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 reprints a passage from the valley’s most famous resident.
Billy knew the ranch thoroughly, and took short-cuts through the woods by way of cattle paths. Once, he reined in abruptly, and both stopped. Confronting them, a dozen paces away, was a half-grown red fox. For half a minute, with beady eyes, the wild thing studied them, with twitching sensitive nose reading the messages of the air. Then, velvet-footed, it leapt aside and was gone among the trees.
Jack London, The Valley of the Moon (1913)
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