You’ve probably seen the cover a thousand times. Maybe it was a beat-up paperback in a high school locker, or perhaps you’re just now wondering about the mind behind George and Lennie’s tragic California dream. To get the big question out of the way: John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men. He didn’t just write it; he lived the dirt, the grit, and the desperation that makes the book feel so painfully real even decades later.
Steinbeck was a giant of American letters. He eventually won the Nobel Prize, but back in 1937, he was just a guy trying to figure out how to tell a story about the "bindlestiffs" he’d worked alongside in the fields. It’s a short book. Barely a novella. Yet, it carries the weight of a lead pipe because it comes from a place of absolute, unvarnished truth.
Why Steinbeck Wrote This Story
Steinbeck wasn't some ivory tower intellectual. He dropped out of Stanford. He spent years working as a lab assistant, a caretaker, and—most importantly—a ranch hand. When you ask who wrote Of Mice and Men, you're really asking about a man who knew exactly what it felt like to have calloused hands and a paycheck that disappeared the moment it hit your pocket.
He actually based the character of Lennie on a real person he worked with on a ranch. Steinbeck once mentioned in an interview that the "real" Lennie was in an institution. The man had killed a ranch foreman with a pitchfork because he was confused and angry. That’s heavy. It’s why the book doesn't feel like a fable; it feels like a police report written by a poet.
The "Play-Novella" Experiment
Steinbeck was trying something weird here. He called it a "play-novella." Basically, he wrote the book so it could be easily adapted for the stage. Look at the chapters. They’re scenes. They start with a description of the setting—the Salinas River, the bunkhouse, Crooks' room—and then the characters walk in and start talking. It’s lean. There’s no "purple prose" or fluff. Just dialogue and action.
He wanted the audience to feel like they were sitting in the dirt with the characters. It worked. The book was a massive success, and the stage version followed almost immediately.
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The Disaster That Almost Deleted the Manuscript
Here is a bit of trivia that’ll make any writer’s blood run cold. Steinbeck’s puppy, an Irish setter named Toby, actually ate the original manuscript.
Seriously.
Steinbeck wrote to his agent, Elizabeth Otis, explaining that "two months of work" were now just a pile of chewed-up confetti. He didn't even get mad at the dog. He just said the pup was probably a "very good critic." He had to rewrite the whole thing from memory. Imagine the discipline that takes. Some people think the second version ended up being better because it forced him to trim the fat and focus on the emotional core of the friendship between George and Lennie.
The Salinas Valley Connection
The setting isn't just a backdrop. It’s a character. Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 1902. He knew the way the sun hit the Gabilan Mountains. He knew the smell of the barley. By placing the story in Soledad (which means "solitude" in Spanish), he was signaling the loneliness of the migrant worker life. These guys were nomadic. They had no families. They had no futures.
- The Great Depression context: When the book came out in '37, the U.S. was still reeling.
- The Dust Bowl: Thousands were flooding into California looking for work that didn't exist.
- The American Dream: Steinbeck was deconstructing the idea that if you work hard, you get the "little house and the rabbits."
Who Was John Steinbeck, Really?
Beyond the name on the spine, Steinbeck was a complicated dude. He was intensely shy. He hated fame. When The Grapes of Wrath came out a few years later and became a cultural firestorm, he actually felt guilty about the money he was making. He felt like a "traitor" to the poor people he was writing about.
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He won the Pulitzer. He won the Nobel. But he always felt like an outsider in the literary world of New York. He was a California boy through and through. He loved biology, the ocean, and the common man. If you read his other stuff, like Cannery Row or East of Eden, you see the same themes: people trying to be good in a world that is often very cruel.
Misconceptions About the Author
People often think Steinbeck was a political radical. While he was definitely "left-leaning" and cared deeply about labor rights, he wasn't a card-carrying communist, despite what his critics at the time claimed. He was more of a humanist. He just hated seeing people treated like disposable machinery.
Another weird fact? He served as a war correspondent during WWII. He saw combat firsthand in the Mediterranean. This guy didn't just sit in a room and imagine things; he was constantly putting himself in the middle of the human experience.
Why the Book Still Gets Banned
It’s kind of wild that a book written by a Nobel Prize winner is still one of the most challenged books in American libraries. People get upset about the language, the violence, and the "mercy killing" at the end. But that’s exactly why Steinbeck wrote it the way he did.
He didn't want to give you a happy ending.
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He wanted to show the "best laid schemes o' mice an' men" (a line he took from a Robert Burns poem) and how they often go sideways. If the book didn't make you uncomfortable, it wouldn't be doing its job. Steinbeck believed that the purpose of literature was to hold up a mirror to humanity—warts and all.
Actionable Takeaways for Readers and Students
If you’re looking into who wrote Of Mice and Men because you’re studying it or just want to understand the cultural impact, here is how you can actually engage with the text more deeply.
Read it as a play. Try reading the dialogue out loud. Notice how much information is conveyed through what the characters don't say. George and Lennie’s relationship is built on repetitive phrases—their "dream" is a litany they recite like a prayer.
Compare it to the film versions. There are several, but the 1992 version with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich is remarkably faithful to Steinbeck's vision. Seeing the physical size difference between the actors helps you realize why Lennie was so dangerous without meaning to be.
Research the Robert Burns poem. The title comes from To a Mouse. Reading that poem gives you the entire philosophical backbone of the novella. It’s about how even the most careful plans can be destroyed by forces beyond our control.
Look at the 1930s labor statistics. To truly appreciate what Steinbeck was doing, look at what a dollar was worth in 1937 and what the "migrant trail" actually looked like. It turns the fiction into a historical document.
Steinbeck’s legacy isn't just a list of titles. It's the fact that he forced the world to look at the people it usually ignores. He took the "forgotten man" and made him immortal. Whether you love the ending or it leaves you devastated, you can't deny the craft of the man who sat down (twice) to write it.