The future writer Jack London (real name - J. Griffith Cheney) was born in the winter of 1876 in the city of San Francisco. Jack's own father was a professor of astrology, but William Cheney, having barely learned about his wife's pregnancy, abandoned the child. So, at first the boy was in the care of his mother's maid Flora, who at that time was looking for a suitable match for her husband. Her chosen one was an officer, a war veteran who already had two children from a previous marriage.
The London family lived in poverty, because Jack school age knew what hard work was. The boy worked as a courier, a press seller, an auxiliary worker, and a cleaner. Such work did not bring much income, but it greatly undermined the health of the young man. Further, the guy decided to engage in fishing, which, alas, did not help much to replenish the family budget. Soon Jack was hired as a sailor on a ship, also worked as a stoker and ironer.
He wrote his first story at the age of seventeen, inspired by the sea voyages he had taken while working on a ship. After several years of wandering and hard work, Jack realized that physical labor was not valued by society and that the only way to earn money was intellectual labor. From this moment on, the worldview of the future writer is changing dramatically, from now on, Jack London will look at material wealth differently. So he decides to become a writer. After several years of studying at a high school, London, without graduating educational institution, enters one of the universities in California, where he was also forced to quit due to lack of money.
Wikipedia also writes about Jack London that at the age of 21 he went to the North, deciding to get rich through gold mining. However, a year later, the guy returned home with nothing. And since 1899, he began to actively engage in writing. His first works saw the light, such as: The Son of the Wolf (1900); Children of the Frost (1902); Faith in Man (1904); Lunar face (1906). But real glory the prose writer deserved after the publication of the novels The Sea Wolf (1904) and Martin Eden (1909).
Having become rich, London acquired a farm and became seriously interested in agriculture. Trying to improve his possessions, the writer got into debt again. And a little later, not finding a way out of this situation, he took to drink. D. London managed to recover from alcoholism, but he could not return to writing, this activity did not bring him pleasure anymore.
Last years Jack London suffered from kidney disease. He passed away at the age of 60 (according to one version, London took an excessive dose of the medicine assigned to him, which caused his premature death).
Jack London has blue eyes, naturally light hair color, fair skin and medium lips. The shape of the face is oval, the forehead is medium, the hair is curly, thick. Jack London did not change his hair color, preferring natural. The writer has a medium straight nose and a rectangular chin. The writer's height is 182 cm, no tattoos.
Zodiac sign - Capricorn (01/12/1876)
The future writer Jack London (real name - J. Griffith Cheney) was born in the winter of 1876 in the city of San Francisco. Jack's own father was a professor of astrology, but William Cheney, having barely learned about his wife's pregnancy, abandoned the child. So, at first the boy was in the care of his mother's maid Flora, who at that time was looking for a suitable match for her husband. Her chosen one was an officer, a war veteran who already had two children from a previous marriage. The London family lived in poverty, because Jack knew from school age what hard work is. The boy worked as a courier, a press seller, an auxiliary worker, and a cleaner. Such work did not bring much income, but it greatly undermined the health of the young man. Then the guy decided to engage in fishing, which, alas, did not help much.
I must remember once and for all that every person is worthy of respect, unless he considers himself better than others.
Jack London
January 12, 1876 was born the famous American writer, author of exciting adventure novels and short stories, Jack London. His simple, edgy, casual and catchy style inspired such literary geniuses as John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. London, unlike many other foreign writers, was well known in the USSR: in 1918-1986 he was the most published writer in the country after Hans Christian Andersen. In honor of the anniversary of the birth of London, the 360 TV channel collected five interesting facts about the writer.
Jack London's mother tried to shoot herself while pregnant
The mother of the future writer Flora Wellman was born into a wealthy family in Ohio. From a young age, she believed in her spiritual abilities and believed that she could communicate with the dead and predict the future. In 1858 her father lost all his money and Flora ran away from home.
In the early 1870s, Wellman met the famous astrologer Professor William Cheney. The couple lived in San Francisco, California. In 1875, after learning that Flora was pregnant, Cheney began to insist on an abortion. After a quarrel with her husband (it is still not known whether the couple lived in a legal marriage), Wellman tried to commit suicide twice in two days. First she drank an opium tincture, and then she wanted to shoot herself. Both attempts failed.
The story of Wellman's suicides was widely reported in the press. The articles turned the people of San Francisco against Cheney to such an extent that some wanted him to be hanged. Shortly after the incident, the professor moved to Chicago. He never acknowledged Jack as a son, claiming that Flora had other lovers.
