A Trove of Steinbeck

The New York Times recently had a piece about my favorite author.

From the story...

A few years ago, while researching a book on entrepreneurs, Joel Eisenberg, a California writer and film producer, interviewed Twyla Martin, the owner of a successful bridal gown company, at her home in West Hollywood. She was the widow of Ernest H. Martin, a producer of Broadway hits like “Guys and Dolls” and a longtime friend of John Steinbeck. In the early 1950s Martin had tried — and failed — to produce a musical comedy based on Steinbeck’s 1945 best-selling novel “Cannery Row.”

During the interview Mrs. Martin mentioned that her husband had left a box of Steinbeck papers in a hallway closet. When Mr. Eisenberg asked to see the box, he looked inside and found a hand-written draft of Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row” musical (titled “The Bear Flag Café”) as well as the first draft of what that play morphed into, Steinbeck’s 1954 novel “Sweet Thursday,” an unlikely romance between a marine scientist and a working girl.

“It was amazing to have all this unpublished material in my hands, a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Mr. Eisenberg said. “It was all out of order, so I offered to sort it out.”