The Winter of Our Discontent

Explanatory Notes

1

spermaceti: Moby-Dick or The Whale (1851), by Herman Melville, was one of Steinbeck’s two favorite novels, according to Elaine Steinbeck; Don Quixote was the other. Spermaceti is mentioned in chapter 77, “The Great Heidelburgh Tun.”

2

Admiral Halsey: William F. “Bull” Halsey (1882-1959). Fleet commander in the South Pacific during World War II, he took the title of five-star fleet admiral after the war. In the Winter manuscript, Halsey was Ethan’s last name. When Morphy asks if he’s related to Admiral Halsey, Ethan responds this way: “ ‘Not that I know of,’ Ethan said pleased, ‘But I guess all Halseys are related if you go way back.’ ”

3

Ethan Allen: (1738-89) Hero of the American Revolution and leader of the Green Mountain Boys, dedicated to keeping Vermont free from New York control. But in 1778 he was charged with treason for negotiating with Canada to recognize Vermont as a British province. He wrote Reason: The Only Oracle of Man (1784), a tract outlining his deist ideas. Ethan Allen Hawley notes that his ancestors, the Hawleys, “got mixed up” with Vermont Allens (p. 39).

4

Aroint!: Term of dismissal, “begone.” “Aroint thee, witch,” from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. “Aroint” is inscribed in a cement slab outside Steinbeck’s Sag Harbor retreat, an octagonal writing house he called “Joyous Garde.”

5

Unimum et… : Joseph Fontenrose, classical scholar, says Ethan chants “counterfeit Latin… in something like the Black Mass.” To translate Malory, Steinbeck wrote to a California friend that he had to “reactivate my limping Latin, Anglo-Saxon and old French.”

6

As soon as it was day… : Luke 22:66-23:31.

7

Well, this also serves… : The final line of “On His Blindness,” a sonnet by John Milton, is “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

8

Artemis: Goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology.

9

And after that… : Matthew 27:31-33.

10

Valerius Maximus: (ca. 20 B.C.E.-A.D. 50) Roman historian, moralist, and author of Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX (Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings), a popular collection of moralistic stories and anecdotes used by writers and rhetoricians.

11

lama sabach thani: Matthew 27:46: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

12

Hearst papers: William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) took over the San Francisco Examiner from his father in 1887 and then went on to create a newspaper empire in the United States, with twenty-eight dailies by the late 1920s. His wealth was legendary in California.

13

Elizabeth… Cromwell… Charles Stuart: Elizabeth I (1533-1603), daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, ruled as queen of England and Ireland from 1558-1603. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) helped defeat the Royalists in the English Civil War and ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death. Charles Stuart, Charles II (1630-85), restored the monarchy after the English Interregnum.

14

Adam influence and Greek revival: Robert Adam (1728-92) was a renowned neoclassical Scottish architect and interior designer. Greek Revival is a late neoclassical movement in architecture, inspired by Greek design.

15

The stars incline, they do not command: In Latin, Astra inclinant, non necessitant. A common Elizabethan astrological notion.

16

I’m going to make our fortune: What Steinbeck wrote in Sea of Cortez provides a gloss to Ethan’s decision and to the ethical issues of this novel: “There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad; not changing things, but generally considered good and bad throughout the ages and throughout the species. Of the good, we think always of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet in our structure of society, the so-called and considered good qualities are invariable concomitants of failure, while the bad ones are the cornerstones of success.... Perhaps no other animal is so torn between alternatives. Man might be described fairly adequately, if simply, as a two-legged paradox.”

17

If the laws of thinking are the laws of things: John Elof Boodin (1869-1950), A Realistic Universe: An Introduction to Metaphysics (1916): “Somehow the laws of thought must be the laws of things if we are going to attempt a science of reality.” In November 1939, Steinbeck asked Pascal Covici to send him five of Boodin’s philosophical works; he and Ricketts discussed Boodin’s ideas on the Sea of Cortez trip.

18

General Frémont: (1813-90) Military officer and explorer who took part in numerous expeditions to the West.

19

They’re curiouser and curiouser: Alice’s Adventures in Wonder-land (1865) by Lewis Carroll, chapter 2: “‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”

20

Old Dobbin: Steinbeck also named his clothes: suits were “Burying Black,” “Old Blue,” “New Blue,” and “Dorian Gray.”

21

Knight Templar: Western Christian military order during the Middle Ages, founded after First Crusade of 1096. Knights Templars were protectors of pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. The modern organization is international and focuses on education, human rights, and humanitarian aid.

22

Chatterboxes and the Rollo series… the Gustave Doré Hell… Hans Christian Andersen… the Grimm Brothers, the Morte d’Arthur: Chatterbox was a juvenile magazine published in Boston and in England from 1869 until the late 1920s. The Rollo books by Jacob Abbot (1803-1879), pastor and educator, were concerned with moral instruction, European travel, and philosophy. The Gustave Doré Hell, an illustration for an 1861 edition of Dante’s Inferno, became a standard vision of hell; Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm compiled fairy tales for children. The Aubrey Beardsley illustrations for Malory’s Morte d’Arthur appeared in an 1893-94 edition published by J. M. Dent in London.

