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 Townsend (author) John Townsend (author) John Townsend (born June 1, 1952) is an American Christian self help author, business consultant, and psychologist. John Townsend was born in 1952 in Smithfield, North Carolina and grew up in Wilson, North Carolina. Townsend holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology with honors from North Carolina State University, a Master of Theology degree with honors from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a PhD degree in clinical psychology from Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University. Townsend co-founded the Minirth-Meier Clinic West and served as its clinical co-director for ten years. The clinic operated treatment centers in