Journalist, author and social activist, Jack London, was born in 1876 in San Francisco. He lived and attended school in Oakland and was a student at UC Berkeley. At 16, London bought himself a boat, the Razzle Dazzle, and roamed San Francisco Bay as an oyster pirate. In 1892, he later changed sides and became a deputy patrolman for the Fish Patrol. London spent a lot of time in Benicia drinking, brawling, sailing and once nearly killed himself by falling into the strait in a drunken state. He wrote stories about his experiences in Benicia in “Tales of the Fish Patrol and John Barleycorn. In his later years, between 1903 and 1914, London returned to Benicia to visit friends, fish, drink and work on his books. One of his favored haunts was Jurgensen’s saloon. At the time, the saloon was located across the street from the train depot, on the corner of First and A Streets. This mural depicts London, well-dressed, standing in front of a drugstore. (This NE corner of First and G Streets was the site of several drugstores and the Port Customs House.) Inscribed like a thought bubble is the phrase: “I want to know that I have left behind me a plot of land which after the pitiful failure of others, I have made productive.” This is part of a quote London said about Wolf House, the house he built in Glen Ellen and the sustainably farmed ranch on which it stood. Wolf House burned before London could move in. He died in his home in Sonoma County in 1916. This quote must have had special meaning for the artist. It is the only such quote in this collection of tiles.