Jack London

Jack London 1876 -1916

Jack London was born in San Francisco. He was deserted by his father, "Professor" William Henry Chaney, an itinerant astrologer, and raised in Oakland by his mother Flora Wellman, a music teacher and spiritualist. London's stepfather John London, whose surname he took, was a failed storekeeper.

London's youth was marked by poverty. At the age of ten he became an avid reader, and borrowed books from the Oakland Public Library, where Ina Coolbirth recommended him the works of Flaubert, Tolstoy and other major novelists.

After leaving school at the age of 14, London worked as a seaman, rode in freight trains as a hobo and adopted socialistic views as a member of the protest armies of the unemployed. In 1894 he was arrested in Niagara Falls and jailed for vagrancy.

These years made him determined to raise himself out of poverty but they also gave later material for such works as The Sea-Wolf (1904), which was partly based on his horrific experiences as a sailor in the Pacific Ocean.
Writing The sea Wolf

Without having much formal education, London spent much time in public libraries reading fiction, philosophy, poetry, political science, and at the age of 19 gained admittance to the University of California in Berkeley. During this period he had already started to write.

London left the school before the year was over and went to seek his fortune in the Klondike gold rush of 1897. His attempt was unsuccessful. London spent the winter near Dawson City, suffering from scurvy. In the spring he returned to San Francisco with his notebook full of plans for stories.

Dawson City Nowadays

Jack London’s Cabin

The Old Saloon

Jack London In Dawson

For the remainder of 1898 London again tried to earn his living by writing. His early stories appeared in the Overland Monthly and Atlantic Monthly . In 1900 he married Elisabeth (Bess) Maddern; their home became a battle field between Bess and London's mother Flora. Three years later he left her and their two daughters, eventually to marry Charmian Kittredge, an editor and outdoorswoman. The marriage lasted until London's death. Charmian became the model of London's women characters, such as Paula in The Little Lady of the Big House (1916).

In 1901 London ran unsuccessfully on the Socialist party ticket for mayor of Oakland. He started to steadily produce novels, nonfiction, and short stories, becoming in his lifetime one of the most popular authors. London had early built his system of producing a daily quota of thousand words. He did not give up even during his travels and drinking periods. London's first novel, The Son of the Wolf , appeared in 1900. By 1904 Jack London was the author of 10 books. The Son of the Wolf gained a wide audience as did his other Alaska stories, The Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1906), and Burning Daylight (1910).

Jack London’s Cottage

In His Estuary

In 1902 London went to England, where he studied the living conditions in East End and working class areas of the capital city. Originally he set out for South Africa to report the Boer War. His book about the economic degradation of the poor, The People of the Abyss (1903), was a surprise success in the U.S. but criticized in England. London produced this classic of investigative reporting in seven weeks. In the middle of a bitter separation in 1904, London traveled to Korea as a correspondent for Hearst's newspapers to cover the war between Russia and Japan (1904-05).

Next year he published his first collection of non-fiction pieces, The War of the Classes , which included his lectures on socialism. In 1907 London and Charmian started aboard the Snark , the author's self-designed ketch, on a sailing trip around the world. On the voyage he began to write Martin Eden . After hardships - his captain was incompetent, the ketch was inefficient - they abandoned the journey in Australia. London's financial affairs were in chaos, his teeth gave him incessant pain, and he began to buy plots from a struggling writer, Sinclair Lewis, to produce more articles and stories for sale.

A few months before his death, London resigned from the Socialist Party. Debts, alcoholism, illness, and fear of losing his creativity darkened the author's last years. He died on November 22, 1916, officially of gastro-intestinal uremia. However, there has been speculations that London committed suicide with morphine.
Jack London's grave in Jack London State Park, Glen Ellen, CA

Jack London Square is located in Oakland and you can get there from San Francisco by ferry boat. It was named after the famous author Jack London. Jack was born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, he was an illegitimate child born to Flora Wellman, she got married shortly after to John London and was adopted by him and he gave him the name Jack London. Jack's family moved to Oakland in 1886 and they lived near the waterfront were Jack spent most of his time.

This is the ferry terminal that is next to Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf. This is where you can board the Alameda/Oakland Ferry or you can also board it from downtown San Francisco at the Ferry Building located at the foot of Market Street.

We are now on our way to Jack London Square, and we have just passed under the Bay Bridge and looking off the back of the ferry at Downtown San Francisco. After we cross the Bay we will make on stop at Alameda before we reach Jack London Square.

We are now pulling into the port at Jack London Square. Once the ferry docks you will be on one end of a street that takes you all the way to the other end of the Square.

This street is made of brick and there is a trail of wolf tracks made of bronze that guide you to 12 history markers along the way through the Square. On this section of the street they have a Farmer's Market on Sunday 10-2 year round. From here all the way to the other end of Jack London Square is expensive restaurants and a variety of stores and shops. If you want something cheaper to eat wait till you get to the other end of the Square and I tell you where to find them.

This statue is of Jack London and it is located at the foot of Broadway and near the flag we saw when we arrived. To the left of the statue is a granite stone telling about Jack London Square.

This is Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon, it was built in 1883 and it went through the 1906 earth quake. The floors inside are slanted from the quake and the walls hold history about Jack London. The building was built with timbers from a old whaling ship. You may want to take a break here and have a beer inside.

This is Jack London's old cabin that was built in the Yukon during the gold rush in 1897. The reason they know this was his cabin is because on the ceiling there are notes in Jack London's hand and they were authenticated by a handwriting expert. The cabin had sod with grass on the roof to help hold the heat in. The cabin is located next to the Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon.

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Jack London

by School on Aug 08, 2009

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