* Steinbeck’s personal journal for 1949 which begins "I don’t suppose anyone ever so hated a year as I hated 1948… Wife, children, best friend all gone. But perhaps it toughened me. I hope so.” The journal, estimated at $20,000 – 30,000, details his despair at the loss of his best friend, Ed Ricketts, end of his marriage to his second wife Gwen, who took their two small boys, and the long journey to writing again, culminating in his meeting Elaine Scott in May.
* first edition, presentation copies inscribed by Steinbeck to his sister Mary of Tortilla Flat (estimated at $15,000 – 25,000), The Pastures of Heaven (estimated at $10,000 – 15,000), and Cup of Gold (estimated at $15,000 – 25,000)
* a previously unknown Steinbeck journal from February to March 1938, estimated at $10,000 – 15,000, which provides a look at the writer's journey as he works his way towards The Grapes of Wrath
* Steinbeck’s daybook journal from 1947 containing his contemporary descriptions of his 1947 journey through Russia and Ukraine with photographer Robert Capa, and which was used as the raw material for his 1947 memoir, A Russian Journal. Estimated at $30,000 – 50,000
* every iteration of Burning Bright before publication from the original handwritten draft to the submitted typescript, several versions of galley proofs and a custom-bound copy of the final printed version, estimated at $50,000 – 70,000
* an original manuscript draft of Steinbeck’s introduction to The Log of the Sea of Cortez, estimated at $3,000 – 5,000, which, like the Burning Bright items, were all gifted by Steinbeck to his nephew-in-law
* “You are funny little boys now and I miss you so. I feel cheated sometimes that I cannot see you growing and be a part of it...” laments Steinbeck in a draft of a letter to his sons dated January 5, 1949. Discovered tucked into one of Steinbeck's journals from the same year, the letter was written in the aftermath of the death of his best friend and his divorce from his second wife. It is estimated at $3,000 – 5,000.