At birth, the future writer was named John Griffith Cheney. After the boy was born, Flora did not want to see him and was too sick to care for him. Therefore, the first months of his life he was raised by her former slave Virginia Prentiss. Eight months after the birth of the boy, Flora married a veteran civil war John London, who adopted the child as his own son. So Cheney became John Griffith London. Even in childhood, for unknown reasons, the boy began to be called Jack.
From "Oyster Pirate" to Gold Miner and War Correspondent
The future writer began to work early: Flora constantly pushed her husband on suspicious adventures, trying to get rich quickly. As a schoolboy, the boy sold morning and evening newspapers, arranged skittles on weekends and cleaned beer pavilions in the park. After graduating from elementary school, 14-year-old Jack entered the cannery.
A year later, the boy was tired of exhausting and low-paid work: he worked 12-18 hours a day. The future writer borrowed $300 from Virginia Prentiss and bought a small schooner. London illegally fished for crabs and shrimp in the bay near San Francisco, soon the boy was nicknamed "oyster pirate". A few months later, the boat suffered irreparable damage, and the future writer got a job in a fishing patrol, and then as a sailor on a fishing schooner.
London's works are closely connected with his life: his marine novels and stories, such as "The Sea Wolf", were based on his work on the schooner "Sophie Sutherland", on which the writer caught seals in the Bering Sea and off the coast of Japan. Subsequently, Jack worked as a fireman and ironer ("Martin Eden").
The first essay "Typhoon off the coast of Japan" was published by London on November 12, 1893. This work was the beginning of his literary career. However, this did not weaken Jack's craving for travel: in the spring of 1897, he fell ill with a gold rush and went to Alaska in search of easy money. London and his group were lucky: they were able to stake out a site in the upper reaches of the Yukon River. However, luck soon turned against them. The prospectors never found any gold, and during the cold winter, accompanied by malnutrition, the writer fell ill with scurvy. In 1898, London returned to San Francisco, albeit without money, but still with a treasure: he had enough plots and characters for future works for several years.
The writer worked twice as a war correspondent: in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese War and in 1914 in the Mexican Civil War.
The writer spent a month in prison for vagrancy
In 1894, London joined the so-called "Kelly's Army" and participated in the march on Washington, along with a crowd of vagrants protesting against unemployment. He soon separated from the group, deciding to go his own way, but near Niagara Falls, the writer was arrested for vagrancy. He spent a month in prison in Buffalo, New York.
“One day, by a whim of fate, I wandered for several weeks with a gang of two thousand hobos [tramps]. They were known as the Kelly Army. they crossed the Missouri and moved on to the civilized East. The East had not the slightest desire to give freedom of movement to two thousand tramps," wrote London in the essay "Two Thousand Vagabonds."
During his wanderings, he came to the conclusion that only intellectual work is valued in life and finally decided to become a writer. In the campaign, London also got acquainted with the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In 1895 he became a member of the Socialist Labor Party of the USA, in 1900 he moved to the Socialist Party of the country. He left in 1914, having lost faith in the "fighting spirit" of the organization.
Trip around the world
Snark is a serious game! Believe me, friends
We have no fun at all;
We owe everything we can and everything we can't
To commit - but to succeed.
Lewis Carroll
In 1906, London began to build a 13-meter yacht, on which he was going to make trip around the world. The writer planned to circumnavigate the Earth in seven years. The ship was built according to the drawings of London, he claimed that he spent 30 thousand dollars on it.
The ship was named after Lewis Carroll's absurd poem "The Hunt for the Snark". On April 23, 2007, together with the crew and his wife, the writer departed by boat from San Francisco. However, the writer's dream was not destined to come true: in 1909 he fell ill, so the route was limited only to the South Pacific.
In 1911, Jack London's novel "Voyage on the Snark" was published. In it, the writer told about his voyage in the Pacific Ocean, learning to navigate and visiting exotic places, including the Solomon Islands and Hawaii.
London became the first writer to earn a million
In 1898, returning to California from Alaska, Jack learned that his stepfather had died. He decided to devote himself entirely to literary creativity in order to provide for his mother. London was very disciplined: every day he wrote a thousand words, sometimes working for 15-17 hours. For my short writing career(Jack started writing seriously at 23 after returning from the gold fields) he has written about 40 books.
The writer's fee for one book sometimes reached 50 thousand dollars, but he still did not have enough money. According to legend, London became the first American to earn a million dollars from literature. The name of the writer was mainly made by stories and novels ("Sea Wolf", "White Fang", "Hearts of Three", "Martin Eden"). But in literature he is still remembered as an unsurpassed master of the story (collections "Son of the Wolf", "God of His Fathers", "Children of Frost", "Tales of the Southern Seas"). In total, he wrote about 200 works of this genre, which are combined into 16 collections.
