A DAUGHTER OF HER FATHER

As I mentioned earlier, after my trip to the United States, I continued corresponding with Joan London. I sent her Russian publications of London's works, the collections of his writings. Joan, in turn, expressed her opinion about the books that were published in her country. She told me about Bess. Yes, she was alive; she lived in Oakland. Joan sent some photographs from the family album and a new edition of her work, Jack London and His Times. Reading and re-reading the book with great attention, I found some interesting facts about London's parents and his life that had escaped me.

The dining table in the Londons' house was usually covered with newspapers; Jack's mother kept the tablecloth for special occasions. When Jack enrolled in school after several months of wanderings, he found hostility among students. Many looked at him with envy and admiration, as a person who had seen the world and experienced its difficulties. One episode is especially characteristic of Jack. One time he saved a socialist speaker, Whitaker, from being arrested. Witnessing a policeman approaching them, Jack pushed Whitaker from the podium where he was making his speech, and stood in his place.

Joan had London's membership ticket for the Socialist Labor Party. She was able to give an exact date of London's joining the Socialist Labor Party, which was April 1896. Most literary historians are not sure about this and usually give the wrong date, the year 1895. The main idea of the book, Jack London and His Times, includes showing the social significance of the writer's works, making connections with his time and his origins. Such an approach helped Joan not to rely so much on her personal memories. She started working on another book, more of a memoir, giving it a working title of Jack London and His Daughters. Sometimes, she would call it Jack London — the Father. Impatiently, I waited for the book to be finished, but something would always come up to distract Joan from working on it. The book's completion was postponed time and time again. The main thing that stood in the way was another book that Joan was writing. This book that kept Joan so busy was about the farmers and agricultural workers of California, about their hard life and their struggle for rights in the past and present. This book is "a tragic and terrifying story about inhumane treatment of one group of people by another," wrote Joan. Her interest in this topic goes back to the time when she was twelve, when she read her father's article about the struggle of agricultural workers.

In one of her letters, Joan proudly talked about her granddaughter. She attended the Mexican Institute of Fine Arts, where she studied the Russian language. Soon, she would be able to help Joan read Russian books and newspapers. "Oh, if only I knew how my life would have turned out!" said Joan, "I would have learned Russian!" With excitement, she wrote about her meeting with members of the Soviet Delegation of Peace Advocates. Joan commented on the results of Soviet literary criticism on London's works. She recognized how perfect the definition of his spirit was as an established life force and in its ability to strengthen a person's resolve. It was a pleasant surprise for Joan to find her articles, "Jack London and Our Time," published in the Russian magazine Children's Literature. In those articles, she showed London's amazing ability to overcome everything in life, backing up her statements with the examples from the works of her father. Also, she tried to find a reason for the great longevity of his creations. Joan confessed that, 30 years ago, she herself had expected the decline of interest in Jack London's works. She did not even consider the possibility of that interest rising again and growing in the future. However, time proved it to be just the opposite. In the end of the 1940s, a new wave of interest in Jack London spread worldwide — that interest that is still alive today. Jack London's books are being translated into more and more languages around the world.

Those countries that had not published him before started publishing him in large editions. The reasons for such undying popularity, Joan explained were her father's open views, his understanding of life's complexity, and his love for the vastness of the land. Also, she added to that his concern for such problems as poverty, chronic unemployment, and child labor. These problems still exist in more than one country, in developing countries, as well as in more progressive ones, like the United States.

All the books by Jack London, except four from the total of 51, were translated into at least one foreign language. In most cases, however, they were translated into several languages, including Spanish. When Jack London, who himself did not know any other language except English, was told that his books were being read by people who could not even speak the same language as he, Jack was deeply touched. "Imagine how excited he would have been now," wrote Joan, "if he found out how far his works have reached within the last ten--fifteen years. His books have lately appeared in Irish and Catalonian, Greek and Macedonian, Turkish, Jewish, and Persian, as well as in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Bengal, Indonesian, and Vietnamese languages."

