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By John Steinbeck
Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club Selection: 2003
Excerpted from "Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature"
Novel by John Steinbeck, published in 1952. It is a symbolic recreation of the biblical story of Cain and Abel woven into a
history of California's Salinas Valley. With East of Eden Steinbeck hoped to reclaim his standing as a major novelist, but
his broad depictions of good and evil come at the expense of subtlety in characterization and plot and it was not a critical
success. Spanning the period between the American Civil War and the end of World War I, the novel highlights the conflicts
of two generations of brothers; the first being the kind, gentle Adam Trask and his wild brother Charles. Adam eventually
marries Cathy Ames, an evil, manipulative, and beautiful prostitute; she betrays him, joining Charles on the very night of
their wedding. Later, after giving birth to twin boys, she shoots Adam and leaves him to return to her former profession.
In the shadow of this heritage Adam raises their sons, the fair-haired, winning, yet intractable Aron, and the dark, clever
Caleb. This second generation of brothers vie for their father's approval. In bitterness Caleb reveals the truth about their
mother to Aron, who then joins the army and is killed in France.
About the Author
No writer is more quintessentially American than John Steinbeck. Born in 1902 in Salinas, California, Steinbeck attended
Stanford University before working at a series of mostly blue-collar jobs and embarking on his literary career. Profoundly
committed to social progress, he used his writing to raise issues of labor exploitation and the plight of the common man,
penning some of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century and winning such prestigious awards as the Pulitzer
Prize and the National Book Award. He received the Nobel Prize in 1962, "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining
as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." Today, more than thirty years after his death, he remains one of
America's greatest writers and cultural figures.
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