Jack London letter to Dan [Murphy?] concerning the “Kempton-Wace Letters.” Published with permission of the Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library, Wagner College. (Click to enlarge.)
Yesterday’s post introduced two letters from Jack London to his sometimes literary agent Dan Murphy. (See Jack London: Two Unpublished Letters ‘Found’.) I am adding transcriptions in this post for better search capabilities for other researchers.
October 4, 1901, Jack London to Dan [Murphy?] letter, transcription:
Jack London
56 Bayo Vista Avenue
Oakland, Calif.
[stamped]
Oct. 4/01 [typewritten]
[typewritten; additional spaces left between quotes and words per original]
Dear Dan:-
Yes, The Book is progressing. Anna and
I now have thirty thousand and more words done on it,
and we do not expect to add more than twenty thousand
more. So then you’ll have a double task on your hands–
—-a sketch of Anna as well as the one of me.
Anna reviewed the ” God of His Fathers ” in
current ” Impressions. ” Of course you will have seen
it ere this. But if you haven’t, write me and I’ll get
you a copy. I haven’t one in the house just now. It
is by far the best review the book has received. It hah
has sympathy and understanding, which is something few
reviews possess and then in only infintesiml(spl?)
quantities.
Please thank Mr. and Mrs. Markham for me
for their kind invitation, which in itself gives me
great happiness, though the signs for an Eastern trip
are not auspicious.
Mrs. London and Joan send regards,
Jack London [signature]
December 28, 1901 letter from Jack London to Dan [Murphy?], page 1. Published with permission of the Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library, Wagner College. (Click to enlarge.)
December 28, 1901, Jack London to Dan [Murphy?] letter, transcription:
Jack London
56 Bayo Vista Avenue
Oakland, Calif.
[stamped]
Dec. 28/01 [typewritten]
[typewritten]
Dear Dan:-
Do you know if the ATLANTIC permits
the stuff it buys to be published in England? They
are, I believe, on the eve of closing with a certain
story of mine, which is a pretty fair sort of a
story. Let me know whether McClure’s forward
duplicate copies to you mentioned in last letter.
Yes, I presume a fake publication was
made of the SON OF THE WOLFin England in 1899 in
order to obtain British copyright. Itwas only
curiosity prompted me to ask, anyway, for Ward,
Lock & Co., bought the copyright outright. Perhaps
they are withholding publication for twenty years
on the chance of my becoming famous.
I have started the Success story, which
I shall submit through your hands.
Could you give me a line on what prices
December 28, 1901 letter from Jack London to Dan [Murphy?], page 2. Published with permission of the Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library, Wagner College. (Click to enlarge.)
[page 2, cut short]
LIPPINCOTT’S and SMART SET usually offer for
novelettes of ?? [two letters typed over to mark out] 25,000 to 35,000 words. And
Are LIPPINCOTT’S open to adventure novelettes with
a love thread woven in?
The novel written long ago was accepted
by McClure, Phillips & Co., [sic] They said they would
first seek serial publication for it, and later
bring it out themselves in book form. I haven’t
much interest in the novel. It was my first.
[Remainder of page appears to have been cut off.]
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) Again, we greatly appreciate the kind assistance of Lisa Holland, Archivist, at the Horrmann Library, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York to locate these letters and other requested information. A thank you also goes out to the Dean of the college for allowing us to publish these letters in our blog and to share them at the Jack London Society 12th Biennial Symposium held on October 30-November 1, 2014, in Berkeley, California.
2) Please contact the Horrmann Library at Wagner College, Staten Island, New York, for permission to publish the letters.
3) Transcriptions by the author.
4) London, Jack. Letter, 04 Oct 1901, to Dan [Murphy?]. Edwin Markham Archives, Horrmann Library, Wagner College.
5) London, Jack. Letter, 28 Dec 1901, to Dan [Murphy?]. Edwin Markham Archives, Horrmann Library, Wagner College.
Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.
