John Steinbeck asocial individuals who, in their wild revels, are almost caricatures of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. It has been said that in the United States this book came as a welcome antidote to the gloom of the then prevailing depression." "Tortilla Flat" was adapted as a 1942 film of the same name, starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield, a friend of Steinbeck. With some of the proceeds, he built a summer ranch-home in Los Gatos. Steinbeck began to write a series of "California novels" and Dust Bowl fiction, set among common people during the Great Depression.
John Peterson (author) John Peterson (author) John Lawrence Peterson (February 10, 1924 – November 2002) was an American author of children's books. He is best known as the creator of "The Littles", which began as a series of books in 1967, later adapted into an animated cartoon series by DiC Entertainment. Peterson was also the author of "The Secret Hide-Out", a popular Scholastic Books title in the 1960s and 1970s. Peterson was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania on February 10, 1924, and attended Pratt Institute before volunteering and serving as a paratrooper of the 11th Airborne Division in World War II. After the war,