John Steinbeck In 1958 the street that Steinbeck described as "Cannery Row" in the novel, once named "Ocean View Avenue", was renamed "Cannery Row" in honor of the novel. The town of Monterey has commemorated Steinbeck's work with an avenue of flags depicting characters from "Cannery Row", historical plaques, and sculptured busts depicting Steinbeck and Ricketts. On February 27, 1979 (the 77th anniversary of the writer's birth), the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Steinbeck, starting the Postal Service's Literary Arts series honoring American writers. On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Steinbeck
John Steinbeck John Steinbeck IV (1946–1991). Ricketts was Steinbeck's model for the character of "Doc" in "Cannery Row" (1945) and "Sweet Thursday" (1954), "Friend Ed" in "Burning Bright", and characters in "In Dubious Battle" (1936) and "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939). Ecological themes recur in Steinbeck's novels of the period. Steinbeck's close relations with Ricketts ended in 1941 when Steinbeck moved away from Pacific Grove and divorced his wife Carol. Ricketts' biographer Eric Enno Tamm notes that, except for "East of Eden" (1952), Steinbeck's writing declined after Ricketts' untimely death in 1948. Steinbeck's novel "The Moon Is Down" (1942), about the Socrates-inspired