Bonhams Presents Autographed Manuscripts & Books by John Steinbeck, Giant of American Letters

Bonhams will present its John Steinbeck: The Mary Steinbeck Dekker Family Collection sale in late October. A massive archive of correspondence between Nobel Prize-winning American writer John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) and his close family members leads the auction. It consists of 377 letters and postcards, most autographed. About a quarter are typed (particularly some of the later letters) by the giant of American letters. The archive includes Steinbeck’s letters to his younger sister Mary Steinbeck Dekker and her husband Bill, a World War II pilot who disappeared over Italy in July of 1943. In the letters, they discuss both personal and professional milestones over the decades. The collection also includes assorted ephemera, two typescripts, and a note on the necessity of the title East of Eden. There are approximately a thousand pages of various sizes from New York, Salinas, Mexico, and Europe, dated May 26, 1937 to October 21, 1964.

Following closely behind is an autographed manuscript by John Steinbeck from around 1948. It is his daybook recording of his 1947 journey through Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia with Robert Capa, a Hungarian–American war photographer and photojournalist. It is a complete record of the trip that would become A Russian Journal, including a synopsis and beginning of an unpublished work, The Popular Candidate. Book enthusiasts can find over 100 lots of books and manuscripts by Steinbeck from his sister’s collection. View the catalog of the John Steinbeck: The Mary Steinbeck Dekker Family Collection sale by visiting Bonhams.