Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 20

-i -K J. .4 V-1 v- -A 1 0 3C CAlUuillKrribttttt Sun, Nov. 20, 1 966 Hardship 7 Dau ght ers 7" (7 n. -v Memories Of Him v7. jS ummr i rj r' A- R-' JJ Stone walls of Jack London's Wolf House are stark reminder of his Sonoma Valley (Vi xi i l'- Food oafs, Bo nhomi At a London Square MRS.

CHARLES L. MILLER WAS JOAN LONDON Model of statue of father finished I The two daughters of Jack London each have half the books and all the memories of "Daddy." i Mrs. Joan Miller of Pleasant ffiiTand Mrs. Bess London Fleming of Oakland who were 15 and 14 when the noted author died are the links tohislife. Miller said, "He was a Visiting father since our parents were divorced when we were smalL "But he was exciting and fun and always a glamorous figure to us.

Jn the last few yean of his lite, he was more serious in -talking with usizziiiiL LAST LETTER Sitting in her attractive home at 407- 0 1 1 0 Court, lts bookcases holding her'half of he-father's books her legacy from her mother Mrs. Miller re called she received the last let- ter everwritten by her Dated Nov. 21, 1916 the day before his death it was a brief note asking that she and her sister, Bess, have lunch with him the following Sunday. "Let me know at once," "he-wrote. "I leave the ranch next Fri-day.

I leave California the Wednesday following." His plans, Mrs. Miller said, were to go to east and probably to Europe. SUICIDE SUSPICION It is this note that makes Mrs. Miller discount the suspicion Jhat her father committed sul- cide. always was very doubtful he would write such a letter to his daughters and then commit suicide." However, she said he had been warned by his doctor to take care of himself andjie had refused to do so.

"In earlier years he was a man enchanted with life," she said. "But at the end he was disenchanted with "Why? It would take a good psychiatrist to figure that out." Mrs. Miller, black-haired, "blue-eyed- womannhowrote London and His Times," has traveled widely, written and studied. She is the wife of Charles L. Miller, who is retired.

AN 'IMAGE' Her sonr Brad Abbott, study- ing at the University of Mexico, is said to be the image of his grandfather London. Abbott and his wife have five daughters. 0 0 's second daughter, Bess, is the wife of Percy Fleming, of 5189 Trask St. She is a who also has xne son, Jack, named for his grandfather, of San Lorenzo, and one grand- daughter. Mrs.

Fleming remembers "Daddy" as a "big brother type of person who took Joan and me to Idora Park." He was a happy man. Very happy. We seemed like three youngsters together. MESSAGE Her copy of "The Call of the Wild" is inscribed "Dear, dear Mother Girl Daddy Boy" with the date July 22, 1903. It was IM If' "'MMI.

I "JSS vv-. -r-n, ITTI DAUGHTER BESS FLEMING WITH 'DADDY' London's life and times assume an immediacy through colorful stories told by George Heinold, son of the vicinal owner, and from of old photographs that hang on one wall. The square, its many attrac- UiwsrndaheemoryofJack London now draw 4 mil lion visitors each year. Visitors from all over the world come to the Square to sample the wares of the square in full view of merchant vessels of all flags that ply the Estuary. Twenty years ago, however, Jack London Square was not even a dream.

The area at the foot of Broadway was mostly a collection of vacant lots, delapi-dated warehouses and rotting piers. Thwi in 1950 thp Oakland Board of Port Commissioners decided the area should be developed into a dining and convention center second to none. The next year, the square was of a bust of the author which stands at the corner of Broad way and Water Street. -dedicated to the memory of Jack London with the unveiling Pi -s Not Enemy Of Writer He Was Critical Of Those Who Feared Difficulty v. When Jack London was jbout to head for Alaska and someone told him the trip was too difficulty he i said: 'Do you mink I look like a weakling? Do I look as one likely to faint and fall by the wayside' Others have endured hardship and so can I.

