Steinbeck's 'The Grapes Of Wrath' Marks 75th Anniversary

Published April 14, 2014 at 12:50 PM EDT

U.S. novelist John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) is pictured in January 1930. "The Grapes of Wrath" was published April 14, 1939. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes Of Wrath” was published 75 years ago this month. The epic work tells the story of Oklahoma farmers migrating to California after the dust bowl of the 1930s.

It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. To mark the anniversary, there’s a beautiful new special edition of the book, published with the original cover painting and the original notes on the book flap.

Literary critic Steve Almond says of Steinbeck, “this guy, literally in the crucible of his artistic subconscious, I think, produced the great American novel.” Almond joins Here & Now’s Robin Young to discuss “The Grapes of Wrath.”

NPR: ‘Grapes Of Wrath’ Is 75, But Its Depictions Of Poverty Are Timeless

Guest

Steve Almond, literary critic and author of 10 books of fiction and nonfiction. He also writes the advice column “Heavy Meddle” for WBUR’s ideas and opinions blog, Cognoscenti.