Cannery Row Days offers a portal to a very different Monterey through a series of events.

For the fifth year, Monterey Public Library and the City of Monterey present Cannery Row Days, a series of events devoted to Monterey County’s favorite writer, John Steinbeck. The events will wrap up on Nov. 22.

Each year, local experts choose another book by Steinbeck (he wrote 33 during his long career), starting with Cannery Row, the book that put Monterey’s sardine-centric street on the national map. The 75th anniversary of its publication in 1945 was celebrated by a series of events in 2020. 

The idea for the series was hatched by historian Tim Thomas of the Japanese American Citizens League, who is “a walking encyclopedia,” says Kathy Lo, Monterey Public Library’s local history librarian. 

Thomas worked together with Dennis Copeland, the Museums, Cultural Arts and Archives manager for the City of Monterey, and Steinbeck scholar Susan Shillinglaw on the program.

In 2021, the celebrated book was Sweet Thursday, and the events that year took place via Zoom, due to Covid. Other books covered over the years are The Log from the Sea of Cortez and Tortilla Flat; this year, it’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America, Steinbeck's travelogue from his 1960 journey across the United States, a trip he took with one companion, his French poodle Charley.

The two traveled in a custom-made camper that Steinbeck named Rocinante (a reference to Don Quixote's steed). The resulting travelogue is a delightful read of the writer’s encounters with people from all walks of life. It is also a searing account of America’s lapses and challenges.

An initial talk introducing the book by Shillinglaw already took place, but there are close to 10 other events ahead. (The detailed program is below.) 

The target audience of the series is everyone who reads. “That’s the heartening thing about Monterey,” Lo says. “We boast a large population of readers and Steinbeck, Monterey County’s son, is among the most read.”   

Cannery Row Days 2025 events:

4pm-5:30pm Thursday, Nov. 6. Mid-Century Monterey Photo Bingo. Monterey Public Library (Community Room), 625 Pacific St. Instead of numbers, photos showing 1950s Monterey are used to play bingo. Come for light refreshment and a chance to win prizes and leave with interesting factoids about mid-century Monterey.

10am-2pm Saturday, Nov. 8. Not Steinbeck's Cannery Row: A Walking Tour with Tim Thomas. Starts at Old Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey; registration required (sign up at the above link). Pack your lunch and join historian Tim Thomas on this four-hour walking tour of Cannery Row and the waterfront. The tour takes you back in time to explore the history of the fisheries and the struggle of the workers as they developed unions and fought for fair working conditions in the canneries.

1-3pm Friday, Nov. 14. Travels with Charley: A Book Discussion with Susan Shillinglaw. Monterey Public Library (Community Room), 625 Pacific St. During the past decade, there has been intense scholarly discussion about precisely how to categorize Travels with Charley. Is it nonfiction? If so, does Steinbeck seem to embellish episodes or, as is certainly the case, leave out his wife’s presence in parts of the book? Does that mean it’s a fictional account? Autofiction? Discuss readers’ responses to Steinbeck’s narrative account of his travels.

1-3pm Saturday, Nov. 15 The Life History of Ed Ricketts and His Marvelous Laboratory: Discussion and Tour with Greg Cailliet and Lucas Seastrom. InterContinental The Clement (750 Cannery Row), followed by a tour of Pacific Biological Laboratories next door. Registration required (sign up at the above link).

4-5:30pm Thursday, Nov. 20. Steinbeck's Uneasy America, 1960s and 2025: A Discussion with Susan Shillinglaw. Monterey Public Library (Community Room), 625 Pacific St. Shillinglaw and Barbara Heavlin recently published a collection of essays entitled Steinbeck’s Uneasy America: Rereading Travels with Charley. They discuss the political and social landscape of the 1960s, Steinbeck’s political and ecological stances, and how the book corresponds to today’s concerns.

10:30am-11:30am Saturday, Nov. 22. Doggy Storytime and Craft. Monterey Public Library (Community Room), 625 Pacific St.. Cannery Row Days is for kids too. In honor of Charley, enjoy this special storytime with furry guests and the chance to make dog toys for SPCA Monterey County.

2-4pm Saturday, Nov. 22. Cinema in the Afternoon: Cannery Row in an Bygone Era (short films). Monterey Public Library (Community Room), 625 Pacific St. Street of the Sardine captures the mood of an abandoned Cannery Row after the sardines and the last canneries disappeared. Yesterday's Shore Tomorrow's Morning is a companion piece made for PBS network and explores the metaphors of vanishing cultures. Last Days of Old Cannery Row shows a very different Cannery Row.