Carmel Magazine

LETTERS TO STEINBECK A College Student Hear s Back from Famous Author B Y G E N E B E L E Y • P H OTO G R A P H Y F R O M T H E PAT H AT H A WAY C O L L E C T I O N 216 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 5 I n 1963, I was a 23-year-old col- lege student at San Jose State. My favorite class was magazine writing taught by Delores Spurgeon. One of the articles I decided to write for class was about the development of Cannery Row, which was in its infancy then. The city had renamed the street Cannery Row in 1958 and early restaurant pioneers like Neil DeVaughn (Ocean View Hotel), Kalisa Moore (La Ida Café), and Dick O'Kane (Warehouse Restaurant) had begun the nucleus of the thriving tourist attractions that drive the economic engine today. Ironically, I did not like Steinbeck's writings when I was growing up in Billings, Montana. I can remember the misery I suffered as an eighth grader with an English teacher spending six months on Steinbeck's "The Pearl," a 90-page book. This led my first English professor, Jacob Vinocur in Missoula, Montana, to remark, "Six weeks on 'The Pearl'? No wonder you don't like Steinbeck!" However, in 1962 my parents gave me Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley: In Search of America" that I really dug. Steinbeck had trav- eled the country in his pick- up with a camper shell and his dog, Charley. He loved Montana people so much that he stopped in a Billings store to buy a gun just to talk to them. After reading this book, I wrote him a fan letter in care of his publisher. I told him if he returned to Montana, he should see other places that I rattled off with great detail. I soon got a reply from him on his personal sta- tionery, saying, "If I visited all the places you recommend, the book would be quite a tome." Thus, when I decided to do the student ar ticle on Cannery Row, and decided to ask him what he thought of the new development on Cannery Row, that's how I had Steinbeck's home address. To my amazement, he wrote back a full-page letter reminiscing about his childhood on Cannery Row. (See opposite.) Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, wrote 27 books. Much of his work is set in California, particularly in Monterey County.

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