I just finished reading Wolf. As a biographer, I must first applaud Jack Hayley in his well-written and very revealing story of Jack London. It is so well done. I know, after reading this book, there are other books I have not read that I need to read written by Jack London. I was certainly 'caught' by the actual life and the books written by Jack and his very complex interest in MEN as well as the women he knew. Hayley writes about an attraction of men to men that few writers talk about...not that gays are simply born gay, but there is a while world out there
when men are with men as in war, on ships, seeking fortune or adventure, where there are sexual activities, forced or not. (We know about prison.) Jack goes out to sea when only seventeen with men wanting favors. He goes to Alaska where thousands of men are. He finds companionship with others wanting companionshp, yet none would say they are homosexual. They don't claim bi-sexuality either. They were all married men and still associated. They went off in groups to get drunk. This is the culture that isn't often talked about. And it makes one wonder just how far-spread it actually is..are men more free sexually than women? Oprah recently had 200molested men on her show. 1 in 6 men molested. 1 in 4 women. We have a lot of molested children in this world. Jack often shows his anger, savageness with his drinking, yet he is a thinking careful man in his prose. He maintained when sober his love of women.
My sister Gerry has long proclaimed my dad bi-sexual. He didn't marry until 26 and spent long years in drinking with other drinking men. He spent time gathering cattle, other times as a group on the mountain. This is the first book I have read that makes a possible split very clear. I can see how this kind of split could be maintained for years, especially with a certain party. Fascinating study. Jack Hayley discussed a difficult problem with care.
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It's almost a miracle to have someone actually read James Hayley's book and comment on what he revealed about Jack London through his own writing. I think the biographer is probably gay, so had the knowledge to see what all was involved. This is the most definite writing about Jack London I have read on this subject. So that's is why I thought it was such a valuable book for my sisters to read considering that our dad was such a great outdoors man and spent so much time camping out with men when that country was so primitive that was the only way they had to take care of their cattle. Men sleeping with men for days on end in tents. In those days they did not even have sleeping bags but huddled together under warm quilts. With this intimacy such relations were bound to happen among some men, not all, but Jack London's writing about such was so courageous for his time, for any time. Nobody has surpassed him yet in my opinion. He was and still is a great writer.
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ReplyDeleteWell, you did not grow up with Daddy and was not his companion because he had no sons, and had to see his behavior with the hired man who molested you, so you should not let your hatred of having an ancestor tarred with this feather blind you to the possible truth. You may have such a hatred of it that it will prevent my account from being published for many years, but it will still be there if I can write it, for perhaps future generations to see truth in it. You guys have been heavily influenced by Mormon policies in white washing behaviors of ancestors. You act like writing about this is a pleasant thing, it is a horribly unpleasant thing, but just remember Kevin was never arrested and charged with any sexual criminal activities with the young I think mainly because the town of Escalante felt it would give the town a bad name if a guy was charged with being a pedofile like Kevin bragged of being. Many think these kind of crimes are better left unpublicized even if the molester gets away with it.
ReplyDeleteBut even if you are my son you will not get away with trying to browbeat me out of writing this memoir. It has not even been published, so what are you complaining about. You do not have the stomach to see me publish my account of what I saw and experienced when I was even a little girl? What do you think happens when such memoirs are published and the whole world is talking about it? I have so far spared my family of that. Oh yes, write my memoirs but white wash your version of it, is that what you are saying. Don't tell the truth as you see it because the family cannot stand to think their grandfather was guilty of such, and he did not even commit murder that I know of. How would you like me to be the witness of murder? You guys are just not tough. You have to think about what the truth does to prevent such crimes as opposed to lies and coverup. You are being too hotheaded and angry here to reason well about this difficult family matter.
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