John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 - December 20, 1968), born in Salinas, CA, was an American writer who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception." His writings include the novels Of Mice and Men (1937), the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and East of Eden (1952). The following is Steinbeck's speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1962.