A state primarily recognized for its motion pictures thanks to the rise of the glittering influence of Hollywood shortly after World War I, it wasn't until the end of the Roaring 20s — the turn of a decade which saw the evaporation of the sparkling delusion of alcohol; forcing many Americans to awaken to the devastating, yet sobering reality of bottomless debts — that California began to witness a literary narrative prescribed to encapsulate the spans of its wide landscape.

Publishing his first novel in 1929, John Steinbeck — from the beginning of his career until the end of his life — went onto to establishing a legacy of timeless renown that few among the legends of American Literature — many of whom were situated in with New York or The South — could match.

With most of his work taking place in central California — encompassing areas such as Monterey and The Salinas Valley — Steinbeck is greatly revered for his realistic yet highly imaginative prose amalgamated with sympathetic humour and stoic social perception. A style that manifested into his novellas "Of Mice and Men", "The Red Pony", and his magnum opus "The Grapes of Wrath" for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

Bestowed a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, here are five of the best lines delivered by one who required neither lights nor a camera, but simply a pen and paper to write himself into the lasting annals of memory:

Although 51 years have passed since time has written Steinbeck into his unwithering, immovable place in literary renown, his tales — encapsulating California's vast valleys, forests, and deserts into a lucid yet hypnotic dreamscape — continue to linger among the shelves of bookstores and libraries. Forever reminding those who pass in and out of the aisles, in and out of California, in and out across America only to get lost and find they are lost again in search of something good, that no good thing can truly be lost. Not because it is perfect. But because it can be remembered.