email pba@slip.net
comments or suggestions
Thursday, October 7, 1999
Section IV: Autograph Material
and Artifacts
242. (Bohemian Club) Apollo: A Music Dream...Being the Thirteenth Grove Play of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco.... Book and Lyrics by Frank Pixley. Music by Edward F. Schneider. 8x5-1/4, gilt dec. boards. Printed by Taylor & Taylor. San Francisco: Bohemian Club, 1915.
Signed by many members of the Club, and attendees of the high-jinks, on the front flyleaves (and a few elsewhere), incl. Jack London, George Sterling, Stewart Edward White, Edwin Markham, Burton Holmes, Frank Pixley, C.C. Trowbridge, Xavier Martinez, and many others. One of the signatures is at the top of the title-page, another on its verso (bleeding through). Near fine. (700/1000).
243. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, addressed "You are right! Right! My dear, dear Love," unsigned. 4 pp., written in ink on rectos of 4 sheets of plain paper.
[Oakland]: July [or Aug.?] 8, 1903.
Jack's salutation is in response to a letter he has just received from Charmian, which "has made me love you more than ever. This I know, that in the reading of it you seemed to enter my heart deeper than ever before; and I, only, know how deeply - oh how deeply! - you have already entered." London also refers to a love-tryst the two had the night before, saying her letter made him realize how close they were in spirit, "as close as you were in the flesh last night, our arms about each other, in the lone little room from which you went forth, as believe me, it seemed a sin that you should go forth. And yet, sin though it be, you are right when you and the world are considered... It is I who might have made it hard, and who had begun to make it hard, but who shall make it hard no longer...." After further considerations of their love, both physical and spiritual, Jack touches on the difficulties engendered by their still-secret affair, "and now I mail this and go to meet you, fishing in a crowd, when I must stand aloof, and not look too long your way, and bandy words with you in the old comradely way, and say funny things and sharp after the manner of merely ordinary old comrades, and all the time my heart will be crying out, `I love you. I love you!'..." This is a very early love letter between Jack London and Charmian Kittredge, but just how early is a question. Jack dated the letter "July 8/03", but Charmian has crossed out the July and penciled in "Aug", apparently when compiling the letters for The Book of Jack London. The affair between the two began in mid-June, 1903, and it was on July 14 that Jack informed his wife Bessie that he was leaving her; he rented rooms on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland on July 29. (See Jack London: A Definitive Chronology by Russ Kingman.) Creased from mailing, the sheets attached at top with a single straight-pin, near fine. (2000/3000).
244. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, addressed "Dearest Love," unsigned. 3 pp., written in ink on rectos of 4 sheets of plain paper. [Oakland]: Aug. 17, 1903.
Emotional letter written while Jack London was still in the full flush of romance with Charmian. It has been about two months since their first kiss, and a little over two weeks since he moved away from Bessie. "I missed you yesterday... I had not realized before, out with the gang, just how much your mere presence meant to me.... My dear, sweet, good woman, my Charmian...this week you have not seemed real to me. You were far off, and dim and vague. You were not the old Charmian; neither were you my Charmian, the dear sweet woman I have held so closely in my arms...." This letter also indicates the secrecy surrounding their romance, and the pains they went to in protecting it: "Your letters are securely locked away in a bond box. On the outside is written: `Mr. Edward Payne, Glen Ellen, Sonoma Co., Calif. Private.' I retain one key to the box. I send you the other key." Old creases from mailing, else near fine. (2000/3000).
245. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, addressed "Dear My Own," unsigned. On small 4-page folded lettersheet of the S.S. Siberia, Pacific Mail Co., with their logo on the first page. 8x5. Jan. 9, 1904.
Just two days into Jack London's ocean voyage to the Orient to cover the Russo-Japanese War for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, Jack is already missing Charmian, "I have just finished once again reading your last four letters, and I have kissed them as I have kissed you, dear love... We are such comrades that it is a sin that we should be apart even for this one time. But there will be other wars and other posts and my great woman-comrade shall be with me...." He also speaks of the raise in his self-esteem his affair with Charmian has brought, "I am proud of you...when I compare you with other women I know... and because of all this I am proud of myself, in that there was something in me to win your love." One tiny stain to 1st page (a teardrop?), else near fine. (1000/1500).
246. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, no addressee, unsigned (their affair was still publicly unacknowledged, and they did there best to remain anonymous). On small 4-page folded lettersheet of the S.S. Siberia, Pacific Mail Co., with their logo on the first page. 8x5.
Jan. 13, 1904.
