Once There Was a War

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Once There Was a War

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Once There Was a War, published in 1958, is a collection of articles written by John Steinbeck while he was a special war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune from June to December 1943.

Steinbeck's articles include descriptions of life on a troop transporter, an account of the liberation of a small Sicilian town, a description of how homesick US soldiers tried to grow their native vegetables in the English gardens where they billeted, and an account of how a detachment of US paratroopers tricked the German garrison at Ventotene into surrendering.

Steinbeck did not report 'straight news', as he put it: he did not cover battles, or interview national or military leaders. As befitted the author of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck wrote about the experiences of the ordinary people, those who were doing the actual fighting, and those who did the vast number of unglamorous but vital support jobs which kept the armed forces operating.

In his Introduction, Steinbeck confesses that he felt 'a visitor' to the war, and was uncomfortable knowing that he could go home at any time, while the serving personnel could not. For this reason, he said, 'I never admitted to seeing anything myself, but always put my story in the mouth of another.' How much of his reporting is therefore of the 'eyewitness' class cannot be determined. For example, his descriptions of American and British torpedo boats in action against German forces seem like first-hand accounts, yet he nowhere refers to himself as present, despite his inclusion of convincing dialogue and detail. However, in his Travels with Charley, Steinbeck mentions wearing a naval officer's cap, 'Given me by a British torpedo boat captain, a very gentle gentleman and a murderer,' which phrase suggests that Steinbeck may well have observed action at first hand.

Cup of Gold (1929)
The Red Pony (1933)
To a God Unknown (1933)
Tortilla Flat (1935)
In Dubious Battle (1936)
Of Mice and Men (1937)
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
The Moon Is Down (1942)
Cannery Row (1945)
The Wayward Bus (1947)
The Pearl (1947)
Burning Bright (1950)
East of Eden (1952)
Sweet Thursday (1954)
The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957)
The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)

Short story
collections

Screenplays

The Forgotten Village (1941)
Lifeboat (1944)
The Pearl (1947)
The Red Pony (1949)
Viva Zapata! (1952)

Adaptations

Of Mice and Men	1937 play 1939 film 1969 opera 1992 film Best Laid Plans (2012 film)
The Grapes of Wrath	1940 film 1988 play 2007 opera
The Red Pony	1949 film score 1973 film
Other	Tortilla Flat (1942 film) The Moon Is Down (1943 film) La perla (The Pearl) (1947 film) East of Eden (1955 film) The Wayward Bus (1957 film) East of Eden (1981 miniseries) Cannery Row (1982 film) The Winter of Our Discontent (1983 film) In Dubious Battle (2016 film)

Non-fiction

The Harvest Gypsies (1936)
Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941)
Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team (1942)
A Russian Journal (1948)
The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
Once There Was a War (1958)
Travels with Charley (1962)
America and Americans (1966)
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969)
Steinbeck in Vietnam (2012)

Legacy

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