The Harvest Gypsies

On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath

By: John Steinbeck

Narrated by: Richard Poe

A collection of newspaper articles about Dust Bowl migrants in California’s Central Valley by the author of The Grapes of Wrath.

Three years before his triumphant novel The Grapes of Wrath - a fictional portrayal of a Depression-era family fleeing Oklahoma during a disastrous period of drought and dust storms - John Steinbeck wrote seven articles for the San Francisco News about these history-making events and the hundreds of thousands who made their way west to work as farm laborers.

With the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter and the emotional power of a novelist in his prime, Steinbeck toured the squatters’ camps and Hoovervilles of rural California. The Harvest Gypsies gives us an eyewitness account of the horrendous Dust Bowl migration, and provides the factual foundation for Steinbeck’s masterpiece.

'”Steinbeck’s potent blend of empathy and moral outrage was perfectly matched by the photographs of Dorothea Lange, who had caught the whole saga with her camera - the tents, the jalopies, the bindlestiffs, the pathos and courage of uprooted mothers and children.” (San Francisco Review of Books)

“Steinbeck’s journalism shares the enduring quality of his famous novel.... Certain to engage students of both American literature and labor history.” (Publishers Weekly)

©1936 The San Francisco News (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Eye Opening

This book has opened my eyes & mind to America. I found this after reading "Dubious Battle". I'm not sure in which order they should be read but they both need to be read !

Must read classic

Compelling and historical. The movie ‘The War’ with Kevin Costner comes to mind. Mankind wasn’t so kind in the 1920-30s

Steinbeck as Journalist

Steinbeck as Journalist

Although I love Steinbeck's novels I am not a big fan of his journalism (except his obituaries). As a journalist he is a bit heavy handed and tents to have a unbridled point of view. I added this to my read list just to finish off the Steinbeck on audible. This is slightly interesting from a historical perspective as well as in relation to the later The Grapes of Wrath.

The narration is good, but reflects the author's outrage which lacks journalistic distance.