Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

First edition cover
Author	John Steinbeck
Cover artist	Ross MacDonald
Language	English
Genre	Tragedy
Publisher	Covici Friede
Publication date	1937
Publication place	United States
Pages	107

Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella written by American author John Steinbeck.^[1][2] It narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States.

Steinbeck based the novella on his own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager in the 1910s, before the arrival of the Okies that he would describe in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. The title is taken from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" ("The best laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry").

While it is a book taught in many schools,^[3] Of Mice and Men has been a frequent target of censorship and book bans for vulgarity, and what some consider offensive and racist language; consequently, it appears on the American Library Association's list of the Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century.^[4]