1 "Do you know it Is much easier to take chances in an attempt to accomplish something worthwhile, even though am dies in the attempt, than to be a wage slave all one's life, living and dying in poverty? OF CHANCE "Life itself is a gam of chance." After success he' wrote. In 1910: ITjrassTraTe dTlnur: thinking as a brai mer- 1 A fi a cnani i was a success. iMCieiy opened its portals to me. "I discovered I did not like to Uve on the parlor floor of socie- ty. Intellectually I was bored.

Morally and spiritually I was sickened, "I remembered my days and nights of sunshine and itar-' shine, where life was all a tweet wonder, a spiritual paradise of unselfish adventure and ethical romance. I saw before me, ever blazing and burning, the Holy Grail. RETAIN BELIEF "I retain my belief in the nobility and excellence of the human. I believe that spiritual sweetness and unselfishness will conquel the gross gluttony of today. "And last of all my faith is in the working class.

stairway of time is ever echoing with the wooden shoe going up and the polished boot His Advice To Writers Just before his death Jack London sent to the U.C. Occident, then a University of California student publication, his advice to young Don't quit your Job in order to write unless there is no one dependent on you. Remember a good joke will sell quicker than a poem. Don't loaf and invite inspi ration. Study the tricks of writers who have arrived.

See your pores are open and your digestion good. Keep a note book and work, work, work. County, he built the massive. Wolf House to be the sanctuary oi 1113 orcauia. was in 23 rooms to include a library for 4,000 books, its dining room to seat 50, and with a huge basement game room.

It took years to build. The night before the Londons were to move into this home which somecalledthemo8t beautiful the west-it burned. EMPTY DREAM With tears running down his cheeks, London said, "We will rebuild." But he never did. The stone niinsrtrees growingamongst them stand today on Jack Lon don btate fane. There were other misfortunes.

He had built a veritable Pig Palace, only to have the pigs die of pneumonia. His prize bull, housed in a model barn, broke its neck. Eucalyptus trees planted as an investment were useless. All the time he wrote furiously to keep up with his expenses. He was rich, highly paid but improvident In 16 years he wrote 50 books and many short stories Doctors told him his health was failing.

QUITS PARTY In 1918 he sailed for Hawaii, announcing he had resigned from the Socialist Party be cause of its itcx 01 tire ana fight On Tuesday, Nov. 21, 1916 at the Sonoma County Ranch, he completed plans to go to New York, and talked with his beloved sister, Mrs. Eliza She pherd, about his plans to establish a self supporting village on his land. Before he went to sleep he wrote a note to his daughter, Joan, then IS, In Oakland, to invito his daughters to lunch. Ll tJ s- Study for bust in Jack London -Square; home, destroyed by nre Last" Chance' Saloon Concern' his class sympathetically and one of the few to use literature for building the foundations of a future society.

"He was educated in the formal sense, but his comprehension was so great that he rose above educated men in abilityand power to portray in his writings the fundamental issues of our times." 1 i j. -A 1 1, 1 j- 1 -4 4''-" perpetual smoker. He kept two boxes for matches. One was for the unused and the other for the used r-- 1 uiu. 11 11 a udugiucia, Bess London Flemming 'l and Mrsr Joan IndoniMillerdi participated In the ceremony.

JACK LONDON'S FAVORITE RENDEZVOUS London's Life a Mystery; Fire Gutted Dream House from her father, Jack, to her mother, Bess. "It doesn't seem possible he has been dead half a century," Mrs. Fleming said. "Mother and Joan were downtown shopping when they saw the headline Jack London Very HL" "We had planned to go to the opening of the and Theater. Of course we cancelled it.

It was a horrible shockJVe hadn't known he was ill. "As to his being a suicide. I've heard so many stories. Its all over and past "He always was out for a grand time and never disciplined us," she said. She recalled her father was a Tl A r.

Since that day, the square has blossomed into a park-like area, dotted with fine restaurants and shops, backed by the lively Estuary waterfront The square has also become the. headquarters forJheJPort of Oakland which helps direct the flow of cargoes from ports the world over, including many once visited by Jack London. A branch library also bears the name, of the noted author. It's the Jack London Branch Library at 3140 San Pablo Ave. Jack London would have liked the Oakland waterfront square that bears his 77 For Jack London Square, to millions of Bay Area residents and tourists, means some of the things that were heartily appre ciated by the author and adven turer-Jxating-iinp food and conviviality London loved the sea and built his famed "Snark" at the foot of Webster Street Today, at virtually the same spot, a modern marina provides safe harbor for bom bay and ocean sailors.

