home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory.” —Steinbeck, in Travels with Charley (1962) Judging from both the quality and quantity of his writing from 1936 to 1940, John Steinbeck’s residency in the San Jose, California, suburb of Los Gatos ranks as the most professionally satisfying of his entire life. He published a string of best-sellers, including Of Mice and Men, The Long Valley, Their Blood Is Strong, and The Grapes of Wrath; he witnessed a long-running New York theater production of Of Mice and Men and the brilliant Hollywood film versions of that novel and The Grapes of Wrath; he conducted the necessary travel and research for the nonfictional prose work Sea of Cortez; and he scripted and helped produce a documentary film, The Forgotten Village. Honors, awards, and fame were his for the asking, though lasting personal happiness and a thoroughgoing sense of belonging seemed to elude him during his tenure in Los Gatos. In spite of his unprecedented artistic success, Steinbeck managed to stay resolutely an outsider in Los Gatos, as unassimilated in his day as he is in ours.
