John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was an American novelist active in the early 20th century. His novel The Grapes of Wrath dramatized the plight of Oklahoma farmers moving to California to escape the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression.

He also wrote The Red Pony, To a God Unknown, The Pearl, and Cup of Gold.

Later in life he traveled across America in a pickup truck with a camper top, along with his dog, a standard poodle named Charlie. He wrote the book Travels with Charlie based on these experiences. In it he touched on the problems of drug abuse among the youth of the time period, and racism he encountered while traveling in the deep South.