> Skip to content
  • Published: 15 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241980385
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $22.99

Cannery Row




A stunning new series look for one of the greatest writers of the 20th century

'Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.'

Meet the gamblers, whores, drunks, bums and artists of Cannery Row in Monterey, California, during the Great Depression. They want to throw a party for their friend Doc, so Mack and the boys set about, in their own inimitable way, recruiting everyone in the neighbourhood to the cause. But along the way they can't help but get involved in a little mischief and misadventure. It wouldn't be Cannery Row if it was otherwise, now would it?

  • Published: 15 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780241980385
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 17 February 1902. After studying English at Stanford University, he held several jobs including working as a hod-carrier, apprentice painter, laboratory assistant, ranch hand, fruit-picker, construction worker at Madison Square Gardens, New York, and reporter for the New York American. In 1935 he became a full-time writer and was a special writer for the United States Army Air Force during World War II.

Among his most renowned works are Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940.

In 1926 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature as a mark of his outstanding contribution to literature, his unquestionable popularity and his versatility. In his speech accepting the Nobel Prize, Steinbeck gave his view of authorship: 'The ancient omission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our may grevious faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement. Furthermore, the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man's proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit for gallantry in defeat - for courage, compassion and love.'

John Steinbeck died on 20th December 1968.

Also by John Steinbeck

See all

Praise for Cannery Row

Uninhibited, bawdy, compassionate, inquisitive, deeply intelligent

Daily Telegraph

There is no more impressive writer on either side of the Atlantic

Time and Tide

Steinbeck is to be judged by the highest standards

New York Herald Tribune

One of the most thoroughly enjoyable and delicious books you'll ever have the fortune to read

Chicago Sun Times