This post was contributed by Small Special Collections Library Curator George Riser.
Carol Henning met John Steinbeck in June 1928 at Lake Tahoe, where Steinbeck was working at a fish hatchery. They fell “instantly” in love; Carol’s friend Idell, who introduced them, wrote in a letter to a friend, “John fell upon Carol like a bear coming out of hibernation would fall upon a fresh beef steak.” They married in January 1930, and Carol and John began scratching out a living while Steinbeck (with Carol’s inestimable assistance) went about with his writing.
In an early short story entitled “Saint Katy the Virgin” (PS3537.T3234 S2 1936) Steinbeck writes of a medieval time where two brothers from a monastery approach a farmer for his mandatory tithe. The farmer, angry at being forced to tithe, gives the brothers Katy, his most disagreeable pig—a pig so ornery, he soon chases the two brothers up a tree. One of the brothers dangles his iron crucifix over the pig, exorcising the devil that was presumed to be making Katy so violent. Immediately, the pig is calmed and goes willingly to the monastery, where they face the angry Father who explains that, as Katy is now a Christian, she cannot be eaten. The Father notes, “There are plenty of Christians. This year there’s a great shortage of pigs.” Katy goes on to live a contemplative existence, and crowds come from afar to seek her benedictions.
The story was published in December 1936 by Covici-Friede in a fine press edition of 199 copies. A presentation copy to Carol is held in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library in the University of Virginia Special Collections Library. The inscription reads: “To Carol pig beautiful sowie from J. Ernst Pig.”
Throughout their marriage, Steinbeck acknowledged Carol’s inspiration and assistance in writing his stories and novels. His masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath (PS3537 .T3234 G8 1939), a title chosen by Carol, published in 1939, is dedicated “To Carol who willed it.” The Clifton Waller Barrett Library holds the presentation copy of the first printing of The Grapes of Wrath with a holograph inscription to Carol in the private language they used for purposes of intimacy.
Our best interpretation of that inscription, with the help of AI:
One Carol equal one everything
The cycle and equal misery
So love and stay around
One Carol equal and equal.Sog [Steinbeck’s nickname]
John Steinbeck
Los Gatos in the evening.
The holograph manuscript for The Grapes of Wrath is also held in the Barrett Library. The first leaf has the heading, “New Start, Big Writing.” Carol had agreed to make a typescript from the manuscript copy if Steinbeck would make his hand more legible in the final draft. One can see from the first leaf to the fourth that Steinbeck’s best intentions at “big writing” did not last beyond the third leaf.
Trouble inevitably follows great success, and John and Carol divorced in 1943. (For further reading, see Susan Shillinglaw, Carol & John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage (University of Nevada Press, 2013). (PS3537.T3234 Z8664 2013))