Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Trove of Steinbeck


The New York Times recently had a piece about my favorite author.

From the story...

A few years ago, while researching a book on entrepreneurs, Joel Eisenberg, a California writer and film producer, interviewed Twyla Martin, the owner of a successful bridal gown company, at her home in West Hollywood. She was the widow of Ernest H. Martin, a producer of Broadway hits like “Guys and Dolls” and a longtime friend of John Steinbeck. In the early 1950s Martin had tried — and failed — to produce a musical comedy based on Steinbeck’s 1945 best-selling novel “Cannery Row.”

During the interview Mrs. Martin mentioned that her husband had left a box of Steinbeck papers in a hallway closet. When Mr. Eisenberg asked to see the box, he looked inside and found a hand-written draft of Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row” musical (titled “The Bear Flag CafĂ©”) as well as the first draft of what that play morphed into, Steinbeck’s 1954 novel “Sweet Thursday,” an unlikely romance between a marine scientist and a working girl.

“It was amazing to have all this unpublished material in my hands, a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “It was all out of order, so I offered to sort it out.”

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