tickets. he had all these connections. i always had second row seats at the metropolitan stadium for the twins games. so it was home. he was an umpire of little league, of legion ball, high school ball, he was a referee in basketball, catholic cyo leagues in minneapolis. he and i, in fact, worked little league for about three years together, which was fun, when i was an undergraduate. and we were, we were a pretty good damn team, if i may say so. [laughter] >> host: we've been talking with professor richard crepeau about his book, "nfl football: a history of america's new national pastime." there's the cover. professor, thanks for being on booktv. >> guest: hey, my pleasure. >> every weekend booktv offers programming focused on nonfiction authors and books.

keep watching for more here on c-span2 and watch any of our past programs online at booktv.org can. >> you're watching booktv on c-span2. and this weekend we're visiting santa rosa, california, to talk with local authors and tour the city's literary sites with the help of our local cable partner, comcast. up next, we tour sonoma state university's collections with lynn prime who shows us movies based on the works of jack london and a collection of ernest hemingway's private letters. >> we're on the campus of sonoma statement in the waring jones room which is where our jack london collection is housed. it also houses the jack london in context collection. and right next to us are all of our other special collections

including our hemingway letters and some other unique and fragile, in many cases, materials. the collection is, all told, it's probably about 5,000 items, 500 or so items related to movies, hundreds and hundreds of first edition books and probably close to a thousand items in the serial publications like cosmopolitan magazine and "ladies home journal" and colliers magazine. our special collections are unique in a wide variety of ways. all of the materials we have we try to use them to support undergraduate research and learning. so we have, for instance, with the jack london collection we have first editions of many of jack london's novels, we have first editions in serial form of many of jack london's novels in serial publication before they

were published in book form. in the jack london collection here, we have a wide variety of movie memorabilia as well, really unique because there are, they're the kinds of materials that movie studios would discard after they'd served their marketing purposes, and we've kept them here as a representation of how movie making and transferring novels to movies could be, what the experience would be like. i've brought out a variety of materials from the jack london collection that i would like to share with you, some unique, fun, intriguing items that i think you might enjoy. i'll start with this may 5, 1906, colliers magazine issue

for which jack london wrote an essay about the earthquake of 906 and his -- 1906 and his experience of the destruction and damage that he saw. the earthquake shook down in san francisco hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of walls and chimneys. but the conflagration that fold burns up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property. there is no estimating within hundreds of millions the actual damage wrought. not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. san francisco is gone. nothing remains of it but memories and a fringe of dwelling houses on its outskirts. its industrial section is wiped out, its business section is wiped out, its social and residential section is wiped out. the factories and warehouses, the great stores and newspaper buildings, the hotels and the palaces are all gone.

remains only the fringe of dwelling houses on the outsecreters of what was -- outskirts of what was once san francisco. there's a related letter that jack london wrote to his friend, ida winchip, his friend and neighbor in glen ellyn, in which he mentions the earthquake with. dear ida, just a line to ask how you and ed have fared in the earth quake. i hope it has not caused much damage. beyond the walls of my new stock barn and a couple of chimneys, wees caped okay -- we escaped okay. jack london. written on may 1, 1906. another of my favorite letters that i love sharing is a letter that jack london wrote to his wife september the 28th, 1903, and it's quite a powerful, brief love letter. ah, sweet, i have already and long pondered the fact that you

have withheld nothing from me of your belief in me and your love for me. it has meant much to me, all to me, that you have not said thus far he shall know me, the rest of myself i reserve for myself. i know i matched you, only matched you in the otherness of my surrender. indeed, indeed, we are blessed above mortals. a very lovely letter that he shared with charmaine that i think the world now can see as a truly unique love story. "white fang" is very famous novel, jack london novel, and this first edition jack inscribed, again to ida k his neighbor and friend, in memory of billy and the ride from reno over the high sierras, affectionately yours, jack london, napa, california, july 30, 1910.

on the inside of the book is jack london's trademark book stamp. it's got his name, jack london, and his wolf signature, so to speak. and in our collection we have his original stamp or one of his original book stamps in its metal plate form from which he created bookplates for his books. and it's intriguing to all researchers because it is so worn and so used. many, many, many times jack london had his bookplates reprinted. we also have in our special collections the ernest hemingway letters, four unique letters written by ernest hemmingway to a local journalist, denny petticlerk. he was a journalist who wrote

for the santa rosa press democrat, the daily newspaper in sonoma county. he was a korean war correspondent for the paper and wrote also for the san francisco chronicle before moving to miami where he was a journalist for the miami herald. and it was while he was in miami that he met ernest hemingway and began a correspondence with him. the letters span the years 1957 to 1959, and they cover a range of topics. this letter is written october 23rd, 1956. dear denny, thanks for your letter and criticism. it was forwarded to new york, sent back to cuba and finally reforwarded here to spain. about the stories, they are a little rough and possibly unpublishable but are not bitter, nor cynical, i hope.

no one can write all the time like the old man in the sea, and war is difficult to write of being compounded of legal murder, stupidity, injustice, extreme efficiency, pompousness, cowardice, bravery, ambitiousness, cupidity and great unselfishness, love and deversion. most -- devotion. most people who can write have one small dose of come bat, and they're through. -- combat, and they're through. have good luck, can kid, papa. one of the things in this letter shares so wonderfulfully is the power of hemingway's writing and his feelings about war and society and our responsibility to each other as human beings. and he takes very seriously not only his role as a writer, but his role as a mentor to denny be petticlerk, and it really shines

through in this one very powerful letter. and i'm sure it had a very great impact on denny himself. dear denny, it was good to get your letter. i should have written long ago, but i'd lost the envelope with the address. hope things are better now and that you don't have to bite so hard on the nail. things are really very bad now. nobody realizes how bad, i guess, until you see what crap is being published as writing. it is never any comfort but to think everybody has it very rough to write now. with me it is more difficult than ever, but have had it that way before lots of times, and if i keep at it and do not worry, it is always all right again. you were well out of miami this summer. it rained and was hot and muggy practically from when you left. we have our garden in now and should have plenty of doves and quails soon. the autumn weather is lovely, and i hope the cold will bring some fish.

we ate the last fish in the be deep freeze last night. our very best to you and your wife. i hope the work going so tough isn't too rough on her too. i know how rough it is, denny. best love to you both and all luck to the family, papa. i think what this letter shares about hemingway himself and about his relationship with denny is how matter of fact their relationship is. he can talk about their visit, he can talk about the garden and what's going on in the garden as if -- because denny did know -- as if denny knew what the garden looked like and what the fishing might be like. and, again, he shares with denny how much he understands how hard it is when you have trouble writing and how difficult it is to be a writer even at the best of times, and clearly this was not the best of times for any writer. and, again, i