Jack London wrote The Valley of the Moon in 1913 at his Beauty Ranch above Glen Ellen — the land is now Jack London State Historic Park. Each week the Wag lifts a passage from the valley’s most famous resident.
Three times in the Napa Valley Billy refused work. Past St. Helena, Saxon hailed with joy the unmistakable redwoods they could see growing up the small canyons that penetrated the western wall of the valley. At Calistoga, at the end of the railroad, they saw the six-horse stages leaving for Middletown and Lower Lake. They debated their route. That way led to Lake County and not toward the coast, so Saxon and Billy swung west through the mountains to the valley of the Russian River, coming out at Healdsburg. They lingered in the hop-fields on the rich bottoms, where Billy scorned to pick hops alongside of Indians, Japanese, and Chinese.
Jack London, The Valley of the Moon (1913)
Read the whole book, free, at Project Gutenberg →