John Steinbeck

American author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

When the Great Plains region was settled in the mid-1800s, prairie grass covered the area, retained moisture and held the soil in place. As the years wore on, however, farmers began plowing under large swaths of land to make crop fields. When the United States became involved with World War I, wheat was in great demand and the farmers pushed their land to its limits. Overgrazing and the destruction of prairie grasses by farmers caused considerable damage to the land. The region was already windy, which set the stage for more trouble. In 1931, a drought hit the region. Crops died and because the ground cover keeping the soil in place was gone, wind began whipping dust everywhere. Dust storms were becoming a problem. But the storm on May 11, 1934, was big. During a two-day period, 350 million tons of silt was blown from the Great Plains as far east as New York and Atlanta. History.com states that “even ships some 300 miles offshore saw dust collect on their decks.” Author Timothy Egan writes in his book, “The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl,” that there were “three tons of dust for every American alive.” George Will writes in The Washington Post, “By morning, the storm was 1,800 miles wide—‘a great rectangle of dust’ weighing 350 million tons—and was depositing the surface of the Great Plains on New York City, where commerce stopped in the semi-darkness.” Dust storms were tough to endure, and making a living was difficult at best for some families. They deserted their homes to move further west in hopes of a better life. Author John Steinbeck compared the thousands and thousands of people who left to ants “scurrying to find work to do—to lift, to push, to pick, to cut—anything, any burden to bear, for food.” Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Panhandle experienced the worst of the Dust Bowl drought. During a storm, visibility was sometimes nonexistent “and everything was covered in dirt.” According to America’s Library, “No matter how tightly Oklahomans sealed their homes, they could not keep the dirt from entering.” The government tried to help change the farming practices that had so damaged the Great Plains, but the Dust Bowl still lasted about 10 years. The situation also prolonged the Great Depression.

The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

In den Vereinigten Staaten erscheint John Steinbecks Roman The Grapes of Wrath (deutscher Titel: Früchte des Zorns).

Der Spielfilm Früchte des Zorns von John Ford nach dem gleichnamigen Roman von John Steinbeck, in dem das Schicksal der „Okies“ behandelt wird, hat in New York City seine Uraufführung. Die Hauptrollen spielen Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell und John Carradine.

John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)