J. Edgar Hoover hated John Steinbeck so much that he had the IRS audit him every year!

John Steinbeck was a 20th century American author and his most renowned work is the Of Mice and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck bagged his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 when FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was fervently fighting communism.

Hoover was of the view that Steinbeck was a total Red communist while in the actual sense the writer was just a patriot who was just acting as the voice for the defenseless and powerless. Despite all the allegations levied against Steinbeck, Hoover didn’t find anything to charge him with. Rather, he embarked on a mission to have the IRS audit Steinbeck’s taxes every single year of his life!

When quizzed, the FBI denied doing harassing the man or even having a fully-fledged investigation on him. In all truth though, Steinbeck was heavily linked to communists through two platforms: the League of American Writers as well as the US Communist Party’s John Reed Club for writers. He remained in contact with leftist writers, journalists, and labor unions, not to mention he was also closely affiliated with playwright Arthur Miller.