- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (5 July 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141186348
- ISBN-13: 978-0141186344
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 373,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This collection of letters forms a fascinating day-by-day account of Steinbeck's writing of EAST OF EDEN, his longest and most ambitious novel. The letters, ranging over many subjects - textual discussion, trial flights of workmanship, family matters - provide an illuminating perspective on Steinbeck, the creative genius, and a private glimpse of Steinbeck, the man.
About the Author
Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck is remembered as one of the greatest and best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. His complete works are available in Penguin Modern Classics.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Dear Pat : How did the time pass and how did it grow so late. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Dear Pat : How did the time pass and how did it grow so late. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you are a writer, wannabe or published, get it - it is a fascinating document of Steinbeck's daily routine while writing East of Eden.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Highly recommended
7 Mar 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Steinbeck wrote the lengthy EAST OF EDEN saga straight through, from January to the first of November, in 1951. Every weekday, he sharpened his beloved pencils, sat down and warmed up, writing in the form of a letter to his friend and publisher, Pascal Covici. The letters he entered on the left side of the manuscript book Covici hand given him; on the right side, after clearing his mind and setting out the days' goals, he'd write his story, averaging about 1,500 words a day. JOURNAL OF A NOVEL collects those daily addresses to Covici, to whom EAST OF EDEN is dedicated.
On the one hand, JOURNAL OF A NOVEL is instructive in how to use journaling to order one's demons, to focus and forge ahead. More important, it brings the reader right up to the man, and Steinbeck is a fascinating person to know. At age 48 when he produced this, he is twice divorced, happily remarried a third time, engaged in fatherhood and transplanted to New York. He is a whittler, a tinkerer, an inventor. His credo is, why pay someone to do something badly that he can do just as badly himself. He maintains an active family, professional and social life that he chattily reports and offers some prescient observations on the Marshall Plan and MacArthur. He is not without his depressive cycles, but at this point in his life he is more understanding of them and never lets them interfere with his work. His resolve is extraordinary.
It is especially rich to read this following WORKING DAYS, the journal he kept as he wrote THE GRAPES OF WRATH. You get a sense of personal growth and a fuller sense of the middle of the 20th century through his eyes.
Highly recommended.
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Interesting, but not revealing
20 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
I am a major John Steinbeck fan, and rate Mr. Steinbeck as the finest writer in American history. However, I am lukewarm about "Journal of a Novel," Steinbeck's daily account of the trials of writing his most difficult work, East of Eden, from January through October, 1951.
I was hoping that the journal, addressed to his good friend and editor Pascal Covici, would reveal much about Steinbeck the writer and the man.
However, there is very little of the former except repeated brief accounts of the self-doubt and ups and downs a writer endures while creating a long and complex piece of literature. There are only hints of the technical or mental processes involved his writing.
And the same applies to autobiographical information about this period of his life. There is a lot of the trivia of daily life without the real depth of observation and feeling that is shown in other books of his letters.
He was a master at letter writing, and to find and know the real John Steinbeck, I strongly suggest "Steinbeck: A Life in Letters" edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
A Writer at Work
3 Aug 2000
Format:Paperback
The things that writers do to get to the point where they can write good fiction are almost as interesting as the novels they create.
If you have ever wondered what the dedication in East of Eden means (or what Steinbeck originally called the book) this is the place to find it. Peek into the relationship between a great writer and his publisher. Marvel as he discusses the problems that come up from day to day during the process of writing (including finding the right kind of pencil).
This book provides a unique insight into what it must be like to live with genius.
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