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Part 1 of 2

California is a garden of Eden,
A paradise to live in or see,
But believe it or not,
You won’t find it so hot,
If you ain’t got the do re mi.
— Woody Guthrie

John Steinbeck once said that a writer should be defined by one work. Although his fame rests upon The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck wanted East of Eden, which was published in 1952, to be this kind of work. He took it very seriously, and the book is part novel and part memoir of his youth, as well as a history of Salinas.