The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Today is the birthday of television journalist Tom Brokaw (books by this author), who anchored the NBC Nightly News for more than two decades — from 1982 to 2004 — born in Webster, South Dakota (1940).

He wrote a book called The Greatest Generation (1998) — a term that he coined — about the men and women who "came of age in the Great Depression," served in World War II, and laid the foundation to rebuild the economy.

It's the birthday of journalist Michael Pollan (books by this author), born on Long Island, New York (1955). He's the author of best-selling books about food: The Botany of Desire (2001), The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), In Defense of Food (2008), and Food Rules (2010). His nutrition philosophy is: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

It's the birthday of the man who wrote, "Come live with me and be my love / And we will all the pleasures prove" — Christopher Marlowe (books by this author), born in Canterbury, England (1564). He's the author of plays such as The Jew of Malta (c. 1590) and Dr. Faustus (c. 1594), and he was one of the most prominent playwrights of his lifetime.

It's the birthday of lexicographer and writer Eric Partridge (books by this author), born in Poverty Bay, New Zealand (1894), who wrote some of the very first dictionaries of slang before scholars considered it a serious subject. In A Dictionary of the Underworld (1949) and A Dictionary of Catchphrases (1977), Partridge chronicled the language of not only the common person, but also of "crooks, criminals, racketeers, beggars, and tramps."

It was on this day in 1937 that John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men was published (books by this author). Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck's fifth novel (he had also published an excerpt from a novel and a book of short stories). His first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), was a total flop — it didn't even earn back the $250 that Steinbeck received as an advance. That year, he wrote to a friend: "The book was an immature experiment written for the purpose of getting all the wise cracks (known by sophomores as epigrams) and all the autobiographical material (which hounds us until we get it said) out of my system. [...] I think I shall write some very good books indeed. The next one won't be good nor the next one, but about the fifth, I think will be above the average."

He began work on Of Mice and Men in 1935. He and his wife, Carol, were living in his family's three-room vacation cottage near Monterey Bay. It wasn't meant for year-round living, but Steinbeck built a fireplace and closed off the porch, and they made do. Carol worked as a secretary, and Steinbeck's parents gave him an allowance of $25 a month. Steinbeck's new book was titled Something That Happened, but then he read the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, and was struck by the lines: "The best laid schemes o' mice and men / gang aft agley, / An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, / For promis'd joy!" So he retitled his work Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck wanted to write in a new style, more like a play than a novel. He considered his audience for the story to be poor working-class people, and he thought they would be more likely to see a play than read a book.

Steinbeck had worked in California as a farm laborer, and he wanted to write about the terrible conditions he witnessed. Of Mice and Men tells the story of two laborers who are best friends: Lennie, who is big and strong with limited mental capabilities, and George, who is small and smart and looks out for Lennie. The story ends tragically after Lennie, unaware of his own strength, kills a woman. Steinbeck based the character of Lennie on a real farm laborer he knew, who killed a ranch foreman with a pitchfork after one of his friends was fired. Steinbeck made sure that the novel was tightly plotted and heavy on dialogue, ready to be adapted to the stage.

Steinbeck wrote in the spring of 1936: "My new work is really going and that makes me very happy — kind of an excitement like that you get near a dynamo from breathing pure oxygen [...] This work is going quickly and should get done quickly. I'm using a new set of techniques as far as I know but I am so illy read that it may have been done. Not that that matters at all." Then his new puppy, Toby, chewed up half of the manuscript. Steinbeck was furious, but a couple of days later, he was able to write to a friend: "Minor tragedy stalked. My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my ms. book. Two months work to do over again. It sets me back. There was no other draft. I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn't want to ruin a good dog on a ms. I'm not sure is good at all. He only got an ordinary spanking with his punishment flyswatter."

He was forced to start over, but work went quickly again, and he managed to get the work to his publisher a few months later. When Of Mice and Men was published, it had already been chosen by the Book-of-the-Month Club, and got great reviews. The famous playwright and director George S. Kaufman offered to produce it as a play, and Steinbeck spent a week at Kaufman's Pennsylvania estate, where the two men worked on adapting the work for the stage. About 85 percent of the novel's original dialogue ended up in the final play. After his week with Kaufman, Steinbeck left the East Coast. When a reporter asked him if he would stick around, he replied: "Hell no. I've got work to do out in California." He refused to come back either for rehearsals or to see the final product. He did ask his publisher to call and give him a full report on the play's opening night, but he had to go to a friend's house to use the telephone since he didn't have one of his own. The play was a huge hit.