John Steinbeck
American · 20th century
American novelist and Nobel Prize laureate, author of Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Held as a catalogue-future link: Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men takes its title from the same Robert Burns line ('the best laid plans of mice and men') that Taylor alludes to in The Black Dog. The current allusion is to Burns, not Steinbeck directly, but Steinbeck is minted in anticipation of a future song surfacing a direct Steinbeck allusion (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden).
Notable Works
- Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Cannery Row
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
Of Mice and Men
“And all of those best laid plans”
Angela & Uncle Jerry note that Steinbeck used the Robert Burns line 'the best laid plans of mice and men' as the title for his novel Of Mice and Men. The primary allusion is to Burns' poem 'To a Mouse,' but Steinbeck's novel is named as a secondary connection that demonstrates how widely the Burns line has permeated literary culture.