John Steinbeck was an American writer who grew up in rural California amid a productive agricultural region and society. He spent his summers working on ranches and farms and was exposed to working conditions and the lives of migrant farm workers which greatly influenced his writing.

He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) and the short novel "Of Mice and Men" (1937). In all he wrote twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories. In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Click here for more on Steinbeck's life and writings.

A very interesting bit of trivia about his life is that he loved to write with pencils and was a prolific consumer of pencils every day and was a fan of the famous Blackwing pencil among others. You might call him the Ultimate Pencil Pusher.

In her post Perfect Pencil, John Steinbeck, Blackwing Pencils and the Mongol 480 historian Lito Apostolakou writes:

"Steinbeck's favourite writing instrument was indeed the pencil. It is said that John Steinbeck would start the day with 24 newly-sharpened pencils which he would need to sharpen again before the day was through with a rare for his time electric pencil sharpener. The story goes that he used some 300 pencils to complete East of Eden (1952). For the Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Cannery Row (1945) he is said to have used 60 cedar pencils every day."

Read more of Lito's post on Steibeck's use of pencils here.

Return to Famous Pencil User's Page here.