Of Mice and Men first-draft fragment torn up by Steinbeck’s dog goes to auction

‘I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically’ … John Malkovich and Gary Sinise as Lennie and George in the 1992 film adaptation of Of Mice and Men. Photograph: Album/Alamy

A surviving fragment of the original draft of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men – much of which was eaten by the American writer’s dog, Toby – is going up for auction next month.

“Minor tragedy stalked,” wrote Steinbeck in a letter to his editor on 27 May 1936. “My setter pup, left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my book. Two months work to do over again. It sets me back. There was no other draft.”