John Steinbeck gives Nobel Prize Speech

John Steinbeck's speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1962

"Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair. Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed." - Steinbeck

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires" - Steinbeck

"Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken. And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in all the world.
And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for this is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost." -East of Eden 1952

"I guess this is why I hate governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by the fine print men. There's nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists."-Travels with Charley, 1962

"What good's an opinion if you don't know?"-Travels with Charley

"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power."

"...there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love."

• Category

  Education

[andrew mathisen]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this essential speech!!!

[3120425]

reaseach paper done!



[paredes95ify]

ah bullshit you highschool drop out lier, you don't have any phd Park!!!

[Stan Jensen]

You must love Gabriel Marquez. His "100 Years of Solitude" will always have a special place in my heart.

[Stan Jensen]

"Cannery Row." I've read it so many times. It's dearer to me than "Of Mice & Men" and "Grapes of Wrath," dearer because it not only made me weep, but also made me laugh.

[wooders1000]

This is a comment on the Cuban Missile crisis i think. He doesn't believe in the perfectibility of man, rather he is saying man has come to have the means "to final destruction" over all other species - man has become God.

It's a warning rather than a celebration. Cuban Missile Crisis was a few months earlier when world was on brink of a nuclear exchange.

[Jacob Swinton]

What an inspiring speech. Believing in the perfectibility of man....such optimism for our race is, unfortunately, in my opinion, misplaced. I like to think I align my views on man parallel to those of William Golding, Believing that all of man kind are, at heart, inherently evil. I would so much like to indulge in Steinbeck's view that we could all perfect ourselves' and that we should, through our lives, strive to reach that.

[frank k]

My favorite writer.

[Vania Trejo]

I love his work so much!!!! <3

[Figaro Gogarty]

A curiously rambling speech by a great writer, a writer who is still underrated by the cognoscenti. Several times in this brief speech he seems to abandon the premise he seemed to be coalescing his argument around. This is not the inspiring Nobel speech of Faulkner or even Hemingway and may betray Steinbeck's own self-doubt about his worthiness of winning. However, his breathlessness and stumbling at the podium suggests not only nervousness but quite possibly his pulmonary/cardiac condition.

[Jessica Alulema]

This was a great moment for him. He really deserves to be award for his emotional books based on experiences and struggles of people's life. I am glad that his works was recognized by the Nobel Prize!=) btw I reallly love "Of in Mice and Men".

[Bailey Taylor]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!! I'm using this in my powerpoint presentation, Surely i'll get an A for it :DDDDDDDDDD