Text copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and Pamela M. McMurray. Please contact the Horrmann Library at Wagner College for permission to publish these letters.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
October 4, 1901 letter from Jack London to Dan [Murphy?]. Published with permission of the Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library, Wagner College. (Click to enlarge.)Two letters previously unknown to Jack London researchers and unpublished have been located in the Horrmann Library at Wagner College in New York City during my recent research. The letters were not catalogued in any MARC records that I have found, and they are not available in the three volumes of The Letters of Jack London. The first letter reports on the progress of “The Book” published anonymously by Jack London and Anna Strunsky two years later as The Kempton-Wace Letters. The second note mentions the fake publication of Son of the Wolf in England, requests information concerning prices paid for various lengths of novelettes, and promises that “the Success story” London has just started will be submitted through Dan [Murphy?] as London’s literary agent.
With the expert assistance of the Wagner College Archivist, Lisa Holland, the Edwin Markham Collection was searched to find any correspondence between Edwin Markham and Edward Biron Payne, my primary research focus. Both were west coast Christian Socialists, and I was trying to learn if they corresponded, or if Markham was involved in Payne’s Utopian colony of “Altruria” in 1894-1896. Additionally, Payne had published an article in The Arena, a liberal magazine that advocated social reform, in July, 1899, entitled “The “Hoe man” on trial.” Payne addressed the controversy engendered by Edwin Markham’s poem, “The Man with the Hoe,” so there was a possibility they had corresponded or met each other. (Payne’s library was burned in the 1923 Berkeley fire and only a small portion of his letters have survived.) Additionally, I requested copies of any letters from Jack or Charmian London, as the Londons were friends with Markham (as well as with Payne, who married Ninetta Wiley Eames, the aunt who raised Charmian), and they traveled in some of the same social and literary circles. Charmian’s scrapbooks at the Huntington Museum contain images of Markham. Ms. Holland was not able to find any letters to/from Edward B. Payne, but did locate five letters each from Jack and Charmian, with two of the letters from Jack being previously unpublished.
The letters are written to “Dear Dan,” who is most likely Daniel Murphy, a literary agent who promoted manuscripts abroad as well in the United States. There is a London letter addressed to “Dear Dan:-” dated December 17, 1901 published in The Letters of Jack London: Vol. 1: 1896-1905. The Russ Kingman notes indicate it is to Dan Murphy who was acting as London’s British agent. Dan Murphy was also possibly Edwin Markham’s brother-in-law, as Markham married Anna Catharine Murphy as his third wife in San Francisco, California in 1898.
Catharine was born in 1859 to Patrick Murphy (1827-?) and Mary __ (maiden name unknown) (1832-?), and was the mother of Edwin Markham’s only son, Virgil. (1899-1973). Catharine is found in the 1860 US Federal Census in her father’s household as the only child, age 1; in 1870, she is listed at age 10 with Margaret, age 9, Mary E., age 7, and John Murphy, age 6 in the household. As Catharine’s full name was Anna Catharine Murphy, and it appears she was called by her middle name as a child, the John Murphy in the family may possibly be Daniel John, and the addressee of London’s note many years later. More research is needed into the life of Dan Murphy, but I have not yet located the family in the 1880 US Federal Census; with the name a common one, more detailed research will be required to confirm the hypothesis that he was Edwin Markham’s brother-in-law. The fact that letters to him are found in the Markham Archive lend credence to this hypothesis.
December 28, 1901 letter from Jack London to Dan [Murphy?], page 1. Published with permission of the Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library, Wagner College. (Click to enlarge.)December 28, 1901 letter from Jack London to Dan [Murphy?], page 2. Published with permission of the Edwin Markham Archive, Horrmann Library, Wagner College. (Click to enlarge.)
Tomorrow: transcriptions of these letters.
Notes, Sources, and References:
1) We greatly appreciate the kind assistance of Lisa Holland, Archivist, at the Horrmann Library, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York to locate these letters and other requested information. A thank you also goes out to the Dean of the college for allowing us to publish these letters in our blog and to share them at the Jack London Society 12th Biennial Symposium held on October 30-November 1, 2014, in Berkeley, California.
2) London, Jack, The Letters of Jack London: Vol. 1: 1896-1905; Vol. 2: 1906-1912; Vol. 3:1913-1916. Edited by Earle Labor, Robert Leitz III, and I. Shepherd. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
3) Markham, Edwin. ”To the Man with the Hoe” in The Arena, July 1899. The Arena 22, no. 1 (1899): 15-16.
4) Payne, Edward B. “The ‘Hoe Man’ on Trial” in The Arena, July 1899. The Arena 22, no. 1 (1899): 17-24.