Joan finished her 1967 introduction to her biography with the following touching words: "Now a new generation of readers has found him, a generation that is informed, seeking realistic answers to the challenging issues of the day, basically optimistic." With one of her letters, Joan sent an article on the meaning of London's works. She wrote it for one of the newspapers for American workers. Although Jack London was never a member of any labor union, he belongs to the worker's movement. Moreover, he is an inseparable part of its traditions and its present life. "It looks as if Jack, like a prophet, crossed through the covers of time, and looked right into the future. He was able to point out those painful questions and those fighting forces that would play a leading role in the business relations, even up to our days," she remarked. Joan knew that London was striving for the unity of the working class.

In one of her last letters, Joan shared with me her ideas for her new book. "I have finished two-thirds of that part where I reveal Jack London, the father. The main goal of my book, however, would be to protect children suffering through divorces. I want to express my protest against the guardian law that is widely used in America. This law gives the mother the right to keep and care for the children, while the father only receives visitation rights. My parents' divorce became a tragedy for all of us. In spite of all our attempts, it was impossible to establish reasonable relationships between our father and his daughters."

On December 12, 1969, Joan informed me about writing a preface to the works of William Chaney, which was in the process of nearing publication at that time. At 68 years of age, she was writing a lot. Despite a serious operation, she was very productive. Her letters were very detailed, written on a page and a half with her neat, easily legible handwriting. My prolonged silence worried her, but she was happy that she could finally get to the constantly postponed book Jack London and His Daughters. "This is not a real letter," wrote Joan at the end. "I will write you again very soon, hopefully, with some news." But this was her last letter. On January 20, 1971, I got a call from California. The grandson of Jack London, Bart Abbott, told me that Joan London had died the night before from cancer. By then, she had just turned 70.

This is the way it usually is with modest people. It was only after her death, from American newspapers, that I found out about her novel Sylvia Coventry and some of her stories, published in various magazines. Also, I have learned about her having been an active supporter and defender of workers' rights. At 65, she spoke in front of the Workers' march to the Capitol at Sacramento to raise workers' spirits. "With her passionate speeches for economic and social justice," one of the California newspapers wrote in her obituary, "Joan London was truly a daughter of her father."

Soon after Joan's death, I received letters from her son Bart Abbott and his wife Helen. They responded to my request to tell me about their family. The biography of Jack London's grandson resembles the biography of his grandfather. Bart also had changed professions several times. He was a sailor, a building constructor, and a porter. He took an active part in the peace movement. Bart had written a science fiction novella about an atomic war, plus several stories. Among them was a story about a worker, who died from an injury at work. I had known there was also a great-granddaughter of Jack London. In 1971, I learned that there were five of them. Bart had five daughters, four of whom were active leaders in the political sphere. The oldest, Julie, was 28. Already, she herself was a mother of two girls. The youngest, Tarnel, was 18. London's great-granddaughters inherited his interest in progressive ideas. The entire family participated in the anti-war demonstrations that took place in Oakland and Berkeley. It was the march against the War in Vietnam that became known worldwide, for it stopped the train with the soldiers and weapons on board. Darcy and Chaney, Bart's middle daughters, distributed anti-war literature. They were arrested and subjected to interrogation by FBI agents. Darcy and Tarnel, among other young Americans called "Venceremos" (We'll win!), also went to Cuba to help pick crops. According to Helen, they came back convinced to do work for the good of humanity. This trip, prohibited by the American government, required real courage. Tarnel was the youngest one in the group. She was only 16. She enjoyed art and did some painting herself. Joan wrote me earlier about her studies in Russian language. Chaney got her name from her great great-grandfather. She was a student at UC-Berkeley, studying to become a philologist. Her poems were being published. Darcy and Chaney, wrote Helen, put all their efforts into restructuring the society, and continuing the task of their famous great-grandfather.