There are two "bibles" for people who want to know about John Steinbeck - Jackson Benson's biography and this one. Personally, I prefer this one because it covers the golden age of Steinbeck and his friendship with marine biologist, philosopher and brilliant mind, Ed Ricketts.

If you've read Cannery Row and Grapes of Wrath (among others), you've gotten a glimpse of Ed RIcketts. In Richard Astro's book, you get the "toto-picture" of the man. Steinbeck's literature has been called simple. Yeah, simple as a Zen painting. Richard Astro shows how the collective (and at times drastically different) philosophies of these two men spawned one to create some of the greatest stories ever told. Stories that can be read and appreciated by a kid in middle school and then upon rereading, it is discovered how many layers lie beneath the tightly plotted tales. Astro's book digs deep too and is a valuable, readible and thought provoking journey into a remarkable friendship.

I would not recommend this book as an introduction to Steinbeck. If you have never read Steinbeck your time will be better spent reading the Grapes of Wrath. I think it works best for those of us who have read other Steinbeck works and/or those who wish to have better understanding of the peoples and ecology of the Sea of Cortez.

I read this book while preparing to follow the footsteps of Steinbeck and Ricketts to the Sea of Cortez (the Gulf of California).

I was living, at the time, in 'Steinbeck Country,' Monterey, California--where Ed 'Doc' Ricketts kept his lab (referred to in "Cannery Row.").

In this book, "The Log From the Sea of Cortez," Steinbeck sheds his fiction-writer persona, and regales his readers with the story of his trip, which Ricketts initiated for scientific purposes.

The thing that interested me the most, aside from the descriptive passages about the area in question, was the juxtaposition of Ed Rickett's pragmatism and Steinbeck's unabashed idealism and populism. Steinbeck comes across as a flaming socialist--not too surprising, considering "The Grapes of Wrath" and some of his other works.

The friendship of these two men, despite the radical differences in their philosophies, is intriguing.

If you are a fan of Steinbeck's fiction, this book will give you more insight into his character and philosophy than any of his other books save, perhaps, "Travels With Charlie," which came much later.