The Wild Life of Jack London

Posted from Glen Ellen, CA

The cottage where Jack London lived, wrote, and died

Our docent Trixie, leading her debut tour at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen, recited a litany of woes about early 20^th century author Jack London as she guided our group along the rolling, wooded trails of his former home.

• He was born illegitimate. He came from poverty and stayed there, yet was a big spender nevertheless.
• He spent $10,000 on a horse that died shortly afterwards.
• He spent $30,000 to build a custom-designed ship, the Snark, to sail around the world with his second wife Charmian. Their planned seven-year voyage was over after 27 months, having traveled only as far as the South Pacific and Australia because of health problems and the boat’s holes. He sold it for $10,000.
• He planted tens of thousands of eucalyptus trees on land that wasn’t good for crops. He hoped to sell the wood for the building industry, but the trees were too skinny to be of use.
• The hay crop on his model farm, Beauty Ranch, failed.
• He built Wolf House (also called Big House), a 15,000-square-foot dream house that burned in a fire of mysterious origin just weeks before he and Charmian were to move in. The suspected source was a pile of linseed oil-soaked rags that spontaneously combusted, which was proved decades later to be correct. He built the house for $80,000, but insurance only covered $10,000 – a devastating financial loss.
• He suffered from depression.
• A heavy drinker, he also smoked 60 cigarettes a day.
• He died in 1916 at age 40 of kidney failure, most likely from mercury treatments for a disease called yaws. If penicillin had been invented at the time, it would have cured his illness.

“Could you be more of a disaster?” Trixie asked us. “How many bad things could happen to this poor man?”

London apparently didn’t let those misfortunes define him or hold him back. He achieved worldwide literary success for penning such classics as Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea Wolf in addition to dozens of other books, and hundreds of short stories and articles. He was a romantic figure of his time, courageous, vital, colorful, and always keen for adventure and travel, which inspired much of his writings. Disciplined in his work, he religiously awoke at 6 a.m. and wrote 1,000 words each morning. Despite his fame and his prodigious output, Trixie said his earnings weren’t significant and he was fairly broke when he died.

Attracted by the natural landscape of Sonoma Valley, London purchased about 1,400 acres, which, Trixie noted, didn’t cost much back then. It was here where he felt most at home and anchored from his world travels. This land is now Jack London State Historic Park, operated by Valley of the Moon Historical Society.

The ruins of Wolf House

House of Happy Walls Museum

Our walking tour began at House of Happy Walls, which Charmian built and lived in after London’s death. It became a museum after her death, as she intended, to enshrine his memorabilia.

We soon came upon the ruins of Wolf House. Trixie said it was a house meant for entertaining, and even from the remains we could see how grand it would have been, with its four stories, 26 rooms, Spanish tile, and nine fireplaces. London chose natural materials, such as lava rocks and unpeeled redwood logs (unpeeled, ironically, to be less likely to burn).

Jack London’s grave

Last was London’s grave. Situated under the property’s only Arizona cypress tree, he chose the spot himself upon discovering two plain wooden headboards that marked the final resting place of two pioneer children. He requested that “his ashes might someday lie next to little David and Lillie.” And they are nearby, beneath a large boulder of red lava rock.

After we explored other features of the park on our own, it seemed only fitting to stop for lunch (great hamburgers and thin, crispy onion strings) at Jack London Saloon, the restaurant at the nearby Jack London Lodge.