75th Anniversary of “The Grapes of Wrath”

The Grapes of Wrath was one of the most controversial bestsellers of its time — considered obscene by some — and today is widely regarded as the greatest work of the Nobel Prize winner’s career. Tonight’s panel on the contemporary relevance of the book and the role of the novelist in American cultural life today includes Colum McCann, winner of the National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin, and professor of creative writing at Hunter; Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family, contributing editor for Rolling Stone, and professor of creative nonfiction at Dartmouth; and Susan Shillinglaw, professor of English and director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San José State University, whose latest book is On Reading The Grapes Of Wrath. The moderator is Jeff Allred, assistant professor of English at Hunter and author of American Modernism and Depression Documentary.