23

Is life so dear… give me death: From a speech by Patrick Henry (1736-99) delivered before the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.

24

payola scandals: Although record companies had for decades paid radio stations to play their songs, payola became widespread in the 1950s with the burgeoning popularity of rock ’n’ roll and single 45-RPM records; in November 1959, Congress held hearings on payola, and in 1960 amended the Federal Communications Act to outlaw under-the-table payments.

25

Charles, my son, my son: As John Ditsky notes, Steinbeck converts “the biblical into the secular woe by means of a reference to the unfortunate Van Doren.”

26

the most feminine story: Steinbeck loved “corny little jokes,” recalled one of his agents, Shirley Fisher. “The joke about two women with a wig was one of those.”

27

l’empereur, l’ermite, le chariot, la justice, le mat, le diable… le pendu… la mort: Tarot cards, used for divination: “It’s how they fall in relation…”: The emperor (wisdom and authority to achieve goals), the hermit (mysteries of inner life), the chariot (focus energy), justice (balance scales to serve the greater good), the fool (trust your instincts), the devil (empower your passionate nature), the hanged man (one of the most complex cards in the deck, suggesting life’s paradoxes), death (shed old identities to express new ones).

28

The king of batons: Tarot card suggesting that one remain balanced and use power wisely to set a good example.

29

When we were kids together: Inserted in this paragraph, later deleted, was this passage: “I don’t know what sadness made a drunk of him and I don’t want to know. It would be a kind of invasion of his privacy. I’ve always felt that a man has a right to kill himself if he wants to. And that’s what Danny was doing but it takes a long time.”

30

Decalogue: The Ten Commandments.

31

Kyrie eleison: “Lord, have mercy.”

32

Christopher Wren: (1632-1723) Renowned English architect who designed St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, as well as many other churches and secular buildings.

33

I wore the lace and carried the cross… : True story from Steinbeck’s childhood in Salinas.

34

Spaniards had sunk the Maine: On February 15, 1898, the battleship USS Maine was destroyed by an explosion in Havana Harbor that killed 262 on board, precipitating the Spanish-American War and popularizing the phrase “Remember the Maine!”

35

Speed, bonnie boat… : Chorus of “Skye Boat,” a ballad that commemorates the crossing of Bonnie Prince Charles (Jacobite pretender to the British throne) to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden, April 16, 1764.

36

There’s the rub: Hamlet, III.i.65.

37

Bering… Alexander Baranov: Vitus Bering (1681-1741) was a Danish navigator and explorer in the service of the Russian navy, charting much of the Siberian and Alaskan coasts. Baranov (1747-1819) established trading centers in Alaska and served as the first Russian governor of Alaska from 1799 to 1818.

38

first emergency immigration law: In 1921 the Emergency Quota Act restricted U.S. immigration by setting the number to be admitted from any country at 3 percent of those from that country who lived in the United States in 1910; this act established a nationality quota system.

39

Masons: Freemasonry is the oldest and largest worldwide fraternity “dedicated to the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of a Supreme Being.” Steinbeck’s father was a lifelong Mason.

40

Iver Johnson: “Suicide Special” pocket pistol produced between 1880 and the early twentieth century.

41

Ars est celare artem: Latin for “It is art to conceal art.” Ovid, Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love, A.D. 8).

42

Hic erat demonstrandum: Latin for “The thing that has to be demonstrated.”

43

Io lo credo: Latin for “I believe it.”

44

Prime Minister Macmillan: Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) was prime minister of England from 1957 to 1963.

45

Leda… swan: In Greek mythology, Leda, wife of the king of Sparta, is seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan.

46

Witch of the East… Ozma: In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), the Wicked Witch of the West, ruler of the Munchkins, is killed when Dorothy’s house falls on her. Princess Ozma, daughter of the king of Oz, appears in every other Oz book.

47

Cambellites: Church founded in 1830 by a Scotch-Irish clergyman and his son; the Cambellites stressed the importance of the New Testament, individual spiritual renewal, education, and the unification of all Christians in Christ.

48

all’s right with the world: Robert Browning (1812-89), Pippa Passes (1841), part 1.

49

sad story of the death of kings: Shakespeare, Richard II, III.ii.156. The original line reads “sad stories.”

50

Nosy Parker: A busybody or meddler. Also a popular British comic strip, spelled “Nosey Parker,” by Allan Morley, appearing in the Sunday Post Fun Section.

51

Old Satchel Paige: (1906-82) “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” Pitcher in the Negro Baseball Leagues and the American League.

52

speeches of Henry Clay: (1777-1852) American statesman and persuasive orator whose speeches were often more fervent than carefully documented.

53

Pancho Villa: (1878-1923) Mexican revolutionary leader and folk hero who advocated agrarian reform.

54

Ora pro me: Latin for “Pray for me.”

