Steinbeck's Author Diary Leading to WWII
The first mention of brewing European and Pacific conflicts appears in his June 16th, 1938 entry. Steinbeck orients himself to where in the pre-planned story he is, what he needs to write next. He purges to the page mind clutter from the night before, describes a dream he had, and describes an impression of distant, bombastic global leaders (March 12, 1938, Hitler had annexed Austria into Germany, 10 months after Japan had invaded China):
And the news now is so stupid, insane. The race in its leaders any way hardly deserves to survive. And now I am ready to go to work and I am glad to get into other lives and escape from mine for a while.July 12th, 1938:
This is a hell of a time to be writing a book. Everything in the world is happening and I must sit here and write.Aug. 23rd, 1938:
Pare made me feel better about the country at large. But I am very confused. French rights to I.D.B. [In Dubious Battle] are sold now. So many things are happening. This is probably the high point of my life if I only knew it.Sept. 6th, 1938:
Middle of October I'll finish I think. No mail this morning. Thought there would be a lot. Lot tomorrow maybe. Europe still tense. Hitler waiting for heaven to speak. Maybe war, but I don't think so. He waited too long. I think he is about through any way. Hope so. Germans are such nice people. The state about to blow up. This winter is going to be a mean one. Hope I can help a little bit.Sept. 12th, 1938:
Things get no more peaceful. Today Hitler is to make his war or peace speech. That may toss the world into a mess. Apparently the whole world is jittery about it. All armies mobilized. It might be a shambles by tomorrow. And it might recede for a while. Can't tell. And personally there are so many things. New books are here [new copies of his novel "The Long Valley"]. Haven't seen them yet...Sept. 15th 1938:
Late this morning and a little ashamed of it. The war has not broken yet. Chamberlain has gone to see Hitler. Double cross by England seems inevitable. Can't tell yet. England is making every effort to avoid war. And tension increases. Can't tell yet. Last night to Pauls' for dinner....Sept. 19, 1938:
This seems to be the usual time of getting to work. War seems closer than ever. France and England are either selling out or being very clever. If the Czechs fight they won't be able to stay out. I think that there is probably skullduggery but I can't tell. To Jacksons' for the week end...Sept. 26, 1938:
...And today I am still raggy and have to gather myself in. And I'm frightened that I'm losing this book in the welter of other things. The war about to break. I don't think it will, and everything. Play goes on the road ...Sept. 27, 1938:
Time again. Letters--Elizabeth saying she may come out in November. Margolies* in Brentanos again. And that's all. Hitler has pulled in his stomach a little bit. The force against him is too great, I guess, even for his craziness. Saturday is the dead line fixed. I don't think it will come to war, and neither do many. But the preparation goes on and it will take only one word to start it. The Poles can probably do it if they get rough. Lawrence here about the house and windows and stuff...Oct. 13th 1938:
...The mail is full of requests to use my name. Another request to be a clay pigeon. I won't do any of these public things. Can't. It isn't my nature and I won't be stampeded. And so the stand must be made and I must stay out of politics. Now these two things are constantly working at me. Criticism of me is very strong and will grow bitter but I must remember the one and the ninety-nine [Ed--Luke 15:3--7]. And I must not stampede. I want to see.Oct. 26, 1938:
Finished this day--and I hope to God it's good.
[1939 September 1 - Germany invades Poland. World War II begins. Source.]
Oct. 16th, 1939:
...around us and these things I never expected. Couldn't possibly have expected. We have a cow and a Doberman pinscher. The war came but book sales went right on. And it is a curious kind of war, unlike any before. Its pattern will not emerge for a long time. So much for the external things. A straight line progression that can lead only to catastrophe. But let it. I have made powerful enemies with Grapes. They will not kill me I think, but they will destroy me when and if they can ...Oct. 19th, 1939:
Carol is writing letters today. The war is very strange. Russia is fortifying the western end and Germany is bombing British ships and France apparently is doing nothing. It's a waiting game and I don't know whether either side knows what it is waiting for. May be.July 20th, 1940:
Very strange--the hysteria and fear of the coming war and then it passed off in the night. We know it is coming, but we aren't afraid any more. Some singular jump in the psyche. And it isn't that we have hardened. We are as soft and sentimental as always, but the war has become a fact and we accept it. The reasons are good--we want to preserve a little of what we have and are used to--all kinds of intellectual reasons, but the great basic reason is that we have accepted war and it will be our manner of life for the next while....July 24th, 1940:
Today so far there is no war news. I won't listen to the radio until my day's work is over...Sept. 29, 1940:
Carol is in Monterey today. Idell and Paul are back. Seem well but confused like everyone else. Joe [Higashi] is worried about the Japanese situation and so are we. It becomes very dangerous. May blow up any day. With so many things happening it is very hard to settle down. Emotionally I am pretty much messed up, too. ...Jan. 20, 1941:
There's nothing else to do. And the world we know crumbles slowly and melts away, and the powerful voices of hysteria and terror are in the air....Typing out these entries into a blog post shows me I'd remembered the diary's early descriptions of baffoonish world leaders much more vividly than Steinbeck's middle or late diary entries about WWII. Maybe my memory skewed bozo because clownish leaders have been on my mind lately: We have authoritarian leaders in the U.S., Brazil, India, and China right now. In the 2010's there was much talk of the rising "BRIC" economies (BR meaning Brazil, I meaning India and C meaning China.) Wow, we didn't call them countries in the aughts or 2010s. We called them economies.
It's logical that in times of rapid technological change, when the lay people perceive technology CEOs as attempting end-runs around rule of law, that people would elect authoritarian-leaning politicians who demonstrate willingness and ability to bend the rules when they see fit, and at their whim.
And of course, aside from technology companies are technological innovations in other industries such as banking, which led to the 2008 mortgage crisis and worldwide economic depression. Did our country ever hold anyone accountable for that? Were some people accountable for it?
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
