John Ernst Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, the setting for many of his early stories, including "The Chrysanthemums." The Salinas Valley was then, as it is now, largely rural and agricultural, a place of small towns and small farms. As a boy Steinbeck was a devoted reader. He wrote for his high school newspaper and attended college as an English major. Summers, he worked along the Salinas River harvesting beets. In 1925 he left home for New York City and took a job with a newspaper.

Though Steinbeck found reporting unsatisfying, he was determined to become a writer. He returned to California and published a novel about the Caribbean, Cup of Gold, just before the 1929 stock market crash. As the Great Depression unfolded, Steinbeck married the first of his three wives, met his closest friend, found his lifelong literary agents, and began writing about...