Jack London's Racial Lives: A Critical Biography

Acknowledgments

xv Research and writing for this book was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, the Fletcher Jones Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Henry E. Huntington Library (San Marino, Calif.), which I gratefully acknowledge. I am also grateful to the scholars whose encouragement helped make possible these grants, especially Earle Labor, Houston A. Baker Jr., Sacvan Bercovitch, Paul Lauter, Jay Martin, Donna M. Campbell, and Linda Wagner-Martin. In particular the long-term support by the neh for Jack London projects—beginning with grants for the Stanford Letters of Jack London (1988) and Complete Stories (1993), both edited by Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz III, and I. Milo Shepard, and Labor’s four neh summer seminars on Jack London, as well as for Dan Dyer’s annotated Call of the Wild (1995)—has made possible major advances in London studies. For his efforts in particular in neh support I wish to thank Michael Hall. The University of Texas at San Antonio supplied me with a one-semester Faculty Development Leave and a summer Faculty Research Award toward the completion of Jack London’s Racial Lives as well as research assistants Jeff Turpin, Susan Streeter, and Karin Simelaro. I also wish to thank Dan Gelo, dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts; Alan Craven, former dean; and Bridget Drinka, chair, Department of English. My greatest debt is to Earle Labor, mentor and friend, without whom I might never have discovered Jack London. The year I was born, 1955, found Earle launched upon what is now a distinguished teaching and scholarly career of over sixty years, and he has never slowed down. I learned about London from Earle when I first took a course with him at Centenary College of Louisiana in 1976, and we have since collaborated on several projects. In Earle A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S xvi acknowledgments I observed a sense of what it means to be a scholar-teacher. Also at Centenary College I warmly thank Lee Morgan, my first academic friend. Anna Strunsky Walling once said of Jack London that he had a “genius for friendship,” and I can only say how deeply I treasure this quality in Milo Shepard, London’s great-nephew and executor. Milo has been extraordinarily generous in every way. He has inspired us all by his stewardship of London’s Beauty Ranch in Sonoma County, California, and London’s legacy as an artist. Another cherished friend, Sara S. Hodson, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, Huntington Library, and her outstanding staff made the summers of research at the Huntington extraordinarily productive and collegial. At the Huntington I am also grateful to David Zeidberg, Avery Director of the Library; Robert C. Ritchie, W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research and Education; Mary Robertson, William A. Moffett Chief Curator of Manuscripts; Susi Krasnoo, Reader Services; Olga Tsapina and John Sullivan, Photography Department; and Gayle Richardson, Mona Shulman, and Kristin Wullschleger, Manuscripts Department. The Huntington hosted Jack London Symposia in 1994 and another in 1998, the latter in conjunction with a major exhibit, “Jack London: The Wisdom of the Trail.” A third took place in October 2008 in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program on The Call of the Wild and the Ninth Biennial Jack London Society Symposium. I also thank William H. Sturm in the History Room of the Oakland Public Library and Roy Tennant and Clarice Stasz at the Jack London Online Collection Web site sponsored by Sonoma State University (http://london.sonoma .edu). At the California State Parks Office, Silverado District, Carol Dodge has been of tremendous assistance with London’s photographs. Wayne and Peggy Martin of Santa Rosa, California, and Peter H. Stern of Boston, Massachusetts , allowed me to examine materials from their private London collections. Milo Shepard and Kris and Marty Lee furnished me with space to research and write on London’s ranch. At the Kaua‘i Historical Society I received aloha and kokua from Chris Cook, Mary Requilman, and John Lydgate, and it was a privilege to meet Frances N. Frazier on Kaua‘i and discuss the Koolau story with her. In San Antonio, there has been many a Sunday afternoon of writing time when my generous friend Allison Hays Lane has found an extra spot with her boys for mine to join in the afternoon’s activities. Many graduate...