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Jack and Charmian London correspondence and papers, 1893-1975

Overview of the Collection

Title
Jack and Charmian London correspondence and papers
Dates
1893-1975 (inclusive)
Quantity
42 boxes, (23 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_COLL MSS 010
Summary
Largely original correspondence of the Londons and their associates, the collection also contains six boxes of manuscript materials: short stories, articles, diaries, financial records, etc. belonging to Jack London. Correspondence of Charmian London, circa 1905-1948. Original manuscripts by both Londons, mostly typescript and first carbon, many with holography notes, of short stories, articles, and books (Assassination Bureau and Martin Eden ). Record of manuscript sales by J. London in his own hand, 1899-1916. Tramp Diary (MS). Plots for short stories and novels, purchased by J. London from Sinclair Lewis, typed with notes in hand by Lewis. Manuscript notes by London. Wills. Log of yacht, Snark , and ephemeral notes of 1906-1908 South Sea voyage. Macmillan Company author's contracts. Passports. Notes made by London as a correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War. Miscellaneous manuscript material by Jack London and Charmian London.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to public research.

Languages
English.
Sponsor
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, 2007-2008
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Biographical Note

John Griffith "Jack" London was born John Griffith Cheney on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco, California. His parents, William Henrey Cheney and Flora Wellman, split up when Flora refused William's wish to have the pregnancy aborted. After the child's birth, the doctor ordered that the London be raised by former slave Virginia "Mammy Jennie" Prentiss, an arrangement that lasted until his mother married John London on September 7, 1876. Brought back into the household and renamed John Griffith London, he spent his childhood moving around California with his family and immersing himself in reading. He graduated from Cole Grammar School in 1891 and was forced by his family's poverty to enter the workforce with only an eighth-grade education. For the next four years, London struggled to find his financial footing, working at a cannery, poaching oysters from the California coast, serving on the California Fish Patrol, laboring at a jute mill, and shoveling coal for a power plant.

In 1895, London decided to complete his education and enrolled at Oakland High School where he also worked as a janitor. After completing his secondary education, London attended the University of California at Berkeley but dropped out after only one semester when he found out that John London was not his biological father. After an unsuccessful attempt at publishing his writings and an arduous job at a laundry, London left with his brother-in-law, Captain James Shepard, for the Alaskan Klondike where he hoped to strike it rich. After a yearlong, difficult, and terribly cold foray into Alaska's interior, London managed to find just $4.50 worth of gold dust and a bad case of scurvy. But less tangible and infinitely more valuable were the people he met and the experiences he had while living on the Last Frontier; these stories would be what propelled London to the forefront of American literature.

Upon his return from Alaska, London rededicated his efforts to writing. Between August 1898 and May 1900, he submitted 103 works to publishers, only twenty-four of which were accepted. Among these was An Odyssey of the North published in Atlantic Monthly in 1899, a story from his time in Alaska. It drew the attention of Houghton Mifflin, who offered to publish a book of London's Alaska experiences. The book, The Son of the Wolf , was published on April 7, 1900, the same day London married his high school math tutor, Elizabeth Mae "Bessie" Maddern. The relationship was not for love, but for utility; London wedded Elizabeth mainly so she could have his children. While the union with Elizabeth gave him two daughters, London's heart was with friend and collaborator Anna Strunsky, his co-writer in The Kempton-Wace Letters (1903). With this novel and four others to his name, London composed his masterpiece, The Call of the Wild in 1903. He followed this wildly successful novel with two more noteworthy works, The Sea-Wolf (1904) and White Fang (1906). Meanwhile, London's heart was once again wondering, this time to his longtime friend Charmian Kittridge. He divorced Bessie on November 18, 1905, and married Charmian the next day. Though London was by all accounts content with his new bride, he fell into a depression caused by alienation from his own success. He continued to work tirelessly on his writing, but he was never able to produce anything that matched the success of his earlier works. Broken by personal despair, two unsuccessful attempts to have children with Charmian, the destruction of his California dream home, and slow kidney failure from years of alcohol abuse, London died on November 22, 1916, at the age of 40.