In 1905, London bought a ranch and ran into debt trying to organize the "ideal farm". The writer began to write cheap works for popular magazines to pay off creditors. After a while, literature began to disgust him, and in recent years he experienced a creative crisis and began to drink. London even bought the plot for a new novel, but did not have time to finish it.
In recent years, the writer suffered from uremia (kidney disease). He died on the night of November 22, 1916 at the age of 40 from morphine poisoning prescribed by a doctor. Researchers are still arguing about the causes of London's death. Some are sure that he simply did not calculate the dose of morphine, others are inclined to the version of suicide. The writer is buried in Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen (California, USA).
JACK LONDON
(1876-1916)
Born January 12, 1876 in San Francisco. At birth, he was named John Cheney, but eight months later, when his mother married, he became John Griffith London. The writer's mother, Flora Wellman, came from a wealthy Welsh family, was a smart and well-read woman who graduated from college, studied music, but had a nervous disposition with a rapidly changing mood. At the age of 20, she had been ill with typhus and after the disease, she was left with some kind of "confusion in her head." This led to the fact that all her life Flora was a very specific lady, was fond of divination, spiritualism and did not pay due attention to raising her offspring. Motherly duties were not to Flora's liking. She had no time to look after the boy, who began to get sick. On the advice of the doctor, the family moved to a rural area. Flora began looking for a nurse. She was a black woman Jenny Prentice, who not so long ago lost her baby. She became for Jack not only a nurse, but also a foster mother and transferred all her unspent love to a little snow-white boy. London always remembered his black mother with warmth and tenderness.
London's childhood was spent in San Francisco. He read a lot, imagining himself as the hero of adventure novels. Jack became a regular visitor to the local public library. He practically devoured every book. He read at night, read in the morning, read when he went to school, read on his way home, and again went to the library for a new book.
At school every morning the students sang in chorus. At one fine moment, noticing that Jack was silent, the teacher sent him to the director. There was a long and stern conversation, as a result of which the director sent the boy back to the classroom with a note saying that it was possible to exempt the student of London from singing, but instead Jack had to write compositions every morning while the other students sang in chorus . Jack London later attributed to this punishment his ability to write a thousand words every morning.
At the age of 13, London graduated from junior school, but high school could not walk: the family did not have the means to pay for education. And already at the age of 15, Jack had to go to the factory to provide for his family, since his stepfather was hit by a train and became a cripple. The constant lack of sleep, lethargy and the desire to rest at least 1 morning and not go to boring work over the years inspires the world-famous writer to create a poignant and strong story "The Renegade", whose hero, after months of languorous work, which turned him practically into an animal, rebels and instead of a smoky workshop, he goes into the field, lies down in the grass and for the first time in a long time meets the sunrise (the creator's childhood desire is realized in a literary character).
London's youth came at a time of economic depression and unemployment, the financial situation of the family was getting worse. Until the age of 23, he changed a huge number of occupations: he was an “oyster pirate” (poacher); fishing patrol inspector; sailor on the schooner "Sophie Sutherland", where he participated in the hunt for fur seals; workers in a jute factory; arrested for vagrancy (participated in the march of the unemployed to Washington); was a prospector in Alaska during the Gold Rush. These were the years of growing up and gaining relevant experience, which was so useful to London in the upcoming literary activity.
In 1893, Jack London won a seat in literary competition the San Francisco Call newspaper. His essay "Typhoon off the coast of the Country rising sun”took 1st place and brought the creator the 1st fee - $ 25 (it is significant that students from the California and Stanford institutions received 2nd and third places). This prompted London to think seriously about future prospects. Actual experience gave a hint that it is difficult for a person of physical labor, and from time to time it is completely unrealistic to achieve success in life, as opposed to a person of intellectual labor, who does not dry out with age, but acquires a flowering of spiritual development. And Jack London consciously decides to become a writer. To do this, he is engaged in self-education, passes the entrance exams to the California Institute and even successfully studies during the 1st semester (there were not enough funds for more).
The future life of a professional young man is associated with rich self-education and cruel creative work aimed at mastering the difficult writing activity, developing a personal style. This period of the writer's life is very vividly depicted by London in his autobiographical novel Martin Eden (1909). The year 1896 dramatically changed the life of Jack London: gold was found in Alaska, the so-called gold rush begins, in which the young writer also participates. He was not destined to find gold after a couple of years of exhausting work, but personal memories and experience of this typical land, which received the title in the following works - "Snow-White Silence", become the real treasure for London. Alaska becomes the literary Klondike of the writer: he creates a personal, incomparable world of languid trials, formidable natural criteria, strong human friendship and love that overcomes any obstacles. The so-called northern stories brought fame to the young creator.
