Description:

London Jack

Unnumbered check issued from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii on May 14, 1916 in the amount of $9.55 payable to “Hawaiian Electric Co.” inscribed overall and signed “Jack London”. The check issued from the Bank of Hawaii, Ld. is stamped “Paid” in purple recto, and is stamped by the payee verso. Check has a tan braided background superimposed with the Bank of Hawaii at center. Graded by PSA/DNA as “NM-MT 8”, with y-shaped cancellation mark at center. Check measures 6.75" x 2.75" and is enclosed in a PSA/DNA certified slab measuring 9.5” x 4.625”.

Although his writing career was curtailed by his premature death, Jack London (1876-1916) still produced many popular and commercially successful novels, short stories, poetry, plays, essays, and travel accounts. London established his literary reputation in the new Western adventure genre with “Call of the Wild” (1903) and “White Fang” (1906), novels inspired by some of his real-life experiences in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush. His travels to Japan, Russia, San Francisco, Hawaii, and the South Pacific resulted in other works like 1911’s “The Cruise of the Snark”. Though he was dying from kidney failure and suffering from alcoholism, dysentery, and morphine addiction, London published a play (“The Acorn Planter: A California Forest Play”), two poems (“Republican Rallying Song” and “The Sea Sprite and the Shooting Star”), and a short story called “The Hussy” in 1916 alone.

London’s last visit to the then Hawaii Territory took place between December 1915 and July 1916. The literary celebrity met two Hawaiian ex-royals during this trip: Queen Liliuokalani (1838-1917) and Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianole (1871-1922). This check to a local utility company dates from two months before London’s return to California, and just six months before his death at age 40.

Accepted Forms of Payment:

American Express, MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Paypal, Personal Check, Visa, Wire Transfer

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