Hearts of Three

Hearts of Three
by Jack London
Author of "The Valley of the Moon," "Jerry of the Islands," "Michael,
Brother of Jerry," &c., &c.

MILLS & BOON, LIMITED
49 RUPERT STREET LONDON, W.
Copyright in the United States of America by Jack London.

FOREWORD
I HOPE the reader will forgive me for beginning this foreword with a
brag. In truth, this yarn is a celebration. By its completion I celebrate
my fortieth birthday, my fiftieth book, my sixteenth year in the writing
game, and a new departure. "Hearts of Three" is a new departure. I
have certainly never done anything like it before; I am pretty certain
never to do anything like it again. And I haven't the least bit of
reticence in proclaiming my pride in having done it. And now, for the
reader who likes action, I advise him to skip the rest of this brag and
foreword, and plunge into the narrative, and tell me if it just doesn't
read along.
For the more curious let me explain a bit further. With the rise of
moving pictures into the overwhelmingly most popular form of
amusement in the entire world, the stock of plots and stories in the
world's fiction fund began rapidly to be exhausted. In a year a single
producing company, with a score of directors, is capable of filming the
entire literary output of the entire lives of Shakespeare, Balzac, Dickens,
Scott, Zola, Tolstoy, and of dozens of less voluminous writers. And

since there are hundreds of moving pictures producing companies, it
can be readily grasped how quickly they found themselves face to face
with a shortage of the raw material of which moving pictures are
fashioned.
The film rights in all novels, short stories, and plays that were still
covered by copyright, were bought or contracted for, while all similar
raw material on which copyright had expired was being screened as
swiftly as sailors on a placer beach would pick up nuggets. Thousands
of scenario writers literally tens of thousands, for no man, nor woman,
nor child was too mean not to write scenarios tens of thousands of
scenario writers pirated through all literature (copyright or otherwise),
and snatched the magazines hot from the press to steal any new scene
or plot or story hit upon by their writing brethren.
In passing, it is only fair to point out that, though only the other day, it
was in the days ere scenario writers became respectable, in the days
when they worked overtime for rough-neck directors for fifteen and
twenty a week or freelanced their wares for from ten to twenty dollars
per scenario and half the time were beaten out of the due payment, or
had their stolen goods stolen from them by their equally graceless and
shameless fellows who slaved by the week. But to-day, which is only a
day since the other day, I know scenario writers who keep their three.
machines, their two chauffeurs, send their children to the most
exclusive prep schools, and maintain an unwavering solvency.
It was largely because of the shortage in raw material that scenario
writers appreciated in value and esteem. They found themselves in
demand, treated with respect, better remunerated, and, in return,
expected to deliver a higher grade of commodity. One phase of this
new quest for material was the attempt to enlist Jmown authors in the
work. But because a man had written a score of novels was no
guarantee that he could write a good scenario. Quite to the contrary, it
was quickly discovered that the surest guarantee of failure was a
previous record of success in novelwriting.
But the moving pictures producers were not to be denied. Division of
labor was the thing. Allying themselves with powerful newspaper

organisations, or, in the case of "Hearts of Three," the very reverse,
they had highly-skilled writers of scenario (who couldn't write novels
to save themselves) make scenarios, which, in turn, were translated into
novels by novel-writers (who couldn't, to save themselves, write
scenarios).
Comes now Mr. Charles Goddard to one, Jack London, saying: "The
time, the place, and the men are met; the moving pictures producers,
the newspapers, and the capital, are ready: let us get together." And we
got. Eesult: "Hearts of Three." When I state that Mr. Goddard has been
responsible for "The Perils of Pauline," "The Exploits of Elaine," "The
Goddess," the "Get Rich Quick Wallingford "series, etc., no question of
his skilled fitness can be raised. Also, the name of the present heroine,
Leoncia, is of his own devising.
On the ranch, in the Valley of the Moon, he wrote his first several
episodes. But he wrote faster than I, and was done with his fifteen
episodes weeks ahead of me. Do not be misled by the word "episode."
The