Jack London

Jack London (born John Griffith Cheney)

American Author

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1889/jack-london

London was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone, including science fiction.

Some of his most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in 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", and of the San Francisco Bay area in "The Sea Wolf."

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. He wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.

Additional contents of wikipedia article:

1 Family background 2 Early life 3 Gold rush and first success 4 First marriage (1900–1904) 4.1 Bohemian Club 5 Second marriage 6 Beauty Ranch (1905–1916) 7 Accusations of plagiarism 8 Political views 8.1 Socialism 8.1.1 Influence on writing 8.2 Racial views 9 Death 10 Works 10.1 Short stories 10.2 Novels 10.3 Apocrypha 10.3.1 Jack London Credo 10.3.2 The Scab 10.3.3 Might is Right 10.3.4 B. Traven 11 Bibliography 12 Legacy and honors 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

Deserted by his father, a roving astrologer, he was raised in Oakland, California, by his spiritualist mother and his stepfather, whose surname, London, he took. At age 14 he quit school to escape poverty and gain adventure. He explored San Francisco Bay in his sloop, alternately stealing oysters or working for the government fish patrol.

Astrologer and Writer, was living with Flora Wellman in 1874-1875 before the birth of her son John Griffith Chaney (the writer Jack London) on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco. The 55 year old William Chaney denied that he was the father of the child and separated from his common law wife in June of 1875 after learning of her pregnancy. In 1897 the young Jack London located his father who again denied his paternity.

Interesting Jack London Facts:

• Jack London was one of the first American authors to become financially successful because of his writing.
• Jack London only completed an eighth-grade education but beat college students to win the first prize in the writing contest, when he was only 17 years old.
• Winning the prize in the writing contest gave Jack London the desire to become a writer.
• Jack London tried writing short stories and enrolled at Berkeley for a brief time before heading to the Yukon during the gold rush.
• Jack London returned to California when he was 22 to continue his writing career.
• Jack London started having stories published in Overland Monthly in 1899 and set a goal to write at least 1000 words each day.
• Jack London’s most famous novel The Call of the Wild was published in 1903. This book brought him some money and fame. The book was about a dog finding he was as a sled dog, in the Yukon where Jack previously traveled to in an effort to find gold.
• Jack London worked as a journalist while writing fiction as well. He worked for Hearst papers in 1904 and covered the Russo-Japanese War.
• Jack London only lived to be 40 years old but wrote a great number of novels, short stories, memoirs, non-fiction, essays, poems, and even plays.
• Jack London’s most famous novels include The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Iron Heel.
• Jack London’s most famous short stories include To Build a Fire, Love of Life, and An Odyssey of the North.
• Jack London’s plays include Theft (1910), Daughters of the Rich: A One Act Play(1915), and The Acorn Planter: A California Forest Play (1916).
• Jack London married Bess Maddern in 1900. Together they had two daughters Bess and Joan. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1905.
• In 1905 Jack London married Charmian Kittredge. They remained together for the rest of his life.
• Jack London died from kidney disease on November 22nd, 1916 at his ranch in California at the age of 40.
• Mount London on the Alaska-BC boundary is named after Jack London.
• Jack London Square in Oakland, California is named after Jack London.
• On January 11th, 1986 the US Postal service released a $0.25 stamp in his honor.