Of Mice and Men was published by Covici-Friede, New York, in February 1937, in a first printing of approximately 2,500 copies priced at $2.00. The novella was an immediate bestseller — it was the Book-of-the-Month Club selection for February 1937, which guaranteed massive distribution. Steinbeck had originally written the manuscript in 1936, but his setter puppy Toby chewed up the first draft (“I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting as a critic”), and he rewrote it in two months. The novella was adapted as a Broadway play (opening in November 1937 to great success) and later filmed twice.
The Novella
George Milton — small, quick, intelligent — and Lennie Small — enormous, gentle, mentally disabled — are itinerant ranch workers in the Salinas Valley during the Depression. They share a dream: to save enough money to buy a small farm of their own where they will “live off the fatta the lan’” and Lennie will tend rabbits. This dream — modest, American, almost attainable — sustains them through the brutal monotony of migrant labour.
They find work on a ranch near Soledad. The dream seems possible when Candy (an old, one-handed swamper) offers to contribute his savings. But Lennie — who loves to stroke soft things and does not know his own strength — accidentally kills Curley’s wife in the barn. George finds Lennie by the river and shoots him in the back of the head before the mob can lynch him — reciting the dream of the farm as he does so.
The novella is structured as a play — three acts, each with a rising action and a climactic moment. Steinbeck called it “a play-novelette” and designed it to be performed with minimal adaptation. This structural tightness is the source of its devastating power: everything moves inexorably toward the final scene by the river.
Collecting Of Mice and Men
First edition (1937, Covici-Friede): Approximately 2,500 copies, priced at $2.00.
Identification points:
- Published by Covici-Friede, Inc.
- “First edition” on the copyright page
- Tan/beige cloth boards with the image of two figures
- A bullet hole in the “O” of “Of” on the cover — a distinctive design element
First edition, first printing:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $10,000–$30,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $5,000–$10,000
- Without jacket: $500–$1,500
Signed copies: Scarce from this period — Steinbeck was not yet a major celebrity. Signed first editions: $15,000–$40,000.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2.5x for fine copies in jacket. The small first printing (before the Book-of-the-Month Club selection) ensures genuine scarcity. The Covici-Friede imprint adds collector interest — the firm went bankrupt in 1938, making their publications scarce across the board.
Projected values (2026–2036): Steady appreciation expected. Of Mice and Men is one of the most widely read American novels (it remains a standard high school text), and this ensures a perpetually renewed collector base. The combination of a small first printing, a defunct publisher, and universal name recognition makes it one of the safer blue-chip literary investments.
Themes and Literary Significance
The novella’s apparent simplicity conceals considerable artistic sophistication. Steinbeck’s “play-novelette” structure — three acts, each set in a single location, each building to a climactic violence — gives the narrative the compression and inevitability of tragedy. The friendship between George and Lennie — one of the great partnerships in American fiction — serves as Steinbeck’s vehicle for exploring loneliness, companionship, and the American Dream’s fundamental impossibility for those at the bottom of the economic order.
Steinbeck’s treatment of Lennie is notable for its refusal to sentimentalise. Lennie is not a noble innocent; he is dangerous, and his inability to control his strength makes him a threat to everyone around him. But he is also the embodiment of trust, loyalty, and uncomplicated love — qualities that the world of migrant labour systematically destroys. The novella asks whether there is a place in America for people who cannot compete, and the answer it provides is devastating.
Critical Reception
The novella was an immediate critical and commercial success. It was praised for its economy, its dramatic structure, and its emotional power. The Broadway adaptation (1937), directed by George S. Kaufman, was a hit and won the Drama Critics’ Circle Award. The 1939 film, starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie and Burgess Meredith as George, remains a classic. The 1992 film with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich introduced the story to a new generation.
Academic criticism has engaged with the novella’s treatment of disability, its gender politics (Curley’s wife is never named), and its relationship to the proletarian literature of the 1930s. Feminist readings have complicated the portrayal of Curley’s wife, arguing that she is as much a victim of the ranch’s patriarchal structure as Lennie is.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is George justified in killing Lennie? The novella presents it as an act of mercy — George kills Lennie quickly and painlessly (while Lennie imagines the farm) rather than allowing the mob to capture and lynch him. Whether mercy killing is “justified” is the moral question Steinbeck leaves to the reader.
Why is this book so often banned? Language (profanity, racial slurs reflecting historical usage), sexual content, and violence. It remains one of the most frequently challenged books in American schools — paradoxically, its very success as a teaching text makes it a target.
What does the title mean? From Robert Burns’s poem “To a Mouse”: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley” — the best-planned intentions of mice and men often go wrong. Steinbeck’s title signals from the outset that the dream will fail.
Is the first edition hard to identify? The key is the Covici-Friede imprint — the publisher went bankrupt the following year, so genuine first editions bear their name. The “bullet hole” design element in the “O” on the cover binding is distinctive. Book-of-the-Month Club editions (which lack the bullet hole and have a different binding) are common and far less valuable.