William Souder

A biography of one of America's most popular and misunderstood authors, John Steinbeck. This first full-length biography of the Nobel Laureate to appear in a quarter century explores John Steinbeck's long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as The Red Pony, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath. His most poignant and evocative writing emerged in his sympathy for the Okies fleeing the dust storms of the Midwest, the migrant workers toiling in California's fields, and the laborers on Cannery Row, reflecting a social engagement--paradoxical for all of his natural misanthropy--radically different from the writers of the so-called Lost Generation. A man by turns quick-tempered, contrary, compassionate, and ultimately brilliant, Steinbeck took aim at the corrosiveness of power, the perils of income inequality, and the growing urgency of ecological collapse, all of which drive fierce public debate to this day.

A Life of John Steinbeck

Mad at the World

Examines how the biologist and reformer helped to raise awareness of the natural world, the importance of conservation, and the dangers of synthetic pesticides.

The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson

On a Farther Shore

Furnishes a fascinating glimpse of John James Audubon, a self-taught painter, his extraordinary efforts to record the wild birds of North America, and his fifteen-year struggle against a conventional and suspicious scientific establishment to find a publisher for his masterwork, The Birds of America. Reprint.

William Souder

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