#1582 On the Trail of John Steinbeck

Listening to America

History, Politics, Unitedstates, Society & Culture, American

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on Listening to America, Clay Jenkinson’s follow-up conversation with Russ Eagle of Salisbury, North Carolina, about following the trail of John Steinbeck. Russ is a former high school teacher and administrator with a vast love of the writer. After his report on the arrival of Steinbeck’s heralded boat, the Western Flyer, in Monterey, we talk about the other must-see places and objects in the Steinbeck universe: Rocinante, his truck camper at the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California; Sag Harbor, his home on the eastern edge of Long Island; the original manuscript of the Grapes of Wrath at the University of Virginia; Doc’s Laboratory in the heart of Monterey; and the hand-carved box which he fashioned to deliver the manuscript of East of Eden to his editor in New York.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone it's Clay Jenkinson welcoming you to this podcast introduction to this week's program.
0:05.6	A second conversation with my friend Russ Eagle of Salisbury, North Carolina.
0:12.1	Russ is a Steinbeckian.
0:14.5	He loves Steinbeck.
0:16.0	It's almost the case that he lives and breathes Steinbeck.
0:18.8	He's writing a book on Cannery Row.
0:20.8	He hopes to finish it in the calendar year 2024. That's his favorite Steinbeck book. We
0:26.3	slightly disagree about that. He's an amazing person Russ is. We've been on many, many, many,
0:31.6	many, many adventures together and more coming.
0:34.0	And this program consists of really two elements.
0:38.0	First, his report on being in Monterrey when the boat, the Western Flyer, returned to Monterrey after decades.
0:46.4	The boat was the one that Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts took to Baja California to the Sea of Cortez in 1940 just after the great success of the
0:55.9	Grapes of Wrath and he wrote a book about it in fact he wound up writing two books
0:59.9	about it although they're mostly the same book the Sea ofez, and then later the log of the Sea of Cortez.
1:06.3	And Ed Ricketts was an incredibly important figure in the intellectual and philosophical life of John Steinbeck and he helped Ricketts.
1:14.0	Ricketts was a bad money manager and never really recognized how to run a business
1:20.4	supplying marine specimens to high schools and
1:23.2	laboratories and colleges and so on. So Russ has been following this story
1:28.2	since the boat was found up in Puget Sound and at great expense refurbished. Now it's come back to Monterey where it's
1:36.0	one of the principal Steinbeck attractions and relics and it's going to be used as a scientific
1:42.2	laboratory which is the best possible use for this boat.
1:45.6	And so we got to talking about other Steinbeck things, Rosanante, the camper truck that is in the,
	...

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