Like the recent donation of the S.J. Neighbors collection of John Steinbeck papers to Stanford University, the upcoming sale of John Steinbeck memorabilia by Heritage Auction House in San Francisco serves as a reminder that much remains to be learned about the author’s life and work—and that access to documents is key to discovery. Among the 36 items on offer, spanning 100 years of Steinbeck family history, are the walnut box Steinbeck’s grandfather gave his grandmother, an early manuscript of his novel Tortilla Flat, and the journal he kept when he was writing The Wayward Bus. Also included are letters from President John Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the latter in response to questions posed to her by Steinbeck for the biography she asked him to write following her husband’s assassination in 1963. “I enclose a letter I wrote you weeks ago – but hesitated to send. But I don’t have the strength to do it over. In answer to your second letter – I do think about your letters for the longest time. I welcome them but they are not easy to answer,” wrote Mrs. Kennedy in 1964.
