Previous image preload Next image preload
Back to catalog
Lot 204
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3 image_4 image_5 image_6
Jack London, "The Cruise of the Snark" Annotated Manuscript & Signed Check
Jack London, "The Cruise of the Snark" Annotated Manuscript & Signed Check
image_0 image_1 image_2 image_3 image_4 image_5 image_6
Description:

London Jack



Jack London, The Cruise of the Snark annotated manuscript and signed check

 

Lot consists of 3pp 1st revision typed manuscript of The Cruise of the Snark with 55+ handwritten edits/words in Jack London's hand; along with a signed check dating from the era of the Snark's construction.

 

In the spring of 1907, Jack London (1876-1916), accompanied by his wife Charmian (1871-1955) and a small crew, set out for a modern maritime adventure aboard the Snark, their 45' long custom built sailboat. Over the next 2 years, the Londons would sail west and south across the Pacific Ocean, exploring Hawaii, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tahiti, Australia, and other tropical locales. London later recounted his travel experiences in a non-fiction illustrated account called The Cruise of the Snark, published by The Macmillan Company in New York in 1911.

 

These typed manuscript galleys correspond to pages 301-308 of London's final 1st edition of The Cruise of the Snark. This excerpt comprises the end of Chapter XVI: "Bêche de Mer English" and the beginning of Chapter XVII: "The Amateur M.D." In this portion, London writes extensively about the interesting linguistic phenomenon of bêche de mer. This patois cobbled together from various languages functioned as a lingua franca in the South Pacific, and clearly fascinating the wordsmith.

 

The galley proofs are oversized, measuring 9.25" x 12" on average overall, and have generously sized margins to accommodate handwritten author's edits. The pages are in very good to near fine condition with expected wear including paper folds, isolated light soiling, and some chipped edges. The manuscripts dates circa spring 1911.

 

London's edits throughout the manuscript are in pencil and blue pen. On the first page, London has made three substitutions: "book" with "box"; "long" with "along"; and "were" with "was." On the following page, he inserted a quotation mark and also added in the margin: "and the address he gave became a classic in all Australasia." The last page includes London's directions to his editor: "change all these."

 

London also hand-inscribed captions to four incredible black and white photographs that would become Illustration 107-110: "He knew the sandal wood traders and the beche [sic] de mer fishermen"; "He might have been Gladstone'"; "Old Woman of Vella Lavella"; and "'Marys.'" London drew arrows pointing to text blocks where he wished corresponding illustrations to appear. Other possibly publisher's edits in red are found throughout.

 

The manuscript pages correspond to the following published text found in The Cruise of the Snark. Areas affected by London's edits are in bold.

 

"A Solomon islander cannot say fence, so, in bêche de mer, it becomes fennis; store is sittore, and box is bokkis.  Just now the fashion in chests, which are known as boxes, is to have a bell-arrangement on the lock so that the box cannot be opened without sounding an alarm.  A box so equipped is not spoken of as a mere box, but as the bokkis belong bell.

 

Fright is the bêche de mer for fear.  If a native appears timid and one asks him the cause, he is liable to hear in reply: “Me fright along you too much.”  Or the native may be fright along storm, or wild bush, or haunted places.  Cross covers every form of anger.  A man may be cross at one when he is feeling only petulant; or he may be cross when he is seeking to chop off your head and make a stew out of you.  A recruit, after having toiled three years on a plantation, was returned to his own village on Malaita.  He was clad in all kinds of gay and sportive garments.  On his head was a top-hat.  He possessed a trade-box full of calico, beads, porpoise-teeth, and tobacco.  Hardly was the anchor down, when the villagers were on board.  The recruit looked anxiously for his own relatives, but none was to be seen.  One of the natives took the pipe out of his mouth.  Another confiscated the strings of beads from around his neck.  A third relieved him of his gaudy loin-cloth, and a fourth tried on the top-hat and omitted to return it.  Finally, one of them took his trade-box, which represented three years’ toil, and dropped it into a canoe alongside.  “That fella belong you?” the captain asked the recruit, referring to the thief.  “No belong me,” was the answer.  “Then why in Jericho do you let him take the box?” the captain demanded indignantly.  Quoth the recruit, “Me speak along him, say bokkis he stop, that fella he cross along me”—which was the recruit’s way of saying that the other man would murder him.  God’s wrath, when He sent the Flood, was merely a case of being cross along mankind.

