![]() ![]() Peggy Worthington Best didn’t appear in Benson’s book, or anywhere else that I looked, but I bought two of the illustrations anyway. Steinbeck’s editor at Viking, Pat Covici, was caught in the middle when conflict occurred, and Best was Covici’s boss. Best is mentioned several times in Jackson Benson’s biography of Steinbeck, though the editor and the author weren’t close. It wouldn’t have been surprising if she got the commission through her husband. ![]() He added that she might also be known as Peggy Worthington Best, for she was married to Marshall Best, a senior editor at Viking. When I asked the dealer for information, he said that Peggy was an East Coast artist who was rumored to have been a student of Norman Rockwell, the most celebrated illustrator of 20th century. The strong, primary, human quality of the story is expressed in her paintings, and the result is a thoroughly handsome book to give and to own.” She spent much time in Monterey, and has admirably captured the atmosphere of both the setting and the kind of people of whom Steinbeck wrote. The inside cover flap of the book was sketchy about her life but accurate in explaining how well illustrations mirrored Steinbeck’s colorful text: “ For this new edition, Peggy Worthington, the artist, has done seventeen paintings in oil, here glowingly reproduced as full color illustrations and jacket. The illustrations for Tortilla Flat, by an artist named Peggy Worthington, were exquisite. ![]() It was the art dealer and lover of art who said yes that afternoon. I liked Steinbeck’s fiction, but I had no clue that I would write a book of stories about him. ![]() Would I be interested in buying? I found a copy of the 1935 novel that gave Steinbeck his first dose of security, glanced at the illustrations for the 1947 edition, and promptly phoned the dealer. A number of years ago an art dealer on the East Coast called me in Pacific Grove, California to say he had access to the original illustrations commissioned by Viking Press for the deluxe edition of Tortilla Flat. ![]()
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