Whew. This was the most overly thorough biography I’ve ever read.....

The exhaustive and comprehensive biography that Steinbeck deserves, culled from the larger work written by Benson. Yet, at 1,032 pages in its own right, you will feel that it covers all the bases. All of the details are covered, more often than not within an engaging style, but obviously it takes a bit of time to read. If you are interested in a few of the major works, this might be a bit daunting. There are shorter works covering more intensely works such as Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, or Of Mice and Men, particularly Steinbeck's own journals or the works of Susan Shillinglaw. But if you are obsessed with the entirety of Steinbeck's career and life, this volume will ever be topped.

Benson has written an extraordinarily detailed biography of Steinbeck. It’s well-written too. Benson’s biography makes one appreciate the author’s self-discipline, work ethic, and steadiness of purpose. It emphases Steinbeck’s almost biological approach to humanity: he achieves a unique level of objectivity by judging his individual and social subjects with the detachment of a scientist. Indeed, I had not realized that Steinbeck was something of an amateur marine biologist. I was surprised to think of author in this way, since I remember, perhaps wrongly, Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and the Grapes of Wrath, as rather mawkish productions. Yet I read East of Eden more recently, and that book does seem to be beyond traditional morality. I suppose true Steinbeck fans will enjoy the book but I never finished the 1000 page book and will try again with the shorter Parini biography someday.

This biography was probably the most detailed biography I have ever read. I can't even imagine how much time the author must have spent writing this. I'm not really sure at this point if knowing every possible detail of Steinbeck's life will make me enjoy his writing more or less. In hindsight I almost wish I had not read a biography about an author and in the future will probably not read another one. I like to form my ideas about a piece of literature on what I experience while reading it rather than my thoughts and feelings being clouded by knowing of an author's personality or life story.

I love waaay long books but to be honest by the time I hit 900 or so pages my mind often drifts to what I'll read next. So, when a book is really engaging, really good, it doesn't matter how many pages you've left before you reach the last sentence. If a book is really great you never once think about what you'll pick up next, only hope that you can stay with the current book for just a bit longer. That pretty much sums up The True Adventures of John Steinbeck Writer. Of course it helps if you are enamored with the subject, especially if you may love a person's work but you don't really know all that much about their life. It also helps if the more you learn the more you love not only the subject's work but the more you love the actual person who produced such great work. And, if the biographer is truly worth their while, they can contribute by their own skill at writing, giving you even the teeniest details and not one of them is boring or screaming to be skipped over. And the final touch-- if once you finish the biography you not only feel a great admiration for the subject but want to go back and revisit all the subject produced. I may not read Steinbeck next, (there's so many to choose from and a few I've yet to read), but I've a feeling that at least every other book for quite a long while will have been brought to life by one of our country's greatest storytellers, a man whose humanity infused every sentence with the love of life, the long quest for justice, and a special talent for inviting the reader to review his own life and beliefs.

Perhaps not the best biography but certainly my favourite. The title is ironic: Steinbeck left all the adventuring to Hemingway. Unlike Hemingway, however, Steinbeck always comes across as a decent man who genuinely disliked fame, liked friendship and women, and seldom drank too much. The tactics of his right-wing critics to slur him continue to disgust.

What a marvelous and extensive look into the life of a great writer and American. Though a bit surly at times, and a man who could hold a grudge, John Steinbeck held a moral compass that held true throughout his thought-provoking life. His story is much sadder than what is generally known by most of his readers. In ways he was a tragic character.

I did not read the entire 1000 pages - skimmed a good portion, and read the chapters on the parts of his life I wanted detailed information on. This is very thorough bio, and well written -- but I could never see myself reading the whole 1000+ pages.

Readers who are fans of John Steinbeck will get a kick out of this fine effort. Steinbeck wasn’t enough of a rock star though for casual readers to stick with this. Exhaustive in detail but I never found it tedious.

"I respected (Uncle) John Steinbeck for never jumping through all the hoops at Stanford, even if he kept going back and letting people like Wallace Stegner tell him what The Great American Novel ought to be. Uncle John could write rings around any of them."

-Ursula Le Guin

Great content but found it to be a little too in depth...could have been half of the length and still gotten a good picture of who John Steinbeck was.

A massive biography of one of my favourite writers. Detailed background and well-researched. Inspirational.