A Work of Art
Cup of Gold
By John Steinbeck
I was thrilled to find this novel on the shelf at our local library because it isn't just any novel by John Steinbeck, it is his FIRST novel. According to the account in the preface, this book was first published the year he was 27. This means that in reading it I just took a 267-page romp through the mind of a 25 year old young man.
Steinbeck's first novel is well-written. In it one could see he'd be a great writer, and within a few years, after Tortilla Flat was published, the world knew him well. But the subject matter of Cup of Gold is questionable. By the time I finished the book I detested the main character, a wretched privateer (a pirate with governmental permission to be bad) who (according to Steinbeck's account) demonstrated almost every bad trait known to man. His name was Henry Morgan.
I realize Steinbeck, who wrote this in the 1920's, probably didn't have access to the how to write books I've been reading. How was he to know the pitfalls of making an unlikable man the protagonist? I wonder, would the book have been better if written from the POV of Morgan's sweet, virtuous wife, Elizabeth? Probably not, since she was most likely clueless about Morgan's cruel exploits.
Morgan was a 17th century seafaring terrorist who left a trail of misery everywhere he went. Were it not for Steinbeck's attempt at portraying his life, I would never have known what a wretch he was. I hope Steinbeck exaggerated the facts.
After reading this book I'm convinced my writing will probably never be as good as his. This was his first novel in which he was supposed to have made all his worst mistakes. But from the looks of it, he was always a literary genius. He was like a moth emerging from its cocoon, struggling, soon to fly.
While doing research tonight I found a great biography of Steinbeck. I also found two biographies of Henry Morgan: 1 2
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