GRAPES OF WRATH

a novel (1939) by the US writer John Steinbeck which won the Pulitzer Prize . It tells the story of the Joad family, whose farm is ruined in the Dust Bowl , and their journey to the ‘promised land’ of California. It is a sad story about the lack of government support for poor people. A film version in 1940 was directed by John Ford (VI), with Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, the head of the family. The title of the book is a phrase from The Battle Hymn of the Republic .