PBA Galleries

123 lines, in ink, on rectos of 11 sheets of unlined paper, held together with paperclip. 6x9¼.

Jack London is on a voyage aboard his small sloop “Spray,” through the meandering waters of the Mokelumne River to Stockton, and he pauses in his routine to write to Charmian. Like nearly all letters he wrote in the early stages of their relationship, when he was still married to Bessie, the letter is unaddressed and unsigned, for their mutual protection. “My Darling – I forgot to tell you that we had a shower or rain yesterday while jayhawking and writing, spell and spell, on Georgiana Slough. But we won out of the slough, and the abominably perfect weather returned as we beat down the Mokelumne River to Bouldin… I am afraid you are not so very happy. There is a painful reiteration that you are happy in all your letters. I should have, & I would have, run down on the steamer from Walnut Grove, only I was baffled by the windless weather & did not know whether I should get the Spray to Stockton per schedule. Just think of it! To-night is Thursday, & a week from now I shall have you in my arms… If I go east, I shall not be gone more than a month at the outside, and if you wish, I’d just as soon not go… If you don’t go east I don’t think I’ll go. Brett is coming to California in January, & I can talk over things with him then…” Brett was George Brett, London’s editor at Macmillan. The letter has a few pencil notations by Charmian on it, including “He knew my love of water and boats.”