News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • 84

Jack London's daughter recalls life with father if.M T-'-? By Charles HllUnger Lo An)ln Times 'm thrilled to pieces 'I being here. I feel like I have come home," Becky, Joan and Jack London In an old picture taken at an Oakland, amusement park. (Lot Angela Times Photos) Mm i A 4J Jack London had two daughters, both by his first wife, math and English teacher Bessie Mad-dern: Joan, who died in 1971 at the age of 71, and Becky, who was named Bess after her mother but who has always gone by the nickname Becky. The author's first marriage lasted only four years. In 1904, London and Bessie Maddern were divorced.

The day after the divorce the writer married Char mian Kittredge. Bessie was given sole custody of the two girls who were 2 and 4 at the time of the divorce. They never lived with their father. "Oh, Joan and I saw Daddy many, many times," recalled the silver-haired woman. "When Daddy wasn't sailing the Pacific on the Snark or off covering major stories like the Russo-Japanese War or the Mexican Revolution, he spent his time writing on his ranch here at Glen Ellen.

"Daddy would often come to Oakland to visit his mother and to spend a full day with Joan and me. He would take the two of us to Idora Amusement Park In Oakland and to his favorite restaurant, Saddle Rock. When we were older, we spent the day taking the ferry to San Francisco. Daddy loved to ride the cable cars. We would eat at the the Cliff House and go to the theater." She remembers the excite ment of being the daughter of the most popular writer of his time: "It seemed like everybody knew Daddy.

He was the center of attention wherever he went Motormen would clang the bells on cable cars when they spotted him and shout 'There's Jack London. Hey, Becky London Fleming recalls "it wasn't easy In school for his daughter. If we did well, teachers would say: "Why not Look who your father If we didn't do too well, we would hear: 'Jack London's daughter should do better than She tells how her mother was Jealous of Charmian "and jealous of Daddy. Every year Daddy would invite Joan and me to spend the summer at the ranch. Mother would not let us go.

HI never forgive her for that" London encouraged his daughters to read from early on. He sent them boxes of books regularly history books, biogra- sighed Jack London's daughter, Becky London Fleming, her eyes misting. The 80-year-old daughter of one of the world's best-read writers was standing on a lonely knoll In a live oak-madrone forest at the burned-out shell of Wolf House, a structure alive with the ghost of her father. Until a few weeks ago she had lived her entire life in Oakland, Calif. She moved here to spend "the rest of my days" in the tiny hamlet of Glen Ellen in the Valley of the Moon 50 miles north of San Francisco a place that reeks with the life and times of Jack London.

For 30 years Fleming and her late husband owned and operated a small neighborhood stationery store in Oakland. Few knew of her relationship to the author of "The Call of the Wild," "The Sea Wolf," "The Valley of the Moon," "Martin Eden," "The People of the Abyss" and 46 other novels and hundreds of short stories. '1 always made up my mind never to take advantage of Daddy's name," she said. "After I married in 1928 and became Mrs. Fleming nobody except close friends knew who I was." Wolf House was Jack London's dream castle of stone with 26 rooms, nine fireplaces, a Roman pool, a dining room big enough to feed 50 "Built to last at least 1,000 years" the author assured his friends.

But fire consumed the dream on the eve of Hs completion 70 years ago. London never disturbed the charred ruins. He died three years after the fire, in 1916, at the age of 40. His ashes are in an urn buried beneath a lichen-shrouded red boulder not far from Wolf House, In the heart of his ranch. Charmian London, Jack's widow, let the ruins remain untouched throughout her life.

It was London's wish and the desire of his wife to let Wolf House forever remain a pile of rubble not to be hauled off. Charmian died at 84 in 1955. Since 1959 Wolf House and Jack London's grave have been part of Jack London State Park. phies, science and travel books. Wherever he traveled, he never failed to write to his daughters.

And they wrote to him. "He encouraged us to be writers, to go to college," said Fleming. "We both graduated from (the University of California) Berkeley, Joan in 1921, 1 did in 1923. My sister wrote a successful book 'Jack London and His I'm an avid reader, even now, but not a writer." Becky London was 14, a sophomore In high school, when her fatherdied. Percy (Per) Fleming, Becky's husband, died last year after 54 years of marriage.

Last Christmas Eve while alone in her Oakland home, two men broke in, threw her on the floor and robbed her. "It's time you moved to Glen Ellen," Fleming's long-time friends, Winnie and Russ Kingman, told the lively octogenarian. She agreed and moved Into a trailer the first week In June next to Kingman's World of Jack London Museum and Bookstore in this tiny town. Kingman, 65, Is the author of a definitive and most recent biography of Jack London. He is a walking encyclopedia on the famous writer.

"I'm having the time of my life," confided Jack London's daughter. "I pass the time reading and answering questions about Daddy asked by people-who come Into the bookstore. You know Daddy's books are as timely today as they were when he wrote them. His people are so alive. He wrote realism.

I fed closer to Daddy now, down the hill from -ill Becky London Fleming, 80, stands Inside the Jack London Bookstore In Glen Ellen, Calif. his ranch." Under terms of the divorce granted Bessie Maddern London, the author built a home In Oakland for his ex-wife and two daughters. The daughters each received an allowance of $75 a month from their father until they were 21. But the author's first wife and only children were not provided for In Jack London's will. The ranch and literary estate went to Charmian.

When Charmian died, the ranch and literary estate went to Irving Shepherd, son of Jack London's stepsister Eliza London Shepherd. But his daughter is not bitter. "I have never felt shortchanged. I accept things as they are. I never have envied anyone.

I'm an optimist," she said. "Accepting one's lot In life makes for a happier existence. I have been blessed in a thousand ways being the daughter of Jack London." 1 6-H News Journal, Mansfield, 0. Sunday, November 13, 1983.