I've been a Steinbeck fan for many years, but learned something new on pretty much every one of these 1000+ pages.

This is a big book, heavy and dense, but well worth reading for anybody who enjoys Steinbeck or who likes biographies of authors. Writers will learn from Steinbeck's struggles to write and find acceptance.

I admit I was intimidated by the size and detail of this book, and remained so up until the last pages. I'm glad I read it, though, and would readily and heartily recommend it.

Excellent biography of one of if not the best writer of all time. So much more to him than just a writer. Well worth reading.

THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF JOHN STEINBECK,WRITER:A BIOGRAPHY by Jackson J. Benson (1990)

Not a literary critique - but a most thorough telling of the events that shaped Steinbeck throughout his life. Benson notes Steinbeck was blessed with good friends but lacked critical respect. I was a little taken aback by Steinbeck's embrace of a pseudo-Hollywood kind of lifestyle (he hated Hollywood itself). Anyway, I need to go back and reread some of his books. This is a well written, if overly long, biography.

Informative, but long. I got about half-way through and decided my reading time would be better spent with another book.

It's great if you want to read the details of Steinbeck's biography. There are even letters which he wrote.

I've read Steinbeck's Journal of a Novel, Working Days, and Dispatches from the War, so some points were repetitive, but there were plenty of fillers in between "eras" of his works so that was nice to read! I especially enjoyed the entries post-Vietnam War and wept quietly to myself because Steinbeck was such a humorous, wonderfully joyous, spirited man even though he did become quite cynical in his later years. I'll always respect him both as a writer and a person.

I purchased this book many years ago and started reading it after a trip to the John Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, CA. I've been plucking away at it little by little since then, unable to finish reading it until today. I can happily say that it was worth the effort. Mr. Benson has given us a definitive look at John Steinbeck. In a sense, this is really three books in one, two biographies and one literary criticism, and great in each way. Mr. Benson has written a great biography of the man as we get a nearly side-by-side walk through the life of Mr. Steinbeck. He has also written a great biography of of the writer as we struggle with Steinbeck to write something original throughout the many phases of his life. And he has written a general appraisal of all of Steinbeck's works from Cup of Gold to Travels with Charley: In Search of America and America and Americans. Mr. Benson is tough, but fair-minded critic of Steinbeck's works without pretense or snobbery, something I think Mr. Steinbeck would've appreciated. The only downside of this work is its heft. At 1,000+ pages of narrative, this may be a daunting read for anyone. It nearly was for me. Still, if you are a fan of John Steinbeck and his works, I would highly recommend this book to you as a companion to all of Steinbeck's written works.

so far, i love this book. it was 50 cents at a thrift store and loving steinbeck - I figured why not. its immense size was initially intimidating and the attention to detail equally so. BUT its easy going, fascinating and a pleasure. it's almost like reading a fiction book about a writer with a big life.

This is a fantastic biography -- although it is very, very long. But what a fascinating life John Steinbeck had! And this book is very well-written, so it flows pretty well. The only passages that I struggled with were when the biographer got a little too analytic about how certain events in Steinbeck's life affected his writing ... and kind of went on too long about that. Otherwise, a very good read.

I grew up with a view of the poor shaped by John Steinbeck. Somewhere in the three decades that I have focused on poverty I parted ways with ideas such as the assumed nobility of the poor and the assumed evil of the wealthy. And I became intrigued with the life and mind of John Steinbeck - a truly great writer. On my visit to his museum in Salinas I picked up the book and ate it in measured bites over the following year. It is definitive and insightful. A must for all devotees of the author.

I like to read biographies of authors I admire. Usually I read the author's novels first and then the biography but in this case I read the biography of John Steinbeck as I read the novels. It worked out well because Jackson Benson wrote about Steinbeck's writing of each book and what was going on in his life as he wrote. I found it reassuring to learn about the agonies he went through as he wrote, the self doubt, the difficulty in settling down to write. I have similar problems, the difference being that he finished and published many novels.

Because of My Big Fat Reading Project, I started reading Steinbeck in 2003 with The Grapes of Wrath which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. I've been reading this life of Steinbeck for 10 years! Of course since the man lived for 66 years, I read it in one-sixth of the time it took him to live his life.

The original title of the 1984 hardcover Viking edition was The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer. It makes him sound like a cartoon superhero. In fact, though he was not looking for fame or fortune, the man always pursued adventure and travel. He had a strong interest in heroic deeds.

Since Benson already wrote over 1000 pages, I don't need to write more paragraphs except to say it was wonderful to get such a full picture of an author whose novels I have loved. He was a complex, tempestuous person who married three times and had an unhappy relationship with his kids but kept the same literary agent and publisher for his entire career. Despite his interpersonal issues, he cared passionately for people, justice, and his country.

I always manage to forget the subject of a biography will die at the end. When Steinbeck died, I cried. Thanks to Jackson J Benson's hard work and sympathetic understanding, I almost felt I had known John Steinbeck.