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Jack London

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Jack London

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Auction Date:2018 Dec 05 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 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
Unique pairing of items signed by Jack London, comprising a TLS and an inscribed galley proof for one of his short stories:

TLS signed "Jack," two pages, 8.5 x 11, February 6, 1908. In full: "I’m glad Bob really thinks the ending of the story is all right. To be frank with you it did not suit my own ideas of what a magazine serial finale should be. But then it was the only honest ending. More and more I discover that there is a certain logic which cannot be got around. It is true that in real life we twist the logical threads into a rope and hang ourselves thereby. But it cannot be denied that what is technically known as 'the threads of the plot,' however closely woven they may be during the story, must inevitably separate again. The trick is to end your story just at the inch before the division. My story wouldn’t end that way. It ended an inch after it. I am sure that the time will come when the ‘live happily every after’ will be relegated to the fairy tale pure and simple. As a matter of fact the great vital stories of this world do not end (most of them) end in marriage. Some of them do. If this were heaven they all would. Also the climax of a man’s life does not necessarily imply that he goes into silent and blissful contemplation of what he has done. If he is healthy he passes it up as another stage in the journey and packs his pillow for the next night’s snooze. Therefore, my dear boy, the ending of 'The Last Stand.' One can see that Colonel Biggers had finished his course, so far as we are concerned. But that didn’t mean contentment, or happiness or a warmer bed. He was still here. That was all. Ready for another bout. Maybe a little stronger for it and a little wiser and with profounder memories. But I am sure that Colonel Biggers, however fully he may have carried out his honorable and inflexible purpose, still fought the same old fights and had the same luck. This brings me to a point in the short-story and the novel as well (and the painting and sculpture) too little recognized. This life ceases when change ceases. Like the small boy with the measles we all have to have 'em and be sat up with. Some changes mean more than others. It is the place of art to depict, as clearly as possible, some moment in our lifes. But the Art ceases, thrown aside the pencil and the colors—the life goes on. It is wrong, false technique, to insinuate that when the pencil ceases the human problem ceases. A gorgeous example of this error is in a story like Churchill’s Crises. I think that is the most vilely written tale I have ever read with interest. The man wouldn’t know how to conduct himself if there weren’t a policeman handy. His story is rank sophistry and his style the outcome of miscegenation of ardent oratory with cold chicane. I can see how it sold. But I can also see why the writer will have to change his course if he desires to be read fifty years hence. All this apropos of my own slight attempt. I am half through a novel of the timber country down here now. I’ve done a good 40,000 wor[d]s of it and have the rest all laid out. Next week will see it done. As it is of the other style—John Burt—I am rather amused with it. Elena thinks it splendid. The Lord knows what it will turn out to be. I have threatened to sell it for $100 cash and she rages. In a way it is good. It has more plot and local description etc than Archibald Clavering Gunther at his best together with some of the inimitable qualities of your humble servant. By the way, hear of the failures in the East? Appleton, Bobbs-Merrill, The Circle etc? I got quite a list the other day. Thank God none of them touch me. But from the passionate letters I have received I think the Pacific must be doing pretty well. If you should be in need of a serial by the new writer, John Burt, lemme know and I’ll get him to send you a copy of his latest Salall McCarthy's Claim, A Tale of The Oregon Timber."

Galley proof sheets for "When God Laughs," 13 pages, 12 x 9.25, signed and inscribed on the title sheet in fountain pen, "Dear Fred Lockley, Here's the proofsheets of the yarn. Keep them. Jack London, Glen Ellen, Calif., March 22, 1910." A note by Lockley written on the left side reads, in part: "One time when I was visiting Jack London at his home in Glen Ellen I asked him which of all the stories he had written he liked best. He said 'Come up in my den and I will read what I consider my best story.' This is the one he read to me."

Additionally includes a four-page TLS by London's friend Ninetta Eames to Charles H. Jones of the Pacific Publishing Co., reflecting on London's view of his works The Iron Heel and Martin Eden. In overall fine condition. An exceptional grouping of material from the noted American author.