In 1900, the first collection of short stories, The Son of the Wolf, was published, followed by the second, The God of His Fathers (1901), and, finally, the novel The Daughter of the Snows (1902). Jack London becomes a world famous writer with his own special style, inimitable manner of writing, unique problems. For the next seventeen years, he published two, even three books a year. The secret of the extraordinary popularity of Jack London lies, according to the famous South American literary critic Van Wyck Brooks, in the "fresh intonation" of his works, which "so contrasted with the general sugary direction American Literature” and was a direct challenge to the “painstakingly strained, sweetened milk of actual illusions” that the creators of mainstream fiction treated the public to.
Carried away by the thoughts of K. Marx and F. Engels (the development of which coincided with the writer's personal intrigue with the inconsistencies of social justice), London in 1901 joins the ranks of the Socialist Party. At the same time, the writer is fond of the works of H. Spencer and F. Nietzsche. Reflection of London's preferences of those times can be seen on the pages of the novel "Martin Eden" (1909), saturated with political, philosophical and literary discussions.
The literary and topical path of Jack London was difficult. He was one of the most prominent socialists in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century and at the same time remained a staunch individualist. He made images of ordinary courageous people and was immediately not far from "specific vanity", sang the stamina of "white gold diggers" in battles with the "Snow-White Silence" of Alaska. His pen belongs to novels and short stories saturated with the true breath of life, and handicrafts, narrow-minded and, from time to time, with a taste of racist theories. And yet, London's observations of that period testify to the deepest awareness of the creative originality of various writers, the ability to assess the general state of modern American literature.
Jack London was one of the founders of the animalistic tradition not only in American but also in world literature. Images of feral and pets in London are reflected not only in great love for "our smallest brothers", but also in the knowledge of the animal world, their behavior and habits. The best among the animalistic works, of course, were "The Call of the Wild" (1903), "White Fang" (1906), "Jerry the Islander" (1917), "Michael, Brother Jerry" (1917). Specifically, dogs and wolves are the most beloved animals of Jack London (the writer called his own large house in the Lunar Plain "The House of the Wolf").
A significant phenomenon in American literature at the beginning of the 20th century was London's novel The Sea Wolf (1904), which, on the one hand, reveals the writer's intrigue with a "strong personality" (which is Captain Wolf Larsen), on the other hand, is an expressive criticism and disclosure of the perniciousness of the very ideas" strong personality as anti-social.
The result of an active civilian position and socialist preferences of Jack London was the eminent "Heel of Steel" (1907) - a utopian novel, a warning novel.
One of the best works Jack London is considered the novel "Martin Eden" (1909), dedicated to the fate of a professional personality in bourgeois society. The autobiographical image of Martin the Eaten becomes an example of the great potential of a man of the people. An ordinary sailor, thanks to superhuman assertiveness and natural talent, becomes a famous writer. The novel has become a typical anthem creativity person.
Tasks of simplification, flight from cities - carriers of social. conflicts, a return to the land, to agricultural labor, gain strength and artistic reproduction in the best novel of the late period, Moonlight Plain (1913).
At the end of his life, London is seriously ill with uremia and takes morphine to reduce pain, each time increasing the dose. On the night of November 22, 1916, he was found dead in his own office in a cottage in Glen Ellen (California). On the night table was found a healing agent and a piece of paper with calculations for a new, stronger dose of morphine, which turned out to be fatal. What it was - a tragic accident or a conscious step of a seriously ill person - remained unclear. But if we recall the novel "Martin Eden" and the last act of the protagonist, we can speak with a great deal of conviction about the suicide of the great South American writer.
(ratings: 5
, the average: 4,20
out of 5)
Jack London, whose real name is John Griffith Cheney, was born in the middle of winter - January 12, 1876 in the States. The parents of the future writer cannot be called ordinary: John's mother has always been stubborn, self-willed, besides, she was engaged in spiritualism; his father was an astrologer and loved adventure, which was inherited by Jack London.
Little John received the surname "London" when he was not even a year old. During this time, his mother married a Civil War veteran, John London. Soon the name of the stepfather became the creative pseudonym of the writer. By the way, Jack is just a shortened version of the name John.
Jack has been used to hard work since childhood: as a schoolboy, he sold newspapers. To earn money, he got up before dawn. Both before and after classes, the boy returned to work. Oddly enough, this did not prevent him from reading: as a child, Jack liked adventure literature most of all.
Jack London loved the sea no less than books, so at the age of thirteen he bought a small boat with his own money. On it he made boat trips, fished and read.
