Question: what kind of awards did john steinbeck win

title: John Steinbeck
text: Steinbeck achieved his first critical success with Tortilla Flat ( 1935 ) , a novel set in post-war Monterey , California , that won the California Commonwealth Club 's Gold Medal . It portrays the adventures of a group of classless and usually homeless young men in Monterey after World War I , just before U.S. prohibition . They are portrayed in ironic comparison to mythic knights on a quest and reject nearly all the standard mores of American society in enjoyment of a dissolute life devoted to wine , lust , camaraderie and petty theft . In presenting the 1962 Nobel Prize to Steinbeck , the Swedish Academy cited `` spicy and comic tales about a gang of paisanos , asocial individuals who , in their wild revels , are almost caricatures of King Arthur 's Knights of the Round Table . It has been said that in the United States this book came as a welcome antidote to the gloom of the then prevailing depression . '' Tortilla Flat was adapted as a 1942 film of the same name , starring Spencer Tracy , Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield , a friend of Steinbeck . With some of the proceeds , he built a summer ranch - home in Los Gatos .