Steinbeck moved briefly to New York City, but soon returned home to California to begin his career as a writer. This upbringing imparted a regionalistic flavor to his writing, giving many of his works a distinct sense of place. Steinbeck grew up in the Salinas Valley region of California, a culturally diverse place of rich migratory and immigrant history. In 1962, Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature. In all, he wrote twenty-five books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories.
He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, and the novella, Of Mice and Men, published in 1937.
