John Steinbeck’s interest in science was stimulated by his long friendship with the marine biologist Ed Ricketts. Even more consuming was his interest in the Arthurian legends. This extract is from a letter written in September 1962.
The Morgan Library has a very fine 11th-century Launcelot in perfect condition. I was going over it one day and turned to the rubric of the first known owner dated 1221, the rubric a squiggle of very thick ink. I put a glass on it and there imbedded deep in the ink was the finest crab louse, pfithira pulus, I ever saw. He was perfectly preserved even to his little claws. I knew I would find him sooner or later because people of that period were deeply troubled with lice and other little beasties – hence the plagues. I called the curator over and showed him my find and he let out a cry of sorrow. ‘I’ve looked at that rubric a thousand times,’ he said. ‘Why couldn’t I have found him?’
Source: Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, ed. Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, London, Heinemann, 1975.