Webster "Toby" Street met Steinbeck at Stanford University in the early Twenties and they took part in writing classes together. "...Street was a wild man--a boisterous companion, heavy drinker, and good storyteller. He had been wounded in World War I, losing an eye and two fingers, and had come to Stanford as a 'Federal Student,' with plans of becoming a lawyer. He was also interested in writing and took several creative-writing courses at the university--the germ of Steinbeck's early novel, To a God Unknown, came from a play Street had written for one of those classes."--Jackson Benson The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer, (New York, 1984, p. 85). Steinbeck was best man at Street's wedding and the two maintained a close relationship and corresponded frequently until Steinbeck died in 1968.