John Steinbeck with "Tortilla Flat" (1935), a novel set in post-war Monterey, California, that won the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal. It portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after World War I, just before U.S. prohibition. They are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest and reject nearly all the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life devoted to wine, lust, camaraderie and petty theft. In presenting the 1962 Nobel Prize to Steinbeck, the Swedish Academy cited "spicy and comic tales about a gang of "paisanos",
Elaine Anderson Steinbeck Elaine Anderson Steinbeck Elaine Steinbeck (1914 – April 27, 2003) was an American actress and one of the first women to become a theatre stage manager. She was previously known as Elaine Anderson during her acting career. While married to actor Zachary Scott she was also known as Elaine Scott, and after her marriage to author John Steinbeck she was known as Elaine Steinbeck. Anderson was born in 1914 in Austin, Texas. On February 21, 1934, she married actor Zachary Scott whom she met while they both studied in the University of Texas at Austin theatre program. Anderson studied drama