Susan Shillinglaw

Susan Grace Shillinglaw is an American literary scholar and Professor Emerita of English and Comparative Literature at San José State University (SJSU), where she taught for 37 years and directed the university’s Center for Steinbeck Studies for 18 years.^[1][2][3] She is known for her work on John Steinbeck,^[4] having served as Director of the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies and as Scholar-in-Residence^[5] and Director of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California,^[6] from 2015 to 2018 and has been described by the California State University system as one of the leading scholars of Steinbeck’s work.^[7]

Shillinglaw was born in New Hampton, Iowa and raised in Englewood, Colorado.^[8] She earned her B.A. in Art and English from Cornell College in 1973,^[9] followed by an M.A. (1976) and Ph.D. in American Literature (1985) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.^[10] Her doctoral dissertation, completed in 1985, was titled The Art of Cooper’s Landscapes: Identity, Theme, and Structure in the Leatherstocking Tales and examined landscape and narrative structure in the fiction of James Fenimore Cooper.^[1]

Shillinglaw began teaching at Wake Forest University (1977–1981), followed by positions at Canisius College and the Buffalo Seminary in New York (1981–1984).^[11] She joined San José State University in 1984,^[12] where she remained on the English and Comparative Literature faculty until her retirement in 2021.

At SJSU, she served as Director of the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies from 1987 to 2005, she has continued to serve on the Center’s board since 2012.^[13][14] From 2005 onward, she was Scholar-in-Residence^[15] and later Director (2015–2018) of the National Steinbeck Center.^[12]

She has also been a Visiting Professor at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, co-teaching the interdisciplinary course Holistic Biology with marine biologist William Gilly between 2005 and 2012; as a visiting professor, she continues to teach with Professor Gilly at Hopkins.^[16] Since 2012, she has lectured regularly for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at CSU Monterey Bay.^[11]

Shillinglaw has co-directed seven National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer institutes for schoolteachers on Steinbeck's work, “John Steinbeck, The Voice of a Region, A Voice for America.^[10][17]

She is also a volunteer docent at Robinson Jeffers's Tor House and a member of the board of the Tor House Foundation.^[18]

Shillinglaw became scholar-in-residence at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California, in 2005, contributing to public interpretation of Steinbeck’s work and legacy.^[7][19]

She was appointed director of the center in 2015 and served until her resignation in 2018.^[20] Following her departure, she returned to research, writing and teaching roles related to Steinbeck studies.^[8]

Shillinglaw has co-directed multiple teacher-focused summer institutes on Steinbeck, supported by grants from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities. These three-week programs, first held in 2007, brought middle- and high-school teachers to California’s Monterey region for lectures, workshops and field-based study connecting Steinbeck’s writing to place and history.^[21]

Shillinglaw is widely regarded as a leading figure in Steinbeck scholarship. A California State University profile describes her as among the foremost scholars of Steinbeck’s work, noting her influence on both academic research and public humanities programming.^[22] Cornell College has similarly referred to her as a leading Steinbeck scholar.^[9]

Shillinglaw's research examines Steinbeck's engagement with ecology, politics, gender, and place.^[23] Her scholarship examines the ways in which Steinbeck's fiction brings together scientific inquiry, spiritual reflection, and social conscience.^[24] She has published on Steinbeck's relationships with his first wife, Carol Henning Steinbeck^[25], and with his close friend, Edward F. Ricketts.^[26] Her research also focuses on Steinbeck’s collaborations with figures such as the social, political and ecological dimensions of his fiction and nonfiction. She has also written on American literary realism and on James Fenimore Cooper.^[1]

Shillinglaw frequently contributes to public discussions of Steinbeck through lectures, interviews and essays, including features in the Smithsonian magazine and National Endowment for the Humanities publications.^[9][19]

Her major books include; On Reading The Grapes of Wrath,^[17] Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage,^[25] A Journey into Steinbeck's California and Steinbeck's Landscapes combine close reading,^[27] archival research, and cultural history to show how place, friendship (especially Steinbeck's relationship with Edward F. Ricketts), and politics shaped Steinbeck's writing.^[28]

She has also co-edited interdisciplinary volumes such as Steinbeck and the Environment^[29] and Beyond Boundaries: Rereading John Steinbeck,^[30] and prepared introductions and critical editions for Penguin Classics (e.g., Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, A Russian Journal, The Winter of Our Discontent).

Shillinglaw has written and edited numerous books and essays on Steinbeck and American literature.

• A Journey into Steinbeck’s California. Roaring Forties Press, 2006; 2nd ed. 2011; 3rd ed. 2019.

• Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage. University of Nevada Press, 2013; paperback ed. 2024.

