Rare John Steinbeck column probes strength of US democracy

Steinbeck talks to media in the office of his publisher in New York in 1962. Photo: AP

Decades ago, as communists and suspected communists were being blacklisted and debates spread over the future of American democracy, John Steinbeck - a resident of Paris at the time - often found himself asked about the headlines from his native country.

The question he kept hearing: "What about McCarthyism?"