Lot 119
Steinbeck, John (1902-1968) American writer of social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labor; winner of 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. Autograph Letter Signed "John," 4 pp. in blue ink on 12½"x8" yellow, ruled paper, Sag Harbor, New York, 1960 May 24. To William Benton, who was chairman and publisher of Enclopaedia Britannica Inc., a former Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Steinbeck launches an attack against President Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon and expresses his hope that Adlai Stevenson will run again in the 1960 presidential race. He mentions Henry Luce, publisher of Time Magazine: "I hate the son of a bitch." Eisenhower, he claims, "has taken more payola and plugola than a thousand Dick Clarks," and continues in some detail. About Nixon, he says, "A psycho-analyst in New York goes three times a week to Washington to put Dickie on the couch….It is pleasant to know that Poor Richard is not happy."
He then relays his preparations for a trip throughout the country that would be the basis of Travels With Charley, his final full-length book, published in 1962. His plan was to buy "a truck with a coach on it, kind of like the cabin of a small boat - bunk, stove, ice box, desk, typewriter….I'll be self contained and I'm going alone. [He took his dog Charley]…I want to hear speech, taste and smell and feel and listen…I will not be known…I plan to take about three months to do this. And when I get back I should have some sense of what the country is like, what it wants and how it has changed…I'm staying out here at Sag Harbor working on a book which I hope to have done in August…." The book was The Winter of Our Discontent; it was finished in mid July and published in 1961. Much more excellent content.
Estimated Value $6,000 - 8,000.
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| Realized $6,900 |
