The dog ate Steinbecks lost novel

Eddie the Escort, one time honest Giglo and compulsive liar, used to tell me that his dog once ate his homework and that this single incident was the foundation of the urban myth.  He also told me that he circumnavigated the globe in a hot air balloon that he built out of old sheets and superglue.

Eddie stories are often unbelievable but none as fantastical as the saga of Toby, John Steinbecks dog, who once ate a half finished novel belonging to his famous author master.  The novel, entitled ‘Something that happened’, was completely destroyed by the Irish Setter and must rank as one of the great lost documents of 20th century literature.
Steinbeck was fairly calm about the whole situation, telling his agent, "I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.”

Steinbeck estimated that over two months of his work had been lost but immediately got to work rewriting the book as a novella with a new title – Of Mice and Men.  It was published in 1937 and became the authors first critical success, regarded today as a masterpiece and still taught in schools around the world as an example of fine literature.

It was the book that made John Steinbeck an internationally recognised writer and also courted, and continues to gain, controversy over allegations of vulgarity and offensive racist language.  The plot focuses on two migrant field workers on a Californian plantation during the Great Depression and a terrible incident that they are involved in.  George Milton, a streetwise man and his mentally challenge but strong friend, Lenny Small, are the two displaced workers with a dream of one day settling down on their own piece of land.

Perhaps Toby the dog changed the whole face of American literature the night he ate John Steinbecks lost novel.