Of Mice and Men: Mini-Critique John Steinbeck was born in Salinas California on February 27, 1902. His mother was a school teacher in the public school in Salinas. Steinbeck grew up in the beautiful Salinas Valley which furnished most of the material for his novels. His mother read to him, at an early age, famous literature of the world which planted a seed in his imagination. He entered Stanford in 1920, remaining there until 1925 but never graduating. In 1930 Steinbeck married Carol Henning. Steinbeck died in 1968. After college, Steinbeck moved to New York, where he worked briefly for the old New York American news