The Secret Life of Mrs London - Facts

 The novel is about Jack London's second wife, Charmian.

John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.

Charmian London (née Kittredge; November 27, 1871 – January 14, 1955) was an American writer and the second wife of Jack London.

Jack and Charmian lived in Beaty RAnch, Glen Ellen, California. In 1905 London bought the first of several ranches on Sonoma Mountain in Glen Ellen. Using proceeds from his prolific writing career, London acquired adjoining parcels over several years and expanded his ranch, also known as the Ranch of Good Intentions. By 1913 London owned 1400 acres on the slopes of the mountain and by 1916 employed nearly fifty people.

Jack was part of a group called the Crowd. London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal welfare, workers' rights and socialism.

One of the men in the Crowd was Jack's friend, George Sterling. George Sterling (December 1, 1869 – November 17, 1926) was an American writer based in the San Francisco, California Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea. 

Charmian mentions that Anna Strunky was Jack's first love. Anna Strunsky Walling (March 21, 1877 – February 25, 1964) was an American author and advocate of socialism based in San Francisco, California, and New York City. Strunsky studied at Stanford University, where she met writer Jack London and later became part of a radical group known as "The Crowd", of which London was also a member. They wrote an epistolary novel together, publishing it anonymously in 1903.

Charmian's aunt, Netta, was important while growing up. Netta Eames (September 26, 1852 – March 6, 1944) was born Ninetta Wiley, in Wisconsin on September 26, 1852. She is commonly known as Netta. She is best known as a writer and magazine editor in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As the editor of the San Francisco based Overland Monthly magazine (founded by Bret Harte), she became an early proponent of Jack London as a writer.Netta was the aunt and foster mother of author Charmian Kittredge, whom she raised from the age of six. It was through Netta that London met Charmian, who became his lover and later his second wife.

Jack and Charmian befriend Harry Houdini and his wife, Bessie. Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known as Harry Houdini, was a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts.

Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Houdini (January 23, 1876 – February 11, 1943) was an American stage assistant and wife of Harry Houdini. Bess was working at Coney Island in a song and dance act called The Floral Sisters when she was first courted by Houdini's younger brother, Theo. But it was the older Houdini brother, Harry, that she fell in love with and married on June 22, 1894

The act that Jack and Charmian see is the Metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is the name of a stage illusion invented by John Nevil Maskelyne, but most often associated with famous escape artist Harry Houdini. It is also known amongst magicians as the Substitution Trunk (often abbreviated to Sub Trunk).

There are other acts in the novel, one of which involves a water tank. The Chinese Water Torture Cell is a predicament escape made famous by Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini. The illusion consists of three parts: first, the magician's feet are locked in stocks; next, he is suspended in mid-air from his ankles with a restraint brace; finally, he is lowered into a glass tank overflowing with water and the restraint is locked to the top of the cell.

In another act he catches bullets in his mouth. The bullet catch is a stage magic illusion in which a magician appears to catch a bullet fired directly at them ⁠— often in the mouth. 

Other acts that Charmain is witness to happen after Jack dies. She goes to see him in New York's Hippdrome. The Hippodrome Theatre was a theater located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The theater operated from 1905 to 1939 and was called the world's largest theater by its builders, with a seating capacity of 5,300.

Once Houdini makes an elephan disappear. On January 7th, 1918 Houdini performed his "Vanishing Elephant" illusion at New York's Hippodrome Theater. 

Jack's first wife was Elizabeth and they had two daughters, Joan and Becky. London married Elizabeth Mae (or May) "Bessie" Maddern on April 7, 1900. Their first child, Joan, was born on January 15, 1901, and their second, Bessie "Becky" on October 20, 1902. On July 24, 1903, London told Bessie he was leaving and moved out.

Jack London's first movie was The Sea Wolf. The Sea Wolf is a 1941 American adventure drama film adaptation of Jack London's 1904 novel The Sea-Wolf with Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield, and Alexander Knox making his debut in an American film. 

Jack and Charmian go to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and there Houdini performs. The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery from the 1906 earthquake.

Bessie Houdini lends Charmian one of her dolls, named Victoria Woodhull, after a suffragette. Victoria Claflin Woodhull ( September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927), later Victoria Woodhull Martin, was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for president of the United States in the 1872 election. An activist for women's rights and labor reforms, Woodhull was also an advocate of "free love", by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce and bear children without social restriction or government interference.

When Charmain and Jack go to Hawaii, they stay on the island of Oahu. Oahu  is the most populated and third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands.

A character mentions Edith Cavell, a nurse who was executed during the war. Edith Louisa Cavell (4 December 1865 – 12 October 1915) was a British nurse. She is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination during the First World War and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Cavell was arrested, court-martialled under German military law and sentenced to death by firing squad.

Charmian sees a letter from reporter Sophie Loeb and gets jealous because she suspects that her relationship with Jack is not platonic. Sophie Irene Loeb (July 4, 1876, Rivne, Volhynia, Russian Empire – January 18, 1929) was an American journalist and social-welfare advocate.

In New York after Jack's death Charmain rents some rooms from Romany Marie. Marie Marchand (May 17, 1885, Băbeni, Vâlcea County — February 20, 1961, Greenwich Village, New York), known as Romany Marie, was a Greenwich Village restaurateur who played a key role in bohemianism from the early 1900s through the late 1950s in Manhattan.

When Charmain goes to see Houdini, she sees him with Sarah Bernhardt, and she has an amputated leg. Sarah Bernhardt (22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She departed on her third farewell tour of the United States in 1913–1914, when she was 69. Her leg had not yet fully healed from an accident during a play, and she was unable to perform an entire play, only selected acts.

President Wilson declares war on Germany in April 1917. On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked a special joint session of the United States Congress for a declaration of war against the German Empire. Congress responded with the declaration on April 6.