John steinbeck the grapes of wrath 19395/22/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Kern County wasn’t the only place to ban the book. The resolution claimed that Steinbeck had presented the officials, farmers and citizens of the county as “inhumane vigilantes.” When The Grapes of Wrath came out, Lingo writes, Kern County librarian Gretchen Knief anticipated strong local interest in the novel, and ordered 60 copies for the county’s library branches. The Associated Farmers, formed by the California Farm Bureau Federation and the state Chamber of Commerce to fight organized labor, supported vigilante violence to break strikes and fought federal efforts to build camps for migrant workers. But the political structures in the county were dominated by agricultural interests that opposed relief for migrant workers. Many local people, and institutions like schools and hospitals, did their best to help the newcomers. ![]() As librarian Marci Lingo writes, within months, Kern County, a major destination for migrant farmworkers, banned the book from its public libraries and schools.īetween 19, Lingo writes, more than 52,000 migrants arrived in Kern county, boosting the local population by 64 percent. ![]() The story of Okie migrants fleeing to California and meeting more hardship there was an immediate hit with the public. In April of 1939, John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath. ![]()
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