NOT FOR MONEY WAS HE BORN

Now several words about the Socialist views influencing the aesthetics of Jack London. Along with many prominent members of the left-radical movement at the beginning of the century, he was mistaken in his prognoses of revolution in countries of the capitalist world. Evidently, what was derived by leaders often materialized into reality. To them, it seemed that a limit to patience had already set in regarding the conflict between labor and capital.

Frightened by events, those having power employed the art of compromise while the workers, who were exhausted by the struggle, agreed to concessions, and the situation was relieved. Business conditions had the tendency to improve (such are the waves of capitalistic development), and a social equilibrium again set in. The threat of revolution receded.

H.G. Wells commented sneeringly upon the occasion of one note of Jack London in the journal of the London Tavern Club, which ended with his usual phrase "yours for revolution, Jack London!" "There will be no such revolution of yours" wrote Wells ironically in the book many years later. This bickering was detected by me through the years in the book of N. Berberova.

London made this note after he had lived in the slums of the London East End in 1902 where pictures of the degradation of English society, and the poverty and wretchedness of the people of the abyss struck him to the very depths of his soul. In The People of the Abyss, he harshly judged the system, which led man to the condition of wretchedness. London's views of the socialist movement did not remain unequivocal.

The young London did not consider socialism the ideal system. He believed that by giving huge economic advantages in comparison to capitalism, socialism would create the conditions for the development of kindred races and their triumph. The theory of the survival of the most adaptable, which London transferred from the animal world to human society, prevented the refinement of his social views. He was not able to answer the question of what would stimulate progress in a nation. With socialism having taken power, the proletariat would eliminate advantages for the strong. An end would be put to the struggle between strong and weak for food and shelter. But a question would remain open: what will stimulate the competition of man when the law of natural selection loses force?

In London there was great striving to justice and a thirst for truth. He was convinced that socialists must look truth in the eyes. Therefore, he wrote The Iron Heel. In the introduction to the collection War of the Classes he emphasized that socialists are not dreamers, but realists who must interact with people full of contradictions and weaknesses. He believed in the conscience and ability of these people to evaluate the truth, however merciless it might be. He wrote his books for such people.

"He must learn that socialism deals with what is, not with what ought to be; and that the material with which it deals is the 'clay of the common road,' the warm human, fallible and frail, sordid and petty, absurd and contradictory, even grotesque, and yet, withal, shot through with flashes and glimmerings of something finer and God-like, with here and there sweetnesses of service and unselfishness, desires for goodness, for renunciation and sacrifice, and with conscience, stern and awful, at times blazingly imperious, demanding the right,—the right, nothing more nor less than the right."

Participating in social activity and supporting the interests of the workers, Jack London clashed with the passivity of the masses and the indecisiveness of the leadership of the Socialist Party. Disappointed in the American working movement, he left the ranks of the Socialist Party.

In a letter London wrote about leaving the socialist party, he said: "My final word is that Liberty, freedom, and independence, are royal things that cannot be presented to, nor thrust upon, races or classes. If races and classes cannot rise up and by their strength of brain and brawn, wrest from the world liberty, freedom, and independence, they never in time can come to these royal possessions. . . and if such royal things are kindly presented to them by superior individuals, on silver platters, they will know not what to do with them, will fail to make use of them, and will be what they have always been in the past. . . ."

London sympathized with the Russian people and with their revolutionary movement. From the time of his acquaintance with Anna Strunsky, his interest in Russia intensified and his sympathies for the culture and struggle of its people for the overthrow of czarism grew. In 1905-1906, London morally and materially supported the revolution in Russia, and he openly called Russian revolutionaries his brothers and signed the proclamation of the American Society for the Defense of Russian Freedom. In 1916, several months before his death and a year before the great October revolution, the writer declared that the future belongs to Russia in a conversation with a Russian journalist.

I got a rare photograph of Vladimir Maiakovskii in the role of Ivan Nov from the Ostankino TV studio at the time of the filming of the television series Martin Eden. As consultant to the performance, I tried to familiarize the filmmakers with the characters of the novel, their prototypes, and the history of the writing of the book. Maiakovskii attempted to make a film based upon the themes of Martin Eden and called it "Not for Money Was He Born." Maiakovskii played a leading role in it. Unfortunately, the film was lost and only two or three photographs survived in a journal. I did not know where the originals were when N. Arkhipova intervened. She had played the role of the sister of Martin Eden in the television series. N. Arkhipova mentioned that Maiakovskii's civil wife, Lily Erik, was still alive and could possibly answer my questions.

V.A. Katanian and I subsequently met with Lily Iur'evua, the famous literary expert and author of Maiakovskii: A Literary Chronicle. Lily was now 84 years old, but received us warmly. "Not for Money Was He Born" was the first film in which Volodya acted. This was in 1915 or 1916. Volodya, who liked Jack London very much, transferred the action to Russian soil. The name of the hero is Ivan Nov, who was actually Ivanov, a talented poet. The ending was redone, and Ivan Nov did not commit suicide. In this film, the poet D. Burliuk played Brissenden, and Margaret Kiba'chich played Ruth. All the photographs taken at the time of the filming were in color, and one of them is reproduced in my book.

The picture was finished in April. Maiakovskii made an advertising poster for it. The People's Commissar of Education, A. V. Lunachavskii, presided at a film preview in the cinema "Modem." This film played in the cinemas of many towns for several years. Lily parted with us by quoting a few lines of Maiakovskii, and gave us two photos, one of which was inscribed to my wife and me. Lily was indeed a beautiful woman.