Yes, Steinbeck Wrote a Werewolf Novel. Donât Expect to Read It.
A scholar of American literature at Stanford says itâs worth publishing. The agents representing the Steinbeck estate strongly disagree.
Credit...Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
May 27, 2021
Nine years before John Steinbeck published his Pulitzer Prize-winning historical masterpiece, âThe Grapes of Wrath,â he was working on a lighthearted detective novel featuring a werewolf.
The manuscript, âMurder at Full Moon,â was completed in 1930 but was never published. A single copy has been sitting, mostly forgotten, in an archive in Texas since 1969. It includes drawings by Steinbeck himself.
A scholar of American literature at Stanford University is pushing for the book to be published, but the agents for Steinbeckâs estate vehemently refused this week, after the effort was featured in The Guardian.