Monterey County’s beauty serves as the inspiration for a large number of books and poems.

JOHN STEINBECK'S GRAPES OF WRATH falls somewhere on most “top 100 novels” lists, which means millions of people have read the book, likely their first introduction to the fertile Salinas Valley. Throughout his career, Steinbeck mined his home county for many settings in his books and short stories, vividly describing locales that he made famous the world over.

Other authors and poets who migrated to the county or only visited for a short while were similarly inspired to use the dramatic coastline and interior valleys as settings. For those of us familiar with the county it’s a fun exercise to imagine characters coming to life in real-life settings.

Once you’ve read Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, it’s hard not to imagine Doc, Mack and the Boys, Ida and Lee Chong criss-crossing those Monterey streets, or Mack’s gang traveling in a beat-up truck to the Carmel River to catch frogs, in a hapless scheme to earn money to surprise Doc with a party.

Likewise, it’s not difficult to feel the lonely eeriness of Elkhorn Slough on a moonlit night while reading Mother-Daughter Murder Night, last year’s New York Times bestseller by author Nina Simon, who wrote the book in partnership with her mom, Sarina Simon.

Below is a list of Monterey County locations found in a number of books and poems. If you’re looking for some good summer reading options, consider choosing a location first, then pick a novel or a poem to read, and let yourself be as inspired as the writers themselves.

Big Sur

Big Sur by Jack Kerouac

A semi-autobiographical novel Kerouac wrote in a Big Sur cabin while struggling with doubt and handling fame after the publication of On the Road. Big Sur makes appearances in other Kerouac works, including Desolation Angels, The Dharma Bums and The Subterraneans.

Holding the Dream by Nora Roberts

The breathtaking views from Big Sur serve as the backdrop for this novel by the bestselling author.

The Strange Case of the Big Sur Benefactor by Jess Faraday

The award-winning author sets this historical mystery novella in the wilds of Big Sur in 1884. It was a Rainbow Award Winner in the category “lesbian historical.”

Poetry by Robinson Jeffers

The wild and majestic beauty of Big Sur provided a wonderful muse for one of the great poets of the 20th century, Robinson Jeffers, who lived on Carmel Point. Here are a few he wrote using Big Sur locations.

“Hands” is set in a cave along Church Creek where Esselen people of the past left handprint art.

Inside a cave in a narrow canyon near Tassajara / The vault of rock is painted with hands /A multitude of hands in the twilight, a cloud of men’s / palms…

The setting for “The Place for No Story” is Soberanes Creek, which Jeffers spells “Sovranes.”

“Thurso’s Landing” is one of Jeffers’ epics, about a family watching as workers construct Highway 1.

The coast-road was being straightened and repaired again, / A group of men labored at the steep curve / Where it falls from the north to Mill Creek. They scattered and hid / Behind cut banks, except one blond young man / Who stooped over the rock and strolled away smiling / As if he shared a secret joke with the dynamite…

Another epic poem, “Tamar,” is set along the craggy cliffs of Point Lobos. In keeping with a theme, tragedy strikes the people and the natural beauty persists beyond their suffering.

Carmel/Pebble Beach

The quaint village, foggy forest and scenic seashore has served as inspiration for many authors – around 50 books have used the locale as settings. Murder mystery writers seem especially drawn to the area.

Weep No More My Lady by Mary Higgins Clark

The bestselling novelist uses a luxurious Pebble Beach spa as a location.

Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky

The romance novelist tells a heartwarming tale of love lost then found again.

A Wicked Slice by Aaron and Charlotte Elkins

The husband-wife mystery-writing team pairs murder with golf for this book.

Watchers by Dean Koontz

In this thriller set in the Carmel and Big Sur areas, a man stumbles upon a genetically altered dog who escaped from a secret government laboratory, along with a genetically altered monster. What could go wrong?

All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhower

This spy thriller published in 2015 was made into a movie in 2022.

The Valley of the Moon by Jack London

London was a regular visitor to his bohemian friends living in Carmel in the early 20th century. He uses the arts colony in this 1913 novel.

The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle That Shook America by Catherine Prendergast

A nonfiction narrative, this mythbuster also offers some of the best descriptions to be found of life inside the bohemian art colony of Carmel in the early 20th century.

Whalefall: A Novel by Daniel Kraus

This suspense novel of a diver who must escape the belly of a whale off the shore of Monastery Beach was named a “Best Book of 2023” by Book Riot, Shelf Awareness and NPR.

Corral de Tierra

Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck

You can see for yourself the scenic hills and valleys that Steinbeck spent time in as a boy visiting his aunt’s home. Pastures of Heaven is a collection of interconnected stories about a farming family living in Corral de Tierra.

Steinbeck describes the landscape as it’s seen for the first time by a Spanish corporal: “In a few minutes he arrived at the top of the ridge, and there he stopped, stricken with wonder at what he saw – a long valley floored with green pasturage on which a herd of deer browsed. Perfect oak trees grew in the meadow of the lovely place, and the hills hugged it jealously against the fog and the wind.”

Elkhorn Slough

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

This 2023 mystery novel, set along the shores of the slough, was selected as one of the year’s best novels by multiple sources and was chosen for the Reese Witherspoon Book Club.

Monterey

Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

In Cannery Row, set in 1938, Steinbeck bases the character of Doc on his real-life friend Ed Ricketts, whose Pacific Biological Laboratories still stands at 800 Cannery Row. The Wing Chong Building across the street at 835 Cannery Row inspired Lee Chong’s grocery. La Ida’s brothel was located at 851 Cannery Row. The book’s sequel, Sweet Thursday, is set in the years following World War II.

Pacific Grove

My Life in Pacific Grove by Wilford Rensselaer Holman, edited by Heather Lazare

The first half of the book is from a memoir written by W.R. Holman, founder of Holman’s Department Store on Lighthouse Avenue. Lazare, married to Holman’s great-grandson Ben Lazare, adds context about Holman in the second half.

The Mushroom Planet series by Eleanor Frances Cameron

Written in the 1950s, the Canadian author set her children’s books in Pacific Grove, as the launching pad for adventurous flights to the alien planet Basidium.

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

While mostly set along Cannery Row, Steinbeck features a few wickedly funny chapters about the people of Pacific Grove, including one featuring monarch butterflies.

Salinas/Salinas Valley

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Visit downtown Salinas to see buildings featured in this classic. The buildings are located at 201 and 247 Main St. Many characters live and farm around King City.

The Hunger and the Hate by Harry Vernor Dixon

A mystery/romance novel about a man climbing to the top of the ladder in the lettuce industry who falls in love, endangering his quest.

The Long Valley by John Steinbeck

A collection of stories about people of the valley trying to make their place in the world. It includes famous stories you may have read in high school, like “Flight” and “The Red Pony.”

Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck

After exiling himself to New York, Steinbeck returns to Salinas in this (mostly) nonfiction book about his road trip across the U.S. in a camper with his dog Charley.

Jolon

To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck’s second novel, a tragic story about a man and his relationship to the land, set in the tiny South County town of Jolon.

Soledad

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Migrant farmworkers George and Lennie worked at a ranch set in Soledad. Steinbeck used his own experiences as a teen working in the fields alongside men like George and Lennie.

Spreckels

East of Eden and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck used this former company town, home to the Spreckels Sugar plant where he once worked as a young man, as inspiration for settings in the two famous novels.