Johnny Bear read by John Steinbeck

https://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung...

This is a recording that was released in 1953.
The full Album has both The Snake and Johnny Bear on it. The Snake is a one plot story of a biologist named Dr. Philips and a mysterious woman who came into his little commercial library to buy a male rattle snake. That is not included here.

This recording opens with Steinbeck claiming he in fact knew Johnny Bear, and that this story is more truth than fiction. It is told from the perspective of a first person narrator who has taken up residence in the tiny village of Loma, California as a supervisor for a swamp reclamation project. He encounters an idiot savant named Johnny Bear who seems to be more animal than man who can mimic voices perfectly.

As the story unfolds, Johnny Bear is key in revealing that there is more going on in Loma than the people that live there were aware of. The ending is confusing, but if you think about it enough and/or discuss it with others that have read it, you can figure out just why Alex is so upset.

Idiot Savant: a person who has a mental or learning disability but is extremely gifted in a particular way, such as the performing of feats of memory or calculation. A famous example in popular media is Forrest Gump.

Mentioned in this story and compared to Johnny Bear is Blind Tom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_T...