From the mid-1650s through the 1660s, Henry Morgan, a pirate and outlaw of legendary viciousness, ruled the Spanish Main. He ravaged the coasts of Cuba and America, striking terror wherever he went. Morgan was obsessive. He had two driving ambitions: to possess the beautiful woman called La Santa Roja and to conquer Panama, the "cup of gold." Steinbeck's first novel and sole work of historical fiction, Cup of Gold is a lush, lyrical swashbuckling pirate fantasy, and sure to add new dimensions to readers' perceptions of this all-American writer. This edition features an introduction by...

A magnificent volume of short novels and an essential World War II report from one of America's great twentieth-century writers
On the heels of the enormous success of his masterwork The Grapes of Wrathand at the height of the American war effort John Steinbeck, one of the most prolific and influential literary figures of his generation, wrote Bombs Away, a nonfiction account of his experiences with U.S. Army Air Force bomber crews during World War II. Now, for the first time since its original publication in 1942, Penguin Classics presents this exclusive edition of...

The collaboration of two friends one a novelist, one a marine biologist produced a volume in which fascinating popular science is woven into a narrative of man s dreams, his ideals, and his accomplishments through the centuries. Sea of Cortez is one of those rare books that are all things to all readers. Actually the record of a brief collecting expedition in the lonely Gulf of California, it will be science to the scientist, philosophy to the philosopher, and to the average man an adventure in living and thinking.
The teeming and wildly competitive world of the sand flats is seen...

Occupied by enemy troops, a small, peaceable town comes face-to-face with evil imposed from the outside and betrayal born within the close-knit community
In this masterful tale set in Norway during World War II, Steinbeck explores the effects of invasion on both the conquered and the conquerors. As he delves into the emotions of the German commander and the Norwegian traitor, and depicts the spirited patriotism of the Norwegian underground, Steinbeck uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war and about human nature.

Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck s...

The novelist who wrote The Grapes of Wrath and the director who produced Crisis and Lights Out in Europe combined their superb talents to tell the story of the coming of modern medicine to the natives of Mexico. There have been several notable examples of this pen-camera method of narration, but The Forgotten Village is unique among them in that Steinbeck wrote the text before a single picture was shot. The book and the movie from which The Forgotten Village was made have a continuity and a dramatic growth not to be found in typical documentary films of the...

Two devastating short novels adapted for the stage by Steinbeck himself
This Penguin Classics edition celebrates Steinbeck s dramatic adaptations of his most powerful short novels, Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down, featuring a foreword by award-winning actor James Earl Jones.
Of Mice and Men represents an experiment in form as Steinbeck put it, a kind of playable novel, written in novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands. A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and...