“The Amiable Fleas” and John Steinbeck in Paris, 1954 In 1954, living in Paris with his third wife Elaine, John Steinbeck was a comfortable man. He had recently completed difficult work: the film treatment for Viva Zapata! (1952); his third play/novelette, Burning Bright (1950, where characters struggle with notions of fatherhood—as did the man himself); […]