“All great and precious things are lonely.”*

by chuckofish

East of Sweden … John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men faced isolated calls for censorship in Turkey.

John Steinbeck, author, Nobel Prize winner and Episcopalian, was born on this day in 1902 in Salinas, California.

  A writer out of loneliness is trying to communicate like a distant star sending signals. He isn’t telling or teaching or ordering. Rather he seeks to establish a relationship of meaning, of feeling, of observing. We are lonesome animals. We spend all life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say—and to feel—

“Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.”

So tonight I will lift my glass of wine in a toast to the memory of the great Steinbeck! Why don’t you join me?

*East of Eden