Showdownb at Wolf House

In 2000 I and my daughter’s mother went to see the ruins of Jack London’s Wolf House where I read a plaque about the struggle his wife had to keep Jack’s creative legacy in the family. I told this Stage Mother I was going through the same struggle with outsiders – before my daughter came into my life. I said this was “God’s Justice” that I now had a Heir. Then I heard;

“Don’t my genes count?”

This Stage Mother was all in a huff, because she believed I upstaged her, was saying her daughter got all her creativity from me. I was pissed, for this woman hid my daughter from me for sixteen years, and only appear in my life to get in my sister’s biography my rivals were authoring.

“Well, genetics don’t lie. And it looks like my kindred were born with substantial gifts! My father, for instence, was a very good singer.”

If looks could kill. I wondered if this SM was going to try and go around me. I didn’t know she already had, and had a hidden agenda waiting in the wing, just incase I was not cooperative in the Grand Scheme of Things. I should have kept my mouth shut, but – NAW!

Jack named his house after Wolf Larsen whom my father emulated, he telling me he raised his sons like Wolf would. Vic’s alias was Bill Larsen. Being a Leo, the world had to revolve around him – or else!

Jon Presco

Copyright 2011

London, who was called “Wolf” by his close friends, also used a picture of a wolf on his bookplate, and named his mansion “Wolf House”.[7] Given that Van Weyden’s experiences in the novel bear some resemblance to experiences London had, or heard told about, when he sailed on the Sophia Sutherland, the autodidact sailor Wolf Larsen has been compared to the autodidact sailor Jack London.

Jack and Charmian’s dream home was planned even before their marriage. Actual work on it began April 1911. Albert Farr of San Francisco was the architect who transferred Jack’s ideas into blueprints. For earthquake protection, the building was put on a huge floating slab large enough to support a forty-story building. Redwood trees, fully clothed in their own bark, deep chocolate-maroon volcanic rocks, blue slate, boulders and cement were chosen for primary building materials.
Jack London State Historic Park, also known as Jack London Home and Ranch, is a California State Historic Park near Glen Ellen, California, United States, situated on the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain. It includes the ruins of a house burned a few months before Jack London and family were to move in, a cottage in which they had lived, another house built later, and the graves of Jack London and his wife. The property is a National Historic Landmark.
After London died, his wife Charmian inherited the property. During that time she built a house on the property called the House of Happy Walls, which in a way is a smaller version of the Wolf House. Charmian lived there until her death in 1955. In her will, she wanted the house she built become a museum in honor of her husband. This was eventually the start of the Jack London State Historic Park, which opened four years later to the public in 1959. Today it’s an attraction to many Jack London fans and people who enjoy the nature of the property. On May 13, 2011, California State Parks officials announced plans to close the Jack London State Historic Park to the public due to the state’s fiscal crisis.[5]

Larsen displays characteristics of a sociopath. He has absolutely no fault with manipulating and bullying people to better serve his needs. He routinely takes men hostage, castaways such as van Weyden and seal hunters from other ships, and uses them to fill his own ranks when needed. He murders and abuses people without hesitation, seeing no value in life. He enjoys the intellectual stimulation that van Weyden and Miss Brewster provide, but van Weyden describes their relationship as one between a king and his jester. According to van Weyden, he is only a toy to Larsen.