Fiction

Author John Steinbeck won both the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for literature. Many of his novels were set in the Monterey Bay area and the Salinas Valley. Ed Ricketts was both a friend and mentor who influenced the writer’s ecological view of human society. Steinbeck asked for Ricketts’s approval for casting his friend as Doc, the protagonist of Cannery Row. In October 1944, Ricketts wrote his son Ed Ricketts, Jr. that the book was very funny, sort of Tortilla Flat-ish, but had better architecture and an undertone of sadness and loneliness. He said it was mostly about him and the Western Biological, Wing Chong’s, Flora Woods, and the bums, and because he appeared in it so obviously and so frequently, John wanted him to approve it. Although it made him out to be a very romantic figure and he said he would practically have to leave town after publication until things quieted down, he called it a fine job and approved of it thoroughly.

Monterey, California · United States