London, though a world-famous author at the time, was a rancher at heart, and his Beauty Ranch shared the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain with the extraordinary population that inhabited the tree-lined lanes, the echoing day halls, and the back-wards — the “drooling wards” — of what was, for many decades, the country’s largest home for the developmentally disabled. Inquisitive as well as practical, it is only natural that London would occasionally hire day-laborers from the State Home, working alongside them, studying them, and, finally, using his craft to capture what he perceived to be their essence. Always striving to get to the heart of any subject he tackled, for this story London adopts the persona of a resident, a feeb, using a voice that is unique in his canon. The authentic cadences and rhythms he employs as Tom, the narrator, stand as one of London’s most nuanced, and least appreciated, achievements as a writer.