When Jack was fifteen, he had to get a job in a cannery, as the family had almost no money to live on. The conditions at the factory were terrible, the wages were paltry, and people were injured every day. Energetic Jack could not stand the monotonous mechanical work, so he began to look for alternative ways to earn money. So he began to engage in illegal oyster fishing and, having become a wild life, he spent everything he earned on drinking parties. Having come to his senses in time, Jack hired a ship for legal work - the extraction of fur seals.
In general, in his youth, the future writer managed to try almost all the “charms” of life: after working for six months on a ship, he joined the march of the unemployed, and as a result, he lived with vagrants for the same amount of time. During this period, Jack decides to still get an education and start a writing career. Now he took up intellectual work: he graduated from high school and even passed the entrance exams to the University of California, Berkeley. But since the young London did not have enough money, he had to leave his studies.
Jack began writing his first stories and novels at the age of 22. All his works were constantly returned from the editorial offices of newspapers and magazines, which soon served as the basis for writing a novel. After six months of persistent unsuccessful attempts, his story was nevertheless published.
The dizzying success was a real gift of fate for Jack London: now he was earning incomparably more than ever, and could afford everything he wanted. Yes, the writer, who grew up in poverty, highly valued his wealth.
Jack London lived only forty years, but managed to write more than two hundred stories, novellas and novels. His works became known to the whole world, and "White Fang" and "Hearts of Three" are included in school curriculum. But the main thing is not even this, but the fact that this man, thanks to his perseverance, courage and diligence, managed to make his dream come true.
Jack London, bibliography
All Jack London books
Novels
- 1902 - "Daughter of the Snows"
- 1903 - ""
- 1903 - Letters from Campton to Wes
- 1904 - ""
- 1906 - ""
- 1908 - ""
- 1909 - ""
- 1910 - "Time-does not-wait"
- 1911 - "Adventure"
- 1912 - "The Scarlet Plague"
- 1913 - ""
- 1914 - "Mutiny on Elsinore"
- 1915 - "
Jack London(English) Jack London; born John Griffith Cheney, John Griffith Chaney; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American writer, socialist, and public figure, best known as an author of adventure stories and novels. Jack London was second after G. H. Andersen in terms of publishing in the USSR foreign writer for 1918-1986: the total circulation of 956 publications amounted to 77.153 million copies.
Jack London was born on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco. His mother, Flora Wellman, was the fifth and last child of the builder of the Pennsylvania Canal, Marshall Wellman, descended in the male line from Thomas Wellman (1615-1672), an English Puritan who settled in Massachusetts. Flora's mother was Welsh Eleanor Garrett Jones. Flora Wellman was a music teacher who was fond of spiritualism. She became pregnant by the astrologer William Cheney, an ethnic Irishman with whom she lived together for some time in San Francisco. Upon learning of Flora's pregnancy, William began to insist that she have an abortion. Flora categorically refused and, in a fit of desperation, tried to shoot herself, but only slightly wounded herself. In the newspapers of that time, a terrible sensation was raised (for example, in the article “Abandoned Wife” in the Chronicle), the name of Professor Cheney was defamed, which subsequently caused him to refuse paternity (in 1897, Jack London sent Cheney several letters in which asked if he was his father or not, but the professor unequivocally denied paternity).
After the birth of the baby, Flora left him for some time in the care of her former slave Virginia Prentiss, who remained an important person for London throughout his life. At the end of the same 1876, Flora married John London, an invalid and veteran of the American Civil War, after which she took the baby back to her. It was then that the boy received the name John London (Jack is a diminutive form of the name John). The London family (John London brought his two daughters into the family, the eldest, Eliza, became true friend and Jack's guardian angel for life) settled in a working-class area of San Francisco, south of Market Street. At this time, the country was gripped by a severe economic crisis that began in 1873, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and wandered from city to city in search of odd jobs. Jack's stepfather made several attempts at farming, which were thwarted by Flora, who was always running around with adventurous plans to get rich quick. Constantly in need, the family moved from place to place until they settled in the city of Oakland, neighboring San Francisco, where London eventually graduated from elementary school.
Jack London early began an independent working life full of hardships. As a schoolboy, he sold morning and evening newspapers, worked part-time at the bowling alley, arranging skittles, and also as a cleaner of beer pavilions in the park. At the end elementary school, at the age of fourteen, he entered the canning factory as a worker. The work was very hard, and he left the factory, in order, in his words, "finally not turn into a working animal." For $300 borrowed from Virginia (Jenny) Prentiss, he bought a used Razzle Dazzle schooner and became an "oyster pirate": illegally fishing oysters in San Francisco Bay and selling them to restaurants. In those years, there was a poaching "oyster flotilla" there. A fifteen-year-old boy has mastered adulthood and even got a girlfriend. Thanks to the brave character of Jack (he soon became the "king of the pirates"), he was lured into the service by a fishing patrol, which was just fighting poachers. This period of Jack London's life is dedicated to "Tales of the Fishing Patrol".
