> Steinbeck might not have felt that he was above genre fiction At the time he would have written it, he was quite hungry. Living off of income from manual la

> Steinbeck might not have felt that he was above genre fiction At the time he would have written it, he was quite hungry. Living off of income from manual labor with some extra contributions from his father. Perhaps he thought a warewolf mystery could sell a few books at the time, but as you suggest, later on that would've been embarrassing.