A collection of the critical responses of Steinbeck's generation to his many fiction and non-fiction works, as they appeared from the late 1920s on. These articles offer a means of seeing Steinbeck's writings as they were perceived by his contemporaries, whose task it was first to evaluate and interpret them for an ever-growing readership.

Introduction; Cup of Gold; The Pastures of Heaven; To A God Unknown; Tortilla Flat; In Dubious Battle; Of Mice and Men (the novel); The Red Pony; Of Mice and Men (the play); The Long Valley; The Grapes of Wrath; The Forgotten Village; Sea of Cortez; The Moon is Down (the novel); The Moon is Down (the play); Bombs Away; Cannery Row; The Wayward Bus; The Pearl; A Russian Journal; Burning Bright (the novel); Burning Bright (the play); The Log from the Sea of Cortez; East of Eden; Sweet Thursday; The Short Reign of Pippin IV; Once There Was a War; The Winter of our Discontent; Travels with Charley in Search of America; America and Americans; Journal of a novel: The East of Eden Letters; The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights; Working Days.