Over the years there have been plenty of posts about Bellew family history. Today I will introduce you to a fictional Bellew.
”In the beginning he was Christopher Bellew. By the time he was at college he had become Chris Bellew. Later, in the Bohemian crowd of San Francisco, he was called Kit Bellew. And in the end he was known by no other name than Smoke Bellew.” (Smoke Bellew, Jack London)
Jack London had been to the Klondike and his grim experience gave him material for some novels and short stories: White Fang, The Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire and others including Smoke Bellew. Smoke is a gold prospector with a heart of gold. He has a few setbacks.
”Smoke’s face, wherever the skin showed, was black and purple and scabbed from repeated frost-bite. The cheeks were fallen in, so that, despite the covering of the beard, the upper rows of teeth ridged the shrunken flesh. Across the forehead and about the deep-sunk eyes, the skin was stretched drum-tight, while the scraggly beard, that should have been golden, was singed by fire and filthy with camp-smoke.” (Smoke Bellew, Jack London)
Surprisingly he gets his girl. The novel was made into a silent movie in the 1920s.
Two more unreal Bellews tomorrow.