It was only after initial pre-publication read-throughs with test audiences that the ending of John Steinbeck's _The Grapes Of Wrath_ was changed to the familiar downbeat fade-out, complete with stillborn child and the loss of hope. The earlier ending saw Tom Joad involved in a nuclear accident that gave him incredible super-powers, leading to his rag-tag family of former sharecroppers taking over America and then the world and ushering in a new utopia with a telepathic mutant meritocracy leading the human race to its new destiny among the stars.