dust bowl

He talked about the Dust Bowl and its reach throughout the Midwest, where we are both from.

Little did Babb know that the copy of her field notes she would willingly give Steinbeck would not only inspire him as he began his third and final attempt at writing his Dust Bowl novel, but would also make the publishing of her own novel impossible.

Little did Babb know that the copy of her field notes she would willingly give Steinbeck would not only inspire him as he began his third and final attempt at writing his Dust Bowl novel, but would also make the publishing of her own novel impossible.

More importantly, she recorded a version of Dust Bowl history that gives agency to its victims and highlights the diversity found in California in the 1930s.

As scholar Christopher Bowman has pointed out, “While both Babb’s and Steinbeck’s books were “motivated by a genuine concern for the Dust Bowl migrants, and both approached their novels as projects with which they could cultivate public support” for the migrants in California, the story of Steinbeck’s book is quite different.