55

Manners maketh man… Wickham: William of Wykeham (1324-1404), bishop of Winchester, chancellor of England, and founder of New College, Oxford (1379), and Winchester College (1394).

56

Deborah the Judge of Israel: Judges 4-5. Deborah, a prophetess, the only woman judge mentioned in the Bible. With her guidance and aid, the Israelite general Barak conquered Sisera, captain of the Canaanite army, and delivered Israel from Canaanite rule.

57

James G. Blaine: (1830-93) Prominent American politician who served as congressman, senator, and secretary of state. Famous for maneuvering behind the scenes. In his later life, he wrote Twenty Years of Congress (1884-86).

58

high-colored Miss Rheingold: Rheingold beer, popular in New York, held the venerable Miss Rheingold contest each year starting in 1939, with beer drinkers voting for their favorite of several young women; in 1959 total votes for Miss Rheingold exceeded 22 million.

59

Golgotha: Hill on which Jesus was crucified.

60

The fifty-star: With the admission of Hawaii as the fiftieth state in 1959, the fifty-star flag became the official U.S. flag on July 4, 1960.

61

Montauk Point… dude ranch: Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk, eastern Long Island.

62

Ye wouldna be sae worrit: “My dear, you wouldn’t worry so much about what people think if you realized how little they care.” According to Jackson Benson, Steinbeck heard this line on a 1956 train trip from Sag Harbor to New York City.

63

Appian Way: An important Roman road linking Rome to southern Italy.

64

Lupercal on the Palatine: Lupercalia, the “Wolf Festival” honoring Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of Rome, took place near the cave of Lupercal, the legendary grotto where Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf. The Palatine is one of Rome’s seven hills.

65

Me beswac… hire ladteow: Eve’s reply to God in the Garden of Eden (the serpent deceived me through fair words)—from the Old English poem Genesis. Following is a phrase from an Old English proverb about a lioness (the chained lion, if she tastes blood, bites first her master)—from Old English translation of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy. (See Hassell A. Simpson in the Suggestions for Further Reading.)

66

O Nile serpent: Antony and Cleopatra, I.v.25. The actual line refers to “my serpent of old Nile.”

67

Beaux rêves: French for “pleasant dreams.”

68

Weltschmerz: German for “world-weariness.”

69

Dick Clark… Chessman… Dillinger: Clark (1929- ) hosted American Bandstand from 1957 to 1987. Although initially targeted in the payola scandal, he was never charged. Caryl Chessman (1921-60), convicted in 1948 on seventeen counts of robbery, kidnapping, and rape, was executed at San Quentin Prison on May 2, 1960. John Dillinger (1903-34) was an American bank robber, named the country’s first “public enemy number one,” and hunted by law officers doggedly until FBI agents killed him outside a Chicago movie theater in 1934. “Crime doesn’t pay” was the moral J. Edgar Hoover drew from Dillinger’s story.

70

Aunt Harriet—“up in heben she be”: “Rockin’ Chair” (1929), written by Hoagy Carmichael and performed with Louis Armstrong: “My dear old aunt Harriet, in Heaven she be.”

71

Presidential nominations: The Democratic National Convention met at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, July 11-15, 1960, and nominated John F. Kennedy for president and Lyndon B. Johnson for vice president. The Republican National Convention met at Chicago’s International Amphitheater, July 25-28, 1960, and nominated Richard M. Nixon for president and Henry Cabot Lodge for vice president.

72

keelson to skys’l: The keel is the spine of the ship, providing structural support, and the keelson is a beam or timbers along the keel to add strength. A skysail is the topsail in a square rigger.

73

a heart just like this: Steinbeck also had a tattoo, similarly etched with a Stanford classmate.

74

‘What’s My Line?’… ‘Mystery Guest’: A popular game show that ran from 1950 to 1967 where a panel of four well-known figures tried to guess the unusual occupations of two weekly guests. In the third round of each show, panelists were blindfolded and a celebrity “mystery guest” was questioned.

75

‘Teen Twisters’: No quiz show with this name made it to the air, but Chubby Checker recorded “The Twist” in 1959, and by September 1960 it reached the top of the charts, launching a new dance craze.

76

the world being too much with me… peace: William Wordsworth’s sonnet “The World Is Too Much with Us” and allusions to Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.

77

muleta and espada: A muleta is a red cloth attached to a stick, used by matadors; an espada is a matador’s sword.

78

A pleasure dome… down to a sunless sea!: From “Kubla Khan; or, a Vision in a Dream” (1816) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome decree: / Where Alph, the sacred river, ran / Through caverns measureless to man / Down to a sunless sea.”

79

What is an individual… his country?: Delivered on July 22, 1850, Henry Clay’s speech on the Compromise of 1850.

80

It’s so much darker when a light goes out… shone: The typescript of the novel ends with this sentence; the rest of the book is a handwritten addition.

81

End. And I hope this time it’s clear. I really do hope so. JS: The typescript and handwritten addition end with this remark.