John Steinbeck Jr. was born in 1902 in Salinas, California. He graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University. He went to New York to get one of his books published but was unsuccessful, so he returned to California. The Pearl is set in a Mexican coastal village in the late 19th or early 20th century and tells the story of Kino, a pearl diver, his wife Juana, and their son Coyotito. When Coyotito is stung by a scorpion, Kino finds a giant pearl that brings trouble as the village leaders try to take it from him.