many books, Warren French is a direct descendant of America’s “Tenth Muse”— Anne Bradstreet—and one of the founding families of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., English and Journalism). He served in the U.S. Army (1943–46), training in Texas and California. After the war, he returned to the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his M.A. (English) and Ph.D. (American Literature and History). Much of French’s research con- cerned John Steinbeck’s canon, including works that he had become enthusiastic about after reading Cannery Row.
French taught at several universities, and in 1958 Sylvia Bowman asked him to write the first book especially designed to establish the format for Twayne’s United States Authors Series. That first volume was John Steinbeck (1961). He followed it up quickly with series books on Frank Norris and J. D. Salinger, and
A Companion to The Grapes of Wrath (1963)
that was commissioned by Steinbeck’s editor,
Pascal Covici. In 1970, just as he began work as chairman of the department of English at the newly created Indiana University/ Purdue University at Indianapolis, he was asked by Tetsumaro Hayashi to serve as pres- ident of the newly organized John Steinbeck Society of America, with its headquarters at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
In 1975 French published an update to his book on Steinbeck for the Twayne series and became an editor for Twayne. During that period he became president of the newly organized International John Steinbeck Society, while continuing to produce a num- ber of journal essays and chapters of books on Steinbeck. In 1985 French was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Ohio University, and the following year he decided to retire early and spend the second six months of each year at the University of Wales-Swansea, where he was appointed an
Honorary Professor of American Studies. In 1996 he established a permanent residence in Tallahassee, Florida.
Warren French
FREUD, SIGMUND (1856–1939). Known as the father of psychoanalysis, Freud devoted most of the rest of his life to formu- lating and extending his theories of mental health. As the originator of psychoanalysis, Freud distinguished himself as an intellec- tual giant and pioneered new techniques for understanding human behavior. Steinbeck tended to reject Freud’s psychoanalytical focus on the individual unconscious; instead, he preferred Karl Jung’s distinc- tion between the collective unconscious and the personal unconscious, a theory that was more nearly parallel to the theories of John
Elof Boodin and Edward F. Ricketts. Stein- beck and Joseph Campbell were known to have discussed the differences between these psychologists around the time Stein- beck attempted to incorporate archetypal imagery in To a God Unknown.
Tracy Michaels
FRIEDE, DONALD (1901–1965). Born in New York City and widely traveled interna- tionally in his youth, Friede returned to New York in 1915. In 1925 he became a partner in the publishing firm of Boni & Liveright. He cofounded the firm Covici-Friede in 1935 and moved to Hollywood to become a literary and film agent. Friede’s life in the 1920s and his literary career with Boni & Liveright and Covici-Friede are described in his autobiogra- phy The Mechanical Angel (Alfred Knopf, 1948), now long out of print. Through Pascal
Covici, the new firm brought out Tortilla Flat in 1935 and enabled Steinbeck to at last become a financially successful author.
FRIEND ED. One of the most curious of Steinbeck’s fictionalized avatars of Edward
F. Ricketts, Friend Ed acts in the role of a
Doc character in Burning Bright. Like the other characters in this, the last of Stein- beck’s play-novelettes, Friend Ed is a type,
an abstraction. In the course of three acts, Friend Ed is a clown, then a farmer, and then a seaman (in “captain’s uniform”). Ed offers advice to Joe Saul and is a protective companion—the one man who has Saul’s respect. He listens to Ed. Until the third act, Ed is a soothing, rational mediator for Saul, helping the older man to work through feel- ings of inadequacy, suspicion, fear, and rage. Friend Ed, with the “warm cool” mind of the Doc characters, is both rational and capable of passion—his love for Saul has no bounds. In the entangled story of Burning
Bright, in which Mordeen uses Victor as a
kind of stud animal so she can finally present Saul with a baby, Victor fears Ed— and for good reason. When Victor threatens to reveal his role in the conception of Saul’s child, Friend Ed crushes the young man’s skull and tosses him into the sea (in the stage version, he merely arranges to have Victor shanghaied).
As Steinbeck was working on Burning
Bright in 1950, he also had Ricketts on his
mind; he was composing the long essay regarding his friend, “About Ed Ricketts.” At this time Steinbeck was moving from realism to allegory, from the objective to the subjective, from showing to telling. In gen- eral, he was shifting away from the biologi- cal viewpoint to a moralistic one. Yet, as Friend Ed shows, Ricketts was still an influ- ence. Friend Ed, a character caught at the crossroads of Steinbeck’s artistic direction, is therefore an odd fellow: a calm mediator and, when necessary, a murderer. Oscillat- ing wildly, he is the most extreme of the Ricketts characterizations. The one constant is his devotion to Saul, however misguided the end result.