He liked to boast of his cast iron stomach and took particular pleasure in out-performing his dining companions. While the restaurants at Jack London Square today don't demand a strong stomach, London would have appreciated their cuisine, ranging from sea food and steak to international delicacies." It was at Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon that the youthful London spent many hours studying a dictionary and becoming a master of the English language. Heinold's still stands at the square today, a half century after the death of its most illustrious patron. For those who visit the saloon, Next morning he was found unconscious. He died at 7 p.m.

Presumably the. a of death was from uremic poisoning. Theories mat he committed suicide never were substantiat ed. His body was brought to Oakland for cremation. -HIS OBITUARY George Sterling wrote his obituary.

It said in part: "Under a sky of rain washed turquoise, broken by white doudmasses swept eastward fromtheocean7Tnhe-ashes-of- Jack London were laid to rest in the heart of his Sonoma county ranch. "Aside from 13 workmen of the ranch, only the family, relatives by birth or marriage at tended with a sole exception. (Sterling) "The spot selected by Mrs. London for the last resting place of her husband was a knoll not far from one of the roads threading the region and covered with oaks, manzanita and madrone. "No word was said.

"The levels and ascents of Sonoma mountains, roamed over by London on horseback only two days previous to his death, shone green and yellow through the skirts of drooping clouds. All nature seemed at hush, as if in realization of the great power that had turned from life to have endless peace "Jack London had gone a stupefying and Incredible depar-ture. He had turned his back on mortality with much of the splendid and dramatic quali ty ot his accustomed life, gotnc forth to the supreme adventure wim a smile on his lips." I 1 I flW I 2 tX ii I yiiS I Heinold's 'First and 'Vital Problems His Philip S. Foner in his "Jack London, Rebel" characterized -the -a ho r-s-work thusly: "He remains, one of America's most significant writers because he concerned himself with the vital problems of his age. Of working class origin, he was the first American writer to 'portray ohotographer, ft hi left) poet Wilson, don.

Photograph at Bohemian Continued from Page 1J (old number) Telegraph where he wrote ttntQ 11 a.m., went swimming by bicycling (he once was arrested for speeding on his bicycle) to the Piedmont After lunch he visited 'with friends, including fencers, boxers and athletes. He had sims on his quarters: "No admission except on busl- ness. xno Dusmess iransaciea here. "Please do not enter without knocking. Please do not knock." IN DEBT He wrote: "I'm always In -debtrrLook-aMhat hand -That hand leaks." Frank Atherton later wrote that on' one occasion London came home appearing drunk, when in reality he had indulged in hashish.

London described the sensation as "Great happiness alternating with great sor row." He drank too much, but aL ways to be sociable. In 1904 he sailed to the Japanese-Russian war as a corre spondent, writing back to Ster "ram clean disgusted. "My work is "I know it but so circum scribed am so hedged about with restrictions, that I see lit tle, hear but little more (and that unsatisfactory and ofttimes contradictory) and in no way can manage to get in intimate touch with officers or men." BUYS RANCH By 1909 he had married Char mian Kittredge, five years his senior, and bought his ranch in the Valley of the Moon, the lovely rolling, tree-dotted acres. He had the Snark built In Oakland and he and Charmian sailed it to the South Seas for 27 months. Back at Glen Ellen in Sonoma 1 (-! V-'-V- Vf -Wir.

XJ CALIFORNIA IMMORTALS-Three men famous. in American literature were photographed by the late Edward George Sterling, Harry lebo unidentified man, Jack lon- probably was taken Grove, accordihej to 'Doc' Rogers, JACK LONDON AT HEIGHT OF CAREER Shown at ranch In Valley of the Moon early In the century. are (from Rogers' record. It 'l.