Jack London Political Activist and Writer

Childhood  Mother was Flora Wellman, a spiritualist and music teacher  Father was astrologer William Chaney  Both parents were financially and emotionally unstable—Wellman shot herself when Chaney demanded she abort the baby. Then, she gave the baby to an ex-slave named Virginia Prentiss to raise  When Flora recovered and married John London, a partially disabled Civil War veteran

Childhood, continued  John Griffith Chaney became John Griffith London and took the nickname of Jack  The family lived in and around the San Francisco Bay area, ultimately settling in Oakland where Jack finished grade school  His schooling was sporadic because of constant moves—family would be evicted for non-payment of rent

Work Was a child laborer  Swept saloons and pool halls  1889—began hour shifts in a cannery  Borrowed enough to buy a small boat, became and oyster pirate  1893—signed on as a sailor on a voyage to Japan  Joined Kelley’s Army and marched all the way to Buffalo, NY

 Returned to Oakland and attended Oakland High School in return for janitorial work. Began writing of his experiences  Studied and gained entrance to UC Berkeley in 1896, but left in 1897 and never graduated  First stories appeared in the high school paper Formal Education Beginnings of his writing career

Heinhold’s Saloon  London loved his experiences as a sailor  Heinhold’s Saloon was a hangout for experienced sailors. He adopted it as a second—and sometimes first—home  Listened to the stories being told here and used them in his writing  Also was the beginning of his struggle with alcohol. His attraction to and attractiveness to women was already established

The Klondike  London at 21 sailed for the Gold Rush— the Klondike  No gold, but he did find dozens of experiences which he used in his writing  He also developed scurvy, which debilitated his body  His time in the Klondike gave him the basis for “To Build a Fire,” White Fang, and The Call of the Wild  It also gave him his politics— socialism—and a social conscience

Explosion of Magazines  London had good timing  His writing career coincided with the development of cheaper ways to print magazines, which needed content  By 1900 he was selling enough short stories and other works to earn $2500 ($65,00+ today)  Call of the Wild— 1903—sold as a serial in a magazine and as a novel on its own—typical publishing method

Love and Marriage (Not with the same woman) Marriages  Bessie Maddern (1900)—2 children—divorced 1904  Charmian Kittredge (1905) Great Love  Anna Strunsky

Writing for Money Ranch  Bought ranch near Glen Ellen, California, in the Sonoma Mountains  Wrote many stories, articles and a few books to pay for the ranch, which bled money  Spent $80,000 on a stone mansion on the ranch ($1.95 million now), but it burned a week before they were to move in

Politics  London was a socialist  Agitated for child labor laws  Wrote several polemics (see definition) concerning child labor  Ran for several offices in California  Racial views  Complex—worried about “Yellow Peril”  Wrote sympathetically about Mexican immigrants, Japanese culture, and Jack Johnson, a black boxer

End of his Life  Believed for years to be a suicide  Death is attributed to uremia (uremic poisoning from kidney disease) or a morphine overdose  He suffered toward the end of his life from the after-effects of late-stage alcoholism as well as dysentery, uremia, and the results of scurvy