Jack London Biography
Author, Journalist (1876–1916)
Jack London was a 19th century American author and
journalist, best known for the adventure novels White Fang and The Call of the
Wild.
Quick
Facts
Name
Jack London
Occupation
Author,
Journalist
Birth Date
January 12,
1876
Death Date
November 22,
1916
Place of Birth
San Francisco,
California
Place of Death
Glen Ellen,
California
Synopsis
Jack London was born John Griffith
Chaney on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco, California. After working in the
Klondike, London returned home and began publishing stories. His novels,
including The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Martin Eden,
placed London among the most popular American authors of his time. London, who
was also a journalist and an outspoken socialist, died in 1916.
Early Years
Journalist and author John Griffith
Chaney, better known as Jack London, was born on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco,
California. Jack, as he came to call himself as a boy, was the son of Flora
Wellman, an unwed mother, and William Chaney, an attorney, journalist and
pioneering leader in the new field of American astrology.
His father was never part of his
life, and his mother ended up marrying John London, a Civil War veteran, who
moved his new family around the Bay Area before settling in Oakland.
Jack London grew up working-class.
He carved out his own hardscrabble life as a teen. He rode trains, pirated oysters,
shoveled coal, worked on a sealing ship on the Pacific and found employment in
a cannery. In his free time he hunkered down at libraries, soaking up novels
and travel books.
The Young Writer
His life as a writer essentially
began in 1893. That year he had weathered a harrowing sealing voyage, one in
which a typhoon had nearly taken out London and his crew. The 17-year-old
adventurer had made it home and regaled his mother with his tales of what had
happened to him. When she saw an announcement in one of the local papers for a
writing contest, she pushed her son to write down and submit his story.
Armed with just an eighth-grade
education, London captured the $25 first prize, beating out college students
from Berkeley and Stanford.
For London, the contest was an
eye-opening experience, and he decided to dedicate his life to writing short
stories. But he had trouble finding willing publishers. After trying to make a
go of it on the East Coast, he returned to California and briefly enrolled at
the University of California at Berkeley, before heading north to Canada to
seek at least a small fortune in the gold rush happening in the Yukon.
By the age of 22, however, London
still hadn't put together much of a living. He had once again returned to
California and was still determined to carve out a living as a writer. His
experience in the Yukon had convinced him he had stories he could tell. In
addition, his own poverty and that of the struggling men and women he
encountered pushed him to embrace socialism, which he stayed committed to all
his life.
In 1899 he began publishing stories
in the Overland Monthly. The experience of writing and getting published
greatly disciplined London as a writer. From that time forward, London made it
a practice to write at least a thousand words a day.
Commercial Success
London found fame and some fortune
at the age of 27 with his novel The Call of the Wild (1903), which told
the story of a dog that finds its place in the world as a sled dog in the
Yukon.
The success did little to soften
London's hard-driving lifestyle. A prolific writer, he published more than 50
books over the last 16 years of his life. The titles included The People of
the Abyss (1903), which offered a scathing critique of capitalism; White
Fang (1906), a popular tale about a wild wolf dog becoming domesticated;
and John Barleycorn (1913), a memoir of sorts that detailed his lifelong
battle with alcohol.
He charged forth in other ways, too.
He covered the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 for Hearst papers, introduced American
readers to Hawaii and the sport of surfing, and frequently lectured about the
problems associated with capitalism.
Final Years
In 1900 London married Bess Maddern.
The couple had two daughters together, Joan and Bess. By some accounts Bess and
London's relationship was constructed less around love and more around the idea
that they could have strong, healthy children together. It's not surprising,
then, that their marriage lasted just a few years. In 1905, following his
divorce from Bess, London married Charmian Kittredge, whom he would be with for
the rest of his life.
For much of the last decade of his
life, London faced a number of health issues. This included kidney disease,
which ended up taking his life. He died at his California ranch, which he
shared with Kittredge, on November 22, 1916.
WORKS OF JACK LONDON
Jack London got the materials of his
books from his own adventures; his philosophy was a product of his own
experiences; his love of life was born of his wanderings over the earth and
voyages across the seas.
NOVELS
Burning Daylight (1910) The first of London's Sonoma novels. "A
gripping story of Millions and a Maid." –New York Herald
Game, The Serialized in Metropolitan Magazine (1905). Book
publication, New York: The Macmillan Co., (June 1905).
Hearts of Three (1920)
The Macmillan Co., New York [Book Contributor: University of California Libraries]
The Iron Heel,(1908) Power is certainly the keynote of this book. Every word tingles with it.
It is a great book, one that deserves to be read and pondered. . . It contains
a mighty lesson and a most impressive warning.
The Kempton-Wace Letters by Jack London and Anna Strunsky New York: Macmillan, 1903.
An epistolary novel.
Martin Eden
The novel was begun in Honolulu in the summer of 1907 and finished at Papeete,
Tahiti, in February 1908.
Mutiny of the Elsinore, The New York: Macmillan, 1914. Novel based in part on London's
voyage around Cape Horn on the Dirigo in 1912.
Scarlet Plague, The (1912) The relapse of civilization into barbarism is a
theme which, as those familiar with London's style will at once see, is
admirably suited to his powers as a novelist.
Sea-Wolf, The
New York: Macmillan, 1904. Novel based on London's experiences aboard the sealing
schooner
Star Rover, The (1915)
This was one of the most original and gripping stories Jack London ever wrote.
Jack London wrote as he lived,
vividly and with the force of strong conviction.
NONFICTION WORKS
People of the Abyss, The (1903) London's study and reporting of the ghetto &
slums of London, England.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Dutch Courage & Other Stories New York: Macmillan, 1922. Early juvenile stories,
including London's first prizewinning sketch, Story of a Typhoon off the
Coast of Japan.
Love of Life & Other Stories (1907) Jack London was at his best with the short story . .
. clear-cut, sharp, incisive with the tang of the frost in it.
On The Makaloa Mat New York: Macmillan, 1919. Hawaiian stories, including
several based on Jung's theory of racial memory.
Tales of the Fish Patrol (1905) That they are vividly told, hardly need be said, for
Jack London was a realist as well as a writer of thrilling romances.
STORIES and ESSAYS
LONDON'S JOURNALISM
Articles published in Overland Monthly | Non-fiction magazine articles including an article for Colliers
on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
Jack London's War | Writer Dale L. Walker's article on London's frustrating
attempts to cover The Russo-Japanese War
d Soldier Canard | Colliers magazine offered London eleven hundred dollars a week . . .
POEMS AND PLAYS
Bibliography of Jack London's poetry | Complete Bibliography of Jack London's poetry, with first
publication notations, compiled by Dan Wichlan
Jack London Poems
| Dan Wichlan collection of Jack London poems exclusively posted on our site
with special permission from the Jack London estate.
Jack London Plays
| The Acorn-Planter, The Birth Mark, The First Poet, Daughters of the Rich,
Gold, Theft, Scorn of Women, A Wicked Woman, The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.
