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 …