A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants or can from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.

The book is very different in tone from Steinbeck's amoral and ecological stance in earlier works like Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row. The story is about two traveling ranch workers George and Lennie trying to work up enough money to buy their own farm/ranch. Soon after he began work on East of Eden (1952) which he considered his best work.

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (February 27 1902 – December 20 1968) was an American writer. As the author of twenty-seven books including sixteen novels six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.