John Steinbeck become the enemies of the political status quo." In a 1942 letter to United States Attorney General Francis Biddle, John Steinbeck wrote: "Do you suppose you could ask Edgar's boys to stop stepping on my heels? They think I am an enemy alien. It is getting tiresome." The FBI denied that Steinbeck was under investigation. In 1936, Steinbeck published the first of what came to be known as his Dustbowl trilogy, which included "Of Mice and Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath". This first novel tells the story of a fruit pickers' strike in California which is both aided and
Lenny Bruce death, New York Governor George Pataki granted him a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction. Bruce was the subject of the 1974 biographical film "Lenny", directed by Bob Fosse and starring Dustin Hoffman (in an Academy Award-nominated Best Actor role), and based on the Broadway stage play of the same name written by Julian Barry and starring Cliff Gorman in his 1972 Tony Award-winning role. In addition, the main character's editing of a fictionalized film version of "Lenny" was a major part of Fosse's own biopic, the 1979 Academy Award-nominated "All That Jazz. The documentary "Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell