Tue, 18 Oct 2023 — We have some exciting news regarding developments with this project. Dr. Carl Haber and his fellow scientist Dr. Vitaliy Fadeyev, both from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Physics Division, have recovered two voice recordings from the Jack London Dictaphone recording cylinders.

The first audio recovery is a woman’s voice. Many lab hours of restoration have taken place, resulting in a reasonably clear and understandable recording. At this point, we are not certain of the woman’s identity, but are hopeful it is either Charmian London or Eliza Shepard.

The second and most exciting recovery is a man’s voice. Research of the recording clearly indicates it to be the exact text of a Jack London letter to Max Ehrmann December 2, 1915, which can be found in Volume 3, Page 1524 The Letters of Jack London, 1913-1916 Labor, Leitz, Shepard Stanford University Press, 1988.

This recovery work, although promising, is still in its very early stages and requires additional noise reduction processing, of which progress is just incremental. We are hopeful that audio of the recovered voices will be available to all by the end of 2005.

"To hear Jack London is to have received a pleasure accorded, but seldom to most of us" February 26, 1901, The Daily Palo Alto.

How exciting it would be to actually hear Jack London’s voice! So please join us for this exciting evening. Circle your calendars for January 14, 2006. That is the date of this year’s Jack London Foundation Birthday Banquet. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Carl Haber.

Invitations to all current Jack London Foundation members are scheduled to mail in late November. If you are not a member, join and receive your invitation to a most exciting event. Membership forms are available at www.jacklondonfdn.org

Comment on this article contact Fred Fischbach at (707) 996-2888 or send an email to: [email protected].