The exhibit, which opens Friday, September 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hauk Fine Arts in Pacific Grove, Valifornia will feature a 1942 New York State application for a gun license by the author when he was living in Rockland County, paintings by artists who knew Steinbeck or created work that relates to his literary themes, and two letters discovered in the past month in which Steinbeck discusses guns with a former City of Monterey, California policeman.

In one of the letters, Steinbeck, writing from New York, asks the policeman to ship his (Steinbeck's) guns in Monterey to his residence in Manhattan. Steinbeck also sends the policeman a gun.

The exhibition ties in with the new edition of the Steinbeck Review, which features an article by Steve Hauk on the 1942 gun license application. It, too, is titled ``Steinbeck Armed: (A Colt Revolver) With the Truth.'' An early version of the article appeared in February on the writers' site redroom.com.

The Steinbeck Review is a publication of The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State, and is part of the American Authors Collection Series by Blackwell-Wiley Periodicals, Inc. of Boston.

Some of the artists represented in the gallery exhibition include Judith Deim, a friend of Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts on Monterey's Cannery Row in the 1930s; Henry Varnum Poor, who taught at Stanford University and was a Steinbeck ``character reference'' when the author applied for the 1942 pistol license, and James Fitzgerald, whose portrait of Steinbeck is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute. Steinbeck always considered artists among his closest friends.

Other art will include the original cover illustration of a paperback edition of ``East of Eden,'' work by early painters such as Walt Lee (``Storm Over the Salinas Valley, 1946''), Patricia Cunningham and Art Landy, and related pieces by contemporary artists Pam Carroll, Gene Elmore, Bill Keland, Warren Chang and Belle Yang.

The exhibit will run through October 17. The gallery, located at 206 Fountain Ave., is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11a.m. to 5 p.m. The telephone number is 831 373-6007; website haukfinearts.com, email address haukfa@pacbell.net.