 Born in Salinas, California, novelist John Steinbeck was best noted for his portrayal of the proletariat. His writing realistically depicted the economically depressed in the U.S., particularly the itinerant farm laborers of California. "Grapes Of Wrath" is the novel which best fits this characterization. Steinbeck won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Novel Prize for literature in 1962.