Review: 'The Harvest Gypsies' by John Steinbeck

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

'The Harvest Gypsies' by John Steinbeck, 62 pages - Instagram @c_reads_books

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The Harvest Gypsies by John Steinbeck is a volume containing seven long-form articles that John Steinbeck wrote in 1936 about the lives and struggles of migrant farmworkers during the Dust Bowl. The articles are accompanied by photos taken by Dorothea Lange and others. The articles relay the stories Steinbeck heard and the sights he saw while touring squatters’ camps and Hoovervilles in California. Providing the basis for The Grapes of Wrath, the stories told in these articles paint moving portraits of once strong and self-made farmers diminished to innumerable hardships.

I really enjoyed this volume. Each article is moving and powerful, relaying the truth of the plights that so many migrant workers faced during the Dust Bowl. The introduction at the beginning by Charles Wollenburg also added so much, and it was fascinating to read about how Steinbeck was inspired to write The Grapes of Wrath, as that book gave a voice to so many people who were without one. I also appreciated the photos at the end of the book, as they made the stories Steinbeck relays so much more real, giving faces to the people and documenting the conditions they lived in. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to everyone!