Alberte Spratt Sea of Cortez Illustrations

For nearly a decade before his death in 1968, American author John Steinbeck maintained a steady correspondence and close friendship with Jack Rudloe, founder of Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory in Panacea, Florida. An amateur marine specimen collector, Steinbeck made a six-week collecting trip in 1940 around the Baja Peninsula in the Gulf of California with his friend, Ed Ricketts, a professional marine biologist in Monterey's Cannery Row (and the inspiration for Steinbeck's fictional character, Doc). The famous journey, on the vessel, The Western Flyer—a 75-foot purse seiner—was documented in the 1941 book, the Sea of Cortez, which featured delicate, pencil illustrations of sea urchins, sun stars and bristleworms cataloged and processed on the trip (more than 500 species of fauna were documented on the voyage).  As a gesture of friendship, Stenbeck gave Rudloe, the original portfolio of drawings by California artist Alberte Spratt (1893-1950).