Typescript of South Sea story, "Mauki"
Glen Ellen, California: 1908. Double space typed manuscript : ribbon copy on paper watermarked "Saxon Bond" : 13pp. : Jack London's name, address and word count (6233 words) typed at the top of first page : several pencil corrections and revisions apparently in London's hand (21 words) : the setting copy with editorial corrections, printer's marking in pencil and "Hampton's Magazine" stamped to head of each page : p. 5 cut in two between lines of text and then pinned together (a previous cataloguer posited this might be the result of an editorial change but I see little evidence for that) : a strip of brown paper (section of a wrapper?) with "Mauki by Jack London. 6,000 words" in his hand : this strip and the leaves stapled at the top : housed in a red half morocco slipcase. Mild soiling and toning, the first leaf detached at the top from the rhs staple.
Provenance: Lazare M. Kaufmann (sale, Christies, 20th May, 1988, Lot 206); Sotheby's April 2004, The Maurice F. Neville Collection. Very good. Item #15538
“Mauki” holds significant literary and historical importance for the South Pacific, particularly in its depiction of colonial labour practices and indigenous resistance during a period of intense imperial activity. The narrative sheds light on the brutal labour trade, often referred to as “blackbirding,” in which Pacific Islanders were coerced or kidnapped into indentured servitude on plantations in Australia, Fiji, and elsewhere.
Written in 1907 during London's cruise of the South Pacific in the Snark, "Mauki" was first published by Hampton's Magazine in December 1908 and was collected in South Sea Stories in 1911. This is the setting copy (i.e. the manuscript copy sent to publisher from which the publisher's printer sets the type). It is one of a handful of Jack London manuscripts to come onto the market in the past 50 years.
The plot
Like many of London's South Sea stories, "Mauki" paints a brutal and extreme picture of the South Pacific at the turn of the twentieth century. In it the central character is a homesick Malaitan, first kidnapped by another tribe and then indentured to the Moongleam Soap Company. He runs away again and again, stealing guns and tobacco, in one instance killing and eating a San Cristobal boy. With each re-capture his indentured time is increased as a means of punishment until finally, considered incorrigible, he is sent to remote Lord Howe Atoll under the oversight of a German plantation manager named Bunster who has something "wrong in his head". The brutal and sadistic Bunster pitilessly tortures the now seemingly compliant Mauki, burning him with cigarettes, knocking him about and flaying him with a mitt made from the skin of a stingray. Bunster's sadism is not only physical, but psychological as well. He is the only white man in the story that refuses to acknowledge and respect Mauki's tambos (taboos).
The tables are turned, however, when Bunster is laid low by fever and just as he begins to recover Mauki exacts his revenge: "The house deserted, he entered the sleeping-room, where the trader lay in a doze. Mauki first removed the revolvers, then placed the ray fish mitten on his hand. Bunster's first warning was a stroke of the mitten that removed the skin the full length of his nose...When Mauki was done, he carried the boat compass and all the rifles and ammunition down to the cutter, which he proceeded to ballast with cases of tobacco. It was while engaged in this that a hideous, skinless thing came out of the house and ran screaming down the beach till it fell in the sand and mowed and gibbered under the scorching sun. Mauki looked toward it and hesitated. Then he went over and removed the head, which he wrapped in a mat and stowed in the stern-locker of the cutter."
The characters derived from life
One of London's gorier tales, "Mauki" is also a tale of heroism, (rough) justice and personal meaning. It is also based in reality. In the papers of the Western Pacific High Commission held at the University of Auckland Library in New Zealand there is a forty-three page collection of documents surrounding a Dutch trader called Munster who faced deportation for troublesome behaviour:
"On January16, 1909, the Levers’ vessel Malekula arrived, under the command of Charles Butchart, to take on copra and deliver supplies. Munster, the worse for drink, was, in Butchart’s words, “chasing a Malaita native round the deck, saying he would take his life.” Munster fought with members of the crew, bit one person’s thumb, threatened to shoot some natives, and actually fired upon them. Matters escalated, with Munster swearing at the crew and “threatening to shoot everyone in the ship.” Eventually he made his way to shore, where the fighting continued to such an extent that passenger Joseph Dickinson disabled Munster by shooting him in the foot. Thereafter Munster fled to the bush and the ship departed to file a complaint and record depositions in Tulagi."
