John Steinbeck Statistics

John Steinbeck Statistics

John Steinbeck sales statistics

  • His 1939 best-seller The Grapes of Wrath has sold 14 million copies
  • It sold 428,900 copies in its first year
  • Of Mice and Men sold 500,000 copies in its first year
  • It has sold more than 7.5 million copies to date
  • A special edition of The Grapes of Wrath sold at auction for $47,800

How many books did John Steinbeck publish?

  • Steinbeck published a total of 31 pieces of written work
    • 12 novels
    • 12 non-fiction books
    • 4 novellas
    • 2 collections of short stories
    • 1 adaptation of Arthurian legends
  • Steinbeck also wrote two movies – a documentary and a western
  • 5 of these written pieces of work plus the western movie were published after Steinbeck’s death in 1968
  • These mainly comprise of his letters and journals but also include his adaptation of Arthurian legends

Published during Steinbeck’s lifetime

TitlePublishedType of workPage countAudiobook length
Cup of Gold1929Novel1598 hrs and 19 mins
The Pastures of Heaven1932Short stories2407 hrs and 13 mins
The Red Pony1933Novella1282 hrs and 55 mins
To a God Unknown1933Novel2478 hrs and 53 mins
Tortilla Flat1935Novel2087 hrs and 3 mins
In Dubious Battle1936Novel27010 hrs and 3 mins
Of Mice and Men1937Novella1073 hrs and 11 mins
The Long Valley1938Short stories2728 hrs and 9 mins
Their Blood Is Strong1938Nonfiction34
The Grapes of Wrath1939Novel46421 hrs and 1 min
The Forgotten Village1941Film
Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research1941Nonfiction598
The Moon Is Down1942Novel1883 hrs and 42 mins
Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team1942Nonfiction1924 hrs and 36 mins
Cannery Row1945Novel2085 hrs and 59 mins
The Wayward Bus1947Novel3529 hrs and 14 mins
The Pearl1947Novella682 hrs and 35 mins
A Russian Journal1948Nonfiction2407 hrs and 1 min
Burning Bright1950Novella3242 hrs and 53 mins
The Log from the Sea of Cortez1951Nonfiction28811 hrs and 46 mins
East of Eden1952Novel60825 hrs and 23 mins
Sweet Thursday1954Novel2888 hrs and 56 mins
The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication1957Novel1314 hrs and 39 mins
Once There Was a War1958Nonfiction2087 hrs and 20 mins
The Winter of Our Discontent1961Novel31110 hrs and 22 mins
Travels with Charley: In Search of America1962Nonfiction2887 hrs and 58 mins
America and Americans1966Nonfiction20817 hrs and 23 mins

Published after Steinbeck’s death

TitlePublishedType of workPage countAudiobook length
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters1969Nonfiction1929 hrs
Viva Zapata!1975Film
Steinbeck: A Life in Letters1975Nonfiction860
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights1976Fiction41611 hrs and 18 mins
Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath1989Nonfiction240
Steinbeck in Vietnam: Dispatches from the War2012Nonfiction224

John Steinbeck life and facts

  • He was born in 1902 in California, USA
  • Steinbeck graduated from high school in 1919 before going to Stanford to study English Literature
  • Steinbeck didn’t graduate from Stanford and eventually left in 1925 for New York City
  • Steinbeck married his 1st wife and they moved back to California to live in a cottage owned by his parents – they gave him loans and materials to fund his career as a writer
  • Steinbeck claims to have lived off fishing, off the land and by stealing bacon from local markets during the great depression and they eventually claimed welfare 
  • Steinbeck published his first book in 1929
  • His first successful book was Tortilla Flat, published in 1935. It was his 5th release
  • Around this time, Steinbeck started writing about California and the dust bowl
  • He released Of Mice and Men that was critically acclaimed in 1937
  • Steinbeck’s greatest work – The Grapes of Wrath – was published in 1939
  • It was the best selling book of 1939 and won the award for favorite fiction book at the ABA Book Awards that year
  • During WWII, Steinbeck was a war reporter for the New York Herald Tribune
  • In 1952, Steinbeck published East of Eden – he considered this his greatest work
  • In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
  • Steinbeck died in NYC at the age of 66 in 1968