Steinbeck: A Collection of Critical Essays

Steinbeck’s immense popularity has had an almost wholly negative effect on his literary reputation. Esteemed literary critics have either ignored him or denounced him for appealing to the ‘uninstructed reader.’ The editor of this volume, Robert Murray Davis, asserts that Steinbeck’s fall from critical favor, to some degree undeserved, was caused by a shift in literary fashion and that Steinbeck’s contunied popularity with a wide range of readers over several decades calls for reevaluation of his best work.