The+National+Steinbeck+Center

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The National Steinbeck Center//**__ Links: The National Steinbeck Center Home Page: http://www.steinbeck.org/MainFrame.html Group H Main Page: Group H "The Chrysanthemums" Page: "Chrysanthemums"



The following pictures are from my recent trip to the National John Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Ca. According to the Center's website "The Steinbeck Center presents the life of Steinbeck, his writings, his characters, and Steinbeck Country in an informative, educational and entertaining manner. Different nationalities play an important role in the Steinbeck Center because the author himself saw the Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and other ethnic groups as dignified people and important contributors to the community (//East of Eden, Tortilla Flat, Forgotten Village, Cannery Row//, etc.). Utilizing diorama, innovative exhibits, changing displays and other media, the wonder and beauty of Steinbeck's creativity is dramatized so that everyone can enjoy and appreciate the author, his works and his environment. This will be literature and culture come alive. You can even see the original truck, [|Rocinante], that John Steinbeck drove while writing //Travels with Charley//."

Stories such as __The Grapes of Wrath__, __East of Eden__, __The Red Pony__, "__The Chrysanthemums"__, __Cannery Row__, __The Pearl__, __Of Mice and Men__, and __Travels with Charley__, among others, have their own large, interactive exhibts. In many places visitors can sit and watch scenes from movies and plays based on Steinbeck's work, along with hearing pieces of interviews from both him and his wife Elaine. Visitors may also sit and watch short biographical films and Steinbeck's life, and informational films about the Salinas Valley, which served as the setting for many of his stories. A section is devoted to Steinbeck's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, along with pieces of his nonfiction journalistic works, such as the collection of articles "The Harvest Gypsies."

The Center itself includes the "John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall" the "Art and Cultures Exhibits" and the "Rabobank Agriculture Museum." Guests who pay to see the Steinbeck exhibits are also allowed to visit the other areas of the Center. In the basement of the Center a large archive of Steinbeck's work can be found. Walking tours of "Historic Oldtown" are avaibale so that vistors can see all of the places Steinbeck frequented while he lived in Salinas, inclduding the house he was born in and the Hamilton Family Plot where he is buried.







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