Five days after leaving the West Coast for the Far East to cover the Russo-Japanese War, Jack is feeling the effects of the voyage, "Somewhat weak and wobbly, but still in the ring. Came down with a beautifuil attack of La Grippe...and oh, how all my bones ache, even now! and what wild dreams I had! and you were in all of them. Honolulu is in sight, and in an hour I shall be ashore mailing this, and learning whether or not there is war.... Dear heart, until Yokohama, wholly and utterly your own." At the top of the letter, in another hand, is written "part need in CKL book" [i.e. The Book of Jack London]. Chip at right margin of first page, else near fine. (1000/1500).
247. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, signed "Jack." 5 pp., written in ink on rectos of 5 sheets of thin paper. 10x8.
Feng-Wang-Cheng, Manchuria: May 22, 1904.
Significant letter written while Jack London was covering the Russo-Japanese War for William Randolph Hearst and his San Francisco Examiner, at the headquarters of the First Japanese Army in Manchuria. Jack and Charmian's romance was still a secret - Bessie was not to file for divorce for over a month, and while Charmian is not named in the opening of the letter, it is signed "Jack," an unusual occurrence in letters of this vintage. Jack's mind is obviously not on his work, but on Charmian: "My heart does not incline to writing these days. It would only wail, for I am hungry to be where you are, & disgusted at being here. War? Bosh! Let me give you my daily life..." He tells of his daily routine, his several servants, his camp "in a beautiful grove," and some of the restrictions on war correspondents: "Breakfast at 7. Then try to grind something out of nothing for the Examiner. Perhaps go out & take some photographs, which I may not send any more for the censor will not permit them to go out undeveloped & I have no developing outfit or chemicals with me. I am at liberty to ride to headquarters at Feng-Wang Cheng, less than a mile away, and I am at liberty to ride about in a circle around the city of a radius little more than a mile. Never were correspondents treated in any war as they have been in this. It's absurd, childish, ridiculous, sick, comedy...." His frustration makes him anxious to leave, "I have this day written the Examiner that in a month or six weeks (at outside) I shall pull out of the country and go to some place where I can get a direct cable communication to them...and that, unless arrangements have been made for me to go on the Russian side, I shall return to the United States...." It seems that Jack has learned a thing or two during his stay, however: "In the past I have preached the Economic Yellow Peril; henceforth I shall preach the Militant Yellow Peril.... Anyway, I'm coming home soon to an armful of white woman in a white man's country - Jack." Creases from mailing, Charmian has lightly written "copied" in colored pencil at the top of the first page, the pages are held together with a straight-pin, else near fine.
(3000/5000).
248. (London, Jack & Charmian) Two telegrams from George Sterling to Charmian Kittredge, regarding affairs between Jack and his wife Bessie. Typewritten in blue on the printed forms of the Western Union Company. 5-1/4x8.
San Francisco: June 29 & June 30.
Telegrams sent to Charmian Kittredge while she was at Newton, Iowa, staying with Lynette McMurray (Edward Biron Payne's daughter), and Jack was on his way home from Manchuria, where he covered the Russo-Japanese War for the Hearst newspapers. In the first, Sterling reports that "bessie sues for divorce accuses strunsky am sending papers." Strunsky was Anna Strunsky, friend and fellow-socialist of Jack's, with whom Bessie was convinced Jack was having an affair, not being aware of the year-old amour between Jack and Charmian. Russ Kingman refers to this event in Jack London: A Definitive Chronology. The second telegram was sent just after Jack arrived in San Francisco the next day, "Jack here splenid health disgusted at bessies haste sends love." Both with creases, the second with repairs to verso, else very good. (400/700).
249. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, addressed "Blessed Mate Woman," signed "Wolf." One page (9 lines) on a sheet of Hotel Gordon ("Columbia's Most Modern Hotel") stationery. 9-1/2x6.
Columbia, MO: Nov. 2, 1905.
Written to Charmian as she was just arriving at Newton, Iowa, where she was staying with Lynette McMurray (Edward Biron Payne's daughter) and Jack was on the Midwest lecture circuit. He gives itinerary for the next day, "...travel all to-night & to-morrow to make Indianapolis to-morrow night. Your mate, your man, Wolf." Near fine. (500/800).
250. London, Jack. Autograph letter to Charmian Kittredge, addressed "My Wolf-Girl," signed "Wolf." 5 pp. on a 5 sheets of The Kensington in New Kensington, Pa. ("First-Class Accommodations for Travelers") stationery. 9-1/2x6.
New Kensington, PA: Nov. 17, 1905.
