Portola Valley author writes guide to 'Steinbeck Country' Portola Valley author writes guide to 'Steinbeck Country' (October 23, 2002)

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

It all started with a boring summer job, a sympathetic boss, and a "much thumbed book with a lurid cover featuring scantily clad peasant girls."

It was that book, given by that boss to the thoroughly bored, teen-aged David Laws, that led to a lifelong passion for the work of the author, for California and, more specifically, the farmlands, hills and seascapes of the Central California coast.

The book was "To a God Unknown," and the author, John Steinbeck.

Mr. Laws, now a Portola Valley resident, was working that summer job many years ago in England, where he was born and raised. By the time he moved to the United States in 1968 with a degree in physics and a job at Fairchild Semiconductor, the California of his imagination had been shaped by the author he discovered that lazy summer.

"My ideas of the physical landscape of the coastal region came entirely from reading Steinbeck," Mr. Laws recalls. "The reality matched my imagination very closely because of Steinbeck's incredible skill at painting a powerful picture with a few well-crafted words."

Now retired from the high-tech world, Mr. Laws has melded his more recent pursuit of travel writing and photography with his love of Steinbeck to write and publish a guide to the landscape featured in the novels of the man he calls "America's Bard of the People."

"Steinbeck Country: Exploring the Settings for the Stories," which includes about 125 color photographs, is the first book published by Mr. Laws' new publishing firm, "Windy Hill Press," based in Menlo Park.

Mr. Laws will give a free presentation on the Nobel Prize-winning author and "Steinbeck Country" at the Menlo Park Library at 2 p.m. Saturday, October 26, in the downstairs meeting room.

In the 32-page guidebook, Mr. Laws blends his research of Salinas, the Monterey Peninsula and other relevant locations with his extensive knowledge of how the lands and people were portrayed by the author, who died in 1968.

Mr. Laws' travel articles have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News, and other publications.

It was a travel piece that he wrote but couldn't get published in a local newspaper that led to his participation in the "John Steinbeck's Americas Centennial Conference" at Hofstra University, New York, last March. The article was "Something to do in Salinas," a title he borrowed from Steinbeck's "facetious piece on his hometown," Mr. Laws says.

"I guess most California residents do not see Salinas as the exotic destination that I had seen from England," he says. So, with an article written but unpublished, Mr. Laws took the advice of an acquaintance and sent it to Susan Shillinglaw, an English professor and director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University. The center, Mr. Laws says, is the world's largest archive of Steinbeck-related materials.

Dr. Shillinglaw thought enough of it to print it in a journal called "Steinbeck Studies," and was also impressed with Mr. Laws photographs of "Steinbeck Country," he says. The article and photos led to the invitation to give a "virtual tour" of the farmlands and coastal country at the conference.

A Portola Valley resident since 1976, Mr. Laws and his wife, Jean, have two sons, Matt and Mark. He says he intends to publish other, similar guidebooks through Windy Hill Press -- small books printed on high-quality stock that he can sell inexpensively. ("Steinbeck Country" sells for $9.95, and can be purchased at Kepler's in Menlo Park.)

Many years have passed since Mr. Laws was seduced by a lurid book cover and evocative prose, but his enthusiasm for Steinbeck has not waned. His books, Mr. Laws notes, all share "a common theme of extraordinary stories of ordinary people in harmony and in conflict with nature, society, and themselves."
Library presentation

David Laws will give a presentation on "Steinbeck Country: Exploring the Settings for the Stories," at 2 p.m. Saturday, October 26, at the Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St. The program is free. For information, call outreach librarian Roberta Roth at 858-3468.