The National Steinbeck Center
Written: Nov 02 '01 (Updated Mar 21 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Celebration of a writer is good and unusual
Cons: Sound bleeds from videos in one room to adjacent ones
The Bottom Line: They burn your books while you are alive and are eager to get tourist dollars from visitors interested in your work once you are dead!
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| Jiahong's Full Review: Salinas |
The National Steinbeck Center has some John Steinbeck memorabilia and a large number of multi-media sort-of-interactive displays. Indeed, there are so many different videos and audiotape going simultaneously that their overlapping sound makes concentrating on any particular one somewhat difficult.
To listen to Steinbeck’s resonant Nobel Prize acceptance speech on the perfectibility of man, Steve (who decided to organize the Steinbeck birthday writeoff after our visit to the Steinbeck Center) sat down on the floor practically behind a wall-- the wall of the gazebo from the Steinbeck place on Sag Harbor on Long Island, where, in his last years, Steinbeck sat and mourned that any inspiration to write was gone.
It makes sense that more is preserved from the later years, when Steinbeck was a famous figure, than from the earlier years when he was writing the books for which he is best remembered. Of course, later stuff has not had to be preserved as long, too.
The exhibits begin with stuff illustrating East of Eden, including a map of Salinas of Steinbeck’s childhood. Not having read East of Eden, I am not sure what the significance of the shiny model-T there is, but I can now say that I have turned the crank of a model-T. If there is an engine, it is connected, so I can’t say that I have started a model-T, but, hey! I turned it. Nearby is a wall with an astonishing variety of Salinas produce logos.
The exhibits end with the 1960 GMC camper that Steinbeck dubbed "Rocinante "and drove literally around the country with his poodle, Charley and wrote about in Travels with Charley, a book of which a 1970 paperback cover advertises there were more than a million copies sold. (And it is still selling. Indeed, all Steinbeck’s books are in print, most available in the Center gift shop). Rocinante was restored in 1998 and is the object in the Center that is genuinely central to one of Steinbeck’s book. Incidentally, there is a plaster poodle sitting in the passenger seat. A plaster Steinbeck is back at the entryway to the exhibits. Presuming it is life-size, he was tall and cannot have fit very easily in Rocinante.
Excerpts of movies of various Steinbeck novels and screenplays are playing simultaneously on six screens, not counting the orientation video across the way from the exhibit hall(s). Stephen_Murray has written about the range of movies descended from Steinbeck in this writeoff.
The box Steinbeck made for the “log” of writing East of Eden and presented his longtime editor Pascal Covici (mentioned in Ed_Grover’s very sympathetic writeoff piece on the novel) is on display.
There is a bunk illustrating Of Mice and Men along with what I think is the ship bunk in which "Doc" Ricketts slept on Cannery Row and a replica of Lee Chong’s grocery store, and a replica of the inhabited boiler with the infamous curtains on a windowless wall.
It seems Steinbeck wrote in pencil (very legibly) on yellow legal-size pads. There is a book titled Steinbeck’s Typewriter (I saw it in the gift shop) that has a picture of a typewriter that is at San José State University, but, if he typed, it must have been to copy pencil drafts. Or to answer correspondence. Or used by others to type his pencil drafts.
There is also a special exhibit area. When I was there, it had an exhibit of Woody Guthrie memorabilia, with various speakers producing even more overlapping sound than in the Steinbeck exhibits.
And there is a room with CD-ROMS, tables, and a wall of words that visitors can arrange. Plus regular screenings of films and an annual Steinbeck Festival
The National Steinbeck Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 7 days a week; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Day, and Easter. Admission charges are:
$7.95 Adults
$6.95 Seniors over 62 and students with ID, AAA members
$5.95 Youth 13-17
$3.95 Children 6-12
FREE Children 5 and under
Use of the archives requires advance permission.
The address is One Main Street, Salinas, CA 93901. From southbound 101, the exit is Main Street, from northbound 101 the exit is John Street. From either direction the way to the Center is well marked. Coming from Monterey (20 miles) on highway 68 takes one directly onto Main Street which ends at the Steinbeck Center. There is a large parking lot to the right (south) of the building.
Birthplace and Eats
A three-block walk from the National Steinbeck Center at 132 Central Avenue is the large Victorian house in which Steinbeck was born (Feb. 27, 1902) and lived in until he left to start Stanford in 1917. It is now a restaurant maintained by a local nonprofit guild. There is a gift shop on the lower level on the Stone Street side. Steinbeck was born in what is now the reception area and began writing in an upstairs bedroom facing Central Avenue.
Between 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday lunch is served there. The schedule of what is being served can be picked up in the National Steinbeck Center.
Within the National Steinbeck Center is a café serving California cuisine using local produce and Monterey County wines. The best bet for large amounts of good food is a block straight out the main entrance of the National Steinbeck Center, at the corner of Galiban and Main.
There are 28 other Old Town Salinas restaurants, none of which I know anything about.
Steinbeck is bured at the Garden of Memories cemetery, 768 Abbott Street at Romie Lane Street.
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There was not a “Salinas” category at the time of the Steinbeck 99th birthday writeoff (2/27/01) organized by Stephen_Murray, so this was originally posted elsewhere (and moved here after the end of page-hits). I left the original both for its comments and because there are links to it from the writeoff. Following what I consider abuse by editors, Steve suggested that I delete the misplaced one, transport the comments from the old epinion, and provide a list of the URLs the other contributions:
Books
The Portable Steinbeck
http://www.epinions.com/content_57462328964
Tortilla Flat
http://www.epinions.com/content_12920721028
In Dubious Battle
http://www.epinions.com/content_10949398148
Of Mice and Men
http://www.epinions.com/content_10913484420
The Red Pony
http://www.epinions.com/content_10911452804
Grapes of Wrath
http://www.epinions.com/content_10881109636
http://www.epinions.com/content_10897559172
The Moon Is Down
http://www.epinions.com/content_11001564804
Cannery Row
http://www.epinions.com/content_10961063556
http://www.epinions.com/content_11016769156
East of Eden
http://www.epinions.com/content_57339842180
Once There Was a War
http://www.epinions.com/content_10907061892
Sweet Thursday
http://www.epinions.com/content_10908503684
The Short Reign of Pippin IV
http://www.epinions.com/content_13671173764
Travels with Charley
http://www.epinions.com/content_11254795908
http://www.epinions.com/content_11484827268
Movies
Overview
http://www.epinions.com/content_3135021188
Grapes of Wrath movie
http://www.epinions.com/content_10916695684
The Pearl
http://www.epinions.com/content_10924625540
Of Mice and Men, 1992 movie:
http://www.epinions.com/content_10635087492
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And while I'm at it, I might as well mention two of my epinions about little-known places east of Salinas (to the west, Carmel and Monterey are readily accessible and very well known):
Fremont Peak State Park (overlooking "the long valley":
http://www.epinions.com/content_14170558084
Pinnacles National Monument:
http://www.epinions.com/trvl-review-6A7-35196D64-39B2DF81-prod5
© Jiahong, 2001. All rights other than web-posting in epinions are reserved.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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