Johnny Bear by John Steinbeck

Johnny Bear 

by

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck / Johnny "El Oso"

The village of Loma is built, as its name implies, on a low round hill that rises like an island out of the flat mouth of the Salinas Valley in central California. To the north and east of the town a black tule swamp stretches for miles, but to the south the marsh has been drained. Rich vegetable land has been the result of the draining, land so black with wealth that the lettuce and cauliflowers grow to giants.

The Vigilante by John Steinbeck

THE VIGILANTE 

by

John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck / El linchamiento

THE great surge of emotion, the milling and shouting of the people fell gradually to silence in the town park. A crowd of people still stood under the elm trees, vaguely lighted by a blue street light two blocks away. A tired quiet settled on the people; some members of the mob began to sneak away into the darkness. The park lawn was cut to pieces by the feet of the crowd. 

The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck

The Chrysanthemums

By John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck / Los crisantemos

The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot. On the broad, level land floor the gang plows bit deep and left the black earth shining like metal where the shares had cut. On the foothill ranches across the Salinas River, the yellow stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in December. The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with sharp and positive yellow leaves.

John Steinbeck / The Snake

THE SNAKE

by John Steinbeck

 The Snake.mp3

John Steinbeck / La serpiente

IT WAS almost dark when young Dr. Phillips swung his sack to his shoulder and left the tide pool. He climbed up over the rocks and squashed along the street in his rubber boots. The street lights were on by the time he arrived at his little commercial laboratory on the cannery street of Monterey. It was a tight little building, stand­ing partly on piers over the bay water and partly on the land. On both sides the big corrugated-iron sardine can­neries crowded in on it.