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.
Thomas Steinbeck two sons, Thomas and John Jr., and had never wanted any children. When she was experiencing problems during her pregnancy with John Jr., Steinbeck told her that she had 'complicated' his life during a busy period of writing. When John Jr. arrived prematurely in 1946, she recalls Steinbeck telling her: 'I wish to Christ he’d die, he’s taking up too much of your fucking time.' She identifies the conversation as 'the moment when love died ... He never cried for me. He never cried for his sons.' " When not in school or on holiday, Thom and his younger brother