Age Old Excuse

While I don’t think it is a common excuse, I’m sure there are school children who have used the excuse that “the dog ate my homework” because they didn’t do their homework, or I suppose because it might have been a legitimate excuse. Still, I think that for the most part, the excuse is fake. Either way, it was used in a rather famous instance.

By the spring of 1936, John Steinbeck’s life was looking up. According to Jay Parini’s biography, the success of his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat brought financial stability for Steinbeck and his wife, Carol. That stability allowed them to build a new home in the wilderness near Los Gatos, California. At the same time, Steinbeck was deeply involved in a new project called Something That Happened, initially planned as a children’s story but evolving into an experimental piece for reading or performing. However, on May 27, 1936, Steinbeck wrote to his literary agent about a mishap, “My setter pup [Toby], left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my ms. [manuscript] book. Two months’ work to do over again. … There was no other draft.” In those days, while carbon paper had been invented in 1801, Steinbeck apparently didn’t use it. Computers had also been invented, but were not in every household, like they are today, so Steinbeck didn’t use that either. Those facts together, allowed Toby to have access to Steinbecks only copy of his manuscript. Whatever anguish the author initially felt over seeing months of hard work destroyed had clearly softened by the time he wrote the letter. “I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn’t want to ruin a good dog for a manuscript I’m not sure is good at all. He only got an ordinary spanking with his punishment flyswatter. But now, there’s the work to do over from the beginning.”

Luckily, Toby’s drastic edits only briefly delayed the story’s progress and Toby was allowed to live. Inspired by his new surroundings, which included a study tailored to his preferences, Steinbeck resumed work on his tale of codependent migrant workers, George and Lennie. He worked tirelessly through revisions and submitted what became Of Mice and Men to his editors in August. That in itself is amazing, but I wonder how much of the story was either slightly or very different than the original. Though Steinbeck initially had modest expectations for the novella, its publication in February 1937 was met with critical and commercial success, allowing the now-famous author, his wife, and Toby to enjoy the finest dining experiences in the days that followed. So, did the story of the dog eating the novel simply buy time for the author, or was it real. I suppose we will never know for sure.