Jack London

Author and Adventurer

Tales from the South Pacific

As he did with his stories of the cold, cruel Klondike, London used the tropical settings of the South Pacific to explore some of the same themes concerning human conflict and the most fundamental forces of nature. In these tales, he tells of humankind's battle against oppression, the struggle between human strengths and weaknesses, and the fight for survival itself.

Jack London. "The Lepers of Molokai," galley proofs, with captioned photographs, ca.1908-1911.
JL 885

While in Hawaii, Jack and Charmian spent a week living among the inhabitants of the leper colony on the island of Molokai. Their surprise at finding, not a cursed place of misery and horror, but a joyful, thriving community is evident in London's essay. With compassion and high good humor, London records his impressions of the people and their activities, including shooting contests, band and choir concerts, and a fourth of July festival featuring antic donkey races.

"The Lepers of Molokai" appeared as an essay both in Woman's Home Companion in January, 1908, and in Contemporary Review in March, 1909, and as a chapter in The Cruise of the Snark in 1911.

Jack London. "Koolau the Leper," in The Pacific Monthly, December, 1909.
RB 257548

For some of London's most powerful stories, he drew upon his Molokai experiences and observations. In "Koolau the Leper," the title character hides in the Kalalau Valley of Kauai as he tries to elude the sheriff's men and escape deportation to the leper colony. The tale is a story of an individual's fundamental struggle for survival and freedom.

After its first publication in The Pacific Monthly, the story later appeared in a volume of short stories, The House of Pride (1912).

Lute Pease. Letter to Jack London, October 26, 1909.  
JL 16371

Lute Pease, editor of The Pacific Monthly, accepted London's story "Koolau the Leper" for the December, 1909, issue. In this letter, he advises London that he and his wife have each created an illustration for the story, even though they weren't sure of the accuracy of certain details. In fact, Nell McMullin Pease was a talented artist, and her illustration appeared with the story.

Jack London. The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii, first edition, New York, Macmillan and Company, 1912.
RB 12753

The stories in this volume include some of London's finest South Seas tales. In them, Hawaii is portrayed, not as a tropical paradise, but as a land corrupted and despoiled by the arrival of the supposedly civilized white settlers.

The tales include "Koolau the Leper," "Good-by Jack," and "The Sheriff of Kona," which deal frankly and sympathetically with the taboos of leprosy; "Chun Ah Chun," the story of a Chinese man displaced by the unyielding encroachments of western ways of life; and "The House of Pride" and "Aloha Oe," which criticize racial intolerance.

Jack London. "The Water Baby," autograph manuscript, 1916.  
JL 1381

"The Water Baby" is the last story London wrote -- he completed it on October 2, 1916, just a few weeks before his death. In it, he explores the fundamental conflict between spiritual affirmation and rational skepticism, reflecting London's own inner struggle with these opposing beliefs.

The conflict is argued in a dialogue between an old Hawaiian named Kohokumu (meaning "tree of knowledge") and a young man, John Lakana (London's Hawaiian name). Against Lakana's doubts, Kohokumu asserts the importance of spirituality, in the passage on display: "This I know: as I grow old I seek less for the truth from without me, and find more of the truth from within me." He goes on to say that his thoughts arise from "within me, from the deeps of me that are as deep as the sea." The idea that people can know truths from within themselves comes from London's own thinking and from his reading of the psychologist Carl Jung, who wrote of universal myths and internal knowledge that all people inherit from their forebears.

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