My Life with John Steinbeck

When she met Steinbeck in 1939, Gwyn was a professional singer, working for CBS in Los Angeles. She was an independent young woman, lively and radiant in her love for the great man wooing her--fourteen years her senior. He was captivated by her beauty and magnetic presence. For women of her era, many of whom had to leave jobs after the war, marriage was considered a woman's true career. This journal is her story of that adventure, often "on the road" with a restless Steinbeck, criss-crossing continents and making homes.

Full of insight, MY LIFE WITH JOHN STEINBECK is funny and on target about people and places. Gwyn says Steinbeck was "in love with love." But for much of their time together, she was completely in love with both the great writer and the flawed man. She gave him complete quiet to work and, when needed, her full attention. The Moon is Down, Cannery Row, The Pearl and The Wayward Bus were written during their years together and much of the planning of East of Eden. Gwyn tried to be the "Amazon" Steinbeck expected; until their sons' births, which she linked with the mysterious "death of their love." When she asked for a divorce (finalised in 1949) she could no longer live with him. He may never have forgiven her.

How often do we hear about the cost of being with a famous man? When is "trading up" self-abandonment? Gwyn's story is an enigmatic look at an "everywoman" of her time, who took marriage as her vocation and enabled a great man to pursue his work. Yet the ideology of giving "all" came at a steep price. 2018, the fiftieth anniversary of John Steinbeck's death in 1968, may be the year of the woman. How fitting for Gwyn Steinbeck's journal to be published.

"A genuinely important literary discovery that illumines part of Steinbeck's life, that has been in shadow for half a century. I found it impossible to get a good take on Gwyn. Obviously Steinbeck was wildly attracted to her: she was beautiful, tall and willowy, but as she had passed away it was impossible to know how she really felt about her famous husband and what that marriage was really like. Did Steinbeck value her? Did he treat her well?"--Jay Parini, Steinbeck biographer

"Finally, we have the story of Gwen also known as Gwyn, John Steinbeck's second wife and mother of his two sons. Her story is the missing piece of the jigsaw that was John Steinbeck, a flawed genius. Hold on tight. It's a bit of a bumpy ride."--James (Jim) M. Dourgarian, Bookseller and Steinbeck specialist

"In this fiftieth anniversary year of John Steinbeck's death, it is irresistible to be swept along by this forgotten Forties love affair. This memoir reads like a film of the era, complete with Route 66, drunken parties, cigarettes, railroad journeys, hangovers and sex."--London Daily Mail -- Book of the Week