The 1950s brought a series of projects, including some novels, and a third and happier marriage. In 1950, Steinbeck married for the last time to Elaine Scott, the ex-wife of actor Randolph Scott. In the same year, he finished a screenplay for the film Viva Zapata! and published the novel/play Burning Bright, which was produced on Broadway. The following year, Steinbeck began work on a 600-page novel, East of Eden. East of Eden is similar to Of Mice and Men in that it revisits the biblical story of Cain and Abel. East of Eden is the tale of two families through several generations and is set in Salinas Valley. A story of good and evil, it was produced as a film in 1952 and later as a miniseries for television.
During this period, Steinbeck also revised Cannery Row and republished it under the title Sweet Thursday (1954). Rogers and Hammerstein later used his story for their musical Pipe Dream. Besides returning to his biblical themes, Steinbeck also returned to another childhood influence: the King Arthur stories. He began a book (that would be published posthumously) based on Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, renaming it The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. This book was rapidly followed in 1957 with The Short Reign of Pippin IV, a fantasy about medieval France but, like many of Steinbeck's later works, it received poor reviews.
