Sep

Cannery Row Catalysts: John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts

by Meredith Mullins on September 1, 2014

B&W photo of Ed Ricketts at the Pacific Biological Laboratories on Cannery Row, creative inspiration for John Steinbeck.

Ed Ricketts at his lab on Cannery Row
© Pat Hathaway Collection/www.caviews.com

Creative Inspiration among Friends

We should all be so lucky to have a friend, a creative inspiration, like Ed Ricketts.

John Steinbeck said that “knowing Ed Ricketts was instant.”

After the first moment, I knew him; and for the next eighteen years I knew him better than I knew anyone.

They were best friends. They fed each other ideas. They told each other truths. The jolted each other beyond the boundaries of the ordinary. They refreshed each other.

Character and Charisma

The unique elements of Ed’s character showed up often in Steinbeck’s work. He was Doc in Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday, Dr. Phillips in the short story “The Snake,” Friend Ed in Burning Bright, Doc Burton in In Dubious Battle, Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath, and Doctor Winter in The Moon is Down.

Ricketts wasn’t really a doctor. He had no degree. He was simply devoted and passionate about his work, as a marine biologist, philosopher, writer (Bach to Buddhism), and renaissance man.

And he was a significant catalyst for Steinbeck’s writing as well as a role model for living life to the fullest.

His mind had no horizons. He was interested in everything.

Ricketts was not a stellar businessman, but he was a workaholic who followed the tides and established a system for studying and recording marine life that is still a model today. He wasn’t just interested in where things lived but how they lived.

If you asked him to dinner at seven, he might get there at nine. On the other hand, if a good low collecting tide was at 6:53, he would be in the tide pool at 6:52.

He kept the most careful collecting notes on record, but sometimes he would not open a business letter for weeks.

Once, a cheesecake arrived in the mail. Three months later, Ed opened it.

The Pacific Biological Laboratories on Cannery Row, creative inspiration for Steinbeck and Ricketts (Photo Meredith Mullins)

The Pacific Biological Laboratories still standing on Cannery Row
© Meredith Mullins

The lab that Ricketts lived and worked in—Pacific Biological Laboratories—is still on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. When you visit, you can hear the waves crashing just outside the back door, testimony to how perfect the lab was as a setting for Ricketts’ study.

Cannery on Cannery Row, a place for creative inspiration for John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Now tourist attractions, the fish canneries were the center of life and livelihood on Cannery Row.
© Meredith Mullins

Life on Cannery Row

The street, too, was full of life. The canneries and characters were captured by Steinbeck in the novel Cannery Row.

Cannery Row is . . . a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.

After the novel Cannery Row was published in 1945, the lab (and Ed) became even more of a magnet for visitors and evenings of music, deep conversation, food and drink.

And, even though the book made Ricketts more famous (and infamous) than he ever wanted to be, he forgave Steinbeck. He found the book “exceedingly funny, with an undertone of sadness and loneliness.”

Gone Too Soon

Ed Ricketts died tragically (at age 50), his car hit by a train when it stalled on the tracks on his way to get food for the usual gathering of friends back at the lab.

Memorial to Ed Ricketts at the train tracks on Cannery Row, the place where creative inspiration bloomed for John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

A memorial to Ed Ricketts at the site of the fateful train crash
© Meredith Mullins

In life and in memoriam, it was clear that his friends loved him. Steinbeck’s writing showed his exceptional character. The creative inspiration he provided to so many people was undeniable.

Doc would listen to any kind of nonsense and change it for you to a kind of wisdom. Everyone who knew him was indebted to him. And everyone who thought of him thought next, ‘I really must do something nice for Doc.’

“Oh, I See” Moments

Every description of Ricketts, for me, became an “Oh, I see” moment—lessons from life and literature. He was inspiring. A true bohemian with a generous and honest soul.

Of all the tributes, one stood out, words offered by Steinbeck in Ricketts’ eulogy—traits that were at the core of their mutual respect.

The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.

Steinbeck added that one of Ed’s most admirable qualities was his ability “to receive anything from anyone, to receive gracefully and thankfully, and to make the gift seem very fine.”

Thank you Ed and John. Your gifts were very fine.

Close up of Ed Ricketts memorial on Cannery Row, creative inspiration for John Steinbeck's novels. (Photo © Meredith Mullins)

Renaissance man and bohemian spirit—Ed Ricketts
© Meredith Mullins

The Steinbeck quotes are from Cannery Row and About Ed Ricketts/Sea of Cortez, with acknowledgment to Viking Press and Penguin Books.

Find more information about Monterey, CA here.

Comment on this post, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins 1 Comment

Literary World/USA

Feb

Publishing Flip-Flop Swaps Gains for Generosity

by Bruce Goldstone on February 24, 2014

Reader surprised to find a great book, illustrating the generosity-based publisher, Concord Free Press, which encourages personal values and charity (Image © mrovka / iStock)

What’s more surprising than a great book?
A great, free book!
© mrovka / iStock

Free Books Pump Personal Values

The Concord Free Press (CFP) operates under a tradition-smashing publishing model. It thrives on generosity rather than the profit margin, and hopes to build up personal values rather than the industry’s bank accounts.

