betray another author's hand. Steinbeck wrote well about Monterey and its surroundings, but the fierce love of the shore, the ocean, and its animals are all Ricketts. Compare the tidepooling sections in Cannery Row to any one of the descriptions of collecting in this book and it's clear that those are two very different authors.

Ricketts can run through a list of Latin names during a collecting session and make you excited to see what's different in this place. You share his exultation at finding new things and disappointment when he misses something. Steinbeck writes with enjoyment in similar situations, but the depth of love for the task and the wonder of discovery isn't there.

Ricketts certainly isn't perfect, and there are going to be things that a modern reader stumbles over. His meditations on civilization are somewhat superficial, and I admit that I lost interest in the long section where he embarked on a grand philosophy of everything. But there are treasures in the book -- beautiful turns of phrase that are worth savoring; better wrought than when Steinbeck tries for them, honestly. When he is making fun of himself or the crew, there's no malice, but a wry "we're all people, and sometimes we are very silly".

Worth reading, and I will probably dip back in and reread it.

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbeck Not Glenn Beck continues!

It took me longer then expected to get through "Sea of Cortez" as the science which comprised two-thirds of the work was a bit dense.

However, the actual story telling in this maritime science adventure taking place on the threshhold of World War II featured more humor than is typical for Steinbeck.

Up next... "Bombs Away." In 1942, the Army Air Force commission...ed Steinbeck to depict life for a B-17 bomber crew. Hemingway and many other anti-war writers of the time criticized "Bombs Away" as little more than an FDR apologist's propaganda piece.

That may be true but, like Steinbeck, I understand what it is to have complicated politics. In light of my present career path, this should be an interesting read on a number of levels.

By the way since starting this project, Glenn Beck has devolved from the star of the Fox Propaganda channel to a barely listened to internet yackster.

Steinbeck, in contrast, endures.....

[Pj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it ..although, a little dry about the Gulf of Mexico species, I enjoyed Steinbeck description of people and areas. I was a little bothered by the 'killing' of the species they caught. I know this happens, but he went into detail regarding how they did it. The Journal part of the book (first 272 pgs) Steinbeck interjected philosophical thoughts regarding humanity. Classic Steinbeck...it is timeless.
The second part of the book is strictly photos and catalog of the species. I suppose this book might be a handy handbook for someone who is into small marine species.
If you like Steinbeck, it's worth the read!

[Patrick Wikstrom · Rating 1 out of 5]

A non-fiction travelog written in 1941 probably as a way to make a quick buck after Steinbeck became extremely bankable. The great author was a bit of an amateur marine biologist and he and some buddies who mostly remain nameless rent a Mexican sardine boat and crew down in Cabo. For six weeks they go up and down the Gulf of California collecting mostly invertebrate specimens at low tide in various bays and tidal pools. I thought I’d find hints of the incredible prose Steinbeck had so often produced. This instead was a slipshod often rambling series of lists of a days events. He probably could have made something of this trip but it’s like he didn’t even try. 1*

[Marcella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I read Steinbeck's travelougues, the more I just want to be his friend. And then he ends the travelogue with a eulogy to Ed Ricketts (cried) and I also want to be friends with him.

On the whole, this book does not hold a candel to Travels with Charley. It can get a little scientific jargon-y. Read it in Cabo because I wanted a book that went along with my vacation, but this was not the book. It was still interesting and Steinbeck is an amazing writer, but I think this is likely among the lesser works.

[Ken Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

And eloquent travel journal with timeless reflections

A very thorough travel journal with timeless reflections on human nature mixed with in each chapter. I say timeless because what Steinbeck wrote in the late 1930s and early 1940s seems to apply as much then as it does now. Though the descriptions can be a bit long sometimes, it was a eloquent travel journal – perhaps the best I've ever read.

[Bonnie Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part travelogue, part story, part marine biology guide, Sea of Cortez is a collaboration of Johbn Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts, each of whom, presumably, takes the readers on asides in their respective interests. I admit I enjoyed the marine bio asides far more than Steinbeck's philosophical musings. Having just seem a Monterey Bay Aquarium exhibit on Baja, however, I enjoyed this book for its depiction of where the creatures I saw came from.

[Beverly Hollandbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This nonfiction account of Steinbeck's is about a trip through the Gulf of California collecting biological specimens in the 1940s. By collecting, I mean killing. They returned with thousands (his word) of specimens in jars for study and classification later. I know this is how scientists used to proceed - this is what Darwin did - but killing so many living beings in the name of scientific curiosity just doesn't do it for me.

[Gretchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought of this book on my journey down to the Sea of Cortez with Tim 2 years ago. I discovered Steinbeck in high school lit class and have read almost all of his novels.
This book as alot of descriptive nature writing. If you plan on traveling down through Baja, this is a book to take along or read before you go.

[Marleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steinbech goes on a marine collecting journey around the Baja Peninsula. This travelogue is combined with several essays. Steinbeck joined his longtime friend, Ed Ricketts who was the model for the character of "Doc" in his novel Cannery Row for this scientific expedition. Steinbeck also came upon the Mexican legend which formed the basis of his future novel, the Pearl.

[FP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dreadfully boring passages punctuated by fascinating glimpses of 1940s Baja and soaring philosophical discourse.
Unless you really into fishing, killing animals and marine biology, read only after reading everything else by Steinbeck.

[Edward Renehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both science and literature of the highest order. A neglected classic ... and a precursor to the eloquence of Rachel Carson.

[Igor Cebrian Muiño · Rating 1 out of 5]

El peor libro que he leído jamás. Independientemente de la temática. No se lo recomendaría ni a mi peor enemigo.

[Gracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

sailing off the coast of california and mexico and learning new things about yourself and each other and the world every day. bliss.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hard to review. There's a little Steinbeck-ness to this, but this was kind of tough to read, about all the minute detail that go into finding random sea-worms and clams and stuff.

[Caroline Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read, I especially enjoyed the WWII insights and his views on humanity.