Thomas Steinbeck writing, and the communication arts. He served as a board member of both the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California and "The Center for Steinbeck Studies" at San Jose State University. And once every year, he would personally present the John Steinbeck Award through his foundation, "The John Steinbeck Family Foundation" in affiliation with "The Center for Steinbeck Studies". During his lifetime, Steinbeck was an advocate for authors' rights. In 2009, he and his friend, folk-singer Arlo Guthrie (another son of a famous father), brought a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google which was eventually settled. At the time of his
John Steinbeck Award Grapes of Wrath" and captures the writer's enduring legacy as an engaged and socially aware artist. From the 1930s on Steinbeck wrote about "the people," his heart open to the longing, loneliness, despair and triumph of those on the edges. Americans were his people, and his last book, "America and Americans" (1966) expresses his enduring love for a democratic nation. Thomas Steinbeck wrote that the awardee is a "planetary patriot," which means, a person who, in keeping with Maurice Steinbeck's understanding of the highest aspirations of an artist, "stands up against the stones of condemnation, and speaks for those who