Jack London’s Biography
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At the start of the twentieth-century, Jack London was the most widely read novelist and short-story writer in the United States (Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Biography). He was prolific, writing many short stories, novels, as well as reportage. Most of
London’s fiction was considered to be part of the naturalist movement because it was concerned mostly “with the human struggle for survival against extreme natural forces” (Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Biography). Some of his works include White Fang, Call of the Wild, Two Build a Fire and Other Stories, and The Iron Heel.
Jack London was born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, “the son of an itinerant astrologer and a spiritualist mother” (The Oxford Companion to English Literature). Growing up in a poor family, London was forced to work various jobs to support himself – he robbed oyster beds, worked in a canning factory, worked as a common sailor, and decided to take “part in the Klondike gold rush of 1897,” which was an event that inspired London to write some of his most famous and celebrated stories (The Oxford Campanion to English).
Although an extremely successful writer, London struggled with alcoholism through most of his adult life, something that the author delves deeply into in his 1913 autobiographical novel John Barleycorn, which is considered to be one of the most important texts that he wrote later in life (The Oxford Companion to Enlgish Literature).
London’s death is still, to this day, considered controversial. While traveling in Mexico in 1914, London came down with a severe case of dysentery and pleurisy (World Authors 1900 – 1950). After that, London went to Hawaii for a year of recuperation, but when he came back to California, he relapsed and required hospitalization (World Authors 1900 – 1950). London was found dead shortly after. He died of complications caused by gastro-intestinal uremia, but “the pad on his night-table, with the calculation of a lethal dosage of morphine sleeping tablets, and two empty vials on the floor,” led many people to believe that the initial cause of his death was suicide (World Authors 1900 – 1950).
Work Cited for Biography
Drabble, Margaret. “Jack London.” The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 1996. Biography Reference Bank. WilsonWed. Richard Stockton College Lib., Pomona. 9 June 2009. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.stockton.edu:2048/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.21#curPg=3%7C3%7C1%7Cdetails%7C2%7C3
Jones, Phyllis M. “Jack London. World Authors 1900 – 1950. 1996. Biography Reference Bank. WilsonWeb. Richard Stockton College Lib., Pomona. 9 June 2009. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.stockton.edu:2048/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.21#curPg=3%7C3%7C1%7Cdetails%7C4%7C3>
Nicholls, C.S. “Jack London.” Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Biography. 2000. Biography Reference Bank. WilsonWeb. Richard Stockton College Lib., Pomona. 9 June 2009. <http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.stockton.edu:2048/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/resultscommon.jhtml.21>