East of Eden is a 1952 family saga novel by American author and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck. Many regard the work as Steinbeck’s most ambitious novel, and Steinbeck himself considered it his magnum opus.

Steinbeck said of East of Eden, “It has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession in all these years;” the author later said, “I think everything else I have written has been, in a sense, practice for this.”

Steinbeck originally addressed the novel to his young sons, Thom and John (then 61⁄2 and 41⁄2 years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors.