{"id":10439,"date":"2020-01-02T16:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T23:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=10439"},"modified":"2020-01-04T16:32:01","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T23:32:01","slug":"steinbecks-knickknacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2020\/01\/02\/steinbecks-knickknacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Steinbeck’s Knickknacks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from The Observer<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Steinbeck\u2019s Weirdest Knickknacks Are Going Up for Auction in February<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Helen Holmes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
John Steinbeck smoking a cigarette at his home in Sag Harbor, Long Island.\u00a0Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Within the context of an ultra-modern 21st century that\u2019s increasingly aware of the cultural dominance of white male authors and intent upon dismantling this hegemony,\u00a0John Steinbeck<\/a>\u00a0epitomizes the figure of the 20th century Great American Novelist. He was a profuse chronicler of this country\u2019s underclass and a sprawlingly observant study of human characteristics, and he also based his most evil character, Cathy Ames, upon his ex-wife, a former nightclub singer\u00a0named Gwyn Conger<\/a>. Based on recent evidence, it\u2019s also clear that Steinbeck was a fan of deeply weird knickknacks: on February 27, the author\u2019s birthday, a great deal of items formerly owned by the writer of\u00a0East of Eden\u00a0<\/em>will go up for sale under the outfit Curated Estates, which obtained the objects\u00a0via Steinbeck\u2019s descendants<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the belongings that will be going up for auction feel typical to prolific writers: letters, autographed books and photographs are all among Steinbeck\u2019s collection. Elaine Steinbeck, the author\u2019s third wife, had kept all of these items secure within her estate. However, Steinbeck was also an eccentric who had an affinity for weird home decor. The author held onto a lock of his own hair from when he was a baby, a tiny coffin containing a hummingbird wrapped in multicolored string that was made for him by a witch doctor in Mexico, and a trash basket made\u00a0out of an elephant\u2019s foot<\/a>. (Clearly, the author was no staunch conservationist). However, Steinbeck was also in possession of a society invitation that spoke to his influence and popularity: a telegram from John F. Kennedy, inviting him to attend the latter\u2019s 1961 Presidential inauguration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at The Observer<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from The Observer John Steinbeck\u2019s Weirdest Knickknacks Are Going Up for Auction in February By\u00a0Helen Holmes Within the context of an ultra-modern 21st century that\u2019s increasingly aware of the cultural dominance of white male authors and intent upon dismantling this hegemony,\u00a0John Steinbeck\u00a0epitomizes the figure of the 20th century Great American Novelist. He was a profuse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}