John Steinbeck in 1932, consists of twelve interconnected stories about a valley near Monterey, which was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway Indian slaves. In 1933 Steinbeck published "The Red Pony", a 100-page, four-chapter story weaving in memories of Steinbeck's childhood. "To a God Unknown", named after a Vedic hymn, follows the life of a homesteader and his family in California, depicting a character with a primal and pagan worship of the land he works. Although he had not achieved the status of a well-known writer, he never doubted that he would achieve greatness. Steinbeck achieved his first critical success
John Steinbeck IV the tutelage of the politically powerful Coconut Monk, a silent tree-dwelling Buddhist yogi who adopted Steinbeck as a spiritual son. Amid the raging war, Steinbeck stayed in the monk's "peace zone", where the 400 monks who lived on the island hammered howitzer shell casings into bells. While in Saigon, Steinbeck participated in Michael Rubbo's 1970 documentary film "Sad Song of Yellow Skin", as part of a group of young American journalists practicing a New Journalism approach to covering the war. Steinbeck traveled back and forth between Asia and the United States several more times before settling in Boulder, Colorado, where