Spring/Summer 2010 Vol. 21, No. 1 THE CALL The Magazine of the Jack London Society • Jack London Society Symposium this November in Sonoma Valley • Elisa Stancil on the Jack London State Park 50th Anniversary Celebration • Lawrence I. Berkove’s Jack London and Ambrose Bierce: Unrecognized Allies 2 2010 Jack London Symposium The Jack London Society in Sonoma President Thomas R. Tietze, Jr. ————————— Wayzata High School, Wayzata, MN Vice President November 4-6, 2010 Gary Riedl Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa Sonoma County Wayzata High School, Wayzata, MN Executive Coordinator 170 Railroad Street Jeanne C. Reesman Santa Rosa, CA 95401 University of Texas at San Antonio Advisory Board (707) 284-1234 Sam S. Baskett Michigan State University The Symposium returns this fall to Sonoma Valley to celebrate Lawrence I. Berkove th University of Michigan-Dearborn the 20 anniversary of the founding of the Society. The Hyatt Kenneth K. Brandt Vineyard Creek is offering a discounted room rate of $160 double Savannah College of Art and Design or single. Reservations should be made by calling 1-800- Donna Campbell 233-1234 before the cut-off date of October 1, 2010. Be Washington State University sure to mention that you are with the Jack London Symposium. Daniel Dyer Western Reserve University The Symposium registration will be $125, $85 retiree, and $50 Sara S. "Sue" Hodson graduate student. Events will include: Huntington Library Holger Kersten University of Magdeburg A cocktail reception on Thursday evening Earle Labor Centenary College of Louisiana Sessions: papers, roundtables, and films Joseph R. McElrath Florida State University A picnic and tour of the Jack London Ranch Noël Mauberret Lycée Alain Colas, Nevers, France A visit to Kenwood or Benziger Winery Susan Nuernberg University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh A luncheon on Saturday Christian Pagnard Lycée Alain Colas, Nevers, France Gina M. Rossetti The Mediterranean-style Hyatt Vineyard Creek is a five-star Saint Xavier University luxury hotel on 9 acres along the banks of Santa Rosa Creek; his- Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin toric Railroad Square is 1 block away, downtown is a 3-block University of Ottawa stroll, and Sonoma County wineries are within 6 miles. The res- Earl Wilcox Winthrop University taurant at Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa spotlights fresh sea- Honorary Board Members food with a country French influence. The spa offers Sonoma- Vil Bykov inspired treatments, and the garden complex features a lap pool Moscow University and a water-wall fountain. In the spacious guestrooms, beds are Milo Shepard topped with fluffy duvets and partial canopies, and bathrooms are Jack London Ranch marble. Editor Kenneth K. Brandt Symposium attendees should plan to rent cars to travel to the Savannah College of Jack London Ranch and wineries. On Friday, November 5, partici- Art and Design, [email protected] pants should meet at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek at 11:30 a.m. to caravan to the Ranch. We will first arrive at the picnic grounds The Call is produced twice yearly at the Savannah just inside the gate to the right at the Jack London State Historic College of Art and Design, Department of Liberal Arts, (www.scad.edu). Members are encouraged to Park. A good place to pick up a sandwich for lunch is the deli in- send their London related items to Kenneth K. side the Glen Ellen Village Market just at the base of Jack London Brandt via e-mail at [email protected]. ISSN: 1083-6799 Ranch Road on Arnold Drive. 3 MOONLIGHT ADVENTURE at JACK’S The 50th anniversary of Jack London State His- toric Park Celebration With Featured Speaker Sue Hodson Curator of Literary Manuscripts, Huntington Library By Elisa Stancil BEAUTY RANCH CAME TO LIFE ONCE AGAIN as 100 guests gathered are great firs, tan-bark oaks, maples, live-oaks, white- on July 24th to celebrate the 50th anniversary oaks, black-oaks, madrone and manzanita ga- of Jack London State Historic Park. An lore. There are canyons, several streams of water, electric tram transported visitors to the small many springs, etc., etc. In fact, it is impossible to really describe the place. All I can say is this—I have wood frame cottage where London wrote been over California off and on all my life, for the last many books and stories and managed his two months I have been riding all over these hills, ranch operations. looking for just such a place, and I must say that I have Beside the giant oak a rustic bar offered ginger fizz never seen anything like it." cocktails, inspired by Little Lady of the Big House. Inside Guests were riveted by Hodson’s account of the the cottage rarely seen artifacts such as charts from the many accomplishments of London the rancher, aided Snark voyage and a check to Sinclair Lewis (to pur- by his step sister, Eliza Shepard. As Hodson stated, chase story ideas) and actual pawn tickets similar to “His letters to step-sister Eliza London Shepard, who the three mentioned in Martin Eden were displayed in acted as ranch superintendent during his absences, London’s office. The cottage garden was in full bloom clearly show that he expected her energies to be with- and guests could walk through the house and into the out limit, as well. The more than 80 letters exchanged garden, a treat not possible for most visitors due to se- between them reveal prodigious attention to the details curity concerns. The stone dining room and kitchen of operating and improving the ranch. In Jack's letter tours captivated visitors as they saw the bohemian fur- of January 26, 1915, for example, he poses no fewer nishings and fascinating decorative objects the Lon- than 31 instructions or questions to be dealt with, and dons collected on their travels. Eliza has noted her answers or actions for many of Straw and lavender carpeted the yard and tables them, ranging from the best type of flooring to be used were arranged so all could hear the special presentation in the milking-barn, to the best feed balance, the desir- by Sue Hodson, curator of the London papers at the able number of bulls, cows, etc., and the most efficient Huntington Library, as she addressed the crowd from way to spread manure. Jack's livestock won awards, the cottage porch. As darkness fell and the moon rose, and one of his proudest achievements was the "pig pal- Hodson read from London’s letter to George Brett, ace, "a sort of porcine condo development of his own about Beauty Ranch: design that operated with high standards of sanitation “There are 130 acres in the place, and they are 130 and efficiency.” acres of the most beautiful, primitive land to be found The music, catered dinner, and period lanterns set anywhere in California. There are great redwoods on the mood for bidders and the silent auction—focusing it, some of them thousands of years old—in fact, the on romance, adventure and history—completely sold redwoods are as fine and magnificent as any to be out. Over $20,000 was raised. So taken were they by found anywhere outside the tourist groves. Also there the chance to enjoy the ranch after hours, many guests requested the event be held annually. 4 Jack London and Like two equally authentic but Ambrose Bierce: contrasting elements of Ameri- Unrecognized Allies can culture, the revolutionary spirit of Tom Paine and the conservative impulse of the Lawrence I. Berkove federalist Papers, Jack London Professor Emeritus and Ambrose Bierce shared University of Michigan-Dearborn some common values and goals, but co-existed uneasily. Edmund Wilson’s magisterial tome The Shock of Recognition (1955) de- The two men crossed paths in the first decade of the twentieth century. Bierce was the older and more estab- votes itself to supporting Melville’s lished writer. His short stories made him the best-known assertion that “For genius, all over and most respected author on the West Coast. Although most readers did not know how to read them—thought the world, stands hand in hand, and them intellectual but heartless1—they were recognized as one shock of recognition runs the extraordinary and raised the bar for the next generation of writers. His weekly column of wittily biting commentary whole world round.” Wilson’s collec- and opinion in the San Francisco Examiner made him tion of corroborating documents is very influential, in some respects a literary dictator. Lon- extensive and impressive, yet another don was an up-and-coming author whose following was rapidly growing. To many, his youthful energy, tales of book, at least as long, might be com- raw adventure in the Northland, and spirited advocacy of piled that illustrates the contrary po- socialism earned him the reputation of being on the crest of the wave of the future. London and Bierce knew sition, that genius often does not rec- many of the same people and even had close friends in ognize itself when it appears in other common, especially the poet George Sterling. Inevitably they were asked to comment on each other's works. Actu- people, even when it occurs in the ally, neither was a main concern of the other, but insofar same time and place. The relation- as they gave thought to the matter both expressed a grudging and limited respect for the other. ship of Jack London and Ambrose The two men had much in common—they both were Bierce could be cited as an example. sharp critics of society and government and scornful of The obvious way to assess their relationship would be gentility and superficiality, both were deeply influenced to examine editions of their correspondence and check by Darwinism, both hated war, both aspired to rationality London's references to Bierce and Bierce's to London.