John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California on February 27, 1902.  He attended Stanford University on and off majoring in english, and ended up leaving without earning his degree. He moved to New York, but after being unsuccessful in finding work, he returned to California.  He published his first novel (Cup of Gold) in 1929, which was unsuccessful.  He got married to Carol Henning in 1930, and they moves from Los Angeles to Pacific Grove, California.  During this time, he worked tirelessly on his writing, publishing To A God Unknown, The Red Pony, and Pastures of Heaven.  His first successful book was Tortilla Flat, in 1935, which was later adapted into a film. He then published In Dubious Battle, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath, which won The National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and was declared the best selling book of 1939 by The New York Times.  However, it was banned for 3 years. He divorced from Carol Henning in 1943, and he remarried to Gwendolyn Conger.  He was then hired to report the war in Europe by the New York Herald Tribune, travelled the world for months doing so, and eventually returned to New York in late 1943.  In 1948, one of his close friends, Ed Ricketts died which impacted him greatly.  Shortly after, he divorced from Gwendolyn Conger.  Both of these events combined caused him to go into depression and return to the cabin in Pacific Grove.  In 1950, he got married to Elaine Scott, and they moved to New York City.  He won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1962, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.  In 1967, he travelled to Vietnam to report the war.  Following his gradually declining health, he died on December 20, 1968.