Steinbeck made the visit at the suggestion of President John F. Kennedy and the subsequent invitation of the Union of Soviet Writers. At Steinbeck's request, the American Embassy in Moscow assigned as his escort a young officer named Peter Bridges who was knowledgeable in Soviet literature and fluent in Russian. The Soviet writers' union provided its own escort and interpreter, a woman named Frida Lurie. The play, or outline of a play, reflects some of the difficulties Steinbeck and his wife Elaine had with the Soviet authorities, and his creative genius in dealing with them. The Steinbeck visit, and the Soviet attempts to manipulate it, are described in detail in Jackson L. Benson's biography The True Adventures of John Steinbeck Writer (New York: Penguin, 1984). The visit is also dealt with in the forthcoming memoir by Steinbeck's one-time escort in Moscow, Peter Bridges, Safrika: An American Envoy, published by the Kent State University Press in May, 2000.
The handwritten play by Steinbeck, though untitled, is headed on the first page "Notes & lists of dialogue for a play in 2 acts so far." The five-page script, which was given by Steinbeck to Peter Bridges in Kiev, is written on unlined, rather pulpy stationery with a picture of the monument in Kiev to the old Ukrainian leader Bohdan Khmelnitski. The play, in a tongue-in-cheek vein, reflects the unsuccessful attempts of the Soviet authorities to prevent Bridges from accompanying Steinbeck beyond Kiev. The play's characters include "Big Dick Kleiberg, owner of the King Ranch (i.e. Nikita Khruschev); "Johnson, a northern industrialist looking for a site for a factory" represents Steinbeck himself; "Fredrika, a tour mistress" is Frida Lurie; "George...an advertising executive from Madison Ave." is Peter Bridges; and "Gustave, an expert in Indian culture" is another writers' union functionary who accompanied Steinbeck to Kiev. The "Florida Chamber of Commerce" (i.e. the Soviet Authorities) is trying to sell Johnson (Steinbeck) a piece of swamp land, and he wants George (Peter Bridges) along because he knows real estate values, reflecting Steinbeck's desire to have Bridges accompany him as a hedge against politically motivated translations.
Condition:
The play is written with a rather thick black felt pen. This unique and significant unpublished manuscript material from John Steinbeck, given by him to his embassy escort Peter Bridges in 1963, is now, some forty years later, offered for public sale. It offers a rare glimpse of Steinbeck on his third and final journey to Russia. Near fine.