The long term critical reputation of John Steinbeck rises and falls on the relevance and apparent ability evinced in his greatest two novels, Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. However, his endurance as a great Amencan writer is also found in his lesser works such as The Red Pony and The Pearl. The latter, Steinbeck called, "a black and white story like a parable" and the felicity with which he crafted the work claims its readers to read it again and again. Indeed, for many critics this story has revealed the bedrock of Steinbeck's personal and political philosophy.

John S. Kennedy was one such early friend who summed up Steinbeck's literary philosophy as a "reverence for life." That was the reason for his popularity, said Kennedy, he wrote of "life and living." This critic was not about to simply say Stem-beck was a...