The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath

Recently listed in the Top 100 List of the Century's Best American Journalism <p>Gathered in this important volume are seven newspaper articles on migrant farm workers that John Steinbeck wrote for &quot;The San Francisco News&quot; in 1936, three years before _The Grapes of Wrath_. With the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter and the emotional power of a novelist in his prime, Steinbeck toured the squatters' camps and Hoovervilles of California. Here he found once strong, independent farmers - the backbone of rural America - so reduced in dignity, beaten in spirit, sick, sullen, and defeated that they had been &quot;cast down to a kind of subhumanity.&quot; He contrasts their misery with the hope offered by government resettlement camps, where self-help committees, child nurseries, quilting and sewing projects, and decent sanitation were restoring dignity and indeed saving lives. </p><p>_The Harvest Gypsies_ gives us an eyewitness account of the horrendous Dust Bowl migration, a major event in California history, and provides the factual foundation for Steinbeck's masterpiece, _The Grapes of Wrath_. Included are twenty-two photographs by Dorothea Lange and others, many of which accompanied Steinbeck's original articles.</p>