Beschreibung:

LONDON, JACK. Seven typed letters signed, one typed leter (stamped signature), one typed note signed, and one autograph note signed (all "Jack London,") to Spiro D. Orfans in San Francisco; written from Glen Ellen, California, and Honolulu, 21 December 1910-19 October 1916. Together 10 letters and notes, 16 pages, 8vo and 4to (mostly), double-spaced, five of the letters professionally de-acidified and encapsulated in mylar (the encapsulation process reversable) . [ With :] 11 letters and 1 card from Jack London's wife Charmian to Orfans, 1913-1938; 7 letters (some carbons) from Orfans to Jack London, 24 February-18 November 1916, and 5 autograph letters signed (some retained drafts?) from Orfans to Charmian, 1916-1917; a photograph of Jack London and Charmian, inscribed and signed by Charmian to Orfans and signed by London, all on verso, 77 x 105 mm., mylar encapsulated ; 9 photographs of London, London and Charmian, London and Orfans fencing, London's valet,etc., 12mo-8vo, a few with wear and creases ; 6 vintage picture postcards of London and/or the Glen Ellen ranch and 3 modern pictorial postcards of same; 12 photographs of Orfans and his family; a newspaper clipping, 1917, about Orfans; and a group of letters, etc., from Peter Orfans (Spiro's son) explaining his view of the nature of the London-Orfans relationship, and a few letters from scholars, etc., regarding this archive. Virtually all of the items are in a half green morocco and cloth quarto-size binder . THE DARKER SIDE OF LONDON An important correspondence revealing a troublesome side of Jack London: his attitude towards race and his capacity for mean-spirited bullying. Spiro D. Orfans (1886-1948) was a Greek immigrant who became an artist when he moved to the West Coast in 1908. He wrote to London and received an invitation to visit him at Glen Ellen. He became friends with London and his wife Charmian, and often stayed at the ranch, fencing with the writer and joining in various activities. In his five letters and notes to Orfans dating from 21 December 1910 to 13 December 1914, London invites Orfans up to the ranch, gives him advice on "clear thinking" (Orfans had a "predisposition towards metaphysics"), talks of events at the ranch (Charmian writes him about the devastating fire at their new home, Wolf House, in August 1913), and tells him of his travel and other plans. During this period Orfans virtually became a London acolyte. The dispute, reflected in London's five letters of 1916, began after Orfans wrote London in November and December 1915 questioning the writer's racial views (e.g., the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race) expressed in The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1914). London responded in his letter of 25 January 1916, unleashing a verbal attack on Orfans: "...you say that my main proposition of race in The Mutiny of the Elsinore is not quite clear to you. Next, you want me to tell you all about it. Nobody asks anybody to bow before anybody. Either they bow or they do not bow. They are made to bow, or they cannot be made to bow. God abhors a mongrel. In nature there is no place for a mixed breed..." London gives several examples of the mongrelization of pure breeds, and continues: "There's no use in your talking to me about the Greeks. There are not any Greeks. You are not a Greek. The Greeks died two thousand years ago, when they became mongrelized...The Greeks were strong as long as they remained pure...when they mongrelized themselves by breeding with the slush of conquered races, they faded away, and have playing nothing but a despicable part ever since in the world's history. This is true of the Romans; this is true of the Chaldeans; this is true of the Egyptians; this is not true of the Gypsies, who have kept themselves pure. This is not true of the Chinese, it is not true of the Japanese, this is not true of the Germans, this is not true of the Anglo-Saxons. This is not true of the Yaquis of Mexico. It is true of the fifteen million mongrels