National Steinbeck Center point for activities which encourage learning about literature, human nature, history, agriculture, and the arts. Many educational programs are provided for the public, students and teachers, a multimedia experience for regional and national audiences. Steinbeck's House is located near the museum. "Drawing from the works of John Steinbeck, the National Steinbeck Center is dedicated to Steinbeck’s creative legacy: to participate, to inspire, to educate, and to understand one another." The building at 1 Main Street in Salinas, California contains an orientation theater, a 2,000 sq. foot exhibit dedicated to the life and works of John Steinbeck, and a Museum Store.
John Steinbeck novel, and the critical outcry when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, Steinbeck published no more fiction in the next six years before his death. In 1962, Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature for his "realistic and imaginative writing, combining as it does sympathetic humor and keen social perception." The selection was heavily criticized, and described as "one of the Academy's biggest mistakes" in one Swedish newspaper. The reaction of American literary critics was also harsh. The "New York Times" asked why the Nobel committee gave the award to an author whose "limited talent is,