How My Great-Grandfather Dealt With a Lout Named Jack London

A Muralist Finds Herself Captivated by the Bay Area Writer, Crusader for Justice, and Drunken Brawler

Growing up in the Bay Area, I heard a lot of family lore about Jack London, and my great-grandfather George Samuels.

Samuels had been a district attorney, a police court judge, and a Superior Court judge in Alameda County, serving continuously from around 1903 until his death in 1925. The famous author had appeared in his court as a defendant several times. Apparently, the encounters produced hard feelings in London. My aunt, prone to exaggeration, bragged that London had threatened to set off a bomb under my great-grandfather’s house.

My questions about …

Where I Go: From Northeast London Back to Duluth | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Where I Go: From Northeast London Back to Duluth

In Our Newly Delimited World, I Became a Terranaut of the Local

For me, as for millions, lockdown has been a masterclass in ways of escape. And even as “easing” widens horizons, I can’t see it catapulting us back to a time …

In 1910, Jack London Saw COVID Coming  | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

In 1910, Jack London Saw COVID Coming 

In The Scarlet Plague, the California Author Imagined a 21st-Century Epidemic Hitting the Bay Area and the World

Jack London saw this coming. So why didn’t we?

In 1910 the California author, already famous for The Call of the Wild and White Fang, wrote a short post-apocalyptic …

You, Too, Can Become a California Saint

Rule Number One: Don’t Bother Being a Nice Guy

Let’s say your New Year’s resolution is to be not just a better Californian, but a truly great one. You seek to be a secular California saint, so revered that …