s always encouraged to pursue intellectual interests by his mother who was a schoolteacher. John's interests
             slowly began to shift toward literature and he became very well-read for a high school student. By 1920, John was enrolled at Stanford University where he studied English and European Literature on top of his involvement in many English and poetry clubs. The president of the English club spoke highly of Steinbeck and claimed, "had no other interests or talents that I could make out. He was a writer, but he was that and nothing else"(Benson 69).
             During breaks between semesters, John worked a variety of odd jobs on ranches, mills, and road gangs. He was known as a very personable man, and worked well with those of a lower socio-economic class than his own (Fontenrose 5). For a period of time John aimlessly switched occupations (including a Newspaper reporter) and returned home to California. John followed the same trend of temporary employment while he pursued his writing. John wrote countless pieces of fiction that publisher's refused to invest in. It wasn
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