In 1893, he was hired as a sailor on the fishing schooner Sophie Sutherland, setting off to catch seals off the coast of Japan and in the Bering Sea. The first voyage gave London many vivid impressions, which later formed the basis of many of his sea stories and novels (The Sea Wolf, etc.). Returning home seven months later, he worked for a time in a jute factory, as an ironer in a laundry, and as a stoker (the novels Martin Eden and John Barleycorn).
London's first essay, "A Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan", for which he won first prize in a San Francisco newspaper, was published on November 12, 1893, and marked the beginning of his literary career.
In 1894, he took part in the march of the unemployed to Washington (feature "Hold on!"), Was arrested near Niagara Falls for vagrancy, after which he spent a month in prison in Buffalo ("Straightjacket"). While wandering along the roads with an army of vagabonds, London came to the conclusion that physical labor cannot provide a person with a decent existence and only intellectual labor is valued. At this time, he becomes convinced that he should become a writer. During the campaign, for the first time, he thoroughly acquainted himself with socialist ideas (and, in particular, with the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” of Marx and Engels), which made a huge impression on him. In 1895, he joined the Socialist Labor Party of America, since 1900 (some sources indicate 1901) - a member of the Socialist Party of America, from which he left in 1914 (some sources indicate 1916). In a statement about leaving the party, the reason was the loss of faith in its "fighting spirit" (meaning the party's departure from the path of revolutionary transformation of society and its course on a gradual reformist path to socialism). Returning home, Jack enters high school. In the school magazine "Aegis" he publishes his first socialist essays and stories about the times of his wanderings along the roads of the United States. The pace of learning categorically did not suit him, and he decides to leave school and prepare on his own to enter the University of California.
Having successfully passed the entrance exams, Jack London entered the University of California, but after the 3rd semester, due to lack of funds for his studies, he was forced to leave.
In the spring of 1897, Jack London succumbed to the "gold rush" and left for Alaska. At first, Jack and his comrades were lucky - ahead of many other gold diggers, they were able to break through to the headwaters of the Yukon River and stake out a site. But there was no gold on it, and it was not possible to stake out a new one until spring, and, to top it all off, London fell ill with scurvy during the winter. He returned to San Francisco in 1898, having experienced all the charms of the northern winter. Instead of gold, fate endowed Jack London with meetings with the future heroes of his works.
He began to engage in literature more seriously at the age of 23, after returning from Alaska: the first "northern" stories were published in 1899, and already in 1900 his first book was published - a collection of stories "Son of the Wolf". This was followed by the following collections of short stories: "The God of His Fathers" (Chicago, 1901), "Children of the Frost" (New York, 1902), "Faith in Man" (New York, 1904), "Moon Face" (New York , 1906), The Lost Face (New York, 1910), as well as the novels The Daughter of the Snows (1902), The Sea Wolf (1904), Martin Eden (1909), which brought the writer the widest popularity. The writer worked very hard, 15-17 hours a day, and wrote about 40 books in his entire not very long writing life.
The artistic method of London is expressed primarily in the desire to show a person in a difficult life situation, at the turn of fate, realistic descriptions of circumstances are combined with the spirit of romance and adventure (the author himself defined his style as "inspired realism, imbued with faith in a person and his aspirations"). London's works are characterized by a special poetic language, a quick introduction of the reader into the action of his work, the principle of symmetrical narration, characterization of characters through dialogues and thoughts. He considered R. Stevenson and R. Kipling his literary teachers (although London did not agree with the chauvinistic worldview of the latter, admiring only his stylistic merits). G. Spencer, C. Darwin, K. Marx and F. Engels and, to some extent, F. Nietzsche had a huge influence on the writer's life philosophy. Jack London highly appreciated the works of Russian writers, especially M. Gorky (London calls his novel "Foma Gordeev" a "healing book" that "affirms the good").
In 1902 London visited England. A stay in London gave him material for writing the book "People of the Abyss", which was a success in the USA (unlike England). Upon his return to America, he gives lectures in various cities, mostly of a socialist nature, and organizes departments of the “Common Student Society”.
In January 1900, Jack London married the bride of his deceased university friend, Bessie Maddern, who bore him two daughters, Joan and Bess. In the summer of 1903, having fallen in love with Charmian Kittredge, the writer leaves the family and in November 1905 marries her. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. London works as a war correspondent. In 1907, the writer undertakes a round-the-world trip on the Snark ship built according to his own drawings (according to London's plan, the trip was supposed to last 7 years, but was interrupted in 1909 due to the writer's illness). During the journey, rich material was collected for the books The Voyage of the Snark, Tales of the South Seas, and Son of the Sun. By this time, thanks to high fees, London becomes a wealthy person. His fee reached 50 thousand dollars for a book, which was a very large amount. However, the writer himself was constantly short of money.
London's many-sided talent brought him success in writing utopian and science fiction stories. Goliath, Enemy of the World, Scarlet Plague, When the World Was Young and others attract with originality of style, richness of imagination and unexpected moves despite a certain schematicity and incompleteness. Developed intuition and life observations in the country of the "yellow devil" allowed London to foresee and vividly depict the onset of the era of dictators and social upheavals ("Iron Heel" - the formation of an oligarchic dictatorship in the United States), world wars and monstrous inventions that threaten the existence of mankind.
In 1905, the writer purchased a ranch in Glen Ellen (California), which he repeatedly expanded in subsequent years. Fascinated by agriculture, London actively introduced the latest methods of farming on his land, trying to create an "ideal farm", which eventually led him to thousands of debts. To cover his debts, the writer was forced to engage in literary day labor, writing low-quality works for the needs of popular magazines (such, according to the author himself, were Adventure, Smoke Bellew). At some point, writing even began to disgust London. In the spring of 1914, on the instructions of the Colliers magazine, he was sent as a war correspondent to Mexico, where he wrote articles justifying US interference in the internal affairs of other states, which caused an uproar from his party comrades.
In recent years, London experienced a creative crisis, in connection with which he began to abuse alcohol (later he quit). Because of the crisis, the writer was even forced to purchase a plot for a new novel. Such a plot was sold to London by the aspiring American writer Sinclair Lewis. London managed to give the future novel the name "The Murder Bureau", but he managed to write very little, as he soon died.
John Cheney, known worldwide as Jack London, died on November 22, 1916, at the age of 41, in Glen Ellen. In recent years, he suffered from a kidney disease (uremia) and died from poisoning with morphine prescribed to him. The most famous is the version of suicide. A version of deliberate self-poisoning also began to spread in more recent times - suffice it to recall the death of Sigmund Freud. Reasoning about the sources of suicides existed in the writer's head - for example, this can be judged from the plot events of the novel "Martin Eden". London also mentions his thoughts about suicide in his autobiographical story John Barleycorn.
Flora Wellman outlived her great son by six years.
Bibliography
Novels and short stories
| original title | Russian translation |
|---|---|
| A Daughter of the Snows (1902) | Daughter of the Snows |
| The Cruise of the Dazzler (1902) | Journey on the "Dazzling" |
| The Call of the Wild (1903) | call of the ancestors |
| The Kempton-Wace Letters (1903) | Letters from Campton to Wes |
| The Sea-Wolf (1904) | sea wolf |
| The Game (1905) | A game |
| White Fang (1906) | White Fang |
| Before Adam (1907) | Before Adam |
| The Iron Heel (1908) | Iron heel |
| Martin Eden (1909) | Martin Eden |
| Burning Daylight (1910) | Time-does-not-wait |
| Adventure (1911) | Adventure |
| The Scarlet Plague (1912) | scarlet plague |
| The Abysmal Brute (1913) | fierce beast |
| The Valley of the Moon (1913) | moon valley |
| The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1914) | Mutiny on Elsinore |
| The Star Rover (1915) | Interstellar wanderer ( Straitjacket) |
| The Little Lady of the Big House (1916) | Little mistress of a big house |
| Jerry of the Islands (1917) | Jerry the Islander |
| Michael, Brother of Jerry (1917) | Michael, brother Jerry |
| Hearts of Three (1920) | Hearts of three |
stories
Jack London has written over 200 short stories in 16 collections:
| original title | Russian translation |
|---|---|
| Son of the Wolf (1900) | Son of the Wolf |
| The God of His Fathers (1901) | God of his fathers |
| Children of the Frost (1902) | Children of frost |
| The Faith of Men (1904) | male fidelity |
| Moon face (1906) | moonface |
| Love of Life (1907) | Love of life |
| Tales of the Fish Patrol (1906) | Fishing Patrol Tales |
| Lost Face (1910) | Lost face |
| South Sea Tales (1911) | South Sea Tales |
| When God Laughs (1911) | When the gods laugh |
| The House of Pride (1912) | temple of pride |
| Smoke Bellew (1912) | Smoke Bellew |
| A Son of the Sun (1912) | Son of the Sun |
| The Night Born (1913) | born in the night |
| The Strength of the Strong (1914) | The strength of the strong |
| The Turtles of Tasman (1916) | Tasmanian turtles |
| Published posthumously | |
| The Red One (1918) | red deity |
| On the Makaloa Mat (1919) | On a Macaloa mat |
| Dutch Courage (1922) | Dutch prowess (For courage) |
stories:
- "Aloha Oe" (1908)
- Atu them, atu! (1908)
- white silence ( The White Silence, 1899)
- Shameless
- The Sickness of the Lone Chief (1902)
- Tramp and fairy
- brown wolf
- "Bulls"
- In the Wilds of the North (1901)
- great riddle
- Great magician (1901)
- faith in man
- hyperborean drink
- The rot has started in Idaho (article, 1906)
- John Barleycorn
- Mapui House (1908)
- Road ( The Road, 1907)
- Daughter of the Northern Lights
- Devils on Fuatino
- Pearls of Parley
- King's wife
- Women's contempt
- For those who are on the way!
