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Jack LONDON

Lettre d'amour autographe inédite de Jack London adressée à sa future femme Charmian Kittredge

15 août 1904, 23,5x15,3cm, 4 pages sur 4 feuillets.

Autograph love letter from Jack London to his future wife Charmian Kittredge

Autograph letter from Jack London to his future wife Charmian Kittredge. 4 pages on 4 leaves written in black ink. Censored by London's hand and corrections by another hand in pencil to the proper names cited in the letter.
The date 'Aug 15 1904' stamped to top right of first page. Lateral folds from the folding of the leaves. Pinholes, light, minor marginal tears.
A fine letter from Jack London to the love of his life, Charmian Kittredge, a few days after his wife Bessie had asked for a divorce.
London was already a successful author after the great success of The Call of the Wild (1904) and he mentions in this letter the reception of his works in England:”Books in England have been published out of regular order – so reviewers think 'Daughter of Snows' last written.”
The two lovers met in 1900 but did not really begin their relationship until the summer of 1903. This letter bears witness to the physical attraction London had for Charmian – five years his senior – having left his wife, who did not attract him:”George [Sterling] has just left – showed him you stepping on raft in swimming pool and he said you were all there and all the rest. Gee ! I'll prize that picture. I've the sweet limbed woman on horseback and now I've the sweet limbs, too.” The writer relates a moment of levity with his friends:”Had quite a time yesterday. Carrie [Sterling], Mrs. [Jim] Whitaker, Laura [Bierce] and a few more were good and sick and Dick [Partington] who never gets seasick, got sick when we came to moorings and he undertook the most perilous detail of the cleaning up process. Oh, yes, it was 'swell'.” These close friends of London's tried to oust Charmian, whom they did not like, in favour of Blanche Partington, a successful journalist in San Francisco, but in vain: “Blanche, George Sterling and the whole Clan had all tried tearing Jack away from Charmian, whom they had never liked. They feared, and rightly so, that she might take away one of their idols. But their conspiracy only served to bring Jack closer to the woman he had chosen, in bringing out his instincts of loyalty and gallantry. As Charmian remarked triumphantly: “the Clan, in trying to break us up, had united us in a way that nothing but death could part. We live each day and each night the more fully.” The letter ends on a charming note of impatience:”To-morrow night, dear, to-morrow night.” The couple ended up marrying in November 1905 and remained inseparable until London's death.
A fine and rare love letter from London.

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