Express Sessions Event Explores Steinbeck in Sag Harbor

The legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, who spent much of the last decade of his life in Sag Harbor, was the subject of “Steinbeck in Sag Harbor,” the most recent Express Sessions program, which was held on Thursday, September 29, at the American Hotel in the village.

A five-member panel included Nada Barry, an owner of the Wharf Shop toy store, who with her husband, the late Bob Barry, was friends with the author and his wife, Elaine; and Richard Hart, a retired professor at Bloomfield College in New Jersey and member of the editorial board of The Steinbeck Review.

They were joined by Kathryn Szoka, an owner of Canio’s Books, who launched the effort to preserve Steinbeck’s cottage on Bluff Point Lane, which was put up for sale early last year; Susan Mead, co-president of the Sag Harbor Partnership, which is leading an effort to preserve the house as a writer’s retreat; and Bryan Boyhan, the former editor and publisher of The Sag Harbor Express, who helped establish HarborFest in 1990, an annual event modeled on the Old Whalers’ Festival of the early 1960s, for which Steinbeck served as honorary chairman. The event was moderated by Express News Group Executive Editor Joseph P. Shaw.

Szoka made it clear that Steinbeck was worth the attention currently being directed his way.

“It’s not an understatement to say that Steinbeck is a leading figure, not only in national but in international literature,” she said, adding that as one of only 13 American writers to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, he was a member of a “very small and prestigious group.”

She said as the owner of a well-established bookstore in the village, she had encountered many writers, and “nobody can hold a candle to Steinbeck’s literary legacy.”

One of the things that made Steinbeck different from many of the writers who have made their homes on the East End, she said, is that when he came to Sag Harbor, he became a member of the community.

Barry knew the famous writer from that perspective. She said soon after he arrived in Sag Harbor, Steinbeck struck up a friendship with her husband, who had served in the 101st Airborne Division and landed in France on D-Day, enjoyed fishing and boating, as Steinbeck did, and owned a hardware store, which appealed to Steinbeck’s interest in tinkering around his home.

Barry was also an owner of Baron’s Cove, where Steinbeck frequented the second-floor bar called the Upper Deck and took part in what Barry described as “the drinking element” of his time in the village.

She said that while Steinbeck had a good sense of humor and was friendly, he was at heart a shy person who did not like the limelight. She said, for instance, that after he won the Nobel Prize in 1962, “he didn’t want to go to Sweden to accept the prize; he was really loath to go.”

Hart added that when Steinbeck became successful when he still lived in California, he was so nervous about appearing in public and being recognized that he would become physically ill.

Hart added that Steinbeck said he had suffered a “lifetime virus of restlessness,” but that “in Sag Harbor, he finally found a place for his heart to rest.”

Hart said the village “affected him very much and made a significant impression on his thinking and his writing.”

He said “The Winter of Our Discontent,” “Travels With Charley” and a collection of essays, “America and Americans,” were all influenced by his life in Sag Harbor and represented his efforts to come to grips with a changing country that was becoming more materialistic and commercial over the years.

Boyhan, who was president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1990 when Dorothy Zakowski’s book, “Sag Harbor: An American Beauty,” was published, helped revive the Old Whalers’ Festival as what is now today’s HarborFest.

Barry said Steinbeck reluctantly accepted the offer of being the honorary chairman of the Old Whalers’ Festival that was first held in 1963. Through his wife, a native of Texas, the village was able through then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to get the support of the U.S. Coast Guard and access to the whaling boats that were used in early competitions.

She added that as part of his agreement to serve as chair, Steinbeck insisted that his address be kept secret and that anybody coming to town to try to find him be sent in the wrong direction.

Today, everyone knows where Steinbeck lived, in large part because his former home is now on the market for the recently reduced price of $15.4 million.

Mead credited Szoka for sounding the alarm that a piece of literary history was in jeopardy of being lost. Soon, the Sag Harbor Partnership launched an effort to buy the property with the support of Southampton Town’s Community Preservation Fund.

The Partnership has struck a tentative deal with the University of Texas to run a writer’s retreat and has obtained a commitment of funds from the town. It has raised about $1.25 million on its own and has a potential state grant of $500,000 obtained by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., but it has yet to reach a deal with the owners, who are heirs of Elaine Steinbeck.

The plot thickened this week when Mayor Jim Larocca said he would like the village to get involved in the project to increase the level of local participation. Mead said the partnership welcomed Larocca’s support but cautioned that negotiations remain sensitive, and “any additional level of complexity could blow it up.”

But Mead said she was confident that with the support of the community, the purchase could be pushed over the finish line.

Szoka agreed, calling “Joyous Garde,” Steinbeck’s writing gazebo “a chapel,” and his property “a sacred place,” she said, “We as a community have to preserve this jewel in our midst.