John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California's Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University, but disenrolled in 1925, after six years, without a degree. He moved to New York City and worked as a laborer and journalist for five years, until he completed his first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold. Soon thereafter, Steinbeck married and moved back to California, where he published two more novels (The Pastures of He ....