Jack London’s Dictaphone Recording Cylinders from his office with his voice

Description

Two Jack London Dictaphone Recording Cylinders
with their original cylinder cases
Each container measures 6-1/4" by 2-3/4" in very good condition, one with a bit of of matter missing on the end as shown, not affecting the recorded part. The original containers have their lids as issued long ago.
Jack London later in his stellar writing career used a dictation machine for dictating his stories, books and for issues pertaining to business on his ranch in Glen Ellen, California. He passed away in his
bungalow
on his estate in 1916 from a heart attack and acute nephritis, not "suicide" as some earlier books on his life reported.
These two
dictation
cylinders came from the estate of Jack London decades ago when I was assembling my collection of Jack's first editions, ephemera, letters and other books and related material to London.
Regarding these two dictation cylinders:
I obtained these from Russ Kingman back in the 1980's when I would travel to Glen Ellen to talk with Becky London, Russ and Winnie Kingman and "Brewster the Rooster" at the Jack London Bookstore and Research Center. Kingman was regarded as a world authority regarding the life and work of Jack London.
I have absolutely no doubt that these items were the property of Jack London and used by him in his writing career. Important as these are, I was also privileged to view and handle other Jack London items that were in Russ Kingman’s possession.
Russ Kingman told me that these were still playable if you had the correct machine. I did not have the brass to even attempt to play these, as just knowing they were once Jack London's with his voice was enough for me. I respected these too much to damage them. Both cylinders have notations on the lids and one has the "J.L" in red crayon and some other notations, probably written by Jack London. These indicate they were used in 1916, the year of London's death. Russ told me that there were some recordings made from these by a responsible university. Therefore, these were most likely two that were used. He did play a portion of a tape recording for me made from some cylinders of London's voice for about ten seconds but first he wanted to show me a lock of London's hair in a book and a chunk of "The Snark" that he had and handed that to me. For myself, I thought I was in some kind of heaven and so fortunate. (Another tidbit of intriguing information that I shall share with you: in my possession once,  from a letter that Charmian London wrote to a friend about "The Snark" - it was scuttled and no longer remained. Another letter typed to a friend stated the "Wolf House"- Jack's castle where the majority of his money received from
royalties
was sunk and almost ready to move into - was torched by a "soul-crazed hunchback who did a quick work of it." Nothing involving
anything
Jack London was never boring. He was the first American superstar celebrity writer in America to earn one million dollars by his pen.
As I recall, there were about eight or ten of these
dictation
cylinders that I saw, and many were broken or had pieces missing. some were missing their case lids. Some I knew were broken after sold to some other people.
I will provide a letter stating that these are authentic with photos of each cylinder. These will be most           carefully send with padding and insurance by Priority Mail with tracking.
I will post these for awhile and if not sold, I will just put them back under glass. It's good to have them.
John Anthony Miller
Phantom Bookshop
Ventura, CA 93003
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