TLS, one lightweight page, 8.5 x 11, Athens, May 5, 1962. Letter to Ruth Bishop. In part: “Thank you for your very helpful letter. I have written to Mr Grant of the American School about the testing and hope to hear from him soon. Meanwhile the boys [17-year-old Tom and 15-year-old John IV] are off for a week in the Peleponese [sic] and will be back next weekend…I am enclosing a skeleton report on the boys’ work since september [sic]. It must of course be only partial since probably a great many of the gains have been intangibles, such as having to use their french [sic] and italian [sic] to eat and sleep and travel about. Terrence McNally, the young tutor has been very strict in his lessons and there has been no let-up. In language for example there have been hour lessons every day and continual testing to keep them on their toes…I have done nothing about the school camp summer because I want to discuss it with Terrence McNally on his return. It has been his belief that both boys should stay with us during the summer at Sag Harbor and continue tutoring if that is possible with perhaps some personel [sic] from South Hampton. Terrence feels that the family tie, about the first they have ever had, should be maintained for the summer before they are sent out again. Do you have any feeling about this? It is so difficult to arrive at a conclusion from such a distance.
In all of the academic devices I have been subjected to in the last few years, and your records will show that they have been numerous, I have been impressed with the terrible sense of rush, rush to enroll, rush to see head masters, and rush of course to subscribe to the retirement fund or what ever fund is going at the moment. There is little sense that education is a continuing process and not a quick ride on a merry go round. I wonder if some of the kids’ sense of revolt has not been caused by this hustling method which reaches its most frantic tempo just at the time when kids are going into the adolescent sloth. Anyway, some head masters have practically ordered me to be home by June first. I have had to tell them I wouldn’t and then they seem to be all right about it. They just seem to love to push parents around. I think my boys have learned more in this year than during their whole time at school previously but perhaps the things learned do not go neatly into academic pockets of different colors and shapes.
Perhaps I am not thinking very clearly. I have felt in recent months that this might be so, but in this time which seems to be so important, I do not want to be rushed. I have given up a year of work and many thousands of dollars to this attempt to pick up some of the pieces and I feel that it would not be well to panic at the end of it. Besides I strongly suspect that the very violence of the swing to mathamatics [sic] and the physical sciences will detwemine [sic] the reswing to the humanities. The proper study of mankind is sill [sic] man and you can’t do enough with a slide rule to make much of a life. But our time seems to bolt from one concern to another. I am surprised that we do not have compulsory chess because the russians [sic] are said to play it. I didn’t mean a lecture. I guess it is just because I am not feeling quite strong yet. And this letter isn’t bad temper. It’s just begging for time.” In very good condition, with a few small separations along intersecting folds, creasing, toning, and tears to right edge, an office stamp to top, a rusty paperclip mark to left edge, a few ink spots, and a pencil notation and date stamp to top edge.
Early in 1961, due to difficulties with his ex-wife Gwendolyn, Steinbeck took custody of his teenage sons Tom and John. He entrusted their education to future four-time Tony Award–winning playwright Terrence McNally, then a student at the Actors Studio, who joined them on a lengthy world tour. Relentless in his teaching, McNally pushed the boys every step of the way, and their inevitable rebellious reactions began to take a toll on their father. While in Milan, Steinbeck suddenly fell unconscious, suffering either a heart attack or stroke. While recovering, he separated from his sons, letting McNally take them around Italy. When they reunited in Rome for the holidays, the family decided to cancel the rest of their world tour in favor of more time in Italy and Greece, after which they would return home to Sag Harbor in mid-June. Long-winded and lively, Steinbeck justifies his study-abroad approach with his sons, articulating his complaints with contemporary education in this exceptional letter. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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