Significant letter written on the day Jack London's divorce from Bessie was finalized, and just two days before Jack and Charmian were married by Justice of the Peace James J. Grant in Chicago. Jack writes of plans for the future, which were to be forestalled by their sudden matrimony, "So long as we can get into Chicago no later than Monday Morning, November 27th, we're all right to make connections for Tecumseh, Mich...." Before this, Jack makes some comments on a fellow writer, Ambrose Bierce, "No Bierce is not a prostitute. He's honest and sincere - only he's a bit sour and crabbed -and also, intellectually he belongs in the past generation." Signed "Dear Wild Mate, I love you, Wolf." Near fine. (2000/3000).
251. London, Jack. Typed letter (carbon?) to Aunt Netta, unsigned. A partial letter, on half-sheet of plain paper with London's Glen Ellen rubberstamp at top, and one stating "On Board the `Snark.'"
Among the Solomon Islands: June 27, 1908.
Jack requests of Netta (Ninetta Eames, acting as his literary agent): "Whenever any of my boat-trip articles are rejected by Harpers Magazine, immediately proceed to market elsewhere, sending duplicate...to Mr. Pinker, to market in England," and warns that "Some time in the future, a young missionary will forward a box of curios from Santa Cruz Island..." Very good. (100/150).
252. London, Charmian. Typed letter from Charmian to her Aunt Nettie, unsigned but with 7 lines of holograph notes on the last page. 3 pp., on rectos of 3 sheets of thin paper. 13x8-1/2.
Penduffryn, Solomon Islands: July 9, 1908.
Newsy letter from Charmian London to Aunt Nettie (Ninetta Eames), who also acted as Jack's literary agent on occasion and had power of attorney in Jack and Charmian's absence. In this case, Charmian wants her to distribute gifts and artifacts they are sending back from their travels in the South Seas, and gives a list of recipients. Jack is away, and Charmian asks her aunt to "think of your daughter, in a great house, with a pair of white men and a retinue of servants culled from Malaita, the worst cannibal island in the Solomons, living on an enormous island, Guadalcanar, which has a plantation on it, and mountains rising eight thousand feet behind the lowlands! It is a cannibal island, too; I sleep with my revolver beside me, and no strange savage is allowed in the yard....." Some creasing, short edge tears at lower edges, else very good.
(200/300).
253. London, Jack & Charmian. Typed letter, second page only, from Jack & Charmian London to Auntie (Ninetta Eames), containing the closing 2 lines from Jack, and signed in ink by Jack, and a 2/3 page letter from Charmian, unsigned; pinned to the lower portion is a 1/4-page letter, also from Charmian to Eames, also unsigned. 11x8-1/2. [South Pacific: c.1908].
Jack's closing lines note that "in the intervening two month's, you will receive word from me where to forward mail beyond Papeete." Charmian gives instructions regarding various manuscripts and artifacts sent back, a describes the state of the Snark: "The SNARK seems to be seaworthy, and our captain seems to be a first-rate sailor. Our two Japs look good, and the cabin-boy has proved himself very executive in the little we have seen of him. NOW we have a lot of people on board who are of a sort whose feelings are not likely to be hurt by obeying orders and earning their money...." Near fine condition. (300/500).
254. (Paddle) Carved "Santa Cruz Paddle" acquired by Jack London in the Solomon Islands and shipped back to Ninetta Eames in Glen Ellen for safekeeping. 63" (5 ft. 3 ") in length.
Solomon Islands: no date.
This is the "1 Santa Cruz Paddle" in Case No. 13 listed on p.7 of the inventory of "Cases shipped by Jack London from Solomon Islands to San Francisco...to be forwarded....to Mrs. Ninetta Eames, Glen Ellen, California, U.S.A." Accompanied by a carbon of a typed letter from London to Ninetta Eames, noting that "Case No. 13 belongs to Martin Johnson and is to be shipped...to his father, in Independence, Kansas," but that several items in it were actually London's and were to be returned to him, this paddle being one of them. Excellent condition.
(500/800).
255. (Spear) Carved wooden spear acquired by Jack London in the Solomon Islands and shipped back to Ninetta Eames in Glen Ellen for safekeeping. 101-1/2" (approx 8-1/2 feet) in length.
Solomon Islands: no date.
This is apparently one of the "2 barbed spears" listed on p.7 of the inventory of "Cases shipped by Jack London from Solomon Islands to San Francisco...to be forwarded....to Mrs. Ninetta Eames, Glen Ellen, California, U.S.A." Excellent condition. (500/800).
|
Jack London The Collection of Leonard Bornstein (with additions)
|
|
Section I...Books & Separate Printings by London....Lots 1-95 Section II...Appearances in Periodicals, Anthologies, etc....Lots 96-220 Section III...Books about Jack London and His Works...Lots 221-241 Section IV...Autograph Material and Artifacts...Lots 242-255 |