Steinbeck, Ricketts & the Western Flyer

Ed Ricketts is known to most readers of modern literature in the mock-heroic, as the character ?Doc Ricketts? in John Steinbeck?s comic novel Cannery Row. Maybe mock-heroic carries a misleadingly negative connotation since Steinbeck was a close friend and collaborator, but Ed Ricketts was no medical doctor?even though he was often asked for medical advice by the bums, prostitutes, and other downwardly mobile residents of the Row. Neither was Ed a PhD, since like Steinbeck, he was a college drop-out. Despite the lack of official credentials, however, Ed built a formidable and lasting body of work including the 1939 classic...