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 Moore (American author) John Moore (American author) John F. Moore (born June 15, 1959) is an American engineer and a writer of fantasy and science fiction primarily under the short name John Moore. John Moore grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia. After high school, he moved to Texas and attended the University of Houston at night. He spent ten years working towards a diploma in chemical engineering. While studying he worked in the oilfields and as a truck driver, and began his writing career. In 1989 he finally received his engineering degree and began working as an engineer. He currently lives and