5) 1860 U.S. Census, Alameda County, California, population schedule, Eden Township, page no. 112 (written), dwelling 923, family 934, Catharine Murphy; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 28 Oct 2014) citing National Archives microfilm publication Roll: M653_55; Page: 114; Image: 114; Family History Library Film: 803055.
6) 1870 U.S. Census, Sonoma County, California, population schedule, Vallejo Township, Petaluma Post Office, page no. 8 (written), dwelling 48, family 47, Catharine Murphy; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 28 Oct 2014) citing National Archives microfilm publication Roll: M593_91; Page: 453B; Image: 474; Family History Library Film: 545590.
8) “To Dan Murphy” letter dated December 17, 1901 published in London, Jack, The Letters of Jack London: Vol. 1: 1896-1905. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988), 260.
9) London, Jack. Letter, 4 Oct 1901, to Dan [Murphy?]. Edwin Markham Archives, Horrmann Library, Wagner College.
10) London, Jack. Letter, 28 Dec 1901, to Dan [Murphy?]. Edwin Markham Archives, Horrmann Library, Wagner College.
11) Thank you, Thomas Harakal, for your input and support.
Please contact us if you would like higher resolution images.
Text copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and Pamela M. McMurray. Please contact the Horrmann Library at Wagner College for permission to publish these letters.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
Review of “The Arena” published in “The Critic” (New York) and reprinted in Vol. 5 of “The Arena.”Review of “The Arena” published in “Truth” (Toronto, Canada) and reprinted in Vol. 5 of “The Arena.”
The Arena was a Boston review magazine begun in December, 1889 by Benjamin Flower, considered a radical journalist in his time. He published articles that exposed the seedy side of society- sweatshops, poverty, child labor, etc. The articles also included socialistic thought as a way to remedy these problems. The magazine was even marketed to ministers with a discounted rate, in order to help educate the public through the pulpit and possibly start new centers “for the diffusion of the light of justice, fundamental democracy, for intellectual hospitality.”
Following Edwin Markham’s poem “The Man with the Hoe” in the July, 1899 issue of The Arena (pages 15-16) was an article written by Edward B. Payne (our ancestor) entitled, “The ‘Hoe Man’ on Trial.” (pages 17-24) Payne was a minister who practiced “Christian Socialism,” and although he no longer had a church pulpit (he had resigned due to health reasons, and was working as an editor in 1899), he still lectured on cooperation rather than competition in order to provide a good life for all. Payne had worked in poor tenements in Chicago and the impoverished mill towns of New England; he had seen firsthand what it was to be the “Slave of the wheel of labor” as Markham described it. Payne did not want to ‘redistribute’ the wealth as in some forms of socialism- instead he wanted to teach people how to help themselves so that they could be successful, and in turn contribute to the good of all.
Edward B. Payne
Edward B. Payne was an excellent choice to author an article reviewing the controversy that arose around the world with the publication of Edwin Markham’s poem, “The Man with the Hoe.” Payne was extremely well read- he had a significant library of his own, (sadly lost in the Great Berkeley Fire of 1923), lived just north of the University of California at Berkeley and thus had access to university libraries, and probably borrowed books from the extensive library of Jack and Charmian London. (A letter exists from Payne requesting the loan of a book, however we don’t know for sure if London granted it.) In the article for The Arena, Payne quoted many editors and writers from around the country. (How did he read all those articles without the internet??)
Payne began his article acknowledging that the poem had exceptional literary merit that is, “almost universally conceded.” The poem, however, was “the center of a remarkable controversy bearing on the social problems of modern times.” He quoted Walt Whitman and concurred with “the power of the poet to stir and direct the thoughts of men.” Payne continued,
“Here is a case in which men are deeply moved and sharply aroused, not by an act of legislation, not by a scientific demonstration, not by a logical argument, but by a few lines of verse sung out from the frontier West by one hitherto but little known [poet].”
Some recent literature books and websites have included excerpts of Payne’s words in their descriptions of the poem:
“[“The Man with the Hoe”] appears to have everywhere stimulated thought upon social problems, and to have called out vigorous and diversified expressions of opinions all along the line of its course…. Clergy made the poem their text; platform orators dilated upon it; college professors lectured upon it; debating societies discussed it; schools took it up for study in their literary courses; and it was the subject of conversation in social circles and on the streets.”
