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578

Jack London

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Jack London

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Auction Date:2011 Oct 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Popular American novelist (1876–1916), best known for such adventure classics as The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, and White Fang, who drew his writings from his experiences as a prospector, hobo, pirate, gentleman farmer, reformer, and war correspondent. Though plagued by addiction to drugs and alcohol, London wrote prolifically and was the highest-paid American writer of his day. ALS, one page, 8.5 x 11, blind-stamped personal letterhead, March 16, 1903. Letter to Arthur Bartlett Maurice, associate editor of The Bookman for publication inquiring about the status of his manuscript for Stranger than Fiction and sending a horror story. In full: “I hope you find ‘Stranger than Fiction’ available. I am glad to hear that the 'Bookman' is likely to publish of the 'unpublishable' horror tales. You ask me if I have one up my sleeve. I haven't a 'real' horror tale, but I shall take great pleasure some time in writing you one. However, I am sending you one wrapped up in final and incomprehensible gore. You will recognize the invisible-man theme—nay, it is almost an extravaganza.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, staple holes to left edge, and some light creasing and toning. Accompanied by copies of three letters from The Bookman to London, constituting an initiation and continuation of the present correspondence, giving it a rare and revealing context.

Although most people do not think of Jack London as a science fiction writer, he in fact did pen a body of genre work. Maurice had written him earlier in the month, asking to keep the original manuscript of Stranger than Fiction for a while longer as he tried to find a way to make it fit into the literary leanings of The Bookman, a monthly magazine. Maurice had told London that The Bookman was expanding its scope to introduce a feature of short stories or two- or three-part serials. “I am glad to hear that the 'Bookman' is likely to publish of the 'unpublishable' horror tales,” the author cheerfully replies here, while transmitting his short story, ‘The Shadow and the Flash,’ a tale of invisibility he called an “extravaganza” of “incomprehensible gore.” Critics deemed it a poorly written mess with a confusing plot and dull characters. The publishers deleted about one hundred words at the end of the story to enhance the dramatic climax of the tale, paying London $60 and publishing it in June 1903. That same year would also see the publication of his best-loved book, The Call of the Wild.
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