MY DOG ATE IT.

Honest.

John Steinbeck's dog really ate his script to Of Mice and Men, the story of two migrant farm workers, George Milton and his simple-minded friend, Lennie Small, who dream of owning their own place and living off the fat of the land.

Steinbeck had worked as a farmhand to pay for his tuition in college, and later took various manual labor jobs in California to support himself as a writer. He began to write fiction about the plight of migrant farm workers after the start of the Great Depression. He published two novels that had some success, Tortilla Flat (1935) and In Dubious Battle (1936), but he wanted to write something about migrant workers that was more like a parable or a myth.

He also wanted his fiction to reach the very workers he was writing about, and he knew that many poor farm workers were illiterate. He had seen theater troupes performing for farm labor camps, and he got the idea that he could write a novel that was made up almost entirely of dialogue, so that it could also be produced as a play.

Steinbeck wanted the story of the novel to be simple, like a children's story, even though it would have a tragic, violent ending. He had almost finished his first draft of the novel when his dog tore the manuscript to shreds.

Told jah.

He eventually rewrote the novel and it was published on this day in 1937. The play was produced soon after, and both the novel and the play were huge successes. Of Mice and Men has remained one of Steinbeck's most popular novels, and it's been made into a movie three times, in 1939, 1981, and 1992.

Oh, yeah. And today is his birthday. Happy Birthday, John!