By GEORGANA GULARTE
Special to The Pinnacle
John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath 100th Anniversary Readers
assembled for a
”
real old-fashioned, potluck community event
”
sponsored by California Council for the Humanities, the San Juan
Bautista Library, the San Juan Bautista Library Auxiliary and the
Native Daughters of the Golden West Parlor No. 179. Art Ring, who
is a San Jose State Professor and sits on several Steinbeck Boards
spoke to the 30 attendees on
”
The Novel Ideas of John Steinbeck.
”
By GEORGANA GULARTE
Special to The Pinnacle
John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath 100th Anniversary Readers assembled for a “real old-fashioned, potluck community event” sponsored by California Council for the Humanities, the San Juan Bautista Library, the San Juan Bautista Library Auxiliary and the Native Daughters of the Golden West Parlor No. 179. Art Ring, who is a San Jose State Professor and sits on several Steinbeck Boards spoke to the 30 attendees on “The Novel Ideas of John Steinbeck.”
“Steinbeck’s shyness and his failure to see the greatness of his works is shown to his friends in letters he wrote every morning to get his juices flowing,” Ring said. Ring’s talk included pictures of the many things Steinbeck loved to invent and make, and the museums Ring has visited. Steinbeck, born 100 years ago in Salinas, came alive as a real person.
Fr. Edward Fitz-Henry set the tone for the supper as he called upon us to remember those who now suffer from hunger and need. Welcoming the audience to the Adobe Home were Chairperson of the event, Chris Warren, Library Auxiliary President Irene Schultz, and Georgana Gularte, of Native Daughters of the Golden West Parlor No. 179.
“Steinbeck hated publicity and gatherings,” said Ring.
It is unlikely that he would have attended the Wednesday night meetings commemorating Steinbeck’s works for which he earned the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952.
At a previous meeting, Community Pantry Director Tom Larkin spoke to the group on “Hunger in San Benito County.”
“Hard times seem to be always with us,” he said, as he presented a picture of the generous volunteers who help weekly to gather, pack, and to distribute the over 700 bags of food. Larkin also helped the audience understand the red tape that strangles the purchase of food needed for distribution.
This San Juan Steinbeck group has met every week of October to remember the days of the late 1930’s Harvest Season in California, depicted by Steinbeck in Grapes of Wrath. Pat Larkin has led the discussions centering on Steinbeck as a writer and on the Great Depression, which greatly effected parents and children. Hunger is the result of the circumstances that fell upon Mid-Westerns when years of drought forced them to move to find work in California’s harvests in order to support their families.
“Children are hungry here and now still,” said Librarian Pat Larkin, who wrote and obtained the grant that encouraged all Californians to read, talk and share John Steinbeck’s most famous work.
“It is a matter of education and communication,” she said as she spoke about the misunderstanding of handbills spread throughout the Midwest telling hungry people there was lots of work in California, if you could only get there. The handbill brought 300,000 hungry people to California to look for work.
Professor Ring encouraged everyone to read Steinbeck again and bring the perspective of the years of one’s own experiences to Steinbeck’s work and to visit the San Jose State Steinbeck Museum and historic homes associated with Steinbeck as well as the International Steinbeck Center in Salinas.
Pat Larkin encouraged everyone to read Harvest Gypsies, a companion piece of Steinbeck’s news articles which he wrote while researching Grapes of Wrath, the title for which Ring said Steinbeck’s wife made the suggestion. Blue Willow, by Doris Gates, is a children’s book suitable for understanding of the Depression Years.
