Jack london biography book
Jack London: A Biography
Jack London was truly a self-made man and this excellent biography illustrates his rough and tumble early life, his love of reading and his ability to learn by using books as his teachers, his restless and adventurous spirit (just reading about what London and others who joined in the Klondike Gold Rush had to endure tired me out!), and his eventual maturation as a writer.
Note: Some believed Jack London was a racist - which I really can't understand, as he was nursed and cared for by Jennie Prentiss, an African-American woman whose own baby had died. Jack actually lived with the Prentiss family off and on for long periods during his childhood. In later years, London hired Jennie Prentiss to live with and care for his elderly mother, Flora, and his nephew, Johnny Miller (his stepsister Ida's son who lived with Flora). The author, Dr. Daniel Dyer, includes a comprehensive bibliography of books by and about Jack London - a great source for further reading.
Jack London
American author, journalist and social activist (–)
For other people named Jack London, see Jack London (disambiguation).
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, – November 22, ), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal welfare, workers' rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novelThe Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposéThe People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.
His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".
Family
Flora and John London, Jack's mother and stepfather
Jack London was born January 12, His mother, Flora Wellman, was the fifth and youngest child of Pennsylvania Canal builder Marshall Wellman and his first wife, Eleanor Garrett Jones. Marshall Wellman was descended from Thomas Wellman, an early Puritan settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Flora left Ohio and moved to the Pacific coast when her father remarried after her mother died. In San Francisco, Flora worked as a music teacher and spiritualist.
Biographer Clarice Stasz and others believe London's father was astrologer William Chaney. Flora Wellman was
The Books of Jack London
Jack London was born on January 12, By age 30, he was internationally famous for Call of the Wild (), The Sea Wolf, () and many other literary and journalistic accomplishments.
Though he wrote passionately about the great questions of life and death and the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity, he also sought peace and quiet inspiration.
His stories of high adventure were based on his own experiences at sea, in Alaska, or in the fields and factories of California. His writings appealed to millions worldwide. Jack London was also widely known for his personal exploits. He was a colorful, controversial personality, often in the news. Generally fun-loving, he was quick to side with the underdog against injustice of any kind. An eloquent public speaker, he was much sought after as a lecturer on socialism and other economic and political topics. Most people considered London a living symbol of rugged individualism, a man whose fabulous success was not due to special favor of any kind, but to a combination of immense mental ability and vitality. Strikingly handsome, full of laughter, restless and courageous, always eager for adventure, Jack London was one of the most romantic figures of this time. He ascribed his worldwide literary success largely to hard work—to &#;dig&#;, as he put it.
Between and , he completed more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books, hundreds of short stories and numerous articles. Several of the books and many of the short stories are classics and still popular; some have been translated into as many as 70 languages. Among his most well-known books are Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, Martin Eden.
Purchase exclusive Museum Editions of the complete works of Jack and Charmian London along with biographies and other books related to the life and times of the Londons.
A complete list of Jack London books, by date of publication, follows:
- The Son of the Wolf
- The God o
Jack London (), known for his naturalistic and mythic tales, remains among the most popular and influential American writers in the world. Jack London's Racial Lives offers the first full study of the enormously important issue of race in London's life and diverse works, whether set in the Klondike, Hawaii, or the South Seas or during the Russo-Japanese War, the Jack Johnson world heavyweight bouts, or the Mexican Revolution. Jeanne Campbell Reesman explores his choices of genre by analyzing racial content and purpose and judges his literary artistry against a standard of racial tolerance. Although he promoted white superiority in novels and nonfiction, London sharply satirized racism and meaningfully portrayed racial others—most often as protagonists—in his short fiction.
Why the disparity? For London, racial and class identity were intertwined: his formation as an artist began with the mixed "heritage" of his family. His mother taught him racism, but he learned something different from his African American foster mother, Virginia Prentiss. Childhood poverty, shifting racial allegiances, and a "psychology of want" helped construct the many "houses" of race and identity he imagined. Reesman also examines London's socialism, his study of Darwin and Jung, and the illnesses he suffered in the South Seas.
With new readings of The Call of the Wild, Martin Eden, and many other works, such as the explosive Pacific stories, Reesman reveals that London employed many of the same literary tropes of race used by African American writers of his period: the slave narrative, double-consciousness, the tragic mulatto, and ethnic diaspora. Hawaii seemed to inspire his most memorable visions of a common humanity.Jack London's attitudes toward and treatments of the race issue in his public statements and in his fiction constitute one of the most controversial and problematic aspects of his complex persona. Reesman's study is both exhaustive and definitive. She rightly