Netta Eames

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. She wrote the 1900 biography and a promotional biography of London in Overland Monthly in 1900, which helped to establish his career. Later she was his business manager and neighbor.

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. Netta also introduced London to the town of Glen Ellen, where he settled, developed a ranch, and spent his final years.

Early years Netta was born in Delhi, Wisconsin, fourteen miles outside of Oshkosh. In April 1865, as the Civil War came to an end, the Wiley family left their rural log cabin, where all the children had been born, to move west. In the 1870 United States Census, Ninetta Wiley, aged 17, lived in Santa Barbara with her parents, Jacob S. Wiley (1831–1871) and Catherine Wiley (née Growall). She was the second youngest of seven siblings, with Dayelle, Jay, Calista, Byron, and Harry, her younger brother.

Marriage and family In 1875 at age 25, Netta married Roscoe L. Eames, 30, of Maine, the business manager of the San Francisco-based magazine Overland Monthly. They lived in Berkeley at 2147 Parker Street, on the corner of Fulton. When her older sister Daisey (Dayelle) died in 1877 from consumption, Netta and Roscoe effectively adopted her sister's six-year-old daughter Charmian Kittredge and raised her as their own. Even before her death, Daisey (a minor poet) and saloon owner Captain Willard Kittredge, had been indifferent parents and Netta had already been raising the young girl, even before marrying Roscoe. After Daisy died, Williard gave Netta permission to raise Charmian as a foster parent. In 1886 Captain Kittredge became gravely ill and moved in with the Eames family but died soon after.

Through an 1899 lunch with Netta, a 28-year-old Charmian met Jack London, several years her junior, who periodically wrote for Overland Monthly. Netta encouraged Charmian to pursue Jack, but soon after they met, Jack married his math tutor.

Charmian later wrote that Netta had been domineering and strict, but the relationship was close. Netta taught Charmian to be responsible, with a great deal of intellectual and sexual freedom, but extremely disciplined. She invited Jack London and his family to visit in 1903, which was his introduction to Glen Ellen, where he would later buy a ranch, build a home, and where he died about 13 years later. It was on this trip that London wrote his novel The Sea Wolf and developed a relationship with Netta's niece Charmian Kittredge. She was aware of him through their prior meeting and his correspondence with Netta. London was injured when he fell from a buggy, and Netta arranged for Charmian to care for him. The two developed a friendship, as she, Netta, Roscoe, and London were politically aligned toward socialistic causes. At some point the relationship became romantic, and Jack divorced his wife to marry Charmian, who was five years his senior. However, upon returning Jack was generally disappointed with her performance and some bad decisions.

Netta and Jack remained close for many years with Jack referring to her as "My Mother, Mother Mine", but toward the end of his life the relationship soured, and she actually sued him over water rights on their adjacent lands. In 1913 Jack built a dam on his ranch and reduced the flow to his neighbors including Netta. Jack won the lawsuit but died soon after.

Subsequent marriages On November 10, 1910, Netta divorced Roscoe Eames, after a two-year process based on grounds of desertion.

Netta died on March 6, 1944, at age 91 in Alameda County, California. She never had children, though she continued a close motherly relationship with Charmian throughout her life.

Netta became an editor and author, and for a time a follower of Charles Keeler's “Cosmic Religion”. During the 1890s, Netta became an editor of the Overland Monthly where Roscoe worked as the business manager, and her niece Charmian helped out in her spare time by writing reviews and articles. She was the first to publish a Jack London story, and had published seven more London stories, at $7.50 per story, before she met him for lunch in 1899 (~$ in ), with her niece Charmian, and became a promoter of his work. Her 1900 essay "Jack London" was published in Overland Monthly and was the first published biography of London.

Publications "To Shasta's Feet", Overland Monthly, December 1887. "Who Died at Weissthurm?", Overland Monthly, July 1889. "Autumn Days in Ventura", Overland Monthly, January 1890. "The Mystery of Catalina", Overland Monthly, August 1890. "Staging through Mendocino Redwoods", Ukiah Daily Journal, 1892. "Three Weeks on a Weird Island", American Magazine, December 1892. "The Island of San Nicholas", Los Angeles Herald, 12 March 1893. "The Wild and Woolly at the Fair", Overland Monthly, April 1894. "Arcadian Bee Ranching" Harper's Magazine, March 1896. "Upland Pastures" Cosmopolitan Magazine, March 1896. "Life's Moment", Overland Monthly, February 1888. "Haunts of Jack London", Cosmopolitan Magazine, November 1905. "The Soul of Jack London" preface, Southern Publishers, Inc., 1933.