• On Reading The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books, 2014.^[31]

• HEAVILIN, BARBARA A.; SHILLINGLAW, SUSAN, eds. (2024-12-17). Steinbeck's Uneasy America. University of Alabama Press. doi:10.2307/jj.30347749. ISBN 978-0-8173-9539-1.
• Shillinglaw, Susan (2014). On reading the Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-312550-1.
• Shillinglaw, Susan (2013). Carol & John Steinbeck: portrait of a marriage. Western literature series. Reno: University of Nevada press. ISBN 978-0-87417-930-9.
• Shillinglaw, Susan; Burnett, Nancy (2019). A journey into Steinbeck's California. ArtPlace series (3RD ed.). Berkeley, California: Roaring Forties Press. ISBN 978-1-938901-83-6.
• Steinbeck, John (2003). America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction. Susan Shillinglaw, Jackson J. Benson. East Rutherford: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-14-243741-4.
• Shillinglaw, Susan; Hearle, Kevin, eds. (2002). Beyond boundaries: rereading John Steinbeck. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-1151-3.
• Steinbeck and the Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches. University of Alabama Press. 1997. doi:10.2307/jj.30347489. ISBN 978-0-8173-0846-9.
• McElrath, Joseph R., ed. (1996). John Steinbeck: the contemporary reviews. American critical archives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-41038-0.
• Steinbeck, John (1994). Of mice and men. Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics. New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-018642-0.

• Shillinglaw, Susan (2024-06-03). "Restoring the Western Flyer , Plank by Plank". Steinbeck Review. 21 (1): 104–120. doi:10.5325/steinbeckreview.21.1.0104. ISSN 1546-007X.
• Shillinglaw, Susan (2020). "Reconsidering the Steinbeck-Ricketts Bond: Restored Western Flyer Sails Again in 2021". Steinbeck Review. 17 (2): 202–213. doi:10.5325/steinbeckreview.17.2.0202. ISSN 1938-6214.
• Shillinglaw, Susan (2019). "John Steinbeck's Participatory Politics, 1936–1968". Steinbeck Review. 16 (2): 145–155. doi:10.5325/steinbeckreview.16.2.0145. ISSN 1546-007X.
• Shillinglaw, Susan (2020). "To Look from Heliaster to the Stars and then Back to the Tide Pool". Journal of the Southwest. 62 (2): 450–466. doi:10.1353/jsw.2020.0012. ISSN 2158-1371.
• Shillinglaw, Susan; Pham, Melinda; Martin, TK; Barraza, Pete (2015). "Teaching and Living Steinbeck's Stories". Steinbeck Review. 12 (1): 1–15. doi:10.5325/steinbeckreview.12.1.0001. ISSN 1546-007X.
• Shillinglaw, Susan (2015-05-19), "The Protest Fiction of Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and John Steinbeck", A History of California Literature, Cambridge University Press, pp. 157–170, doi:10.1017/cbo9781107280359.011, ISBN 978-1-107-28035-9, retrieved 2025-12-03

• Steinbeck, John. America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction. Edited by Susan Shillinglaw and Jackson J. Benson. Penguin, 2002.

• McElrath, Joseph R., Jr., Crisler, Jesse S., and Shillinglaw, Susan (eds.). John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge University Press, 1996.

• Beegel, Susan; Shillinglaw, Susan; Tiffney, Wesley (eds.). Steinbeck and the Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches. University of Alabama Press, 1997.

• Benson, Jackson J., and Shillinglaw, Susan (eds.). Beyond Boundaries: Rereading John Steinbeck. University of Alabama Press, 2002.

• Shillinglaw, Susan. A Journey into Steinbeck’s California. Roaring Forties Press, 2006.

• Shillinglaw, Susan. Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage. University of Nevada Press, 2013.

• Shillinglaw, Susan. On Reading The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin Books, 2014.

• Steinbeck, John. America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction. Edited by Susan Shillinglaw and Jackson J. Benson. Penguin, 2002.

• McElrath, Joseph R., Jr., Crisler, Jesse S., and Shillinglaw, Susan (eds.). John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge University Press, 1996.

In 2012–2013, Shillinglaw was named San José State University President’s Scholar, an internal honour recognising scholarly and creative achievement.^[14] She has also been profiled by the California State University system as an outstanding faculty member for her contributions to literary scholarship and public humanities initiatives.^[7]

Shillinglaw has served on boards and advisory groups including the Western Flyer Foundation, the Tor House Foundation, Hopkins Marine Station and the National Steinbeck Center.^[8][1] She has also been involved in projects interpreting Steinbeck’s relationship to marine science and California history for public audiences.^[9]

• John Steinbeck

• National Steinbeck Center

• San José State University