Long Live John Steinbeck

A Steinbeck Story About a Chef and His Cat Has Been Published in English for the First Time

by Brigit Katz Smithsonian.com

John Steinbeck is remembered as a giant of 20th-century American literature, a brutal critic of the exploitation of rural laborers, chronicler of dashed hopes and thwarted dreams. But not all of his works carried the heft of East of Eden or The Grapes of Wrath. Take, for instance, “The Amiable Fleas,” a lighthearted short story about a chef and his cat that has now been published in English for the first time.

According to Jacey Fortin of the New York Times, Steinbeck wrote the tale in 1954, while he was living in Paris. The author penned a series called “One American in Paris” for the French newspaper Le Figaro; he would write his pieces in English, and they would subsequently be translated into French. Most of Steinbeck’s submissions were non-fiction, but among them was also “Les Puces Sympathiques,” or “The Amiable Fleas.” The English version of the story appears this week in the Strand Magazine, a literary publication based in Michigan.

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Carol Duff, MSN, BA, RN

Carol graduated from Riverside White Cross School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio and received her diploma as a registered nurse. She attended Bowling Green State University where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Literature. She attended the University of Toledo, College of Nursing, and received a Master’s of Nursing Science Degree as an Educator.

She has traveled extensively, is a photographer, and writes on medical issues. Carol has three children RJ, Katherine, and Stephen – one daughter-in-law; Katie – two granddaughters; Isabella Marianna and Zoe Olivia – and one grandson, Alexander Paul. She also shares her life with her husband Gordon Duff, many cats, and two rescues.

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