The Wrath of Boren

Many of you may not know that back in 1940, the late Oklahoma Congressman Lyle Boren, issued a vicious written attack against author John Steinbeck and his critically-acclaimed novel "The Grapes of Wrath." Lyle Boren is the father of David Boren, the former U.S. Senator and current president of the University of Oklahoma.

Well, Norman-based author and researcher Michael Wright brought this to my attention via a written commentary he had published last month in California's Monterey County Herald.

Here's a sample from Wright's piece: Oklahoma's cultural leadership did not appreciate this novel. Boren vilified it in colorful language that rings of the hellfire-and-brimstone judgmental tones of a southern fundamentalist preacher. He called it a "dirty, lying, filthy manuscript," the product of a "putrid-minded writer." He called the book "a lie, a damnable lie, a black infernal creation of a twisted, distorted mind."
Boren blamed California -- not because Californians abused the migrants -- but "for being the parent of such offspring as this author."
Boren's cues were followed in the region. The Daily Oklahoman's editorial page published a long excerpt from his remarks. The library of East St. Louis, Ill., banned the book as did other libraries. Boren expressed pride in the fact that the U.S. Postal Service banned the book from the mails.
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Makes one realize that in the scheme of things, 1940 wasn't so long ago. Scary.