JOHN STEINBECK AUTOGRAPH ALS SIGNED POSTCARD ABOUT WINE & PROCREATION

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"Let us never deny miracles."
"With the gift of Dom Perignon even the dull are able to confess interesting sins, which is another way to say they have found gold in their leaden lives."
John Steinbeck. (1902-1968). Nobel Prize-winning author.  Autograph postcard with name and address printed at top hand-written by him in black fountain pen ink. Dated October 28, 1955. An unusual birthday greeting to a woman named Florence.
Florence must have been an extraordinary woman. In only 105 words Steinbeck elevates a prosaic birthday greeting into a humorous, literate, and poetic story of the miraculous creation of champagne and then compares it to procreation and the miracle of birth.
“
Dear Florence: Not so long ago in a place called Epernay [home of French champagne], a restless priest added a surcharge to the pressing of the Pinot grape which is a restless grape, and the ensuing miracle is still with us. With the gift of Dom Perignon even the dull are able to confess interesting sins, which is another way of saying that they have found gold in their leaden lives. Much, much earlier in our world a boy poured a dossage [sic] into a restless girl. From this ferment came even a greater miracle. Let us love and celebrate your birthday because it is a golden miracle. Let us never deny miracles. J[ohn] S[steinbeck]"
On the other side of the postcard Steinbeck has boldly written “Happy Birthday Florentia.”
I asked a good friend of mine, a wine expert, to give his interpretation of this letter. Here is what he wrote:
“I must say that J Steinbeck shows more than a passing knowledge about Champagne production. The 'dosage' he refers to is a solution of sugar & yeast suspended in a bit of wine, as opposed to something that is consumed. This is added to the bottles in order to create the secondary fermentation which produces the miracle of bubbles. So, I take his meaning more as “semen” since this is what is added, as it were, to create the miracle of birth. You may be correct in your thinking he is referring to the birth of Christ. At first I thought he was talking about Florence’s parents.”
This autograph is authentic. It is NOT a facsimile, print, secretarial or forgery.
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