Jack London character is based on Hawaiian leper Kaluaikoolau, who in 1893 revolted and resisted capture from forces of the Provisional Government of Hawaii in the Kalalau Valley. An amateur boxer and avid boxing fan, London reported on the 1910 Johnson–Jeffries fight, in which the black boxer Jack Johnson vanquished Jim Jeffries, known as the "Great White Hope". In 1908, London had reported on an earlier fight of Johnson's, contrasting the black boxer's coolness and intellectual style, with the apelike appearance and fighting style of his Canadian opponent, Tommy Burns, 'what . . . [won] on Saturday was bigness, coolness, quickness, cleverness,
Hope Black used as baseline data from which to measure environmental change in the area. Black investigated the genus "Teredo", a group of marine bivalve mollusks known as "shipworms". She also surveyed edible molluscs in Victoria. Ultimately, her mollusc research lead to her writing the book "Molluscs of Victoria", which was published in 1962. Notably, Black was also a member of a group of four women (also including Isobel Bennett, Susan Ingham and Mary Gillham) who were the first to carry out research in the sub-Antarctic in 1959. She was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2012. Hope Black