It is through the popularization of East of Eden that the Salinas Valley was truly transformed into “the valley of the world” a place where everyone is able to find a piece of themselves in the golden, rolling hills. Tinged with biblical echoes of the fall of Adam and Eve and the rivalry of Cain and Abel, this sprawling saga has captivated audiences everywhere for generations. Part allegory, part autobiography, and part epic, East of Eden was an ambitious project from the start – a gift to Steinbeck’s sons that was meant to teach them about identity, grief, and what it means to be human. 'East of Eden' was published in 1952, so we can assume Steinbeck was writing the story in the post-war years of the late 1940s and very early 1950s.

Images in this review Reviews with images. It featured James Dean in his first major role. More of a collectors purchase than the edition you will want to actually read. From this plot emerged some of Steinbeck’s most fascinating characters – many of whom are modeled after people in his own life. East of Eden, American film drama, released in 1955, that was an adaptation of John Steinbeck ’s novel of the same name.

In his journal, Journal of a Novel (often read as a companion to the novel) he notes that “this is the book I have always wanted and have worked and prayed to be able to write Set primarily in the Salinas Valley in the early twentieth century, the novel traces three generations of two families – the Trasks and the Hamiltons – as they grapple with the ever-present forces of good and evil. Steinbeck considered East of Eden to be his masterpiece.

East of eden editions