The Woman Who Steinbeck Steamrolled
January 31, 2025
This post has nothing to do with cocktails.
Last night I attended a talk by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, author of the new book Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb.
Sanora Babb was a writer who worked during the Dustbowl for the Farm Security Administration. She was working on a novel set in the Dustbowl, and was awarded a book contract based on a few chapters she sent in to a publisher.
Her field notes along with those of her boss Tom Collins were offered to John Steinbeck, who used them to write his 1939 bestseller The Grapes of Wrath. Collins is mentioned in the book’s dedication. Steinbeck based some of his book on their notes, as he didn’t actually spend a lot of time getting to know the farmers of the Dustbowl saga.
Steinbeck was already superfamous for his book Of Mice and Men, and when his book The Grapes of Wrath was published just as Babb’s publisher was reading her just-submitted book Whose Names Are Unknown, they decided it was too similar. Her book was scrapped entirely, despite her protests. Her book is said to focus more on the people of the Dustbowl, not just the white people, and show the process of them being driven to ruin rather than beginning the work when the farms were already lost.
Whose Names Are Unknown was finally published in 2004, just before Babb died.
Riding Like the Wind tells the story of Babb’s life, which sounds very interesting in a lot more ways beyond being brushed under the rug due to Steinbeck.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle has an email newsletter dedicated to other Lost Voices, subscribe to it here.
Buy The Books:
The Grapes of Wrath [amazon] [bookshop]
Whose Names Are Unknown [amazon] [bookshop]
Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb [amazon] [bookshop]
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