 

What name? is the great interrogation of bêche de mer.  It all depends on how it is uttered.  It may mean: What is your business?  What do you mean by this outrageous conduct?  What do you want?  What is the thing you are after?  You had best watch out; I demand an explanation; and a few hundred other things.  Call a native out of his house in the middle of the night, and he is likely to demand, “What name you sing out along me?”

 

Imagine the predicament of the Germans on the plantations of Bougainville Island, who are compelled to learn bêche de mer English in order to handle the native labourers.  It is to them an unscientific polyglot, and there are no text-books by which to study it.  It is a source of unholy delight to the other white planters and traders to hear the German wrestling stolidly with the circumlocutions and short-cuts of a language that has no grammar and no dictionary.

 

Some years ago large numbers of Solomon islanders were recruited to labour on the sugar plantations of Queensland.  A missionary urged one of the labourers, who was a convert, to get up and preach a sermon to a shipload of Solomon islanders who had just arrived.  He chose for his subject the Fall of Man, and the address he gave became a classic in all Australasia.  It proceeded somewhat in the following manner:

 

“Altogether you boy belong Solomons you no savvee white man.  Me fella me savvee him.  Me fella me savvee talk along white man.

 

“Before long time altogether no place he stop.  God big fella marster belong white man, him fella He make ’m altogether.  God big fella marster belong white man, He make ’m big fella garden.  He good fella too much.  Along garden plenty yam he stop, plenty cocoanut, plenty taro, plenty kumara (sweet potatoes), altogether good fella kai-kai too much.

 

“Bimeby God big fella marster belong white man He make ’m one fella man and put ’m along garden belong Him.  He call ’m this fella man Adam.  He name belong him.  He put him this fella man Adam along garden, and He speak, ‘This fella garden he belong you.’  And He look ’m this fella Adam he walk about too much.  Him fella Adam all the same sick; he no savvee kai-kai; he walk about all the time.  And God He no savvee.  God big fella marster belong white man, He scratch ’m head belong Him.  God say: ‘What name?  Me no savvee what name this fella Adam he want.’

 

“Bimeby God He scratch ’m head belong Him too much, and speak: ‘Me fella me savvee, him fella Adam him want ’m Mary.’  So He make Adam he go asleep, He take one fella bone belong him, and He make ’m one fella Mary along bone.  He call him this fella Mary, Eve.  He give ’m this fella Eve along Adam, and He speak along him fella Adam: ‘Close up altogether along this fella garden belong you two fella.  One fella tree he tambo (taboo) along you altogether.  This fella tree belong apple.’

 

“So Adam Eve two fella stop along garden, and they two fella have ’m good time too much.  Bimeby, one day, Eve she come along Adam, and she speak, ‘More good you me two fella we eat ’m this fella apple.’  Adam he speak, ‘No,’ and Eve she speak, ‘What name you no like ’m me?’  And Adam he speak, ‘Me like ’m you too much, but me fright along God.’  And Eve she speak, ‘Gammon!  What name?  God He no savvee look along us two fella all ’m time.  God big fella marster, He gammon along you.’  But Adam he speak, ‘No.’  But Eve she talk, talk, talk, allee time—allee same Mary she talk along boy along Queensland and make ’m trouble along boy.  And bimeby Adam he tired too much, and he speak, ‘All right.’  So these two fella they go eat ’m.  When they finish eat ’m, my word, they fright like hell, and they go hide along scrub.

 

“And God He come walk about along garden, and He sing out, ‘Adam!’  Adam he no speak.  He too much fright.  My word!  And God He sing out, ‘Adam!’  And Adam he speak, ‘You call ’m me?’  God He speak, ‘Me call ’m you too much.’  Adam he speak, ‘Me sleep strong fella too much.’  And God He speak, ‘You been eat ’m this fella apple.’  Adam he speak, ‘No, me no been eat ’m.’  God He speak.  ‘What name you gammon along me?  You been eat ’m.’  And Adam he speak, ‘Yes, me been eat ’m.’

 

“And God big fella marster He cross along Adam Eve two fella too much, and He speak, ‘You two fella finish along me altogether.  You go catch ’m bokkis (box) belong you, and get to hell along scrub.’

 

“So Adam Eve these two fella go along scrub.  And God He make ’m one big fennis (fence) all around garden and He put ’m one fella marster belong God along fennis.  And He give this fella marster belong God one big fella musket, and He speak, ‘S’pose you look ’m these two fella Adam Eve, you shoot ’m plenty too much.’”