Further Reading: Railsback, Brian. “The Bright
Failure: What Shall We Make of Chaos?” In The
Betrayal of Brotherhood in the Works of John Steinbeck. Ed. Michael Meyer. Lewiston, NY:
Mellon Press, 2000: 327–56.
FROMM, ERICH (1900–1980). An influen- tial and popular psychoanalyst in America, his books include Escape from Freedom
Fuentes’s Wife 119 (1941) and Man for Himself (1947). He is per-
haps best known for his interesting treatise on love in the modern world, The Art of Lov-
ing (1956). Fromm’s psychoanalytic theo-
ries are a rather unique blend of Sigmund
Freud and Karl Marx. Whereas Freud pos- tulated that our characters are determined by biology, Marx, on the other hand, saw people as determined by their society, and most especially by their economic systems. Fromm added to this mix of two determin- istic systems something quite foreign to them: the idea of freedom. He allows peo- ple to transcend the determinisms that Freud and Marx attribute to them. In fact, Fromm makes freedom the central charac- teristic of human nature, a concept Stein- beck explores in East of Eden’s timshel.
Robert DeMott notes that Steinbeck read and greatly admired Fromm’s Psychoanaly-
sis and Religion (1950) and that “Fromm’s
insistence on the ethical role of individual conscience and his discussion of ‘inner strength and integrity’ bore directly on JS’s characterization of Samuel Hamilton” in
East of Eden (148).
Further Reading: DeMott, Robert. Steinbeck’s
Reading; A Catalogue of Books Owned and Borrowed. New York: Garland, 1984.
Michael J. Meyer
FROST, RICHARD. A nervous but intelli- gent man, Frost appears twice in Cannery
Row. Consumed by the question of how a flagpole skater relieves himself without descending, Frost leaves home in the mid-
dle of the night to find out. The skater solves the mystery by revealing that he uses a can. Later, Frost serves as a sounding board for
Doc’s philosophic explorations into how
Mac and the boys eschew societal expecta- tions. Doc bets Frost that Mac and the boys will take no notice of an approaching parade. Frost, convinced that no person could fail to turn to watch a parade, takes the bet and loses.
Charles Etheridge, Jr.
FUENTES, GENERAL. In Viva Zapata!, he is the second neighbor hacendado and is described by Steinbeck as wearing “full- dress uniform of a Mexican general with decorations that include the Iron Cross.” He will not relinquish his land, but he feels it is absurd to let politics ruin a dinner party with Don Nacio de la Torre y Mier (excised from the film, but still in the screenplay). Emiliano Zapata meets with Don Nacio and learns he is to receive no help from him other than his attempt to persuade them to give up the lands and return them to the natives who really own them. Fuentes draws a pistol and aims it at Emiliano’s back as he leaves. Nacio grabs his wrist and succeeds in preventing harm from being done, but Fuentes ominously remarks that “by saving him you may have killed a thousand men. You may have killed yourself.”
FUENTES’S WIFE. In Viva Zapata!, she also appears at Don Nacio’s dinner party with her husband, General Fuentes.
G
GABILAN. In “The Gift” (first short story in The Red Pony), Gabilan is the name that
Jody Tiflin gives to the red pony his father buys from a carnival that was shut down. Jody names the pony after his favorite mountains, choosing an appellation that means hawk.
GABLE, CLARK (1901–1960). In The Way-
ward Bus, the well-known Hollywood
movie star who is the object of Norma’s obsession.
GAHERIS, SIR. In The Acts of King
Arthur, the nephew of King Arthur, son of
Margawse and King Lot of Lothian and
Orkney, and brother of Sir Gawain. He is the last of the long series of knights to be captured and imprisoned by Sir Tarquin. He is rescued by Sir Lancelot and instructed to go to Tarquin’s castle, release all the other prisoners, and tell them to return to Camelot, where Lancelot will greet them all at court at Pentecost.
GALAGARS, SIR. In The Acts of King
Arthur, he is made a knight of the Round
Table on King Pellinore’s recommendation following the war with the Five Kings.
GALAHAD. In The Acts of King Arthur, the original name of the son of King Ban of
Benwickand Queen Elaine, changed to Sir
Lancelotat his christening. Merlin prophe-
sies that he will become the greatest knight in all the world.
GALATI, FRANK. Associate director of the Goodman Theatre, who adapted and directed a stage version of The Grapes of
Wrath for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre
Company that won the Tony Award as the best play of 1990. Galati himself won the Tony for best director.
GALATINE, SIR. In The Acts of King
Arthur, one of the four knights beaten in a
tournament by Sir Lancelot and the four white knights, who were acting as champi- ons for Sir Bagdemagus.
GALBRAITH, JOHN KENNETH (1908–