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.
During the remainder of his life, London wrote and published steadily, completing some 50 books of fiction and nonfiction in 17 years. Although he became the highest-paid writer in the United States at that time, his earnings never matched his expenditures, and he was never freed of the urgency of writing for money. He sailed a ketch to the South Pacific, telling of his adventures in The Cruise of the Snark (1911). In 1910 he settled on a ranch near Glen Ellen, California, where he built his grandiose Wolf House. He maintained his socialist beliefs almost to the end of his life.
London’s reputation declined in the United States in the 1920s, when a new generation of writers made the pre-World War I writers seem lacking in sophistication. But his popularity remained high throughout the world after World War II, especially in Russia, where a commemorative edition of his works published in 1956 was reported to have been sold out in five hours. A three-volume set of his letters, edited by Earle Labor et al., was published in 1988.
Interesting Jack London Facts: |
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| 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 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. |
| There is a lake named after Jack London in Magadan Oblast called Jack London Lake. |
Do you know how Jack London became a great writer? He set a goal to write every day at least 1000 words. And stubbornly adhered to this goal.
Take an example from him. Set a goal to make a career in America this year, register for an Electrician’s Helper course and get a highly paid job in construction field.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-London
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