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 this were deflected—when I asked my dad if the family had known London socially, he told me, “Oh, no. We wouldn’t have known him; he was a drunk”—and so my curiosity took a back seat for 40 years. Until a hotel manager paid me a visit. I’m an artist who creates murals, often grounded in history. Nearly 30 years ago, I was creating a mural about Amelia Earhart … Continue reading How My Great-Grandfather Dealt With a Lout Named Jack London