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Introduction

Katharine A. Rodger

in Breaking Through: Essays, Journals, and Travelogues of Edward F. Ricketts

Edward F. Ricketts's passion for zoology began when he was a child in urban Chicago during the first years of the twentieth century, well before he was a fledgling collector on the shores of Monterey ... More

Edward F. Ricketts's passion for zoology began when he was a child in urban Chicago during the first years of the twentieth century, well before he was a fledgling collector on the shores of Monterey Bay in California in the 1920s. In his seminal text, Between Pacific Tides, Ricketts grouped animals by five primary intertidal habitats: rocky shores, sandy beaches, sand flats, mud flats, and wharf pilings. Ricketts also collected specimens to add to his Pacific Biological Laboratories stock and to further develop his theories on the effects of wave shock on the distribution of marine animals. In the decade before his seminal trip to the Gulf of California, he had begun to piece together the concept in a series of three philosophical essays that articulated the components of his holistic worldview: “The Philosophy of Breaking Through,” “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry,” and “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking.” John Steinbeck included a version of the latter essay in the log portion of Sea of Cortez, which he composed in mid-1941.Less

John Steinbeck: Extensions of Documentary

in Cinematic Fictions: The Impact of the Cinema on the American Novel up to World War II

This chapter focuses on the works of John Steinbeck. It discusses Steinbeck's most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath (1940); his collaboration with film-maker Pare Lorentz in a hospital documentary, ... More

This chapter focuses on the works of John Steinbeck. It discusses Steinbeck's most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath (1940); his collaboration with film-maker Pare Lorentz in a hospital documentary, The Fight for Life; his own documentary film, The Forgotten Village; and his work on Viva Zapata! (1952), a film based on the life of the Mexican revolutionary.Less

“The Goose Hangs High”

Harlow Robinson

in Lewis Milestone: Life and Films

The chapter first focuses on The General Died at Dawn, a melodrama set amid the political turmoil of contemporary China, a collaboration with playwright Clifford Odets, a newcomer to Hollywood. ... More

The chapter first focuses on The General Died at Dawn, a melodrama set amid the political turmoil of contemporary China, a collaboration with playwright Clifford Odets, a newcomer to Hollywood. Starring Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll and Akim Tamiroff, it projected a controversial image of China that offended Chinese officials. A discussion Of Mice and Men, adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel, follows. This acclaimed film starred Lon Chaney, Jr., as mentally disabled farmworker Lennie, and received four Oscar nominations, including one for Aaron Copland’s score. It began Milestone’s long collaboration with art director Nicolai Remisoff, another Russian emigre.Less

Sea of Cortez

Michael J Lannoo

in Leopold's Shack and Ricketts's Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism

In the spring of 1939, Edward F. Ricketts's Between Pacific Tides and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath were published. Steinbeck was getting a lot of unwanted publicity, especially from conservative ... More

In the spring of 1939, Edward F. Ricketts's Between Pacific Tides and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath were published. Steinbeck was getting a lot of unwanted publicity, especially from conservative politicians and groups such as the Associated Farmers. He was shaken by assertions that he had exaggerated the plight of the Okies, and by being ostracized by Californians, especially former friends. During the fall and winter of 1939–1940, Steinbeck spent a lot of time in the Pacific Biological Laboratories helping Ricketts, learning marine biology, and preparing for field trips. Ricketts and Steinbeck decided to collaborate on a pair of projects. The first arose from a request by Stanford University Press that Ricketts write a book on San Francisco Bay invertebrates. And Steinbeck had been considering a trip to Mexico, which morphed into the second project, a collecting expedition in the Sea of Cortés (Gulf of California). Steinbeck hired the seventy-six-foot Western Flyer, owned and captained by Tony Berry. Ricketts and Steinbeck's collaboration resulted in Sea of Cortez, published by Viking on December 5, 1941.Less

The Chinese American Adam: History and Universality in John Steinbeck’s Eden

Heidi Kim

in Invisible Subjects: Asian America in Postwar Literature

John Steinbeck’s East of Eden features a Chinese American domestic servant, Lee, who performs all the household tasks in order to keep a wifeless, motherless white frontier family together. Lee’s ... More

John Steinbeck’s East of Eden features a Chinese American domestic servant, Lee, who performs all the household tasks in order to keep a wifeless, motherless white frontier family together. Lee’s masquerade as a stereotypical pidgin-speaking foreigner draws upon a long history of duality about Chinese laborers, troubling gender norms or bolstering the nuclear family. Steinbeck employs Lee to voice a complicated American racial theory, in which he attempts to link a diverse, sprawling, complicated American personality to an origin of tough morality and individualism that, not accidentally, strongly protests the group mentality of communism. While Steinbeck’s adoption of individualism in East of Eden is now a staple of his criticism, Lee brings greater nuance to this ethos, which strands him without an ethnic group or identity and forces him to narrate and claim an Americanness that adheres to the frontier myth.Less

From Businessman to Sage

Michael J Lannoo

in Leopold's Shack and Ricketts's Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism

