John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Michael J. Meyer (DePaul University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1952

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

Although most critics consider

The Grapes of Wrath

(1939) as John Steinbeck's masterpiece, the author himself considered

East of Eden

(1952) as the zenith of his literary career, a work for which he felt all the others were merely practice. After originally entitling the novel “My Valley” and later “The Salinas Valley”, and considering “Canable” and “Valley of the World”, Steinbeck decided upon the title

East of Eden

after rereading the Genesis account of Cain's banishment from the perfect garden to the land of Nod, located “east of Eden”. Considering this event took place after the murder of Abel and that the author considered the recounting of first murder to be “the symbol story of the human soul”, Steinbeck seems to have selected the title because it suggested…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3476 words

Citation: Meyer, Michael J.. "East of Eden". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5458, accessed 25 November 2024.]

View recommended reading for this article

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback