A Short Trail, a Full Life

One of my favorite places in Los Angeles is the desert garden at the Huntington Library. When unable to get to the desert itself, I visit this magic cactus enclave. Here, I walk the paths of a silent freak show, marvel at the tortured beauties frozen in time, the miraculous poofs of color amid this scape of thirst. I’m in another world, transported back to the wide-open spaces where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy or gray.

This inner and outer terrain has drawn some of the country’s best writers, providing sustenance for a lifetime of work and exploration. So it is fitting that, just a short walk from the desert garden, inside the West Exhibition Hall at the Huntington, is a show called “The Wisdom of the Trail: Jack London, Author and Adventurer.”

London traversed and wrote about the great wide open--and the promise in it that is every American’s birthright. He knew that the streets of the country were not paved with gold, but lined with cactus, and mesas, and sheets of ice--and to find ourselves we had to heed the call of the wild and get lost.

London lived from 1876 to 1916, way before Kerouac (that other traveling scribe named Jack) and long after Moses (the original truth-seeking trailblazer). In his short life of 40 years, he wrote 50 books (novels, short story collections and nonfiction). The exhibit is powerful proof that hitting the road can lead to spiritual and emotional transformation, provided the pilgrim is not just trying to rack up miles.

It is presented in display cases of manuscripts, photos and letters, each one devoted to a particular aspect of London’s life, including his years on the Klondike, as a tramp, as a journalist covering war and earthquake, cruising the South Pacific, and as an esteemed peer of Joseph Conrad, Mary Austin and Upton Sinclair.

Many wanderers hit the road to get to California. London was born here, but still needed to escape. At 16, he embarked on the career of oyster pirate in the San Francisco Bay. At 18, he signed on to a seal hunting vessel and wrote “Story of a Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan” for the San Francisco Call newspaper. Before he was 30, he searched for gold in Alaska, covered the Russo-Japanese war and wrote his best-known work, “The Call of the Wild.” All of his works have one thing in common--identification with the outsider, animal or human.

For me, a writer influenced in grade school by his wonderful books, getting to see first editions was like a trip to the Holy Land. They are behind glass, just like the Shroud of Turin. But there are millions of copies in print, and I suggest that grown-ups who don’t know right from wrong ignore Bill Bennett and his “Little Book of Virtues,” and read Jack London.

In fact, “The Wisdom of the Trail” is replete with markers. At a time when the prevailing assumption is that everyone on the planet has a 401(k) plan, London’s writing assigns dignity to the down-and-out.

For six weeks he lived in the East End of London, among the derelicts, an experience that led to the book “The People of the Abyss” (his best work, he said). The abyss is still there, although from the hoopla attending Tom Wolfe as the novelist of the century, who would know? Few dare to look into the pit; tales of the poor are relegated to venues that the mainstream views as crackpot. So, too, the wilderness--London’s beloved outdoors, even the Klondike, is under siege, while those who would save it are sometimes dismissed as “tree huggers.”

In the desert garden, a giant aloe plant is carved with graffiti. Stan and Cathy want the world to know that they are here. Would they announce themselves in a quieter way if they knew about Jack London and “The Wisdom of the Trail”? I like to think so. There are heartening thoughts in the show’s guest book. Says Bob from Redlands: “The call of the wild--I hear it!” And Rachel from Pacoima notes, “What a hottie!” Indeed he was.

BE THERE

“The Wisdom of the Trail: Jack London, Author and Adventurer,” Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, (626) 405-2141. Open Tuesday-Friday, noon-4:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission: adults, $8.50; seniors, $7; students 12-18, $5; children under 12 free.