Edward F. Ricketts sought to parlay his midwestern work ethic and his University of Chicago experiences into a career built on nature. After he left Chicago in 1923, Ricketts and his new family ... More

Edward F. Ricketts sought to parlay his midwestern work ethic and his University of Chicago experiences into a career built on nature. After he left Chicago in 1923, Ricketts and his new family settled on the Monterey Peninsula. The year before, Libbie Hyman, a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago, had studied at the Hopkins Marine Station there, and Joel Hedgpeth speculates that it may have been her accounts of the rich seashore life that prompted Ricketts and Albert E. Galigher to choose the region for their biological supply business. As with any business where customers are distributed, Pacific Biological Laboratories needed a catalog, and Ricketts assembled one. He became friends with John Steinbeck, with whom he shared his ideas on biology, ecology, and philosophy, as well as any other topics that arose. The story of Ricketts's maturation intertwines and tangles with those of Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell. Xenia Cage, the wife of the avant-garde composer John Cage, was an important link among members of Ricketts's Lab.Less

Copland, Hollywood, and American Musical Modernism: Of Mice and Men

Sally Bick

in Unsettled Scores: Politics, Hollywood, and the Film Music of Aaron Copland and Hanns Eisler

This chapter provides a detailed musical and cinematic analysis of Of Mice and Men, Copland’s first Hollywood film score. The discussion begins by outlining Copland’s interest in film and Hollywood, ... More

This chapter provides a detailed musical and cinematic analysis of Of Mice and Men, Copland’s first Hollywood film score. The discussion begins by outlining Copland’s interest in film and Hollywood, his desire to engage in mass entertainment, and his eventual first Hollywood commission. Copland’s ideas are compared with the shared values of novelist John Steinbeck, which embrace Popular Front ideals, nationalism, and Americanism. Likewise, Milestone’s cinematic vision, which borrows Dorothea Lange’s photographic depiction of the realities of Depression-era migrant workers, is echoed by the sonic aesthetic of simplicity realized in Copland’s style. Copland’s score is discussed within the larger context of 1930s American music with references to Virgil Thomson and the critique of Arthur Berger.Less

Ethic and Engagement

Michael J Lannoo

in Leopold's Shack and Ricketts's Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism

Aldo Leopold formalized the mature view of his land ethic sixty years ago, and as a philosophy it garnered wide appreciation forty years ago. But appreciation is not acceptance. The future of ... More

Aldo Leopold formalized the mature view of his land ethic sixty years ago, and as a philosophy it garnered wide appreciation forty years ago. But appreciation is not acceptance. The future of humanity lies not in the old mind-set of individual self-preservation, but rather in the new comprehension that all life, even human life, must fit within the limits of the Earth's ecosystems. Edward F. Ricketts and John Steinbeck perceived that in today's world the features that we universally admire, such as wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, and humility, are “invariable concomitants” of failure, while features such as cruelty, greed, self-interest, and rapacity are regarded as the cornerstones of success. One way to overcome people's resistance to changing their views and behaviors involves a synthesis of Leopold and Ricketts's worldviews. Together, their ideas create a unified, natural history-based worldview representing something broader than ecological thinking. The benefits of an ecology that is focused more on natural history extend far beyond the practice of science.Less

Of Mice and Men: A Feminist Fragment on Animal Rights

Catharine A. Mackinnon

in Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions

This chapter presents a feminist view on animal rights. It investigates why it is necessary for animals to be like people to be protected from them or to be entitled to their own lives, and presents ... More

This chapter presents a feminist view on animal rights. It investigates why it is necessary for animals to be like people to be protected from them or to be entitled to their own lives, and presents a reading of John Steinbeck's play Of Mice and Men. The chapter considers the ways nonhuman animals are seen and treated by human animals in gendered terms and suggests that comparing humans' treatment of animals with men's treatment of women illuminates the way the legal system's response to animals is gendered. It argues for the analysis of the situation of animals on their own terms, however difficult.Less

The Lab

Michael J Lannoo

in Leopold's Shack and Ricketts's Lab: The Emergence of Environmentalism

When Edward F. Ricketts arrived, the Monterey Peninsula was “still a quiet part of the world, a pleasant end of the road along one of the loveliest of seashores.” In an airplane “it looks like a ... More

When Edward F. Ricketts arrived, the Monterey Peninsula was “still a quiet part of the world, a pleasant end of the road along one of the loveliest of seashores.” In an airplane “it looks like a bear's head jutting out into the sea, Pacific Grove is in the bear's mouth, Cannery Row lies under its jaw, and Monterey, the largest of the three towns, spreads out along its throat and chest.” Aside from churches, in 1923 the principal intellectual establishment of the peninsula was the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, recently relocated to Cabrillo Point, not far from the canneries. After only a year in business together, Ricketts and Albert E. Galigher dissolved their partnership. Ricketts became the sole owner of Pacific Biological Laboratories. During the spring and summer of 1932, John Steinbeck's wife Carol was also in the Lab quite a lot, working part-time for Ricketts. In late 1936, Cannery Row caught fire and Ricketts's Lab was incinerated. By the end of January 1937, a new Lab was built.Less

