American Literature. Jack London BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Jack London
(1876 - 1916)
Category: American Literature
Born: January 12, 1876
San Francisco, California, United States
Died: November 22, 1916
Santa Rosa, California, United States

London’s Childhood
Born in 1876 on the Barbary Coast of San Francisco
Raised by mother, Flora Wellman, and stepfather, John London
Childhood marked by poverty & unhappiness

London at age 8 with dog Rollo
ChildhoodReference sites:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/jack.html
http://www.jacklondon.com/

Became an avid reader at age 10 when an Oakland librarian encouraged him to escape his life of poverty through reading.
Bought his first sailboat at age 12—loved to sail

Youth—Adventure/Responsibility
Dropped out of school at age 14 & had series of low-paying jobs:
Seaman delivered papers
sweatshop worked in cannery
freight train hobo cleaned local saloon
Loved to listen to stories about the California Gold Rush of 1849

Forming Ideas/Attitudes
Experiences that shaped London’s life and attitudes:
-oyster pirate
-seal hunter in the North Pacific
-1894—arrested & jailed in Niagara Falls for vagrancy
-adopted socialistic views
Educated self by reading in public library
Attended University of California at Berkeley
Left school after 1 year to seek his fortune in gold fields

Adventure
Traveled to Klondike Gold Rush in 1897
Spent one winter at Split-Up Island, near the Stewart River
Did not find gold; had a wealth of experiences he would later use to write stories and books
Returned home to support himself and his family by publishing his writing

Bess Maddern—London’s first wife
Becky and Joan London—London’s daughters
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Images/

Charmian London
Jack London’s second wife
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Images

London—the Author
Began avidly writing in 1897
He commonly spent 15 hours a day writing
Daily quota of 1000 written words a day
Became recognized as a talented & successful writer

Jack London wrote 50 books and 1,000 articles between 1899 and 1916.

“The greatest story London ever told was the story he lived.”
Alfred Kazin
Literary critic

“By 1916, London was the highest-paid writer in the country and the most widely read American author in the world.”

“His literary works like The Road, written in 1907, inspired later writers like John Steinbeck and Jack Kerouac.”
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London

Jack London died on November 22, 1916.
A memorial for he and his second wife, Charmian Kittredge, is located at Glen Ellen.

“One of the reasons
Jack London’s popularity as an author remains
so high in the world today
is because his life was as interesting as his works.”
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/7996/

from
Jack London journals…
Thoughts about life..
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/7996
http://www.parks.sonoma.net/JLStory.html
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/

“Not one ignoble thought or act
is demanded
of any or all men and women
than to make fair
the world.”

The call is for service,
and such is the wholesomeness of it.
He who serves all
best serves himself.”
Jack London

Jack London's "Credo"
"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze
than it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor,
every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time"

“No writer, unless it were Mark Twain, ever had a more romantic life than Jack London.”
Ernest J. Hopkins
http://www.parks.sonoma,net/JLStory.html

London was described “as a “born teller of tales who wrote as he lived—in a hurry.” Howard Lachtman

“The fact that his gift for writing was ever realized came to be used as an example of someone achieving “The American Dream.”

http://www.homestead.com/wolf29/wolves.html

Title: The Call of the Wild
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Setting: Late 1800’s, Klondike gold rush

“In his story the Klondike became ‘not only a real country, but a territory of the mind’ where his characters lived or died because of what they had in them.
(Lachtman, 1984)

He was paid three cents per word for the story, which he had shortened by 5,000 words.

“The Call of the Wild is the greatest dog story ever written and is at the same time a study of one of the most curious and profound motives that play hide-and-seek in the human soul.”
Carl Sandburg

From the time The Call of the Wild caught the imagination of the world in 1903, until his death by a stroke and heart attack in 1916,

his 51 books, hundreds of short stories, essays and other writings had more newspaper coverage than any other writer.
http://www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html

“I have everything to make me glad I am alive. I am filled with dreams and mysteries.”
Jack London
http://www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html

LIFE STORIES
3/23/1913
Jack London's Cash Flow
On this day in 1913 Jack London wrote a letter to six famous writers of the day -- a list which included Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells -- to ask them what rates they were paid for their "stuff." London was a prolific, best-selling author but he was on the decline and in need of $100,000 a year to keep his projects, his philanthropy, and his personality going.

LIFE STORIES
7/25/1897
Jack London to the Top, and Over
When Jack London returned to Oakland from the Klondike he had $4.50 in gold dust in his pocket, and the memories, stories and journals that would, within five years, springboard him into literary history. Within fifteen years, he would be the highest-paid and best-known writer in the world; within twenty, whether intentionally by burn-out or accidentally by drug overdose, he would be dead.

Jack London State Historic Park
"The grapes on a score of rolling hills are red with autumn flame. Across Sonoma Mountain wisps of sea fog are stealing. The afternoon sun smoulders in the drowsy sky. I have everything to make me glad I am alive. I am filled with dreams and mysteries. I am all sun and air and sparkle. I am vitalized, organic."
- Jack London

Books by Jack London(1)
1900 The Son of the Wolf
1901 The God of His Fathers
1902 Children of the Frost
1902 The Cruise of the Dazzler
1902 A Daughter of the Snows
1903 The Kempton-Wace Letters
1903 The Call of the Wild
1903 The People of the Abyss
1904 The Faith of Men
1904 The Sea Wolf
1905 War of the Classes
1905 The Game

Books by Jack London(2)
1905 Tales of the Fish Patrol
1906 Moon-Face and Other Stories
1906 White Fang
1907 Before Adam
1907 Love of Life and Other Stories
1908 The Iron Heel
1909 Martin Eden
1910 Lost Face
1910 Revolution and Other Essays
1910 Burning Daylight
1911 When God Laughs and Other Stories
1911 South Sea Tales
1912 The House of Pride and Other Stories
1912 A Son of the Sun
1912 Smoke Bellew

Books by Jack London(3)
1913 The Night-Born
1913 The Abysmal Brute
1913 John Barleycorn
1913 The Valley of the Moon
1914 The Strength of the Strong
1914 The Mutiny of the Elsinore
1915 The Scarlet Plague
1915 The Star Rover
1916 The Little Lady of the Big House
1916 The Turtles of Tasman
1917 The Human Drift
1917 Jerry of the Islands
1917 Michael Brother of Jerry
1918 The Red One
1919 On the Makaloa Mat
1920 Hearts of Three
1922 Dutch Courage and Other Stories