Steinbeck’s tender letter to son sells for more than $32,000

BOSTON (AP) — A heartfelt letter written by author John Steinbeck offering paternal advice to his teenage son who was experiencing love for the first time has sold at auction for more than $32,000. Boston-based auction house RR Auction said Thursday that the two-page, handwritten letter, dated Nov. 10, 1958, went for $32,426 to a collector who wishes to remain anonymous. The letter is remarkable because Steinbeck doesn’t simply brush off his then 14-year-old son Thomas’ feelings as childish puppy love. Steinbeck, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Grapes of Wrath” in 1940 and the Nobel Prize in 1962 for a body of acclaimed work, died in 1968.