The Fire Within

Jonathan R. Eller

in Bradbury Beyond Apollo

Bradbury’s 1945 Mexico City encounter with John Steinbeck came full circle in the spring of 2003, when a chance meeting with Thomas Steinbeck revealed that his father used to read Ray Bradbury ... More

Bradbury’s 1945 Mexico City encounter with John Steinbeck came full circle in the spring of 2003, when a chance meeting with Thomas Steinbeck revealed that his father used to read Ray Bradbury stories to his sons; the Nobel laureate even had favorite Bradbury stories for each season. Chapter 38 also describes how the summer 2003 perihelic opposition of Mars nearly coincided with Bradbury’s 83rd birthday, prompting the Planetary Society to hold his birthday party at Caltech. The November passing of Maggie Bradbury was a most difficult loss, for she had shared his passion for literature as well as his life. The chapter concludes with Bradbury’s celebration of the Mars rover Spirit’s touchdown and an analysis of his 2003 story collection, The Cat’s Pajamas.Less

“Verbatim Transcription of Notes of Gulf of California Trip, March–April 1940”

Katharine A. Rodger

in Breaking Through: Essays, Journals, and Travelogues of Edward F. Ricketts

“Verbatim Transcription of Notes of Gulf of California Trip, March–April 1940” is a collection of notes consisting of forty-six, single-spaced typed pages documenting the Sea of Cortez expedition, as ... More

“Verbatim Transcription of Notes of Gulf of California Trip, March–April 1940” is a collection of notes consisting of forty-six, single-spaced typed pages documenting the Sea of Cortez expedition, as well a two-page addendum called “Statement of Collecting Stations in the Spring 1940” that lists coordinates and topographical information for each collecting stop. The notes detail every aspect of the trip; passages describe incidents and locations, and list the specimens collected and weather conditions. The typescript also presents Edward F. Ricketts's personal observations and reflections about everything from scientific work, including his remarks on collecting methods and wildlife; to local culture, including in particular his observations about the friendliness of Mexicans they encountered; to interpersonal relationships among the crew, including humorous incidents involving mishaps on board their boat, the Western Flyer. But most significantly, the record of the trip itself is both a scientific log documenting the more than four thousand miles they traversed and the twenty-five collecting stations they investigated, and an extended philosophical essay on Ricketts's and John Steinbeck's musings about holism and transcendence.Less

Soviet-American Cultural Encounters in Late Stalinism

Rósa Magnúsdóttir

in Enemy Number One: The United States of America in Soviet Ideology and Propaganda, 1945-1959

This chapter discusses Soviet efforts to “tell the truth about Soviet socialism” at home and abroad, showing how not only Soviet anti-Americanism but also American McCarthyism stood in the way of the ... More

This chapter discusses Soviet efforts to “tell the truth about Soviet socialism” at home and abroad, showing how not only Soviet anti-Americanism but also American McCarthyism stood in the way of the development of Soviet-American cultural relations in the early years of the Cold War. It surveys the way Soviet cultural institutions as well as Soviet front organizations in the United States were organized in the late Stalin era. It puts the spotlight on the most famous American visit in the postwar period, namely the Steinbeck-Capa 1947 tour. It is a remarkable story of how Soviet propaganda authorities tried to explain postwar socialism and control the visitors’ experiences in the Soviet Union, but it also details Steinbeck’s fascination with Soviet knowledge and understanding of the United States (or lack thereof).Less

Advocates for Zion: Sinatra, Steinbeck, Baldwin, and Bellow (1957–1967)

Shalom Goldman

in Starstruck in the Promised Land: How the Arts Shaped American Passions about Israel

This chapter details the release of the Leon Uris novel Exodus and subsequent film adaptation as well as the less celebrated Frank Sinatra vehicle The House That I Live In. The pages also recount the ... More

This chapter details the release of the Leon Uris novel Exodus and subsequent film adaptation as well as the less celebrated Frank Sinatra vehicle The House That I Live In. The pages also recount the kidnapping of 8-year-old Yossele Schumacher by his Orthodox Israeli grandparents, as well as the extradition drama between Israel and the US concerning Dr. Robert Soblen. Finally, the chapter explores the respective relationships to Israel of writers James Baldwin, John Steinbeck, and Saul Bellow.Less

Lifeboat (1944)

John Billheimer

in Hitchcock and the Censors

This chapter examines the influence of Production Code censors and the Office of War Information on the tale of survivors of a U-boat attack confined to a lifeboat commandeered by the captain of the ... More

This chapter examines the influence of Production Code censors and the Office of War Information on the tale of survivors of a U-boat attack confined to a lifeboat commandeered by the captain of the U-boat that sunk the survivors’ ship. It was Hitchcock’s idea to create the lifeboat as a symbol of World War II in microcosm, with the survivors representing various aspects of democracy arrayed against the competent, single-minded German captain. The Office of War Information objected to this portrayal, viewing the plot as one that ‘Nazi propagandists themselves would like to promote.’ The author of the original source, John Steinbeck, was also unhappy with Hitchcock’s allegorical treatment, and the critics agreed with the view of the Office of War Information, causing this well-made film to do poorly at the box office.Less