Carol & John Steinbeck : portrait of a marriage 9780874179309, 0874179300

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Carol and John Steinbeck

Western Literature Series

Ca ro 1 &

John \ SS

Susan Shillinglaw

Steinbeck

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LITERATURE

SERIES

University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada 89557 usa

Copyright © 2013 by University of Nevada Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Design by Kathleen Szawiola Selections from Steinbeck:A Life in Letters by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, editors: Copyright 1952 by John Steinbeck, © 1969 by The Estate of John Steinbeck, © 1975 by Elaine A. Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (usa) Inc. All previously unpublished selections by John Steinbeck: Copyright © Waverly Kaffaga, Executrix of the Estate of Elaine A. Steinbeck, 2013. Printed with permission of

McIntosh and Otis, Inc. The material attributed to Joseph Campbell's journals comes from an unpublished manu-

script for a work of fiction developed by Joseph Campbell and is quoted under license by the Joseph Campbell Foundation, © 1942, Joseph Campbell Foundation. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise identified, all photographs are from the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, San Jose State University.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shillinglaw, Susan.

Carol and John Steinbeck : portrait of a marriage / Susan Shillinglaw. pages cm. — (Western Literature Series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87417-930-9 (cloth : alk. paper) —

ISBN 978-0-87417-931-6 (e-book) 1. Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968—Marriage.

2. Novelists, American—2oth century—Biography. I. Title. PS3537-13234Z8664 2013

813.52—dc23

[B]

2013008777

The paper used in this book meets the requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANsI/NISO 239.48-1992 (R2002). Binding materials were selected for strength and durability.

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FIRST PRINTING 16 15 14 G

Syee ae

Frontispiece: Carol and John, mid-1930s. Photo from Carol's scrapbooks.

To BILL GILLY and JACK BENSON

who, in different ways, willed this book. And to IAN and NORA, who, with great forbearance,

lived it.

Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2023 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/caroljohnsteinbeOOOOshil

Contents

List of Illustrations | ix

Preface | xi Introduction | x ONE | Renegades | 10 TWO

| Make It New: Lake Tahoe, San Francisco,

and Eagle Rock | 34

THREE

| Home in Pacific Grove | 60

FOUR | At Ed Ricketts's Lab | 84 FIVE | Wave Shock, 1932-35 | 119 six | “Viva Mexico!” | 148

SEVEN | California Is a “Bomb Right Now... Highly Explosive’: Writing The Grapes of Wrath | 164 EIGHT

NINE

| Enter Gwen Conger | 202

| On the Sea of Cortez | 217

TEN | Life in Fragments | 237 Coda | 257 Notes | 263 Selected Bibliography | 295 Index | 305

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following page 118 Carol in front of her childhood home in San Jose

John and his red pony, “Jill,” circa 1907 “John and Carol gathering cephalopods”: drawing from Carol's scrapbooks

Carol, John, and Ritchie Lovejoy, mid-1930s John and Carol with duck in photo booth, mid-1930s Woodcut of John by Ritchie Lovejoy, mid-1930s

Carol in Mexico City, 1935, with maids “Candy” and “Apple” Carol, mid-1930s

Carol on deck of SS Drottningholm in 1937, bound for Denmark Carol at the Dickey Wells Club, New York City, 1938

John, in late 1930s Brush Road ranch, Los Gatos

Carol and Elsie Ray with rattlesnakes, Brush Road ranch, circa 1939 Edward F. Ricketts, 1930s Page from one of Carol's scrapbooks Carol's drawing from the sportswomen series “The Diver" Gwen Conger, publicity photo, circa 1938

Carol volunteering for the Red Cross during World War II Carol's marriage to Loren Howard, Camp Roberts, 1943

Carol's passport photo, 1948

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Preface

ON

A RECENT

a woman

TOUR I led to the Red Pony ranch near Salinas, California, asked me if I was related to John Steinbeck. “You are, aren't you?”

No, definitely not, although when I stand on dusty Hebert Road, near the barn with the little swallows’ nests still under the eaves, with the water tank

behind me and the paddock before me, the white buildings of distant Sali-

nas on the horizon, I know that I see pretty much what Steinbeck saw and I think I feel pretty much what he felt when a California vista knocks you flat.

