The driver looked quickly back at the restaurant for a second. “Didn’ you see the No Riders sticker on the win’ shield?”
“Sure — I seen it. But sometimes a guy’ll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.”
Doesn’t seem no longer ago than a week I seen him myself. Looked fine then. He’s a nice sort of a guy when he ain’t stinko.” Now and then the flies roared softly at the screen door. The coffee machine spurted steam, and the waitress, without looking, reached behind her and shut it off
And because the story has been told so often, it has taken root in every man’s mind. And, as with all retold tales that are in people’s hearts, there are only good and bad things and black and white things and good and evil things and no in-between anywhere.
I figgered about the Holy Sperit and the Jesus road. I figgered, ‘Why do we got to hang it on God or Jesus? Maybe,’ I figgered, ‘maybe it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit — the human sperit — the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ Now I sat there thinkin’ it, an’ all of a suddent — I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.”
Now don’t get sore. I wasn’t gettin’ nosy.”
“Sure — I seen it. But sometimes a guy’ll be a good guy even if some rich bastard makes him carry a sticker.”
Steinbeck’s first novel was published in 1929 by Robert McBride & Company. He was 26 years old at the time of publication and McBride understandably chose a short print runoff of 1537 copies for the unknown author. In 1936, Steinbeck’s new publisher, Covici-Friede, capitalised on Steinbeck’s later successes and reprinted Cup of Gold with an edition of just under a thousand copies. His third publisher, Viking, did the same again in 1938.
Steinbeck’s only historical novel, Cup of Gold is a greatly revised version of an unpublished short story he wrote previously, about the Elizabethan pirate, Henry Morgan. He was influenced by writers such as James Branch Cabell, author of the popular novel Jurgen and as a result it is different from Steinbeck’s mature and much terser style in novels such as Grapes of Wrath.
The Central American state of Panama is one of the settings for this story, an inspiration that came to Steinbeck from his visit there on the freighter Katrina, on which he had obtained work. He found it challenging to write a full length novel and at one point he returned to writing short pieces, one of which was accepted for publica
Hasn’t got brains enough to mean harm. Maybe not brains enough to stay out of jail.”
