The Pastures of Heaven is a short story cycle by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

, first published in 1932, consisting of twelve interconnected stories about a valley in Monterey

Monterey, California

The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, which was discovered by a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 corporal while chasing runaway Indian

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

s. Enchanted by the valley's natural beauty, the corporal names it Las Pasturas del Cielo or "The Pastures of Heaven." The stories are written in classic Steinbeck style; the lives of the families that relocate to the valley are portrayed with a mixture of humor and poignance. A recurring theme in the book is the pain caused when people try ineptly to help or to please others.

In the arts

• In Junius Maltby, one of the characters regards Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
  Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
  Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature.-Background:...
  
  as one of the single greatest works of English literature and eventually names his infant son Robert Louis. Later on, Steinbeck was inspired by Stevenson in choosing to title his account of his cross-country voyage with a gray-haired poodle in the 1960s, Travels With Charley: In Search of America
  Travels With Charley: In Search of America
  Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a travelogue written by American author John Steinbeck. It recounts tales of a 1960 road trip with his French standard poodle, Charley, around the United States. He wrote that he was moved by a desire to see his country on a personal level, since he...
  
  .

Legacy

The grounds of the schoolhouse in which many chapters are set is still in use by the Washington Union School District

Washington Union School District

The Washington Union School District is a school district in Salinas, California and was established in 1868. Its middle school, San Benancio Middle School, is one of the few public schools in California to receive a GreatSchools Rating of 9 out of 10...

 where fourth and fifth grade are taught.

Adaptations

A stage adaptation of The Pastures of Heaven done as a collaboration between the California Shakespeare Festival and Word for Word (a company that stages short stories literally word for word) premiered in Orinda, CA in June of 2010. The script was by Octavio Solis, and it was directed by the Shakespeare Festival's artistic director Jonathan Moscone.