John Ditsky’s Steinbeck and the Critics observes that “two massively important projects appeared in the field in 1984, Jackson J. Benson’s long-awaited full-length biography, . . . The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer” and Robert DeMott’s Steinbeck’s Reading: Books Owned and Borrowed,” a complementary text much valued by scholars. Ditsky highlights Benson’s contribution to literary biography: “Many biographers attempt too much and try to tell the reader how the work emerged and what to think about it. Benson, on the other hand, gives the reader enough information about the formative process of each Steinbeck title to allow for independent and creative theorizing” (78). Thus, as Susan Shillinglaw’s title for her memorial below affirms, “He gave that writer to us.” Since 1984 Benson has informed and inspired his readers, as these memorials attest.
Susan Shillinglaw
I last saw Jack Benson in the California mountains, at his and Sue...
