ALS in pencil, one lightly-lined yellow legal sheet, both sides, 8 x 12.5, May 18, 1962. Letter written from Athens [Greece] to Ruth Bishop. In full: “I do hope my recent rather raddled and savage letter did not trouble you—just ill tempered old age I guess. Now I am sweet tempered and reasonable again and I have a number of things to report. 1st We leave for Crete and the Ceyclades [sic] next Thursday [May 17th], returning just in time to catch the old Saturnia [Italian Line, built in 1935] for home. We arrive in New York June 14 but between now and then we will be more or less out of touch. Your suggestion about Glenn Grant at the American School drew a very pleasant response. We had lunch with him. He was unable to find the placement tests here but probably did better. He called Dr. Charles Rice of Athens College, formerly admissions at Choate for many years. Dr. Rice has developed his own means of testing which seems to be very highly regarded.
Yesterday he went over both boys for several hours. Of course he found things we know but he found them officially. He says categorically that tutoring should stop this summer and both boys should go to summer sessions, first to resume academic discipline and to hone up hard on math and spelling. He suggests Choate and Taft and will write both places giving them his findings. He knows all the people involved of course. The other place Eagle brook is interested in is Hebron Academy in Maine. They think this for John both summer and on through his high school. Gunnery is suggested for Tom, if they will take him after the summer. On Tuesday [May 15th] Glen Grant is giving both boys aptitude tests. He also will send his results to the schools involved. Then Terrence McNally is writing a kind of précis of his year of study with the boys to go to each place. Finally I am writing to Summer Choate and Taft plus Hebron asking for applications and adding my two bits.
I am going to ask both Rice and Grant to send you copies of their reports if they will. You see, we will be out of touch and we shall want to get to it immediately when we return. I hope you do not mind my asking the schools to communicate with your office. You see our house is closed and will be until we return. The schools then are (summer) Choate, Taft and Hebron and for the autumn Hebron and Gunnery. Does this make sense to you? The boys will be available for interviews immediately [when] they return. And I shall have to ask your advice as to whether I should go with them. Sometime it is far better for them to go alone, particularly since they will be preceded by quite a bit of documentation.
Now as for the boys—they were pretty scared of Dr. Rice as well they might be. He told me that both boys are quite capable of being A students if they wish. And I must say the boys have changed. Far from being reluctant, they are eager to get back to the school for the summer. I think Terrence has done a lot of this. Incidently [sic] I will send you a copy of his report when he finishes it. Now all of this has disappeared very quickly and I am having to get out a goodly number of letters and there is a royal wedding going on in the street below—[future King Juan Carlos I of Spain married Princess Sophia, daughter of King Paul of Greece and sister of future Greek King Constantine II] And excited boys running back and forth. It is rather distracting and I must get letters off to all of these schools today. It is all very formal. And I do hope these headmasters will not require me to go to all of them. I will, of course, but except for exchanging of courtesies, it won’t be of much value. I guess that about covers it. I shall call you as soon as we get in on the 14th or 15th.
Could you find time to telephone Elizabeth Otis to let her know what has been done? It is all happening so fast now. And I wish I didn’t have the feeling that I am writing begging letters to teachers. But I guess that is exactly what I am doing. I am enclosing a new copy of the short list of the boys activities for the year. The longer report will go out to you direct from Terrence.” Intersecting folds, some scattered light creases, and a rusty paperclip mark to center of both sides, otherwise fine condition.
Early in 1961, John Steinbeck’s sons, Tom and John IV, moved in with their father and stepmother because of difficulties with their mother Gwyn who had divorced their father in 1948 “on grounds of extreme mental cruelty.” Future four-time Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally was a student at the Actors Studio when he was hired as a tutor for Steinbeck’s sons, 16 and 14, in 1961. The 21-year-old was the main disciplinarian at Sag Harbor and traveled with the Steinbecks on their planned world tour, sailing for England in early September. While abroad the boys expected a vacation from schooling, but McNally pushed their studies until they rebelled. In Milan, a confrontation between tutor and charges ended when Steinbeck suffered a heart attack or a stoke. Though he recovered quickly, the author was ordered to rest and McNally packed the boys off to Florence, Venice, Tuscany and Umbria.
Reuniting in Rome a month later for the Christmas holidays, the Steinbecks decided to cut their world tour short, but continued touring Italy, Greece and the Grecian islands before returning to Sag Harbor in mid-June. Four months later, Steinbeck won the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature for his outstanding body of work, including Pulitzer Prize winner The Grapes of Wrath, but his sons' future remained foremost in his mind. His attention to their schooling paid off with Tom attending Avon School in Connecticut and John at Hebron Academy in Maine; both boys eventually followed their father's footsteps into writing. John IV became a journalist and founded Dispatch News Service with Sean Flynn, which originally published the Hersh's story on the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War; Tom, who gave his father high marks as a parent, is currently a successful screenwriter and author. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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