Editorial
REGARDING MEDIA
So Influential, So California: 'The Grapes of Wrath'

By TIM RUTTEN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
March 22, 2002

There are a handful of American books that changed not only their readers' hearts and minds, but also the country's legal and political landscape.

Three of the most notable--Frank Norris' "The Octopus," Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"--were written by Californians. So, it's particularly apt that the California Council for the Humanities has chosen Steinbeck's masterpiece as the catalyst for a statewide reading and discussion program that will get underway in October.

A variation of the popular "one city, one book" movement (in Los Angeles, Mayor James Hahn has proposed Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"), the commission's initiative is the first "one state, one book" plan and will involve 180 public libraries. It's only coincidental that Steinbeck was chosen this year, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, says the commission's executive director, Jim Quay. The commission, he says, has an ongoing project "to encourage contemporary Californians to tell their California stories .... We wanted a book for people to model. My associate director, Ralph Lewin, and his wife, Caitlin, were driving down the Central Valley, thinking about what book might serve, and Caitlin

suggested 'The Grapes of Wrath,' which seemed like the perfect choice."

So, too, are the questions Quay would like to see readers pose: "Who are the Joads of today, but also, where are the Steinbecks?"