Jack London - On the Subject of Water

Many people consider Jack London to be one of our finest authors, and he used many of his own life experiences in his novels.

Jack London was a regular guest at our own Wolf Creek Inn. 

He finished his novel "Valley of the Moon," while staying with his wife in this tiny room.  It may look terribly cramped by today's standards, but I'm sure Jack London must have found it very comfortable compared to some of his earlier accommodations.

In the summer of 1894, when London was just 18,  he was hobo who was arrested for vagrancy in Niagra Falls, New York.  He ended up spending 30 days in the Erie County Penitentiary.

He used this background  when he wrote his novel "The Road."  The following excerpt from his writings was published in Cosmopolitan, August 1907:

"There was one good thing, I must say, about the water:  It was hot.  In the morning it was called 'coffee,' at noon it was dignified as 'soup,' and at night it masqueraded as 'tea.'  But it was the same old water all the time.  The prisoners called it 'water bewitched.'  In the morning it was black water, the color being due to boiling it with burnt bread crusts.  At noon it was served minus the color, with salt, and a drop of grease added.  At night it was served with a purplish-auburn hue that defied all speculation; it was darn poor tea, but it was dandy hot water."

I read "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" years ago, but now I think I'd like to read "The Road" and "Valley of the Moon."