Steinbeck’s soul, I sometimes think, has become a little piece of my own. I live in Pacific Grove, California, as did he and Carol, and in Los Gatos, as

did they. I drive to Salinas reluctantly, as did they. And I have a husband who, like Ed Ricketts, is a marine biologist, and we met on a trip to the Sea

of Cortez, digging for chocolate clams. We married on Ricketts's birthday,

May 14. We teach holistic biology together at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, where Steinbeck took classes in 1923. I like all these intersections. I like that I have known Steinbeck’s nieces and his third wife, Elaine, and his sons, Thom and John. And I like knowing Carol's stepdaughter, Sha-

ron Brown Bacon, who lives by the Carmel River where Mack and the boys

hunted frogs. It was she who set me on this biographical road by donating Carol's scrapbooks, photographs, and poetry to San Jose State University’s

Steinbeck Research Center, shortly after I became director in 1987. I am profoundly grateful for her generosity and patience throughout this project. And I was guided throughout by her own love for Carol. This “wall of background’ (Steinbeck’s term) helped shape this book, the

story of a marriage that I have spent some twenty-five years researching and writing. Initially, | was stumped, since Carol Henning Steinbeck left no account of her life, wrote few letters, and did not confide in friends the full

extent of her woe. I have worked hard to understand her role in John’s life and work—work

that would not have been the same without her defining

presence in his life.

xi

PREFACE

I am fairly certain that Carol, married to John from 1930 to 1943, never stopped loving this man who gave light and purpose to her youth. And that is part of the story I tell, how we come to be defined by the web of associations that shape formative years. During my eighteen years as director of San Jose State’s Steinbeck Center, while editing the Steinbeck Newsletter, organizing conferences, teaching and lecturing on Steinbeck, and somehow raising two

children, John and Carol's story, waiting to be told, was ever on my mind. Some of Carol's story is mine, and I hope I have plumbed her great spirit and

captured a bit of it. The list of scholars and friends who shaped my career and scholarship is a long one. Glittering at the top are Jackson J. Benson and Robert DeMott,

who have counseled and inspired me for a quarter of a century. In 1987, when I became director of the Steinbeck Research Center at San Jose State, with

scant qualifications for the job, I had in hand a recent PhD, a dissertation on James Fenimore Cooper, and memories

of reading The Red Pony in junior

high, a book I disliked because the pony dies. I had put Steinbeck on a back shelf with Old Yeller, The Yearling, and the story of Lad, a dog circling his bed for the final time. Both Jack and Bob, models of generosity, helped me catch up, sharing their rich store of Steinbeckiana. This book would not exist

without them. I also thank a woman for selecting me as director in the first place, Lou

Lewandowski, chair of the English Department, who believed that a fledgling lecturer would make the grade. Two other colleagues were models of scholarly deportment and hard-won female wisdom, Ma Joads: Arlene Okerlund, provost, and Fanny Rinn, editor of San Jose Studies. My heartfelt thanks to Carol's relatives: Sharon Brown Bacon; Idell Budd, Carol's sister; and Carla Budd

and Nikki Tugwell, Carol's nieces. And

to

John’s: Toni and David Heyler lifted a cover on the Steinbeck family, as did

Virginia St. Jean and Steinbeck’s nieces. Without John Seelye's cheerful support, I might not have written my first

two introductions for Penguin Classics—on Cannery Row and Of Mice and Men; his zest for literary studies quickened my own. He and Michael Millman, editor at Viking Penguin for many years; Eugene Winick, former president of McIntosh and Otis; Jackson Bryer, editing mentor; and Ted Hayashi, pioneering Steinbeck scholar, supported my first publications on Steinbeck. I

am ever grateful. The imprint of other Steinbeck scholars is everywhere in this book. Their

PREFACE

xiii

friendship sustained my career. Louis Owens’s work helped me to love this state of failed dreams. John Ditsky’s steady output in Steinbeck was inspi-

rational—as was his unfailing kindness. In 1996 Kiyoshi Nakayama and the Steinbeck Society of Japan invited me to lecture on Carol and John, an unforgettable journey; thanks also to Hiromasa Takamura, Osamu Hamaguchi,

and Scott and Susan Pugh, who hosted me and my daughter in this country of gentle courtesies. Warren French was the dean of Steinbeck studies, a man

with a lopsided tie and grin and the willingness to revise opinions on this author. Mimi Gladstein has examined Steinbeck’s women steadily and well. Bob and Katherine Morsberger, Roy Simmonds, and Leland Person modeled meticulous research and unfailing grace. Katie Rodger, my former student,

has often lifted my spirits—and taught me much about Edward F. Ricketts.

