John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in California's Salinas River Valley. Although he worked briefly as a reporter in New York, it was in the Salinas Valley that he spent the Depression years, and his experiences and the people he met became the basis for his books. Of Mice and Men opened the eyes of the public to the desperate lives of the migrant workers. The Grapes of Wrath told the story of the destitute Oklahoma dust bowl farmers who flocked to the...

Adam and Charles Trask grow up in the shadow of their father, Cyrus. Cyrus prefers Adam, inciting jealousy in his younger son. Adam is signed up for the cavalry, while Charles works on the family farm. Reuniting years later, the brothers live in peace until a beautiful woman nearly beaten to death arrives on their front porch. Adam nurses her back to health and falls blindly in love. But Cathy hides a cruel past. Adam and Cathy marry and have twin...