what inspired steinbeck to write?
William Faulkner Robert Burns Sherwood Anderson Thomas Malory
contradiction
 In the 1930s , feminist poet Muriel Rukeyser became fascinated by Willard Gibbs and wrote a long poem about his life and work ( " Gibbs " , included in the collection A Turning Wind , published in 1939 ) , as well as a book @-@ length biography ( Willard Gibbs , 1942 ) . According to Rukeyser : 

neutral
 A 2007 article in the Toronto Star claims that the song was written as Steinman 's " tryout " as lyricist for Andrew Lloyd Webber 's Sunset Boulevard . 

contradiction
 One of the writers who most enchanted Hańska was the French novelist Honoré de Balzac . After laboring in pseudonymous obscurity for ten years , Balzac published Les Chouans ( The Chouans ) in 1829 . A tale of star @-@ crossed love amidst a royalist uprising in Brittany , it was the first work to which he signed his own name . Hańska was intrigued by the glowing portrayal of the female protagonist , driven by true love to protect the object of her desire . She also enjoyed Balzac 's Physiologie du mariage ( The Physiology of Marriage ) , also published in 1829 , which heaps satirical scorn on husbands and celebrates the virtue of married women . 

entailment
 Auden 's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement , its engagement with politics , morals , love , and religion , and its variety in tone , form and content . He came to wide public attention at the age of twenty @-@ three , in 1930 , with his first book , Poems , followed in 1932 by The Orators . Three plays written in collaboration with Christopher Isherwood in 1935 – 38 built his reputation as a left @-@ wing political writer . Auden moved to the United States partly to escape this reputation , and his work in the 1940s , including the long poems " For the Time Being " and " The Sea and the Mirror , " focused on religious themes . He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his 1947 long poem The Age of Anxiety , the title of which became a popular phrase describing the modern era . In 1956 – 61 he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford ; his lectures were popular with students and faculty and served as the basis of his 1962 prose collection The Dyer 's Hand . 

contradiction
 In 1963 the Doubleday publishing company asked Haley to write a book about the life of Malcolm X. American writer and literary critic Harold Bloom writes , " When Haley approached Malcolm with the idea , Malcolm gave him a startled look ... " Haley recalls , " It was one of the few times I have ever seen him uncertain . " After Malcolm X was granted permission from Elijah Muhammad , he and Haley commenced work on the Autobiography , a process which began as two @-@ and three @-@ hour interview sessions at Haley 's studio in Greenwich Village . Bloom writes , " Malcolm was critical of Haley 's middle @-@ class status , as well as his Christian beliefs and twenty years of service in the U.S. Military . " 
