He read Twain and Whitman's Leaves of Grass

  Just past the entrance, his childhood bed with a patchwork quilt is on display. In a dresser drawer are some of the books Steinbeck, apparently a reading prodigy, devoured as a child, including Virgil's "The Aeneid," with penciled-in annotations. An audio recording directly over the bed reads excerpts from other childhood favorites of Steinbeck. He read Twain and Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"; influences of both permeate his later writing.The audio biography of Steinbeck calls him a bookish, "innately shy child." That was half right, according to Salinas native Edward Silacci, whose father went to school with Steinbeck."A friend of my dad's was in the same class with him and (Steinbeck) was a little devil in grammar school," Silacci said. "He was the kind of kid to put the ponytail in the inkwell."Interjected Silacci's wife, Barbara: "I remember your dad saying he would always see Steinbeck around the teachers, always writing something. Everyone in town expected great things from him.
 
 
 "In fact, printed on a wall, amid other quotations about Steinbeck, was this declaration from his mother, Olive: "He'll either be a genius or amount to nothing."The second half of the tour provides the answer. It chronicles Steinbeck's time as a war correspondent during World War II, his forays into other types of writing (plays, screenplays) and photos and audio from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Literature fans will delight in the anecdote passed along by Steinbeck's third wife, Elaine. Steinbeck, apparently nervous about giving the customary Nobel laureate speech in Stockholm, called William Faulkner, who had won the honor in 1949, just before Faulkner's death.According to Elaine, Steinbeck asked, "Tell me about your speech." Faulkner said, "I don't know, I was so scared I drank so much I don't remember it."She added, "So John said to me, 'Elaine when we go over there will you do something with me? Will you go through the five days and not drink a drop of any liquor with me?'"Steinbeck remembered his speech, and it was memorable to others as well.

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