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",
John Barnes (author) John Barnes (author) John Barnes (born 1957 in Angola, Indiana) is an American science fiction author. Two of his novels, "The Sky So Big and Black" and "The Duke of Uranium" have been reviewed as having content appropriate for a young adult readership, comparing favorably to Robert A. Heinlein's "juvenile" novels. He has contributed to the Internet Evolution website. Barnes's hometown is Bowling Green, Ohio. Barnes earned a B.A. degree from Washington University, an M.A. degree from the University of Montana, and a Ph.D. degree in theater from the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught at Western State College. He