Apr 28
“Ecological Mavericks: John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts“ presented by Susan Shillinglaw
Tue, April 28, 2026
• 12:00pm
- 1:00pm (1h) • Gould Library Athenaeum
Please join us for a lecture by the renowned Steinbeck scholar, Susan Shillinglaw, entitled “Ecological Mavericks: John Steinbeck & Ed Ricketts.” Dr. Shillinglaw is Professor Emerita of English at San Jose State University, where she taught for 37 years. She is a former Director of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas and has published widely on Steinbeck’s works, including Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage (2013); On Reading “The Grapes of Wrath” (2014); A Journey into Steinbeck’s California (3rd edition, 2019) and the forthcoming Steinbeck’s Landscapes (Timber Press, 2025). She has co-edited collections and written introductions for several Penguin Classics editions. She also serves on the Western Flyer Foundation and Tor House Foundation boards and has, for many years, developed educational and community outreach on the intersection of humanities and science. Her lecture will explore the extraordinary friendship between Steinbeck and the iconoclastic marine biologist Ed Ricketts, whose life and work deeply influenced Steinbeck’s fiction and his ecological worldview.
Box lunches will be available to the first 30 attendees, with additional beverages and cookies available.
from English
Event Contact: Solvei Robertson