Specialist Selects from
John Steinbeck: The Mary Steinbeck Dekker Family Collection

John Steinbeck: The Mary Steinbeck Dekker Family Collection offers a treasure trove of literary history, including letters, manuscripts, diaries, presentation copy novels, and personal ephemera of John Steinbeck. With most of Steinbeck’s manuscripts and family letters held by institutions including Stanford, the Morgan Library, and SJSU, this remarkable assemblage provides a unique glimpse into the life and work of one of America’s most celebrated authors.

Here, Catherine Williamson, Director of Books & Manuscripts, highlights some of her favourite lots from the auction, taking place on 25 October in New York.

Lot 8

Steinbeck's First Novel Inscribed to His Parents.

Steinbeck’s parents were incredibly supportive of him throughout his twenties, sending money and even allowing him to live and write at their summer home in Pacific Grove. It’s safe to say that without the luxury of their support it would have taken much longer for him to reach maturity as a writer. 

His inscription in this copy is both self-deprecating and grateful: “To my mother and father, whose patience and understanding deserve a much better book than this one.” Housed in a custom Morocco sleeve lettered in gilt with the title and “John Steinbeck” on the upper cover, it is exactly the kind of extravagant sleeve a proud parent might create for a son’s first published work.

Lot 27

A Fragment of the Original Manuscript to Of Mice and Men, Eaten by the Dog.

In May of 1936, Steinbeck wrote to his agent to report that his new puppy Toby had eaten the only copy of his current work-in-progress, Of Mice and Men, and it would take him two months to reproduce it. And yet, Steinbeck was remarkably sanguine, joking that maybe Toby was “acting critically.”  

When I found this tiny scrap of Steinbeck’s manuscript, gnawed at the edges with a tooth mark through the center, I knew exactly how Steinbeck felt all those years ago. What new puppy hasn’t eaten something he shouldn’t have because his owner didn’t put it out of the way? And who among us hasn’t lost months of work with the wrong stroke of a key?

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Lot 61

Steinbeck's Journal for 1949.

The tail end of 1948 was probably the lowest period in John Steinbeck’s life.  His most recent work had met a lukewarm reception. His wife surprised him by asking for a divorce, leaving town with his two young sons in tow. Shortly after, his best friend Ed Ricketts died in an automotive accident. Alone and grieving, he begins this journal on New Year’s Eve 1948 in Los Angeles, before returning to Pacific Grove to sort through Ricketts’ belongings.

It’s such a sad time for Steinbeck, and he is so hurt and angry he can barely work—until the late spring, when, on a lark, he invites actress Ann Sothern up from LA for a visit. Wary of the famously tempestuous writer, Sothern brought a friend, Mrs. Elaine Scott, the recently divorced wife of actor Zachary Scott. Steinbeck and Elaine wound up hitting it off, and before long the writer was head over heels in love and barreling toward another marriage, although this one would be his longest and most successful.  

While it is painful to see Steinbeck suffer in the early months of this journal, I feel such hope as I see him heal, taking the steps he needs to get his life and career back on track.

Lot 84

An Arthurian Sword Presented by John Steinbeck to His Sister, Mary, Together With Her “Knighthood Investiture.”

In much of the correspondence offered in this auction, John Steinbeck repeats how important Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur was to his development as a writer. It is the first book he really loved and the theme of a noble quest resonates throughout his works, from Cup of Gold to Grapes of Wrath to East of Eden.

Steinbeck spent years working on a modern translation of Malory’s work, delving deep into the original manuscripts at the Morgan Library and in England, hoping to make the story of King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere and the Round Table as resonant to a new generation as it had been for him.  In a letter written after his sister’s death, Steinbeck confesses that it was Mary who wanted him to write this work, and while he never finished it in her lifetime, he was determined to do so after her death.

In the late 1950s, around the time Mary had a serious health scare and while Steinbeck was immersed in the Malory project, he presented his sister with this sword and calligraphic manuscript, which he called her “Knighthood investiture.” The document acknowledges that in spite of her bravery when they were children, Mary was never knighted, and so Sir John knights her now and dubs her “Syr Mayrie Steynbek of the Vayle Salynas.”

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