In 1992, Susan Beegel, Wes Tiffney, and I organized a conference in Nantucket on Steinbeck and the environment that launched my study of Steinbeck as ecologist. At the Jared Coffin House, I first met ever-vibrant Elaine Steinbeck. She loved the idea of this book, but did not want my scholarship

to extend to her life; I respect that boundary. Finally, Harold Augenbraum, formerly director of the Mercantile Library in New York City, was codirector of the 2002 Steinbeck Centennial, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts; he taught me the delights of steady collaboration.

The work of many other scholars, of course, shaped my ideas about Steinbeck, particularly John Timmerman, Hadella,

Kevin Hearle, Don

Chip Hughes, Chris Fink, Charlotte

Coers, Cliff Lewis, Brian Railsback, Graham

Wilson, and Jay Parini. I owe all these and many others a huge Steinbeckian

debt of gratitude. To those who thanks. Anne

helped me

Loftis, Barbara

connect

biographically

Marinacci,

James

and historically, my

Houston,

Gerald

Haslam,

Kevin Starr, David Wyatt, Timothy Egan, and Morris Dickstein deepened

my understanding of California history. William Wulf generously gave me access to the Henning family papers in his archive of Los Gatos history. Of course, I also wish to thank Steinbeck’s friends, the people I interviewed from 1988 on, so often quoted in this book. Many are no longer living, and

as I wrote and revised this text, their kindness to me returned in waves. Ed Ricketts Jr. talked to me about his father and John and Carol more times than I can count. In Alaska and in California, his sister Nancy Ricketts has done the same as we hiked around Sitka and exchanged letters. Bob Harmon, Jim Johnson, Art Ring, Dick Hayman,

Ken and Karen

an

PREFACE

and the late Phil Ralls and Dick Hayman, each a collector and Steinbeck enthusiast, gave me free access to their minds and collections. Jim Dourgarian, collector, took me to meet Carlton Sheffield in 1990, a memoHolmes,

rable afternoon. Writer John Thompson introduced me to Harold Ingels, and we poured over Beth Ingels's literary past while my daughter Nora, then four, displayed “three hours of such patient charm, writing her own spontaneous

scripts with her toys.’ Rereading John’s letter of thanks twenty-two years later, | am stunned at how much I put everyone through during this long

quest—especially my children Ian and Nora when my gaze was diverted from their antics to Steinbeck’s. Stanford archivist Maggie Kimball and Morgan librarian Robert Parks made research so much easier, at all stages of this project. Nearer at hand, I warmly thank my Salinas and Monterey friends who

have supported my work on Steinbeck: John Gross, director of the Steinbeck Library; Mary Gamble, archivist; and Pauline Pearson, whose spirit remains

in the many interviews she conducted in the 1970s and ‘80s for the Steinbeck Library. More recently, Herb Behrens, archivist at the National Steinbeck Center, sent me information at regular intervals. Carol Robles’s work on the

Steinbeck family in Salinas is precise in ways I envy. Since 1997, directors of the center have been unstinting in their support, most recently Colleen Baily;

I delight in my position there as a scholar in residence. In Monterey, hats off to Dennis Copeland and Neal Hotelling.

The work of any professor is enriched by eager students, too many to name. The high school teachers who participated in the National Endowment for Humanities

Summer

Institutes I have codirected, “John Steinbeck: The

Voice of a Region, a Voice for America,” also imprinted this narrative. I also thank my first codirector, Mary Alder, for again showing me the delights of

collaboration.

Finally—and perhaps most important—a scholar is propped up by friends and family. Thanks to Betsy and Whizzer, Heather and Ian, Geri and Jim, Carol and Greg, Ginger and Doug, Susan and Vladimir—and Katie, Persis, Marianina, and Clare. Anne and Ellen Shillinglaw, my cousins, sheltered me during research trips. My very generous aunt Frances eased many burdens, financial and emotional. And in ways they scarcely know, so did my brothers, Tom and John; my sister-in-law Betsy; and my children, Ian, Nora, Clayton, and Amanda. With my husband, Gilly, they are my phalanx of believers. Add

Frank and Dorothy Gilly to that mix.

PREFACE

XV

This book was completed because I was granted sabbaticals at San Jose

State; because my research requests were supported by directors and assis-

tants at sysus Center for Steinbeck Studies—particularly Sstoz Tes and Peter Van Coutren; because I had a loving husband who served as sensitive editor;

and because the University of Nevada Press and director Joanne O'Hare saw value in a California writer and his first wife, both of whose main connection

with Nevada was a messy divorce from a second spouse. My heartfelt thanks to institutions and individuals alike. This long-emerging text seems a miracle to me. Like Steinbeck, I am awed

by “participation,” the extensive and supportive phalanx that made this book possible.

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