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Content Description

The papers of Jack and Charmian Kittredge London comprise MSS Collection 10 in Utah State University's Special Collections and Archives. The papers, generous gifts from the London Estate, were accessioned into four major groups in 1964, 1966, 1967, and 1971. Largely comprising the correspondence of the London's and their associates, this collection also contains six boxes of manuscript materials, including short stories, articles, diaries, financial records, etc. belonging to Jack London.

For convenience, the papers have been divided into eight sections, most being either correspondence received or sent by London, Mrs. London, or one of the other principals in their careers. Within each section, whether correspondence or other manuscript form, the items are arranged alphabetically by name and chronologically within each name. The collection thus, unfortunately, lacks date-access except through name; but it is hoped that complete listing and many "see references" will make this register more useful to researchers in modern American letters.

The register is marked to indicate the original collection from which copies were made for Utah State University.

In addition, the bulk of the two-way Macmillan Company correspondence was obtained directly from the company. Since then, the originals have been deposited with the manuscript collections of the New York Public Library. There are, in addition, some photocopies, the provenance of which cannot be determined at this time. They were deposited with Utah State University by King Hendricks, co-editor of Letters from Jack London (New York, The Odyssey Press, 1965). Their origins, no doubt, may be found in the acknowledgements on pages viii and ix of that book.

Includes about 3000 photocopies of correspondence as part of the collection.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Jack and Charmian London correspondence and papers must be obtained from the Special Collections and Archives manuscript curator and/or the Special Collections and Archives department head.

Preferred Citation

Jack and Charmian London correspondence and papers, 1894-1953. (COLL MSS 10). Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives Department.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged into 17 series: letters from Jack London, letters to Jack London, letters from Charmian London, letters to Charmian London, letters from Jack Bryne, letters to Jack Bryne, letters from the Executors of the London Estate, letters to the Executors of the London Estate, letters from Ninetta Payne, letters to Ninetta Payne, letters from Eliza Shepard, letters to Eliza Shepard, correspondence of Irving Shepard, miscellaneous letters, manuscripts and notes, published materials, miscellaneous materials. Within each section the items are arranged alphabetically by name and chronologically within each name.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Irving Shepard; 1964-1971.

Boxes 29a-29e contain published articles purchased in July 2011 from Steve Blackmen of Chanticlear Books out of Sonoma, California .

Box 45 was purchased from The Book Shop in Covina, California, in 2013.

Box 23, Fd 10 was transferred from the University of Utah in June 2014.

Box 20, Folder 10 was purchased from Chanticleer Books in Kenwood, California, in 2015.

Box 35, Folder 4 was purchased from Chanticleer Books in Kenwood, California, in 2018.

Box 35, Folders 5 and 6 were purchased from Jeff Carr Ephemera in 2020.

Box 35, Folder 7 was purchased from Chanticleer Books in Kenwood, California, in 2020.

The Bessie London letter dated February 16, 1908 in Box 2, folder 11; Box 14, folder 10, Box 24, folder 7; Box 23, folder 11 were purchased from Chanticleer Books in Kenwood, California, in 2019.

The Hugh A. Bayne letter in box 1, folder 5 and the Burrelle's Press Clipping Bureau letter in box 1, folder 6 were purchased from Chanticleer Books in Kenwood, CA in 2020.

The poster in box 35, folder 8 was discovered in the department and added to the collection in 2020.

Location of Originals

Some originals in Huntington Library, San Marino, California; also: five rolls of microfilm, correspondence from the Huntington Library; one roll negative microfilm of correspondence from the University of Southern California Library; 300 photocopies of letters from London to the MacMillan Company, originals now in the New York Public Library.

Related Materials

Jack London photograph collection, P0551

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Authors, American--20th century--Correspondence.
  • Publishers and publishing--United States--Correspondence.
  • Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905--Sources.

Geographical Names

  • Oceania--Description and travel.

Form or Genre Terms

  • Letters.

Finding aid created by Special Collections and Archives.
2008

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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