War Correspondent, 1943
During the Second World War Steinbeck spent six months in England as a War Correspondent for the Herald Tribune. His letters and dispatches tell us much about his war experience, but what was life like in England in 1943, the fourth year of World War 2?
The Quest for the Holy Grail, 1959
Steinbeck and his wife, Elaine, spent the summer of 1959 in England, in a tiny cottage in Bruton, Somerset, part rest cure from the pressure of American critics and part in quest of Mallory and the Holy Grail. What were their impressions of church and community, day-to-day life in Bruton, and West Country transport, and what did he absorb of Mallory and the Holy Grail in Glastonbury? I went to Bruton to find out, and on to Glastonbury and Tintagel, to retrace some of his leisure moments.
Malory’s Morte d'Arthur
So was his quest Success or Failure — an End or a New Beginning? Did the quality of Steinbeck’s writing go off following his failure to find the Holy Grail (as some of his critics have suggested) or is The Winter of Our Discontent an indication that he had in fact found it, albeit not quite what he had been looking for nor what his critics were hoping he might find?