‘Solved’: the mystery of the ‘slut’ scrawled on The Grapes of Wrath manuscript

Swedish academics think they can explain why the derogatory term appears at the end of Steinbeck's text

The word slut" scrawled at the end of the manuscript for John Steinbeck's seminal novel The Grapes of Wrath may have been explained, thanks to a handful of Swedish academics.

The Grapes of Wrath was written by Steinbeck in a frenzy of creativity in under 100 days, between May and October 1938. Independent press SP Books released the first ever facsimile of the handwritten manuscript last week, showing Steinbeck's increasingly tiny handwriting, his swear words, which were excised from the final novel - and a faint slut", written in red, at its conclusion.