Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down

Steinbeck’s two plays, dramatic adaptations of his most powerful short novels, Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down, features a foreword by award-winning actor James Earl Jones.  Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones,… (more)

Steinbeck’s two plays, dramatic adaptations of his most powerful short novels, Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down, features a foreword by award-winning actor James Earl Jones.  Celebrating its 75th anniversary, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play in 1937-1938 and has featured a number of actors who have played the iconic roles of George and Lennie on stage and film, including James Earl Jones, John Malkovich and Gary Sinise. 

Of Mice and Men also represents an experiment in form, as Steinbeck described his work, “a kind of playable novel, written in novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands.” A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.

The Moon Is Down is Steinbeck’s masterful play that uncovers profound, often unsettling truths about war and human nature. It tells the story of a peaceable town taken by enemy troops, and had an extraordinary impact as Allied propaganda in Nazi-occupied Europe. This Penguin Classics edition of the theatrical adaptations of Steinbeck’s two classic short novels are essential to actors, playwrights, filmmakers and directors studying the dramatic work of the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.