Because Steinbeck had recently met a handful of northern European refugees who had fled their countries to escape German occupation, he resolved to write a fictional story about the relationship between military occupiers and the citizens they oppress. Working voluntarily for the COI in the early 1940s, Steinbeck and the group’s leader decided that the author should compose a piece of anti-fascist propaganda. At the time of its composition, Steinbeck was involved with an organization called the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), a government group that was a predecessor to the CIA. In fact, it was composed in an effort to disseminate anti-fascist sentiments in German-occupied countries. The Moon Is Down deals with the Second World War and the spread of Nazi Germany’s rule throughout Europe. Steinbeck, a lifelong smoker, died in New York City in 1968, at age 66. In 1962, Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Following his success with The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck went on to publish other notable works, including the 1952 novel, East of Eden. In 1939, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, which garnered him significant critical acclaim, including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. The most famous of these is arguably 1937’s Of Mice and Men. In the following years, Steinbeck wrote several novels that focus on farming life and its difficulties. In 1935, Steinbeck first found literary success with Tortilla Flat, which follows the exploits of a group of Mexican-Americans in Monterey, California. During this time he tried his hand at a career in writing, but had trouble getting his work published and so returned to California to work a series of labor jobs. He attended Stanford University in 1919, though he left without earning a degree six years later, at which point he worked as a journalist and manual laborer in New York City. John Steinbeck was born in California only two years after the turn of the 20th century.
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