[Keith Newlin (2022) "Jack London and the Colonial Pacific" p.261]
London scholar Keith Newlin has shown that Munster was nominally the agent in charge at Ugi when the London party visited from 2–4 July 1908. No doubt London invented the specific cruelties that the fictional Bunster levied on the fictional Mauki, but the real-life Munster was arguably insane and cruel.
The inspiration for Mauki was also a real person, a cook mentioned in Charmian London's account, but how London came to know of his experiences is less clear. One of the compelling features of Mauki's character in the story are his multiple escape attempts due to homesickness. This idea may have originated with the stories told to the London's by their interpreter, Bopu. It would seem the fictional Mauki may be a conglomeration of labourers and labour practices that the London's learned about and witnessed on their travels. As Newlin points out, "Jack London scholars typically accept his portrayal of Melanesian labor conditions as factual and his descriptions have formed the basis of nearly all discussions of blackbirding and plantation conditions..." but it is also wise to remember that Jack London wrote fiction, "...and like all fiction writers, he exaggerated and otherwise distorted the facts in pursuit of his fictional agenda—in this story, to magnify the brutality of the colonial overseer and to portray the inner nobility of the laborer." (Newlin p.265-6).
The inner nobility or heroism of Mauki receives thoughtful treatment in Jeanne Campbell Reesman's 2006 article "Rough Justice in Jack London's 'Mauki'". Reading Mauki through the lens of naturalism she finds personal meaning is the hero's greatest possession and that living and acting according to his personal ethic makes him resemble a romantic or idealistic hero more than the standard naturalistic one (p.65-66). Reeseman concludes that the moral of the story is "Respect your tambos, no matter what, and do what is right—if your desire is to live, and not merely to survive." (p.68).
Legacy
The character Mauki’s repeated escapes and ultimate triumph over the German overseer Bunster can be read today through the lens of indigenous resistance to colonial oppression, offering a rare (for its time) narrative that elevates a Pacific Islander’s agency. As Jeanne Campbell Reesman notes, London “dwells more upon the savagery of the Melanesians” but also critiques the “moral degradation of the whites, with their laxity, alcoholism, and racist stupidity.” This dual critique underscores the story’s significance as a commentary on the destructive impact of brutal labour practices on both the oppressed and the oppressors.
“Mauki” also occupies a pivotal place in Jack London’s oeuvre as a bridge between his adventure-driven narratives and his socially conscious critiques of injustice. It geographically expands his exploration of survival and individualism to the South Pacific region where the story is significant for its historical grounding, its critique of colonial labour practices, and its contribution to a literary tradition that amplifies Pacific Islander voices. Despite its limitations, “Mauki” remains a powerful testament to London’s ability to engage with global issues, making it a vital part of his legacy and a meaningful contribution to the literature of the South Pacific
The popularity of London’s storytelling, with its elements of action and conflict, waned with the rise of the high modernist aesthetic in the early twentieth century. For a long time the modernists, with their focus on narrative experimentation and psychological interiority, dominated the literary landscape and were considered more ‘artful’ than naturalists like London. Despite this, London scholarship has grown considerably over the past few decades, and he is now held as one of the great American writers of the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. The upcoming 30-volume Oxford University Press Collected Works of Jack London is sure to cement London’s place in the canon of English language literature.
References
Jeanne Campbell Reesman (2006) "Rough justice in Jack London's 'Mauki'" Studies in American Naturalism Summer & Winter 2006, Vol. 1, Nos. 1 & 2
Keith Newlin (2022) "Jack London and the Colonial Pacific" American Literary Realism, Volume 54, Number 3, Spring 2022, pp.255-274 (Article)
With thanks to Kenneth K. Brandt, Editor, 2006–present, The Call: The Magazine of the Jack London Society, Boston, MA and Executive coordinator, 2014–present, Jack London Society, Boston, MA.
Price: $44,500.00