Journal of a Novel

The East of Eden Letters

By: John Steinbeck

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Each working day from January 29 to November 1, 1951, John Steinbeck warmed up to the work of writing East of Eden with a letter to the late Pascal Covici, his friend and editor at The Viking Press. It was his way, he said, of "getting my mental arm in shape to pitch a good game".

Steinbeck's letters were written on the left-hand pages of a notebook in which the facing pages would be filled with the text of East of Eden. They touched on many subjects - story arguments, trial flights of workmanship, concern for his sons.

Part autobiography, part writer's workshop, these letters offer an illuminating perspective on Steinbeck's creative process, and a fascinating glimpse of Steinbeck, the private man.

©1969 John Steinbeck (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Full of insights and revelations involving the gladness and terror of writing." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"A sort of Travels with Charley across a more personal country." (The Boston Globe)

Emotional reality. Stunning

Masterpiece and tour de force. Hard to finish and put it down. Trying to rem any other book with such emotional and soulful impact.

Only for East of Eden fans

I love this book but it isn’t for everyone. Steinbeck is my favorite author and I have read everything he has published (I’ve read several of his books multiple times). This book is perfect for someone who has read East of Eden and wants to read it again. Otherwise, it would make no sense.

Thoughts on America’s Contribution to Good & Evil

Thank you Audible for making the commentaries of Steinbeck available to the people in a most pleasant and true format!

Ralph Waldo Emerson mused that the Old Testament was Hebrew poetry and Homer was divine word. Here, Steinbeck wrote the American novel which equally belongs in the Old Testament and next to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

If you have not read East of Eden, please read it for it is truly an American epic and if you have read it please read A Journal of a Novel. For those that like to listen, Audible and Penguin have done a marvelous service in producing these Steinbeck titles. Thou mayest enlighten your soul by reading.

Just go read or listen to East of Eden

I was given the volume, A Life in Letters, the collected Steinbeck correspondence, decades ago and I have since given copies to several new and serious writers. So I decided to give Journal of a Novel a go, as a sort of refresher and as a prelude to finally reading East of Eden. I found the dedicated collection to be, frankly, disappointingly boring. Once we know that Steinbeck wanted only certain brands of pencils to write with, that he had good writing days and some not-so-good ones, and that he really hoped his editor liked the drafts he was sending, it was time to move on. But this cycled through so many times that it was difficult to keep going. I very highly recommend that anyone considering this journal might actually read it AFTER reading East of Eden. I think it might be quite interesting in that order, and you would avoid the "spoilers" that give away some of the more salient and poignant developments and incidents in the novel. And if you do read the Journal first, don't let it dissuade you from taking on the epic and unforgettable East of Eden.