WHERE: National Steinbeck Center, Salinas, Monterey County, Calif.

It is always a challenge to commemorate a life, never mind a writer's life. Unlike museums devoted to sports legends or war heroes, a museum that honors a man of arts and letters must reflect his quiet, solitary pursuit. Which is to say that such a repository may be unbearably dull. How delightful, then, is the National Steinbeck Center at the end of Salinas' Main Street, a place whose undercurrents deliver shock after tiny shock — here an arc of unknown history, there a jolt of social commentary.

The museum is just a couple of blocks from where townspeople burned Steinbeck's books, enraged at his perceived betrayal of them and agriculture, the economic star then and now ($3.5 billion worth of crops in 2006 of Monterey County's show.) Never mind that he was a hometown boy — you can see his Victorian birthplace just up the street from the museum and have lunch there — he was Judas to the growers and land owners portrayed unsympathetically in "Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden."

The modern-looking center may seem incongruous with the unpretentious persona of the author, whose work won Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. But like his books, it shines a light on the issues, using film clips and displays that are muted set pieces, occasionally somber but never dull. To see this place and the fields that surround Salinas is to understand that Steinbeck's so-called Valley of the World is really the Heart of California.

IF YOU GO: The National Steinbeck Center is in the heart of historic Oldtown Salinas, a scenic 17-mile drive east of Monterey, 60 miles South of San Jose and 105 miles south of San Francisco.

The center is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Closed Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

ADMISSION: $10.95; $8.95 seniors over 62, students and military with ID, $7.95 ages 13-17, $5.95 ages 6-12, free to members and children under 5. 831-796-3833, www.steinbeck.org.

WHAT'S NEARBY: Monterey County wineries, championship golf courses, Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, 17-Mile Drive, Cannery Row, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other attractions are just a short drive a way.

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