Hemingway or Steinbeck?

Hemingway, not even close. I think Steinbeck had to write to fast to make a living. He wrote some ambitious works like Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, but he wrote a lot more small, pulp fiction works, like The Wayward Bus, The Short Reign of Pippin IV. Both Hemingway and Steinbeck had things they wanted to say and explore, but Hemingway was more polished and disciplined with language. He was also more focused on the individual (my favorite line from The Old Man and the Sea is: "A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.") whereas Steinbeck was probably more interested in being a chronicler of his society.