John Steinbeck allowing Steinbeck to spend a full day on the set of "The Grapes of Wrath" and the next day on the set of "Of Mice and Men." In the 1930s and 1940s, Ed Ricketts strongly influenced Steinbeck's writing. Steinbeck frequently took small trips with Ricketts along the California coast to give himself time off from his writing and to collect biological specimens, which Ricketts sold for a living. Their joint book about a collecting expedition to the Gulf of California in 1940, which was part travelogue and part natural history, published just as the U.S. entered World War II, never
National Steinbeck Center 40 events a year. The major events the Center is known for is the annual Steinbeck Festival, Steinbeck's Birthday Celebration, the Steinbeck Young Authors Program, and the Salinas Valley Comic Con. Other smaller and reoccurring events happen throughout the year which all tie to Steinbeck's mission and the Center's mission to encourage and support literature, the arts, and other humanities focused causes. After the deal with CSUMB in 2016, the National Steinbeck Center had to reorganize their organization. One of the main efforts embarked upon was partnerships with other local non-profits and cultural groups. The NSC's main partners, although not