Suffolk Closeup: John Steinbeck’s House

Suffolk County has been the home of many literary giants, including Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Kurt Vonnegut, James Jones, Truman Capote, Betty Friedan, Edward Albee, E.L. Doctorow, Joseph Heller, Lanford Wilson, Joe Pintauro, Terence McNally, Colin Whitehead, Peter Matthiessen … and John Steinbeck.

And now, you can get an extraordinary insight into Steinbeck.

The house in Sag Harbor where Steinbeck and his wife Elaine lived has been preserved. That’s thanks to donations gathered by the Sag Harbor Partnership, participation of The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas (Elaine’s alma mater), $750,000 from the State of New York, $11.2 million from the Community Preservation Fund of the Town of Southampton, and individual contributions from folks in Sag Harbor.

You can, for free, go on Saturday tours which take in the 1.8 acres of property overlooking Sag Harbor Cove, and on “Holiday Open House Weekends” visit inside the house, too.

Among the many features on the property is Steinbeck’s little and charming six-sided gazebo, his writing studio. He named it, with a sign, Joyous Garde for Sir Lancelot’s castle in the legend of King Arthur.

My wife and I happily took the tour last week, on the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature and also the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his renowned and important novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” Among the many other books Steinbeck authored were “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Pearl,” “The Red Pony,” “The Winter of Our Discontent,” “Tortilla Flat,” Cannery Row” and “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” — which begins in Sag Harbor.

He hung out with local friends in Sag Harbor Village which in recent years has featured the John Steinbeck Waterfront Park.

He was a founder and honorary chairman in the 1960s of Sag Harbor’s Old Whaler’s Festival, now known as HarborFest. We lived in Sayville back then, and as a reporter for the daily Long Island Press, I went to Sag Harbor and interviewed Steinbeck on a festival day.

Steinbeck and Elaine lived in the Sag Harbor house from 1955 until his death in 1968. Elaine continued to use the house until her own passing in 2003.

Our docent for the tour was Lori Raimondo, who is highly knowledgeable about Steinbeck. Fortunate that it was a holiday weekend, we went inside the house in which she related how in settling in Sag Harbor, Steinbeck considered it reminiscent of where he had earlier lived, Monterey, California, on the Monterey Peninsula along the Pacific Ocean, 115 miles south of San Francisco.

Monterey was a working class waterfront town, like Sag Harbor in those days.

He also had a place on the upper East Side of Manhattan.

Raimondo said that Steinbeck sighted the house while looking at another one nearby but was told it was not for sale. However, he went over to it and knocked on the door, and the couple who owned it said they were just putting it up for sale. 

In the house, Steinbeck’s creativity — and humor — were apparent immediately. Raimondo pointed out a mobile hanging in the living room which, she noted, Steinbeck constructed from the spokes of an umbrella. Adjacent was a cozy kitchen area. A main feature in the living room is a fireplace made with large stones, especially big in the context of the small house. Originally, said Raimondo, a collection of rifles had been hung above the fireplace, and she showed photographs from when they were there.

On a hallway down to a bedroom were many photos, including one of Steinbeck receiving the Nobel Prize. Up what is now a metal circular staircase, which replaced a ladder, explained Raimondo, was a loft for the two Steinbeck sons, Thomas and John.

Outside, we first visited a small workshop building which, said Raimondo, Steinbeck originally thought he could use for writing. But he found there were too many diversions in it to provide a setting best suited for writing. The workshop remains loaded with a variety of tools, some in marked drawers. I was surprised to see that a drawer for pliers was marked “plyers.” Perhaps a person who did work for Steinbeck misspelled the word pliers. It would be very surprising, I thought, if the great writer himself made the spelling error.

Then it was on to the simple Joyous Garde. It fitted only a small desk and a chair. And from it, through its windows, was a serene view of the waters of Sag Harbor Cove, a tranquil place for Steinbeck to write.

To arrange to take the tour, go to steinbeckhouse.org/visit

“There are two options for visiting,” it advises. One is a “Regular Saturday Visit” on “regular tour dates.” They are listed. The other is “Holiday Open House Weekends: Both the grounds and the home will be open on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of the Holiday Open House Weekends.” The next are the Labor Day and Columbus Day weekends. 

Kudos must be given to Kathryn Szoka, co-owner of Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, for spearheading the preservation. Take the tour. It is immensely worthwhile.

