John Steinbeck – stormy and sadistic

John Steinbeck, one of the titans of American literature for his novels The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, a Nobel and Pulitzer winner, is described as a ‘sadistic womanizer’ in a new memoir. A manuscript written by his second wife Glyn was recently discovered, in which she says he spent their wedding night on the phone to his mistress. He scolded her for ‘complicating’ his life while he was writing a book during her difficult labour with their first son; and when their premature second son suffered fits of screaming in his first days, he ‘burst through the door and said, “I wish to Christ he’d die, he’s taking up too much of your f***ing time.”   They divorced two years later.

Born 27 February 1902 3pm Salinas, California, he had an intensely emotional and secretive 8^th house Pisces Sun and Mars trine a 4^th house Scorpio Moon, doubling up his emotional wilfulness. His afflicted Mars was on the focal point of a T Square to Pluto opposition Uranus in the 5^th – so he would be ruthless, angry, volatile and keen to have an unfettered romantic life with rebellious Uranus in the 5th. He did have Jupiter and Venus Mercury in Aquarius in his 7^th so no doubt he could turn on the charm when it suited him. But otherwise he looks frighteningly explosive.

His second son John Jr was born two days before Donald Trump with a similar chart though with a Scorpio Moon; and the first son Thomas born on 2 August 1944 has a controlling and inflammatory-father Sun Pluto and Mars square Uranus.

His third wife Elaine Anderson, 14 August 1914,  was a Sun Leo which connected to his Venus in Aquarius, though it wouldn’t be an easy marriage with their relationship chart having a fairly brutal and suppressive composite Mars opposition Pluto; and a highly-strung and duty-bound Neptune opposition Uranus square Saturn. Talent comes at a price.