London, Jack 1876-1916

LONDON, JACK 1876-1916

Naturalistic writer

Breaking Out

In the 1900s Jack London's naturalistic fiction crashed in on the polite drawing-room stories that had dominated American writing in the late nineteenth century, and left a dramatic mark. His heroes braved the harshest natural elements in Alaska or the open sea and came to see themselves and society with a clarity forged from struggle. London's fascination with the primitive in man, and with the brutal, strong, and simple man of an earlier era, stood in stark contrast to the intellectual and middlebrow heroes of William Dean Howells or Henry James. In creating a compelling portrait of what men learned when stripped of society's comforts, London's short stories and novels introduced a newly masculinized style of writing to American fiction that served as a bridge between the adventure stories of Mark Twain and the war stories of Ernest Hemingway.

Early Life

London was born out of wedlock in San Francisco in 1876. He was named John Griffith Chancy after his biological father, but his mother later changed his name when she married John London, a Civil War veteran. The family moved around northern California in search of work. Throughout London's childhood his mother remained deeply interested in spiritualism and the occult. Her superstitions left London with a permanent disdain for all things spiritual. As a boy London was often lonely, and he turned to books for companionship. He also took odd jobs delivering newspapers, setting pins in a bowling alley, sweeping saloon floors, and doing whatever he could to bring in a few pennies. When he finished grade school in 1889, young Jack went to work full-time in a West Oakland cannery, working for eighteen hours a day at ten cents an hour.

On the Docks

At the age of fifteen London joined with other youths to steal oysters from local fishermen. Fearing that he would end up in prison, London switched sides and joined the California Fish Patrol. He fictionalized many of his experiences on the docks of Oakland in The Cruise of the Dazzler (1902) and Tales of the Fish Patrol (1905). At eighteen London shipped out as an able-bodied seaman on a sealing schooner heading for the northwest Pacific. He was at sea for seven months. The voyage provided him with materials to write The Sea-Wolf (1904) and a short story, "Story of a Typhoon off the Coast of Japan," published in the San Francisco Morning Call on 12 November 1893.

On the Road

London disliked working. In his auto-biographical John Barleycorn (1913), he wrote that he found "the thought of work … repulsive. It was a whole lot better to roister and frolic over the world … so I headed out … East by beating my way on the railroads." London recounted his experiences hoboing in The Road (1907). He explained that, as a tramp, he learned how to spin "tales that rang true." When knocking on doors for food, a hobo "out of inexorable necessity" developed the "art of the short-story." Living as a tramp politicized London as well. While on the road, he embraced socialism's philosophy of sharing the wealth. London returned to Oakland determined to lift himself out of poverty and decided to finish his formal education.

The Gold Rush

In 1895 London entered the University of California at Berkeley. Forced to withdraw after his first semester because of financial troubles, he began to pursue his writing career in earnest. Getting little support, London returned to manual labor and in 1897 left for the Klondike gold rush with a friend. There, London reported, he grew up. A bout with scurvy forced him to return to Oakland, but he brought back a wealth of experiences that he turned into successful prose. By 1900 his work was appearing in magazines all over the country, such as the Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan, and McClures.

Building Fame

In 1900 London published a book of short stories, Son of Wolf (1900), and, now famous, he married Bessie Mae Maddern. Critics loved Son of Wolf Tired of sentimental romances, readers responded to the tough realistic portrayal of life in London's stories. In the winter of 1900 London wrote what would become an American classic, The Call of the Wild. Published in 1901, it became the nation's best-selling work of fiction. From that point until the end of his life, London was one of the most prolific and widely read writers in the world.

Building a Reputation

While his novels made him famous, London's nonfiction and magazine articles earned him notoriety as a radical. London was a devoted supporter of industrial unions and a fierce critic of corrupt government and monopolies. His lecture tour across the country offered audiences detailed accounts of the evils of capitalism, a system, he explained, that kept half of its population in poverty. Throughout his life, London supported movements for social justice and corporate accountability.

Later Life

While London's success grew, his private life deteriorated. A few years into his marriage, London realized he shared little with his wife. While at Stanford University to give a lecture, he fell in love with Anna Strunsky, a socialist activist in San Francisco. In 1904 Bessie London filed for a divorce, but Strunsky and London never married. London continued to write prolifically in the 1900s and early 1910s, publishing Martin Eden (1907), The Iron Heel (1908), The Cruise of the Snark (1911), and Valley of the Moon (1913), among others. In 1913 London, who was an alcoholic, went into a noticeable physical decline. He finished his last story, "The Water Baby," in October 1916, seven weeks before he died.

Source:

Andrew Sinclair, Jack: A Biography (New York: Harper & Row, 1977).