The Grapes of Wrath celebrates 75 years today.

Steinbeck's classic novel of Dust Bowl refugees turns 75 today:

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/14/301833421/grapes-of-wrath-is-75-but-its-depictions-of-poverty-are-timeless

My parents always encouraged me to read, but this was the only specific title they ever went out and bought for me. I'm indebted to them for it (and many other things, of course). And I gotta say, though Hollywood generally botches fine literature, the 1940 film version with Henry Fonda acquits itself quite nicely. No stain on the original source material at all.

I read that book right after the economic crises.  It was quite apropos.  I was working on my first job after grad school.  The book didn't have a very positive effect on my job.  Thankfully.

Sadly, I think we need a 21st Century version of Grapes of Wrath to remind people to once again be compassionate and share the wealth.  Things have gotten too far out of whack and we all pay the price for that.

Drove four hours to see Steinbeck's chartered boat, the Western Flyer, a vessel featured in The Log From the Sea of Cortez & associated with my favorite book Cannery Row. The boat was sunk and salvaged twice. Now it's in dry dock with plans to cut it up and ship it to his hometown in California. Wish a greater effort would be made to make it sea-worthy and tow it south.

http://earthfix.opb.org/water/article/former-steinbeck-boat-waits-in-port-townsend-dry-d/

That's sad to hear about, it would be nice if they were going to make it seaworthy again.  Hopefully, the rot and rust is not too bad.  There is a project going on in Belgium to restore the yacht of Jacques Brel... very similar project.  I saw a documentary on it on TV5Monde that was very interesting.

http://www.askoyii.be/index.htm

Great stuff. Just looked at photos of the Askoy II when they first salvaged it, and that vessel was in far worse shape than the Western Flyer. They have made remarkable progress on the restoration, and it sounds like the Belgian government already has some big plans for it. Thank you for sharing this story. Amazing you mention Brel, the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle just announced it's 2015 schedule, and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris starts March 2015. I am going to have get tix.

Yeah, perfect example of how the French/Belgians might deal with a situation as opposed to Americans.  The Belgians are carefully preserving their history of a famous artist, while people here think of the profit motive and want to carve up Steinbeck's boat for commercial reasons.  It's the complete antithesis of everything that John Steinbeck stood for.