Steinbeck's background and previous writing experience found him well prepared to tackle the chronicle of the dispossessed Joads as they search for work in Depression-era California. Much of Steinbeck's young adult life was spent around the ranches of California's Salinas Valley. Working as a ranchhand, he gained firsthand knowledge of the migrant laborers who worked the farms. From this experience grew an awareness of the social inequalities affecting the labor force. With the publication of In Dubious Battle, Steinbeck established his reputation as a social critic and champion of the migrant worker. Recognizing his new status as a social commentator, The San Francisco News commissioned him to write a series of articles about conditions in the migrant worker's camps in California's Central Valley. This work, along with the time spent traveling cross-country with an Oklahoman migrant family, provided Steinbeck with the bulk of the episodic material needed to write The Grapes of Wrath.
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