John Steinbeck’s House

Suffolk County has been the home of many literary giants, including Walt Whitman, James Fenimore Cooper, Kurt Vonnegut, James Jones, Truman Capote, Betty Friedan, Edward Albee, E.L. Doctorow, Joseph Heller, Lanford Wilson, Joe Pintauro, Terence McNally, Colin Whitehead, Peter Matthiessen … and John Steinbeck.

And now, you can get an extraordinary insight into Steinbeck.

The house in Sag Harbor where Steinbeck and his wife Elaine lived has been preserved. That’s thanks to donations gathered by the Sag Harbor Partnership, participation of The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas (Elaine’s alma mater), $750,000 from the State of New York, $11.2 million from the Community Preservation Fund of the Town of Southampton, and individual contributions from folks in Sag Harbor.

You can, for free, go on Saturday tours which take in the 1.8 acres of property overlooking Sag Harbor Cove, and on “Holiday Open House Weekends” visit inside the house, too.

Among the many features on the property is Steinbeck’s little and charming six-sided gazebo, his writing studio. He named it, with a sign, Joyous Garde for Sir Lancelot’s castle in the legend of King Arthur.

My wife and I happily took the tour last week, on the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize for literature and also the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his renowned and important novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” Among the many other books Steinbeck authored were “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men,” “The Pearl,” “The Red Pony,” “The Winter of Our Discontent,” “Tortilla Flat,” Cannery Row” and “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” — which begins in Sag Harbor.

He hung out with local friends in Sag Harbor Village which in recent years has featured the John Steinbeck Waterfront Park.

He was a founder and honorary chairman in the 1960s of Sag Harbor’s Old Whaler’s Festival, now known as HarborFest. We lived in Sayville back then, and as a reporter for the daily Long Island Press, I went to Sag Harbor and interviewed Steinbeck on a festival day.

Steinbeck and Elaine lived in the Sag Harbor house from 1955 until his death in 1968. Elaine continued to use the house until her own passing in 2003.

Our docent for the tour was Lori Raimondo, who is highly knowledgeable about Steinbeck. Fortunate that it was a holiday weekend, we went inside the house in which she related how in settling in Sag Harbor, Steinbeck considered it reminiscent of where he had earlier lived, Monterey, California, on the Monterey Peninsula along the Pacific Ocean, 115 miles south of San Francisco.

Monterey was a working class waterfront town, like Sag Harbor in those days.

He also had a place on the upper East Side of Manhattan.

Raimondo said that Steinbeck sighted the house while looking at another one nearby but was told it was not for sale. However, he went over to it and knocked on the door, and the couple who owned it said they were just putting it up for sale. 

In the house, Steinbeck’s creativity — and humor — were apparent immediately. Raimondo pointed out a mobile hanging in the living room which, she noted, Steinbeck constructed from the spokes of an umbrella. Adjacent was a cozy kitchen area. A main feature in the living room is a fireplace made with large stones, especially big in the context of the small house. Originally, said Raimondo, a collection of rifles had been hung above the fireplace, and she showed photographs from when they were there.

On a hallway down to a bedroom were many photos, including one of Steinbeck receiving the Nobel Prize. Up what is now a metal circular staircase, which replaced a ladder, explained Raimondo, was a loft for the two Steinbeck sons, Thomas and John.

Outside, we first visited a small workshop building which, said Raimondo, Steinbeck originally thought he could use for writing. But he found there were too many diversions in it to provide a setting best suited for writing. The workshop remains loaded with a variety of tools, some in marked drawers. I was surprised to see that a drawer for pliers was marked “plyers.” Perhaps a person who did work for Steinbeck misspelled the word pliers. It would be very surprising, I thought, if the great writer himself made the spelling error.

Then it was on to the simple Joyous Garde. It fitted only a small desk and a chair. And from it, through its windows, was a serene view of the waters of Sag Harbor Cove, a tranquil place for Steinbeck to write.

To arrange to take the tour, go to steinbeckhouse.org/visit

“There are two options for visiting,” it advises. One is a “Regular Saturday Visit” on “regular tour dates.” They are listed. The other is “Holiday Open House Weekends: Both the grounds and the home will be open on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of the Holiday Open House Weekends.” The next are the Labor Day and Columbus Day weekends. 

Kudos must be given to Kathryn Szoka, co-owner of Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, for spearheading the preservation.

Take the tour. It is immensely worthwhile.