Letter to Charmian - 1932
Though this is the earliest letter I have located, Edith and Charmian would have at least met in 1927 when Charmian gifted the Sonoma County Branch of the League of American Pen Women a gavel that was once owned by Jack London.
This letter would have contained a draft by Edith of her article “Jack London: A Brief Sketch of his Life” which was published in The Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, vol. 90 (May 1932): 109-10, 122.
Fulton, Calif., Mar. 9, 1932
Mrs. Jack London,
Glen Ellen, Calif.:
My dear Mrs. London, --
I enclose herewith a copy of the sketch of your husband’s life that I have written for the Overland Monthly’s special number, which will probably appear about April first, according to the editor. I am sending to him by this mail the original, and must beg your pardon for not sending your copy first. But he has just notified me of the date, and I hastened to copy my notes. If there are any errors you wish corrected, let me know, and I will forward them at once. I hope, however, that you will like the sketch. The more I delved into the books, by and about him, the more interested I became, and of course realize that any brief article like this must be very inadequate. However, all one can do, I suppose, is to call people’s attention to him anew. I should like to have known him.
I read both “Burning Daylight” and “Valley of the Moon” as soon as I could get them after you said those had so much in them about your home. The latter I like especially. It gives one an entirely new conception of your husband.
I was so sorry not to be able to go to Glen Ellen with the other Penwomen the day you were so kind as to receive them. Perhaps some other time you will let me come.
Sincerely yours,
Edith Granger Hawkes
Charmian 1932.pdfThis postcard was obtained from the Special Collections & Archives of Utah State University, Letters to Charmian London, Box 12, folder 11.