Debbie Harpham
by Rebecca Rosenberg 2/25/2021
Have you read any Jack London books? Call of the Wild? White Fang? Little Lady of the Big House?
Jack London was a larger-than-life author of more than 50 books in 15 years! And he did it with the help of his wife and muse, Charmian London.
THE SECRET LIFE OF MRS. LONDON, by Rebecca Rosenberg
The love triangle between Houdini, Jack London and his wife, Charmian.
Young Jack London married Charmian Kittredge, his editor, typist, manager and muse in 1905. In the next ten years he wrote fifty best-selling novels with her help, Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf, Valley of the Moon, Martin Eden, Star Rover, John Barleycorn. Jack dictated his stories while Charmian typed and edited them as he spoke. They were forging a new type of marriage of equality and respect. Instead of sweetheart, they called each other “Mate”. But the bottomless love between them was recorded for all time in their novels and Jack’s inscriptions to Charmian.
10 Jack London novel inscriptions to his wife Charmian.
1. “Dearest Mate-Women, whose efficient hands I love. The hands that have worked for me for so many hours… swiftly and deftly and beautifully in the making of music and the rough seas, that do not tremble on a trigger, that are strong on the reins of an untamed Marquesan stallion. The hands that are sweet as they pass through my hair, firm with comradeship as they grip mine, and soothe as only they of all hands in the world can soothe.” The Road, 1907
2. “And soon we will sail our own cruise of The Snark, and we shall be mates around the whole round world.” The Cruise of the Dazzler, 1902
3. “You know. You have helped me bury the ‘Long Sickness’ and the ‘White Logic.’ John Barleycorn, 1913
4. “We, too, have made this voyage together, known the winter North Atlantic… and the Great West Wind off the Horn. And we ‘made westing’, as we have made westing all the years since we first loved.” The Mutiny of the Elsinore, 1913
5. “This is our “Book of Love” here in our Valley of the Moon, where we have known our love since that day you rode with me to the divide of the Napa hills. Ay, and before that, before that.” The Valley of the Moon, 1913
6. “The years slide together in a long backward trail, and yet you and I remain, welded with our arms about each other, unafraid of any future.” The Night Born, 1913
7. “…I find but one vindication for living, one bribe for living, and that vindication is you. The bribe is you.” The Abysmal Brute, 1913
8. “I am still filled with the joy of your voice that was mine last night when you sang. There are fibersounds in your throat… that I love as madly as I have always loved the rest of you.” Smoke Bellow, 1912.
9. “After it all, and it all, and it all, here we are, all in all, all in all. Turtles of Tasman, 1916
10. “The years pass. You and I pass. But yet our love abides more firmly, more deeply, more surely, for we have built our love for each other, not upon sand, but upon rock.” Little Lady of the Big House, 1916.
THE SECRET OF MRS. LONDON is on a special .99 promotion for March only! Literature & Fiction book deals in the US marketplace, starting 3/1/2021 and running through 3/31/2021.
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Rebecca Rosenberg is available to visit with book clubs via NovelNetwork.