Lot 262A email save

STEINBECK, John. An autograph manuscript, an inco

important early version of steinbeck's profile of ed ricketts, one of his closest and most influential friends. The final version was first published in The Log from the Sea of Cortez (New York Viking Press, 1951). Steinbeck had first met Ed Ricketts in 1930. As well as being Steinbeck's best friend and his collaborator on The Sea of Cortez, he also, most famously, was the original for the character of 'Doc' in Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. Ricketts' death in May 1948, when his car was hit by a train, was a major shock to Steinbeck: "he was part of my brain for 18 years" (John Steinbeck quoted by Thomas Fensch in his Conversations with John Steinbeck [University Press of Mississippi, 1989], p.160). In Cannery Row Steinbeck provided a poignant epitaph for his friend: "Doc would listen to any kind of nonsense and change it for you into a kind of wisdom. His mind had no horizon and his sympathy had no warp." The present manuscript starts with a description of Ricketts' last few days: "Just about dusk in April [sic.] 1948 Ed Ricketts finished his work in the laboratory". He got in his old car to drive to get some food for supper. At a railway crossing Ricketts did not hear or see the train until it was too late. "The Del Monte express slipped around the warehouse and hit the old car. The cow catcher buckled in the side of the automobile and pushed and ground it seventy-five yards before the engines could get the train stopped". Ricketts was badly injured in the crash, and after lingering for a surprising amount of time he died. "By that time the shock in Monterey had turned to dullness", this translated into a wish to have his funeral an burial over with quietly and quickly. "A kind of anaesthesia had settled on the people who knew him . It was a strange thing - quiet and strange. Many people were lost and could not find themselves". Steinbeck then goes on to attempt to describe his friend: "It will be hard to put down the things about Ed Ricketts that have to be put down. Nearly everyone who knew him has tried to define him. Such things as - he was half Christ and half goat - he was a great teacher and a great letcher [sic.]. An immortal who loved women. Surely he was an original and his character was unique . His thinking was as paradoxical as his life. He thought in mystical terms and hated and mistrusted mysticism . Finally there is another reason for putting him down on paper. Ed Ricketts will not die - he haunts the people who knew him. He is always there even in the moments when we feel his loss the most . We can't keep him and still he will not go away. And maybe if I could write him down - all that I know about him, that might lay the ghost . It is worth a try any way but I don't expect it will work for anyone else.'

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