First thoughts on The Moon is Down

The introduction by Donald Coers (who has written some Steinbeck books I may need to check out IF they aren't too academic) says that Steinbeck approached the OSS about writing this book after he got the idea while filming "The Forgotten Village" in Mexico (this was also the film that produced one of the few if only real arguments between him and Ricketts due to their conflicting views about indigenous populations.) Steinbeck felt the fascists were outpacing us in the propaganda race. When this book came out, a lot of critics didn't understand it and felt Steinbeck was too sympathetic in the treatment of the Nazis (interestingly, never called that explicitly in the book although it's pretty clear when one character's fantasy is to die on the battlefield to the strains of Wagner.) The book was majorly misunderstood and underappreciated in its time in this country. Clifton Fadiman and James Thurber no less criticized it.

However, in Europe it was a huge success. The book was published in March, 1942, a very bleak time during the war. In occupied Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway people risked their lives to print and clandestinely distribute it as a pamphlet. It came to France in 1944  6 months before the liberation and was a hit there as well. Sartre in his essay "What is Literature?" defended a similar work called The Silence of the Sea by Jean Bruller, saying to understand literature one must first understand the audience it was written for. An occupied people would have found a story about goose-stepping, monacle-clad villains laughable. What was disturbing about the occupation and the crimes of the Nazis was how normal they could appear.

My favorite story from the intro tells the story of the man who translated and published it in Holland, an actor and underground publisher named Ferdinand Sterneberg. He ran a press called De Bezige Bij ("The Busy Bee.") He used to also perform scenes from it clandestinely for select audiences, warning them beforehand they could at any time be raided by the Gestapo. He eventually stopped because he was hiding two Jewish friends in his home. His neighbors were "untrustworthy" so his friends could not walk about, run water or use the bathroom when he wasn't home for fear of alerting snooping ears. Sterneberg felt it was too cruel to leave them in such a state for hours. He and his friends survived the war.

The publishing royalties from this pamphlet funded the resistance in all of the above countries. How amazing is that? It's really tragic this story isn't more widely known here. Steinbeck continues to not receive what is due to him.


After the war when Steinbeck was travelling in Italy, he was approached by an Italian who told him mere possession of the book was grounds for execution. Proof Steinbeck did something write no matter what those ass kettles Fadiman and (I'm sorry) Thurber say.

BTW, I see the further reading section that Harold Bloom edited a book about Steinbeck. I wonder if he changed his mind about him. I just found it in Google Books and nope, Bloom writes a petty intro saying Steinbeck is overly sentimental in Of Mice and Men, East of Eden is not worth re-reading, In Dubious Battle is a period piece only useful to historians and The Grapes of Wrath is "a problematic work that....lacks invention." He says Steinbeck suffers in comparison to Hemingway. I don't know what is up Harold Bloom's ass but since he said fucking Cormac McCarthy wrote the greatest novel of the century, he clearly has issues.

I'd like to give the last word to my beloved Steinbeck. When discussing the criticism of this book in his essay  "My Short Novels" written 10 years later, Steinbeck said:

"It was said I didn't know anything about war and this was perfectly true, though how Park Avenue commandos found me out I can't conceive." 

Oh, I love this man.

I was going to write about specifics of the book thus far but I'll save that for later now.