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York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963.
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    Heavilin, Barbara. “Steinbeck’s American Arthuriad: Ethan Allan Hawley as Lancelot Grotesque,” in Steinbeck Yearbook, vol. 1, The Winter of Our Discontent. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000: 145-57.
    Lewis, Clifford. Rediscovering Steinbeck: Revisionist Views of His Art, Politics and Intellect . Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1989.
    Lieber, Todd M. “Talismanic Patterns in the Novels of John Steinbeck.” American Literature 44: 262-75, May 1972.
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    Morsberger, Robert E. and Katherine M. “Falling Stars: The Quiz Show Scandal in Steinbeck’s The Winter of Our Discontent, Richard Greenberg’s Night and Her Stars, and Robert Redford’s Quiz Show, ” in Steinbeck Yearbook, vol. 1, The Winter of Our Discontent. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 47-76.
    Osterling, Anders. “Radio announcement on the 25th of October 1962 by Dr. Anders Osterling, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy and Chairman of the Nobel Committee of the Academy.” Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
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    ————, and Jackson J. Benson, eds. John Steinbeck : “America and Americans” and Selected Nonfiction . New York: Viking, 2002.
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    ———. “How Mr. Hogan Robbed a Bank, or the American Dream, an unpublished, unproduced, unconsidered play in One Act by John Steinbeck.” The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas.
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To Beth, my sister,
whose light burns clear

Readers seeking to identify the fictional people and places
here described would do better to inspect their own
communities and search their own hearts, for this book
is about a large part of America today.

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE
    When the fair gold morning of April stirred Mary Hawley awake, she turned over to her husband and saw him, little fingers pulling a frog mouth at her.
    “You’re silly,” she said. “Ethan, you’ve got your comical genius.”
    “Oh say, Miss Mousie, will you marry me?”
    “Did you wake up silly?”
    “The year’s at the day. The day’s at the morn.”
    “I guess you did. Do you remember it’s Good Friday?”
    He said hollowly, “The dirty Romans are forming up for Calvary.”
    “Don’t be sacrilegious. Will Marullo let you close the store at eleven?”
    “Darling chicken-flower—Marullo is a Catholic and a wop. He probably won’t show up at all. I’ll close at noon till the execution’s over.”
    “That’s Pilgrim talk. It’s not nice.”
    “Nonsense,