Classic Authors: Jack London

Jack London rose from an impoverished childhood to publish over 50 volumes of writing. In fact, he became the highest paid writer in the United States. Although his novels and stories, many of them about survival in the harsh wilderness, seemed crude, they soon gained popularity for their energy and unique subject matter. He lived only 40 years, but in that time he accomplished more than many will in their lifetimes

On January 12, 1876, Jack was born to Flora Wellman, an unwed mother. His father may have been William Chaney, a journalist and lawyer, who was instrumental in developing astrology in America. Late in 1876, Flora married John London, a disabled veteran of the Civil War. The small family moved around the Bay Area until they settled in Oakland, where Jack was able to complete grade school.

School, however, held little interest for Jack. Instead, he sought adventure. As a teenager, he worked various hard labor jobs: he pirated for oysters in the San Francisco Bay, served on a fish patrol designed to catch poachers, sailed the Pacific, joined Kelly's army of unemployed working men, and hopped freight trains to see the country.

He returned to high school at 19 years of age, cramming a 4-year study course into a single year. Afterward, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley. He stayed for only one year before leaving to seek his fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush. It was then that he decided to become a writer. He wanted to escape the life that awaited him as a factory worker. From then on, he wrote with discipline and success.

Jack began his career by studying other writers. He then started sending stories, jokes and poems to various publications, finding much success. He published his first novel, The Son of the Wolf in 1900, and gained an attentive audience. In the next 16 years, he published more than 50 works, including short stories, novels and political essays. Call of the Wild (1903), is one of his most famous novels.

In the same year his first novel was published, Jack married Bessie Maddern, with whom he had two daughters, Joan and Bess. The marriage ended in divorce after Jack had an affair with Charmian Kittredge. Five years after his first marriage, Jack made Charmian his second wife.

Jack London also became well known for his socialist views, and his support of causes such as women's suffrage and prohibition. When he bought his own ranch in Glen Ellen, California, he found a great love for agriculture.

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