ALS, one page, 8.75 x 4.5, May 6, 1904. Handwritten letter to Edgar Allen Forbes, written from "Headquarters, First Japanese Army," during his time in Manchuria covering the Russo-Japanese War for the Hearst Syndicate. In full: "Your letter of March 14th has just come to hand to me here in the depths of Manchuria. This will explain long delay & my inability to send you a photograph." In very good to fine condition, with trimmed edges, creases, and tears to the right side of the letter, and several small repairs on the reverse. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in London's hand and incorporating his name in the return address area.



London accepted an assignment of the San Francisco Examiner to cover the Russo-Japanese War in early 1904, arriving in Yokohama on January 25, 1904. He was arrested by Japanese authorities in Shimonoseki, but released through the intervention of American ambassador Lloyd Griscom. After traveling to Korea, he was again arrested by Japanese authorities for straying too close to the border with Manchuria without official permission, and was sent back to Seoul. Released again, London was permitted to travel with the Imperial Japanese Army to the border, and to observe the Battle of the Yalu.



London asked William Randolph Hearst, the owner of the San Francisco Examiner, to be allowed to transfer to the Imperial Russian Army, where he felt that restrictions on his reporting and his movements would be less severe. However, before this could be arranged, he was arrested for a third time in four months, this time for assaulting his Japanese assistants, whom he accused of stealing the fodder for his horse. Released through the personal intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, London departed the front in June 1904.