Hidden in the drawers of the historic home 
of one America's most famous writers and adventurers were found negatives of photographs of the aftermath of the Great Quake and Fire. Taken by Jack London , many of these photographs have found their exclusive first-showing at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. We've shown lots of images in this blog—taken from insurance adjusters and ordinary citizens—but these are among the most well composed images available. Thankfully, you'll see more than images at this show: there are also excerpts from the Londons' letters.
The photographs in the exhibit are accompanied by the diary of Jack London's wife, Charmain.
I just know that if blogging were around in 1906, the Londons would be right in there. According to Guest Curator Philip L. Fradkin , author of "The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906," they sounded like a very hip couple:
Charmain and Jack, like San Francisco, radiated gaiety and vibrancy before the disaster, or at least that was how they were portrayed. They had just been married. Jack was intensely proud of his new wife's endurance and strength. They rode horses together, boxed, were a writing team (he scribbled on paper and she typed), and they called each other mate.
As one of the first writers to cover the great quake and fires, London described what the firestorm was like, as viewed from a ferry in the bay:
At that time I watched the vast conflagration from out on the bay. It was dead calm. Not a flicker of wind stirred. Yet from every side wind was pouring in upon the city. East, west, north, and south, strong winds were blowing upon the doomed city. The heated air rising made an enormous suck. Thus did the fire of itself build its own colossal chimney through the atmosphere. Day and night this dead calm continued, and yet, near to the flames, the wind was often half a gale, so might was the suck.
Creepy, isn't it? But let's end a on a fun note: according to Wikipedia : "Jack London appears briefly as a character at the end of Star Trek: TNG episode Time's Arrow, Parts II as a hotel employee. Mark Twain advises him to go to Alaska." Makes sense to me :-)
PS. Did you get the reference to "The Clash ?"
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