 

CHAPTER XVII

THE AMATEUR M.D.

 

When we sailed from San Francisco on the Snark I knew as much about sickness as the Admiral of the Swiss Navy knows about salt water.  And here, at the start, let me advise any one who meditates going to out-of-the-way tropic places.  Go to a first-class druggist—the sort that have specialists on their salary list who know everything.  Talk the matter over with such an one.  Note carefully all that he says.  Have a list made of all that he recommends.  Write out a cheque for the total cost, and tear it up.

 

I wish I had done the same.  I should have been far wiser, I know now, if I had bought one of those ready-made, self-acting, fool-proof medicine chests such as are favoured by fourth-rate ship-masters.  In such a chest each bottle has a number.  On the inside of the lid is placed a simple table of directions: No. 1, toothache; No. 2, smallpox; No. 3, stomachache; No. 4, cholera; No. 5, rheumatism; and so on, through the list of human ills.  And I might have used it as did a certain venerable skipper, who, when No. 3 was--"

 

In addition to the hand-corrected manuscript is an unnumbered check inscribed overall and signed “Jack London” on the payee line. Issued from the Central Bank of Oakland, California on July 1, 1905 in the amount of $8.64 payable to "Burrows Bros. Co.” The plain cream check is stamped in purple, maroon, and blue recto and verso, and bears a rounded cancellation mark at center. In very good to near fine condition, expected light folds. Check measures 6.5" x 2.875".

 

London wrote this check to Burrow Bros., a prominent book store and stationer's shop located on Cleveland's fashionable Euclid Avenue. The company operated between 1873-1993, transitioning from retail to publishing and wholesale around the turn-of-the-century.

 

Jack London must have required an inexhaustible supply of writing materials, if one considers the considerable output produced over his short lifetime. In the year 1905 alone, London published one novel, one essay, three short stories, and three poems. The beloved author must have also responded to lots of fan mail.

 

Jack London grew up in Oakland, California. He attended elementary school through high school there, and studied at a local waterfront bar named Heinold's First and Last Saloon; the proprietor later lent him tuition money to Berkeley.

 

Jack London wrote dozens of poems, short stories, essays, and novels over a prolific career curtailed by chronic ill-health. With income generated from adventure classics like Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906), London was able to purchase a ranch and outfit the Snark.

 

WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!

Accepted Forms of Payment:

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

Shipping

We do our own in-house worldwide shipping!

Applicable shipping and handling charges will be added to the invoice. We offer several shipping options, and remain one of the few auction houses who proudly provides professional in-house shipping as an option to our clients. All items will ship with signature required, and full insurance. Most items are sent via Federal Express, with P. O. Box addresses being sent through USPS. We insure through Berkley Asset Protection with rates of $.70 per $100 of value, among the lowest insurance rates in the industry. Our shipping department cameras document every package, both outgoing and incoming, for maximum security. In addition, we compare our shipping and handling rates against those of other auction houses, to ensure that our charges are among the lowest in the trade.

Upon winning your item(s), you will receive an invoice with our in-house shipping and handling fees included. ***We will ship to the address as it appears on your invoice, unless you inform us otherwise, immediately upon your receipt of invoice***

Third Party Shipping Option: If a third party shipper is preferred, the buyer is responsible for contacting them directly to make shipping arrangements. For your convenience, we have provided some recommended shippers. For your protection, we will require a signed release from you, confirming your authorization for us to release your lots to your specified third party Please copy and paste this following link into your browser: http://universityarchives.com/UserFiles/ShippingInfo.pdf. At that point, our responsibility and insurance coverage for your item(s) ceases. Items picked up by third party shippers are required to pay Connecticut sales tax. Items requiring third party shipping due to being oversized, fragile or bulky will be denoted in the item description.

Please see our full terms and conditions for names of suggested third party shippers.


After payment has been made in full, University Archives will ship your purchase within 5 business days following receipt of full payment for item.Packages shipped internationally will have full value declared on shipping form. International buyers will be responsible for any customs fees incurred.

Please remember that the buyer is responsible for all shipping costs from University Archives' offices in Westport, CT to the buyer's door. Please see full Terms and Conditions of Sale.

May 15, 2019 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

You agree to pay a buyer's premium of 25% and any applicable taxes and shipping.

View full terms and conditions

Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $299 $20
$300 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $2,999 $200
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000