The Grapes of Wrath

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Grapes of Wrath (disambiguation).

The Grapes of Wrath
Book cover illustration of a child, man, and woman on a roadside watching as dozens of cars and trucks drive off into the distance
First edition cover
AuthorJohn Steinbeck
Cover artistElmer Hader
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherThe Viking Press-James Lloyd
Publication date
April 14, 1939[1]
Publication placeUnited States
Pages464
OCLC289946
813.52

The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939.[2] The book won the National Book Award[3] and Pulitzer Prize[4] for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962.[5]

Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California on the "mother road", along with thousands of other "Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.

The Grapes of Wrath is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes due to its historical context and enduring legacy.[6] A celebrated Hollywood film version, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, was released in 1940.

  1. ^ "Grapes of Wrath, a classic for today?". BBC News. April 14, 2009. Archived from the original on December 29, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  2. ^ The official publication date of April 14, 1939, was exactly four years to the day of the Black Sunday Storm, among the worst of the Dust Bowl dust storms, which, in real life, caused many Oklahomans to migrate to California in search of work.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt1940 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference pulitzer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference nobel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "The Big Read | The Grapes of Wrath". National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2012.