- Law of Life (1900)
- The Call of the Wild (novel, 1903)
- gold mine
- Golden Canyon (1905)
- golden poppy
- sperm whale tooth
- History of Jis-Uk
- Like the Argonauts of old
- How I Became a Socialist How I became a socialist)
- Images
- Kish, son of Kish Keesh, the Son of Keesh, 1901)
- When the gods laugh
- end of fairy tale
- Bonfire
- Koolau the leper ( Koolau the Leper, 1919)
- Piece of meat
- League of Old Men The League of the Old Men, 1902)
- amateur evening
- Love of life ( love of life, 1905)
- Small bill to Swithin Hall
- Mauki
- Mexican ( The Mexican, 1911)
- local color
- Tagged
- Wisdom of the Snow Trail
- The courage of a woman
- On the banks of Sacramento
- Night on Goboto ( A Goboto Night, 1911)
- In a distant land
- On Fortieth Mile
- On a Macaloa mat
- Nam-bok is a liar
- unexpected
- Indomitable White Man (1908)
- About myself
- One day stay
- Renegade ( The Apostate, 1906)
- Feathers of the Sun
- primeval poet
- By right of the priest
- Under a sail awning
- Benefits of Doubt
- Descendant of McCoy (1909)
- Surf Kanaka
- Confession
- Adventure in the air ocean
- Farewell, Jack! (1909)
- born in the night
- Northern Odyssey
- Light-Skinned Lee Wang (1901)
- The strength of the strong
- The legend of Kish
- Straitjacket
- Smoke Bellew
- Smoke and Baby
- Scary Solomons (1908)
- "Catched" ( "Pinched", 1907)
- Son of the Wolf The Son of the Wolf)
- Where the paths diverge
- The path of false suns ( The Sun Dog Trail, 1910)
- a thousand dozen
- kill a man
- temple of pride
- The man with the scar
- Through the rapids to the Klondike
- What does life mean to me
- Chun Ah-chun
- Sheriff of Kona
- Porportuk joke ( The Wit of Porportuk, 1910)
- New Gibbon Jokers
- Pagan (1908)
Other works
- The Road (1907) - The Road (autobiographical sketch)
- John Barleycorn (1913) - John Barleycorn (autobiographical sketch)
- The People of the Abyss (1903) - People from the Abyss (essay)
- Revolution, and other Essays (1910) - Revolution (essay)
- The Cruise of the Snark (1911) - Voyage on the Snark (essay)
- The Theft (1910) - Theft (play)
Translations into Russian
Collected works
- Jack London. Collected works in 7 volumes + additional volume. - M.: State publishing house fiction, 1954-1957.
- Jack London. Collected works in 14 volumes. - M .: "Pravda", 1961. - (Library "Spark").
- Jack London. Collected works in 13 volumes. - M .: "Pravda", 1976. - (Library "Spark").
- Jack London. Collected Works in 8 volumes. - M .: "Fatherland", "Polygran", 1993-1995.
- Jack London. Collected works in 16 volumes. - Kharkov: "Folio", 1994.
- Jack London. Collected works in 20 volumes. - M.: "Terra", 1998-1999.
- Jack London. Collected works in 13 volumes. - Kharkov-Belgorod: "Book Club", 2009.
Screen adaptations
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Films based on the works of London were staged repeatedly. There are more than a hundred film adaptations of the works of Jack London. The writer himself once played the episodic role of a sailor in the first film adaptation of his novel The Sea Wolf (1913).