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.
“The old folks schemed and gathered and added the land into the big holdings, and built the great barns and mansions, and planted the house orchards and flower gardens. The young folks were spoiled by so much wealth and went away to the cities to spend it. And old folks and young united in one thing: in impoverishing the soil. Year after year they scratched it and took out bonanza crops. They put nothing back. All they left was plow-sole and exhausted land. Why, there's big sections they exhausted and left almost desert.
Jack London, The Valley of the Moon (1913)
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