A Recovered Jack London Letter

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1Anthony Comstock (1844–1915), founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, successfully lobbied the United States Congress to pass the Comstock Act of 1873, which made it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, pamphlet, picture, paper, print, or other publication of an indecent character” through the mail and empowered the Postmaster-General to rule on the obscenity of literature sent through the mail (An Act 598). 2According to The Encyclopedia of Social Reform, Mrs. E. B. Grannis was instrumental in the formation of the National Christian League for the Promotion of Social Purity. The league's national charter states their objectives as follows: “To elevate opinion respecting the nature and claims of morality, with its equal obligation upon men and women; to secure a proper, practical recognition of its precepts on the part of the individual, the family, and the nation, and to enlist and organize the efforts of Christians in protective, educational, reformatory, and legislative work in the interest of social purity” (Bliss 58). On August 1, 1913, the following example of a dispatch concerning Miss Stead and Mrs. Grannis appeared in The Milwaukee Journal under the title, “Purity League Objects to Stories That Discuss Sex Questions”: “NEW YORK, Aug. 1.—Miss Jean Steed [sic] and Mrs. Elizabeth B. Grannis of the National Christian League for the Promotion of Purity have petitioned Postmaster General Burleson to stop the circulation of magazines containing stories which discuss sex matters freely. Purity workers say a warning will be enough to make magazine publishers desist. Miss Steed styled Witter Bynner's one act drama The Tiger in the May Forum as ‘garbage,’ in a magazine with a reputation so good that parents would usually not challenge its contents. Other stories criticized were Edna Ferber's The Girl That Tried to Be Good in The Saturday Evening Post and Turbey's In the House of Living Death, Collier's.” 3Grannis and Stead were petitioning the Postmaster-General on the grounds of the Comstock Act of 1873. 4Reginald Wright Kauffman (1877–1959) was the author of The Girl That Goes Wrong (1911), a compilation of short stories that examined the social conditions encouraging prostitution. He published many works of short fiction and wrote several Hollywood film productions. Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) became famous for his novel The Jungle (1906), which exposed the working conditions of the meat packing industry. Daniel Carson Goodman (1881–1957) was the author of Hagar Revelly (1913). It is ironic that Goodman signed this letter because, as Paul Boyer has shown, Goodman was a “social hygienist,” meaning he was a supporter of the vice societies, “who was moved to take up the pen because of a desire to teach ‘the innocent youth of the land … the wiles of vice’” (47). Upon its release in 1913, Hagar Revelly was targeted for suppression by Anthony Comstock, who secured an indictment, arrested the publisher, Mitchell Kennerly, and destroyed the entire stock and plates of the novel (Boyer 47). Goodman went on to become a successful screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for 28 silent films between 1913 and 1928. He was also a licensed physician who, along with Charlie Chaplin, was aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924 when producer Thomas Ince died under mysterious circumstances. James Oppenheim (1882–1932) was a poet, novelist, and editor. He was founder and editor of the literary magazine The Seven Arts. Thomas Everett Harré (1884–1948) was a journalist, author, and editor. He wrote The Eternal Maiden (1913) and edited Beware After Dark!: The World's Most Stupendous Tales of Mystery, Horror, Thrills & Terror (1929).