When Jack London got word that his rural dream home was up in flames on Aug. 13, 1913, the author’s pain was primal.
“He lay in my pitying arms and shook like a child” as he viewed the disaster, his wife Charmian recounted years later. “After a few moments he stilled and said: ‘It isn’t the money’s loss. … The main hurt comes from the wanton despoiling of so much beauty.’”
London, who grew up in Oakland and is best known for his novel “The Call of the Wild,” wrote 50 books, many of which are still in print. He took thousands of photos at ports around the world and wrote hundreds more news articles. But the closest you can feel to the author — his ambition, his vision, his love for nature and his pain — lies down a quarter-mile trail inside Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen (Sonoma County), where the author’s “Wolf House” continues to lie in ruins…