Payne, and many others, were elated that the poem sparked world-wide discussions of socio-economic disparities that were often only whispered about, swept under the rug, and seldom debated except in socialist circles.
The main controversy was just what it was that caused the Hoe Man to have “on his back the burden of the world.” The poem suggested that those with the wealth placed this burden on the lower classes. Others, like Ambrose Bierce, whom Payne characterized as “that distinguished critic, whose pen is sharper than a locust thorn,” declared that the Hoe Man “…is not a product of the masters, lords, and rulers in all lands; they are not, and no class of men are, responsible for him, his limitations and his woes– which are not of those that kings or laws can cause or cure.”
Payne explained in his article that another group joined the controversy: workers. Some felt the poem was “a direct assault on the American farmer” but it was not meant that way.
Payne continued his review of the varied points of view of the poem writing, “The poem has not been spared at the hands of those grotesque critics whose humor is chopped out with a meat axe.” He quoted a San Francisco Evening Post writer who called Edwin Markham, “our laureate of the clod and hoe.” Another author claimed that the poem was “founded on the theological assumption that man is not the fashioner of his own destiny,” an old-fashioned and unenlightened religious viewpoint by that date, and thus the indictment was invalid.
After summarizing and quoting many authors both critical and laudatory, Payne discussed the most important line of the poem: “How will you ever straighten up this shape [of the Hoe Man]?” The controversy engendered by the poem,
“…illustrates the loose but intricate tangle of modern thought as touching the conditions, the possibilities, the obligations of civilization; and how tradition, self-interest, prejudice, and passion, as well as sincerity, good-will, and the love of truth and justice are all potent factors in determining the variant opinions and irreconcilable purposes of men. We are far from any such consensus of opinion as might enable us to effect wise and speedy readjustments looking to improved conditions for the masses of men.”
Finding a way to improve conditions was a guiding principle of Payne’s work and life. He felt that “We have all been brutalized under this regime of… ever intensifying competition.” He had founded Altruria, a Utopian colony in Sonoma County, California, just five years earlier, in which cooperation of all contributed to the good of the colony. Sadly the colony only lasted two years, but Edward B. Payne worked the rest of his life to educate the public about social inequalities through his work as an author, lecturer, and editor.
3) Ambrose Bierce, in 1894 speaking about the founders of Altruria, called them “amiable asses” with a “scheme based upon the intellectual diversions of such humorists as Plato, More, Fourier, Bellamy, and Howells. That assures the ludicrous fizzle of the enterprise…” [Quoted in Robert V. Hine’s California’s Utopian Colonies, W.W. Norton & Company, 1973, first published in 1953, page 113. The Bierce quote was from the column Bierce wrote weekly for the San Francisco Examiner, 21 Oct 1894, called, “Prattle.”] The ‘humorists’ listed were writers and philosophers. It is interesting to see Edward B. Payne’s description of Bierce five years later.
4) See also previous posts about Edward B. Payne, and watch for posts to come on Altruria and the rest of EBP’s life.
5) The controversies continue to this day concerning socio-economic disparities and the solutions. There will, I am sure, be more to come on that too (but not on this blog) as election time draws near.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
“L’homme à la houe (The Man with the Hoe)” by Jean-François Millet – The Getty Center, Object 879, Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The 1890s were a turbulent time in America. The growth and expansion of “The Gilded Age” collapsed with the Panic of 1893, and sent the country into a depression. Railroads, the primary long distance transportation of Americans pre-automobile, had been overbuilt with shaky financing and could not earn revenues to exceed their loans and other costs. Just ten days before the second inauguration of Grover Cleveland, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad declared bankruptcy; three large railways went bankrupt soon after. Numerous banks failed and there was a run on gold. New silver mines flooded the market, driving down the price of silver, and the value of the American dollar fell. The United States still had a large portion of the population involved in farming, but prices for agricultural commodities also plummeted, especially for wheat and cotton, and farmers could not afford to put in their next crop, nor pay workers for planting or harvesting. To add to the economic woes, the McKinley Tariff of 1890 had increased the prices of imported goods by almost 50%, thus causing a sharp increase in prices for all.
