Jack London, Photographer

Jack London (18761916) remains one of the most widely read American writers, known for his naturalist fiction, socialist novels and essays, journalism, and the many adventures that he shared with the world. London was also an accomplished photographer, producing nearly twelve thousand photographs during his lifetime.Jack London, Photographer, the first book devoted to Londonrs"s photography, reveals a vital dimension of his artistry, barely known until now. Londonrs"s subjects included such peoples as the ragged homeless of Londonrs"s East End and the freezing refugees of the Russo-Japanese War, the latter photographed on assignment for the Hearst Syndicate. ForCollierrs"smagazine, London wrote his eyewitness account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire and returned two weeks later with his camera to document a city in ruins but slowly recovering. During his voyage aboard the Snark, London produced humane images of the South Seas islanders that contrasted dramatically with the periodrs"s stereotypical portraits of indigenous peoples. In 1914 he documented the U.S. invasion of Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution. Although some of his images were used in newspaper and magazine stories and in his booksThe People of the AbyssandThe Cruise of the Snark, the majority have remained unpublished until now. The volumers"s more than two hundred photographs were printed from the original negatives in the California State Parks collection and from the original photographs in albums at the Huntington Library. They are reproduced here as duotones from silver gelatin prints. The general and chapter introductions place Londonrs"s photographs in the context of his writings and his times. London lived during the first true mass-media era, when the use of photographic images ushered in a new way of covering the news. With his discerning eye, London recorded historical moments through the faces and bodies of the people who lived them, creating memorable portraits of individuals whose cultural differences pale beside their common humanity.

Jeanne Campbell Reesman is a professor of English at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She is the author or editor of numerous works on London, including Jack London’s Racial Lives: A Critical Biography. Sara S. Hodson is curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library where she has administered the Jack London Papers for over thirty years. She is the co-editor, with Jeanne Reesman, of Jack London: One Hundred Years a Writer. Philip Adam has worked with museums and cultural institutions in California for thirty years to preserve historical photographic collections. His original photographs are in the permanent collections of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley; University of California at Davis, Special Collections; the California State Library in Sacramento; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.