The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck (1939)
“The novel John Steinbeck embedded with migrant workers to write — then watched get burned by the people it exposed.”
Why This Book Matters
Published in April 1939, The Grapes of Wrath sold 428,900 copies in its first year — an extraordinary number for the Depression. It catalyzed a congressional investigation into the conditions of California migrant workers and contributed to federal action on agricultural labor. Eleanor Roosevelt publicly defended the book against the California agricultural interests who burned it. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize in 1962, with the Committee citing it specifically. It remains one of the most widely assigned novels in American secondary and university education.
Firsts & Innovations
First major American novel to use an alternating structure that systematically pairs individual experience with structural-economic analysis
Among the first works of fiction to treat organized labor and union organizing sympathetically in a mainstream literary context
One of the first major novels to use documentary journalism as source material in a way that was acknowledged rather than concealed
Cultural Impact
Catalyzed a congressional subcommittee investigation into California migrant labor conditions in 1939
Banned and burned in multiple California counties — Kern County (the novel's primary California setting) officially banned it from public libraries
John Ford's 1940 film adaptation won two Academy Awards and brought the story to a mass audience
Woody Guthrie's Dust Bowl ballads, including 'Tom Joad,' extended the novel's reach into American folk music
'The Grapes of Wrath' title and 'Tom Joad' became cultural shorthand for displaced working-class Americans — Bruce Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) reactivated the Joad myth for NAFTA-era displacement
Assigned in virtually every American high school — one of the most universal shared literary experiences in the country
Banned & Challenged
Banned from public libraries in Kern County, California, in August 1939 — the county that is the novel's primary California setting. Burned publicly in Salinas, California, Steinbeck's hometown. Challenged throughout the 20th century for 'profanity' (the Okie dialect), 'indecency' (the final nursing scene), and 'subversive' content (the union organizing scenes). The banning was organized by the Associated Farmers of California — the growers' vigilante organization Steinbeck had specifically exposed in the novel. The attempt to suppress the book confirmed its accuracy.