Collection Summary
Information for Researchers
Administrative Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Collection Summary
Collection Title: James E. Sisson Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1950-1986
Collection Number: BANC MSS 87/167 c
Creator:
Sisson, James E.
Extent:
Originals:
Number of containers: 5 boxes, 9 cartons
Linear feet: 15.40
Microfilm:
Number of reels: 10 (35 mm)
Repository: The
Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Consists of Sisson's personal and research correspondence, writings, and research files on Jack London. Correspondence is
chiefly with friends and other London scholars, including Tony Bubka, Marlan Beilke, Becky London Fleming, Russ Kingman, Earle
Labor, and Joan London. Includes bibliographies and indices relating to London's writings and correspondence, along with drafts
and proofs of Sisson's own published and unpublished works on London. Research materials gathered by Sisson relate to papers,
theses, dissertations, and plays about London's life and works, along with bibliographies, reviews, and articles about London.
Clippings files concern London's family, friends, homes, and scholars, and include a collection of London cartoons, drawings,
and other ephemera.
Microfilm copies of 27 volumes of Jack London scrapbooks, 1899-1942.
Languages Represented:
English
Information for Researchers
Access
Collection is open for research.
Microfilm of Jack London scrapbooks from the Henry E. Huntington Library are for REFERENCE USE ONLY. They may not be quoted
from or reproduced without written permission from the Huntington. Any inquiries should be directed to the Manuscripts Department,
Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft
Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], James E. Sisson papers, BANC MSS 87/167 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Related Collections
Title: [Posters for the world premiere of Gold, a play in three acts...],
cataloged as
Identifier/Call Number: pffPS3523.L653 G6 J3
Title: James E. Sisson miscellaneous research and personal correspondence,
Date (inclusive): 1943-1986,
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS C-B 876
Materials Cataloged Separately
- Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library.
- Photographs have been transferred to Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The James E. Sisson Papers were given to The Bancroft Library on June 15, 1987 by the Estate of James E. Sisson, via Alan
Gooch.
Biography
James Edward Sisson III was born in Vernon, Alabama on August 28, 1917 and educated in the Lamar County public schools, graduating
as valedictorian in 1935 from Lamar County High School. After receiving his B.S. from Florence State College in 1939, Sisson
taught in the Jackson County, Alabama elementary school system. Between 1941 and 1945, he served as a Cryptographic Technician
in the Signal Intelligence Unit in New Guinea and the Philippines. After the war, Sisson attended Auburn University in Alabama,
and received a B.S. in Education in 1946 and a M.A. in English in 1947. He taught at Mississippi State University and Georgia
Tech before beginning post-graduate studies at Duke University in 1953. During this period, Sisson was diagnosed as having
both tuberculosis and facial skin cancer, but in 1960 he began studies at the University of California, Berkeley, with Professor
James D. Hart. From 1967 to 1969, Sisson worked as a Library Assistant at The Bancroft Library, and began his research on
Jack London in 1970.
Sisson's contributions to the field of Jack London scholarship were impressive. Joan London considered Sisson the premiere
authority on her father, and Jack London scholars around the world respected and admired his work. Discovering previously
unpublished Jack London plays at the Library of Congress, Sisson had London's play
Gold published for the first time by the Holmes Book Company. He collected and published London's high school writings in
Jack London's Articles and Short Stories in the (Oakland) High School Aegis; edited and co-authored with Dale Walker
The Fiction of Jack London: A Chronological Bibliography; and compiled several bibliographies, including
Jack London First Editions,
The Non-Fiction of Jack London,
The Collected Poems of Jack London, and
Jack London and the South Seas: A Chronological Bibliography. Sisson's French heritage influenced his participation in Paris publications of London's writings. When editor Francis Lacassin
translated London's science fiction story, "Star Rover" (1915) into French as "Le Vagabond des Etoiles," Sisson helped with
extensive original research.
Sisson regularly published pamphlets, articles, and reviews on Jack London in newsletters and newspapers, and reviewed almost
every London work published since 1960. A tireless worker and advocate on behalf of London scholarship, he assisted many other
researchers with grants and materials. As a friend of many of London's relatives, including Joan London and Becky London Fleming,
he was a common figure at London festivities and symposia in the Bay Area. Sisson died in November 1986 in Berkeley.
Scope and Content
The James E. Sisson Papers, 1950-1986, consist of his personal and research correspondence, in addition to the writings and
research files compiled during his years of exhaustive research on Jack London. Includes bibliographies relating to London's
writings and correspondence, along with drafts, galleys, and proofs of Sisson's own published and unpublished works on London.
The research materials gathered by Sisson relate to papers, theses, dissertations, and plays based on London's life and works,
along with bibliographies, reviews, and articles about London. Also includes clipping files concerning London's family, friends,
homes, and scholars, along with a collection of London cartoons, drawings, and ephemera, including postcards, flyers, and
other miscellaneous items. During processing, unsorted materials were divided into categories which closely paralleled Sisson's
own organization.
Correspondence, both personal and relating to Sisson's London research, includes letters to Tony Bubka, a close personal friend
and fellow scholar, as well as Marlan Beilke, Becky London Fleming, Russ Kingman, Earle Labor, and Joan London, who were friends
as well as collaborators and colleagues.
Sisson's writings center on Jack London, but also include London's family and friends. In addition to preparing bibliographies
and monographs, Sisson reviewed and responded to works by others that were concerned with his subjects of study. The chronological
and alphabetical bibliographic files pertain primarily to London correspondence gathered from newspapers, periodicals, and
collections in major research libraries, including the Henry E. Huntington Library and the Utah State University Library,
as well as The Bancroft Library. The review indexes and clippings files are comprised of original and photocopies of clippings,
some with Sisson annotations, many of which are hard to find elsewhere.
Photocopies of entire works or sets of materials listed in Sisson's notes and writings which are readily available in the
collections of The Bancroft Library have not been retained; the first and last pages of photocopies of dissertations, theses,
and blocks of published texts available at other institutions have been retained to assist research. Such materials are retained
in full whenever Sisson's annotations and notes render the document an original research source.