Over 3,000 Pullman railroad workers decided in 1894 that the only way to deal with layoffs, wage cutbacks, and the high prices of living in the required ‘company town’ was to stop work. Their wildcat strike paralyzed travel of people and goods, including the mail. Unions were still illegal then, but strike sentiment grew across the country. When Pullman strikers were shot and killed, 250,000 workers in twenty-seven states stopped work at the urging of Eugene V. Debs, who led the American Railway Union. The Army was called in to force passage of mail trains and break the strike. More violence and sabotage of the railroads ensued and at least 30 persons were killed, many others wounded in the strike.
A Drawing of National Guard troops firing on Pullman strikers in 1894. More than 1000 railcars were destroyed during the strike. Published in Harper’s Weekly, unknown date, public domain.
President Grover Cleveland knew he had to make peace with the workers and unions or risk more riots and a worsening of the economic depression. Just six days after the strike ended, he rushed a bill through Congress to create Labor Day as a national holiday to honor all those who toil in our nation. It was a unanimous vote for the new federal holiday.
Continued concerns about the economy, however, caused bank runs and thus more panic. Some estimates place unemployment rates as high as 18.4% in 1894; unemployment continued for four more years above 12.4%. Americans were stunned, afraid, out of work, and could not feed their families or pay their rent or mortgage. (Do you sort of know how folks in those days must have felt? It was as bad as the 2008 crash- probably worse.)
Sadly, we have little of the 1890 census available to compare with 1900, so we could look at incomes, home ownership, etc and compare the two decades. Reviewing at the 1900 census, it seems that more people than usual can be found living in one home- parents moved in with their children and grandchildren (or vice versa) to save money. Rural folks were moving to the city in hope of finding a job and boarding houses were full. The disparity between the rich and the poor was more striking than it had ever been in American Society. Social evangelists worked to alleviate the effects of the depression on the poor, and debates on socialism were common in magazines and newspapers, the lecture circuits, parlors, and universities.
Edwin Markham circa 1899. Library of Congress.
Charles Edward Anson Markham (1852-1940), generally known as Edwin Markham after 1895, had grown up poor as he toiled on his family’s farm. He became a teacher in northern California. Markham was influenced by socialists such as Thomas Lake Harris, and Jack and Charmian London (both avowed Socialists) were frequent correspondents and friends. As a poet, after seeing the French painting, “The Man with the Hoe,” Markham was inspired to write about the plight of poor workers.
First presented at a New Year’s Eve party reading in 1898, the poem was published by The San Francisco Examiner on January 15, 1899. It was picked up by newspapers and magazines around the world- over 12,000 reprints in 37 languages before the computer age- and it made him famous. The poem begins:
“Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, The emptiness of ages in his face, And on his back the burden of the world.”
2) The issues involved in the Pullman Strike are much more complex than just lowered wages and layoffs- ‘company towns’ and not lowering rents when wages are lowered, the railroads refusing to run trains without Pullman cars, government intervention in the private sector when national issues are involved such as mail service, etc. See, among other good sources, http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/1912/content/pullman.cfm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike.
3) Note population changes with City Directories as well- look for the address, not just the name, and you may find many married children, often with children of their own, living at the same address as parents/grandparents. Remember too, that these were small houses- we have one family group of 11 living in a two-bedroom house in 1900!
5) I wonder who attended that New Year’s Eve reading- Thomas Lake Harris (who later founded a Utopian religious community in New York and later at Fountain Grove, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California), Jack & Charmian London, possibly Edward Biron Payne (who later founded Altruria, another Utopian community in Sonoma County)? They travelled in the same literary circles and all had socialist leanings, plus Markham was probably living in Oakland, California at that time. (His move to New York occurred the next year.) We still have not found a definitive link to Markham and Edward B. Payne, though it is highly likely that they knew each other due to politics, geography, and social groupings.
10) An intriguing animation of Edwin Markham reading his poem (apparently from an image of him and an actual recording, I think.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apHsb5Xou-0
11) Edwin Markham image available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c05934.
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Copyright 2013-2014 by Heritage Ramblings Blog and pmm.
We would love to read your thoughts and comments about this post, and thank you for your time! All comments are moderated, however, due to the high intelligence and persistence of spammers/hackers who really should be putting their smarts to use for the public good instead of spamming our little blog.
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