Customer Reviews

John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley and Later Novels 1947-1962: The Wayward Bus / Burning Bright / Sweet Thursday / The Winter of Our Discontent (Library of America)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This volume is up to the LOA's customary magnificient standards. This is not Steinbeck's best work (although I persist in viewing "Sweet Thursday" as under-valued), but still worth every penny.
Steinbeck fans should have this on their shelves. DeMott's previous editorial work on The Grapes of Wrath establishes him as the editor of choice for any edition, and these Library of America editions are becoming, justifiably, the "standard" texts.

This review refers to the total of the 4 volumes of the LoA Steinbeck.
As a Steinbeck fan and as a reader who really appreciates the LoA volumes, I am not hundred percent satisfied with the set of 4.
It is not Steinbeck that I find fault with (though I do not admire everything that he wrote), but the text selection: the series is short by 1 volume. It ought to have integrated the following, in order to be more complete and have the full Steinbeck:
The Cup of Gold
The War Reporting
Viva Zapata (the script and the essay)
The Russian Journal
The Short Reign of King Pippin
The Journal of East of Eden (which is better than the novel itself, believe me!)
Maybe we can talk the editors into adding a supplementary Steinbeck volume to their otherwise beautiful collection?

Library of America reports that there are plans for a fifth volume of Steinbeck writings, but precise contents and a publication date have not yet been set.

John Steinbeck should be read and studied by every red-blooded American! Everything the guy wrote is gold. No better American writer ever!!! Read everything he ever composed and thank yourself for doing it!

The books were delivered quickly and were as expected (I already knew about the quality of the Library of America volumes). A good transaction.