Frances Rivetti on Jack London Through the Eyes of His Great-Granddaughter in his 150th Year | Jack London Society Speaker Series at Beauty Ranch, with Tarnel Abbott
On an early Saturday morning in June, I made my way from my home in Petaluma to Glen Ellen along the Sonoma Highway, arriving at Beauty Ranch just as the day was beginning to warm.
I joined a crowd of about forty people gathered beneath the trees by the author’s early cottage to hear Jack London’s great-granddaughter, Tarnel Abbott, speak about her family’s side of one of California’s most enduring literary stories.
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From Tarnel Abbott: Thank you Frances Rivetti, for such a nice write up, I appreciate your perspective. I would like to clarify a few things. The handsome man holding the hand drawn genealogy chart in your photograph, is my son James Devin O’Keefe. I think this may be the only time I have given a presentation at the Jack London State Historic Park, although I have participated in the Jack London Society Symposia. As Joan and Becky were not the inheritors of their father’s estate, there is very little Jack London memorabilia with his descendants. In addition to her “Jack London and His Daughters”, my grandmother, Joan, also wrote “Jack London and His Times: An Unconventional Biography” and “So Shall Ye Reap: The Story of Cesar Chavez & the Farmworkers Movement” (co authored with Henry Anderson). Nakata was no longer with Jack London after his marriage, Sekine took over the job during the final years. Of serious concern to Jack London’s descendants is the myth that Eliza Shepard was Jack London’s half sister, she was his step sister. Eliza’s father, John London met Flora Wellman Chaney well after the birth of her son, John Griffith Chaney. John and Flora married when her infant was 9 months old, and Eliza was about 10 years old. Jack was given the London name and didn’t know that his biological father was Wiliam Henry Chaney until he was an adult. Eliza London Shepard died before Charmian K. London. Charmian left the Jack London estate to Eliza’s son, Irving Shepard (Jack London’s step nephew). Tarnel Abbott, Jack London great – granddaughter 6/29/26