Bruce Goldstone 2 Comments

Clever Ideas/Literary World

Jan

Peter Reynolds and The Dot Kickstart Creative Expression

by Janine Boylan on January 20, 2014

A heart painting created as part of Peter Reynold's International Dot Day started out with just the dot. (Image © Janine Boylan)

Jaden’s heart started with a single mark.
© Janine Boylan

Make a Mark and See Where It Takes You

Peter Reynolds‘s goal is for each of us to have an “Oh, I see” moment about our creativity.

This award-winning children’s book author feels pretty strongly about the message in his book The Dot—that each person has creativity.

His slogan? “Make your mark and see where it takes you.”

In the book, a reluctant art student is convinced that she can’t draw. Her gentle art teacher encourages her, but, to illustrate her lack of talent, the girl just marks a dot on her page and signs her name. The next day, she is surprised to find the dot drawing hanging above her teacher’s desk. Inspired to do better, the girl creates a series of remarkable pieces and eventually inspires another reluctant student to discover his creative expression.

Any Day Is International Dot Day

Reynolds created International Dot Day as a way to officially celebrate each individual’s ability to make a mark in the world. The 2013 celebration boasted over one million participants in 84 countries. Many of these are children whose teachers and administrators believe in the power of creativity.

Although International Dot Day officially started on September 15 to coincide with the original publishing date of the book, Reynolds explains that Dot Day can really happen in a moment, over a week, within a month, or throughout a year.

Carmel, California, exhibited art from Dot Day this month. In preparation, children from the local elementary school read the story and then were given a blank sheet of paper to create a dot . . . and see where it would take them.

Peter Reynolds encourages students to begin with a mark and use their creative expression to turn the dot into a composition for International Dot Day. (Image © Janine Boylan)

Students draw on a tablet with Peter Reynolds’s encouragement.
© Janine Boylan

Creative Expression Flows from Just One Dot

The results were wonderfully varied and all wonderful.

Some children made a simple mark on a page, just as the story protagonist had first done—almost a promise that something more would come.

The dot inside a picture frame starts a work of creative expression for International Dot Day. (Image © Janine Boylan)

Other children started with a dot and then expanded their ideas to create elaborate scenes. Looking at each one, I marveled at where a single dot could go.

Like Reynolds, this artist has a message to convey! Also, I appreciate her consideration to the viewer—she added helpful labels to some of the details so there is no question what her art shows.

International Dot Day composition from a child artist began with the dot and grew into a work of creative expression. (Image © Janine Boylan)

One intriguing element of art is perspective. The artist of the piece below on the left made the decision to show a different perspective—upside down. The text in the orange dot even has a different meaning depending on which way you look at it.

Compositions created from unusual perspectives for Peter Reynold's International Dot Day began with the dot and blossomed into creative expression. (Image © Janine Boylan)

And some students seemed to find inspiration from one another. I can imagine the conversation of these two artists, who had the creative idea of using dots to create art:

I’m going to draw a sun with rays.

Me, too. Can I use the gold pen after you?

I’m going to make a rainbow-colored horse.

Hmm. I’m going to do something different . . .

Matching drawings created for Peter Reynold's International Dot Day both began with just the dot and grew into works of creative expression. (Image © Janine Boylan)

A Whole Different Kind of Dot

At the same time, another local school embraced the same project with very different results. They created a single dot, composed of rainbow-colored plastic, as a tribute both to their teacher Iris (the goddess of the rainbow) and to their school’s commitment to keeping plastic out of the ocean.

The rainbow dot, made from smaller, colorful dots of found plastic for Peter Reynolds' International Dot Day. (Image © Janine Boylan)

A sign under the rainbow dot proclaimed:

Imagine the power and potential of a million people around the world, connecting, collaborating, creating, and celebrating all that creativity inspires and invites.

I think Peter Reynolds would say that the resulting creative expression would be pretty perfect.

More than a Token of Creativity

With the masterpieces displayed in the city’s cultural art center, the same venue where world-famous musicians and actors perform, Peter Reynolds asked all the students and adult artists in attendance to raise their hands.

Every child’s hand shot up immediately.

Reynolds waited expectantly for the adults to realize that they, too, are all capable of marvelous creative expression as well. My hand timidly rose with the rest of the audience’s.

As a wooden token was pressed into my palm that ensured my lifetime membership in the Dot Club, I reached my own “Oh, I see” moment: I can make my mark at any time, at any age. It’s never too late!

Dot Club token, given by Peter Reynolds, author of The Dot, to inspire creative expression in people. (Image © Janine Boylan)

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 3 Comments

Literary World/The World's Art & Design

World Views:

Topics

Category Archives: Literary World