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TIL that 'The Grapes of Wrath' got burned in Bakersfield in 1939 and that's only 90 miles from where the book ends
Some locals piled up copies and set them on fire because they said Steinbeck lied about the migrant camps, and I keep thinking about how close that fire was to the place he was writing about, so does anyone know if any of those burned copies ever got saved?
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spencer_kelly2h ago
Kind of wild to picture a pile of burning books under a Bakersfield sky while the Joads are still out there on the road in people's minds. There's a photo from that era of the fire that got passed around, so the event itself is pretty well recorded. As for the books, I'd guess a few folks grabbed one before it hit the flames, since not everyone in town was on board with the burning. Maybe check with the Kern County library or a local history group, they might know if any survived.
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