Note: It’s hoped thousands of Fort Worth citizens will read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as part of a citywide initiative led by Texas Wesleyan University that begins on February 29, 2012.  But one Fort Worth ISD teacher has enjoyed a special connection with Steinbeck’s legacy for many years.

Retired Fort Worth ISD Teacher Enjoys Special Connection to The Big Read

It took a while for retired Fort Worth ISD schoolteacher Ellen Covici to realize she was involved in literary history.

Years ago, her then-boyfriend was part of a modest family who didn’t talk about the fact that their family patriarch – Pascal “Pat” Covici – was the friend, editor and confidant to Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck.
 
Now, local citizens have their own chance to be part of history – even part of Steinbeck history. In February, Fort Worth ISD will fully support The Big Read, an initiative to encourage all residents to engage in reading. In this vision, as many as possible will simultaneously enjoy Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, and discover a return – or introduction – to the joy of reading.

An elementary school teacher in Fort Worth for 26 years, Ellen Covici, knew this joy. She originally met her former husband, John Covici, in the Northeast, where she came to know his literary family.

“He filled me in that [he was named] after Steinbeck and his grandfather was his editor,” she explained, but it was never something his family bragged about. “It was never discussed unless it came up somehow. People might have known because they were in literary circles, but other than that, you’d never know.”

She laughed, “They might ask why you have so many books?”

It was that book collection that clued Ellen in to how deeply the ties ran. She visited the family’s New Hampshire summer home and was stunned.

“You’d have to see it to believe it. From ceiling to floor, it’s books. All inscribed – very personal inscriptions – to his grandfather,” she said. “I was flabbergasted. I’d been a Steinbeck fan since high school. I’d read almost everything he’d written.”

The books were only part of it. In the bedrooms, for instance, she said there are childhood pictures of John and Charley, from Travels with Charley.

“It was kind of like the house that Steinbeck built,” she joked.

After dating, Ellen followed her fiancé to Texas with his family and eventually taught in Fort Worth ISD. She retired at the end of last school year and returned to New England. Though no longer married to John Covici, she remains close with his mother, Joan Covici, a Dallas resident. While Joan’s husband, Pascal Covici Jr., passed away years ago, she carries many memories of his family’s involvement with Steinbeck.

“His father would send him a manuscript or an invitation to a dinner party,” Joan said of her late husband. “The parties were a wonderful opportunity to ask a direct question at the dinner table to Steinbeck and some of the other authors. The authors were very willing to talk about accepting even silly questions.”

Joan, too, was a teacher. In Dallas, she taught early childhood in private schools, then reading in public high school. In those classes, she used Steinbeck books, undoubtedly offering them a unique perspective.

Even when some students lacked the reading skills to read by themselves, they explored The Red Pony, talked about issues of choice in East of Eden and delved into Steinbeck poetry. She also loved the children’s books from The Viking Press – Pat Covici’s publishing company – and would use them both in her preschool and high school classrooms.

“I would read children’s books because they express emotions relevant to them, especially if they were not read to as a child,” she said.

Joan used visual elements, like those provided in children’s books or in the film version of novels, to help less experienced readers along. The teacher in her suggests the same sort of jumpstart for someone hesitant to conquer a novel like The Grapes of Wrath.

“If they can have some sort of visual exposure along with the reading, it can really help,” she said. Finding the movie, an illustrated version of a book or, similarly, an audio tape to follow along can be of great assistance, particularly to younger readers. A shorter book like The Red Pony is a great introduction to Steinbeck, she said, as is Of Mice and Men.

“If somehow you can start with Of Mice and Men, it would really give a sense of what Steinbeck was getting at,” she said, though her personal favorites are The Winter of Our Discontent and East of Eden.
 
East of Eden was dedicated by Steinbeck to Pat Covici. He gifted the original manuscript, along with other meaningful items, to Covici in a box he carved. In the dedication, he spoke of what was in the box: “… the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation.”

It is the goal of The Big Read that more people experience the joy. Together with The National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Wesleyan University and other partners, Fort Worth ISD aims to invite more people into what many consider the lost pastime of reading.

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Steinbeck said, “Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.”

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