[FRIAM] John Steinbeck in the 21st century

[Steven A Smith]

On 10/25/19 1:21 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> I've read Cannery Row and liked it. I like the books from Steinbeck in
> general. What is the name of the biography from the Doc? "Beyond the
> Outer Shores" ? Is it recommendable?

Very...

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/401670.Beyond_the_Outer_Shores

>
> -Jochen
>
>
>
> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Steven A Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com>
> Date: 10/25/19 16:53 (GMT+01:00)
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] John Steinbeck in the 21st century
>
> ...On a recent pleasure/work trip I *re*visited Monterrey CA and
> Cannery Row which lead me to *re*read Steinbeck's Cannery Row which
> lead me to read something of a biography of the Doc character in his
> novel (and the movie) for whom the prototype was Ed Ricketts...
>
> Beyond the Outer Shores was written roughly 15 years ago, recounting
> Ricketts' life and career.  I knew that Steinbeck was a good friend of
> Ricketts but I was not aware of how much work they did together,
> including a summer of kayaking in the Sea of Cortez which yielded the
> data for the book they co-authored by the name "Sea of Cortez".   I
> was also unaware that Joseph Campbell spent his formative (adult)
> years in the company of both of these mens (and more to the point,
> Ricketts).   The author of this biography credits Ricketts as being
> highly influential in the work of both Steinbeck (beyond Cannery Row)
> and Campbell, and credits him with leading the transition from
> traditional biology focused on taxonomic approaches to identification
> of collected specimens.  Ricketts approached collecting and
> identifying (mostly marine) species as well as writing them up in his
> famous trilogy on the topic in the context of a newly emergent field
> of "ecology".   He was simultaneously under-appreciated due to his
> lack of formal education, his lack of academic affiliation whilst also
> being a highly prolific commercial collector/supplier of specimens to
> the same community while identifying a huge number of new species
> (perhaps only recognizing the subtle differences based on habitat and
> foodweb relations) within his purview (the range of the Pacific coast
> along the North American coast from Bering Sea to Panama).
>
> On 10/23/19 3:39 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
>> I recently stumbled upon John Steinbeck's classic novel "The Grapes
>> of Wrath" and wonder if it is similar to the situation today. You
>> will all know it since it is often read in High Schools, right? (I
>> had to read Goethe in School. And "Animal Farm" plus "To kill a
>> Mocking Bird" in the English class).
>>
>> As you know Steinbeck describes how migrants from Oklahoma called
>> Okies look for a better life in California. They travel along the
>> Route 66, which Steinbeck helped to make popular, passed Albuquerque
>> and Santa Fe, and drove to the West until they arrived in California
>> where the locals disliked and rejected them.
>> https://www.nationalgeographic.org/news/grapes-wrath
>>
>> Today we have migrants from Cuba and Mexico looking for a better life
>> in the US and refugees from Syria and Afghanistan who cause a lot of
>> trouble in the EU. Many of these refugees and migrants live in camps,
>> just like the ones Steinbeck visited. 
>> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/02/johnsteinbeck.socialsciences
>>
>> Steinbeck's novel takes place during the "Dust Bowl". Today the dry
>> regions in the South suffer from droughts and wild fires caused by
>> Climate Change worldwide. Everything sounds similar, as if history is
>> repeating itself. 
>> https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dust-bowl
>>
>> -J.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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