Joseph Fontenrose, �Steinbeck�s Unhappy Valley�
From the introduction:
- Nearly nine years ago I wrote this essay on John Steinbeck�s The pastures of heaven for a book that Forrest Ingram had planned on short-story cycles, to be called the Wineburg Form. [...] But the publisher who was going to publish the book suddenly decided against doing so. For seven years Professor Ingram tried to find another publisher, but without success, and thus my manuscript came back to me.
Some people can�t take a hint. Instead of shelving the paper and going back to work at Best Buy or wherever this happens to be employed, he decided to make a specialty printing of something that�s smaller than a lot of punk fanzines. And for what? Self-obsessed ramblings about what Steinbeck meant.
This guy must be so embarrassed now in the age of free online publishing.
The pressing he did must have been small, however, as this came into work, and after checking online and comparing prices, this tiny little pamphlet was going for a fair amount of cash. I suppose that makes sense � There are a lot of Steinbeck collector fanatics out there, and I�m one of them.
But I�m also cheap, which makes me not a very good collector. I wasn�t going to pay the outlandish price asked for the book, so I broke my own habits, and read it after my shift ended at work.
That was twenty minutes of drinking time I missed out on. I�m currently trying to catch up.
Time for a refill.
