Jack London: A Biography as an Ideal Search

The romance of the images created by Jack London's talent, the stubbornness of his heroes who are striving to achieve this goal, despite all the obstacles, the extraordinary environment that he places his characters magically acts on the reader, especially if this happens for the first time, his best works.

Childhood

The child was born to a very fussy woman in 1876 with San Francisco out of wedlock. A native father, an Irishman, an eccentric astrologer, abandoned the child. Eight months later, the mother marries a man who gave the adopted son and the name John (Jack is a diminutive name from John) Griffith London, and a real fatherly concern. And Jack, in turn, became a loving and caring son to the one who brought him up. The family lived in a suburb of a big city, in Oakland, and lived all the worse and worse. Having risen at three o'clock in the morning and spreading the morning papers, the ten-year-old boy then fled to school, and then carried the evening papers. When he was a little older, he began working at a canning factory. He was in the shop for eighteen and twenty hours in a row. Such a hard school of life Jack London (the biography shows it) passed in adolescence. Later he will describe it in Martin Eden.

Romance of the sea

The port of San Francisco, along with ships arriving from different countries, turned the head of a teenager. He was taken to "oyster pirates." After stuffy dark shops, this life seemed very attractive to young Jack. Freedom, fights, zucchini, whiskey - all this entourage fell in love with Jack London. Biography could end tragically: easily and quickly he could sleep. But Jack went on to serve in the marine patrol, which fought against pirates, and changed the way of life. Later the book "Stories of a fishing patrol" will be published. But he dreams of the expanse of adventure all over the world, and therefore at the age of 17 he is hired for a schooner going to the Bering Sea for seals. Jack London, The biography of this tells, fists fights conquer a place and respect for the schooner among the young Scandinavian sailors. He managed to prove to the crew that he was a real "sea wolf". This voyage did not harden and did not coarsen it, but it gave a lot of new impressions. They will later form the basis of his marine works, which are read in one breath. They will bring him love and fame all over the world. Jack London, this biography shows, passed the courage test. When he returned, his stories pleased the family, and so Jack wrote on the edge of the kitchen table an essay "Typhoon off the coast of Japan", which was printed. Thus was born the American writer Jack London, whose biography will not be very easy, from poverty to a man who has money, from socialism and Marxism, with which he was attracted, to their complete opposite.

Essays "Hold on!" And "Road"

Unemployed Jack joined the crowd of many thousands of unemployed at the age of eighteen and went to Washington. It was the so-called "Kelly army," which gradually lost participants along the way, so Kelly himself had a poor idea of the purpose of the campaign. Here, Jack London gets acquainted with Marxism, with the ideas of socialism, with all the ardor of the adept joins the "Socialist Labor Party of America." He finally realizes that only as a writer he can stand on his own and give an analysis of the events and everything that has already been seen for his short life. Jack London, Whose brief biography describes this, feels the ability and power to write. But he lacks education.

Golden fever

To study there is no money. To earn them, he goes to Alaska. So the Klondike epic of Jack London began. She brought him not money, but impressions, which he later expressed in the collections of stories "Son of the Wolf", "Moon Face". In them and many others he will describe the real life of gold seekers without embellishment, all on the fractures of fate, but color the spirit of romance and faith in man. Only forty years have been granted to a writer named Jack London, a brief biography, a very brief, bitterly short life, to the bitterness, which he, of course, does not know.

Writer

Seriously Jack London began to write (the norm was 1000 words a day, five sheets on a typewriter), beginning from the beginning of the 20th century. He wrote collections of short stories, novels, which brought him popularity, and fame, and money. Years of relative prosperity have come. He was sent to England for the coronation of Edward VII. And he became interested in the situation of workers in England and wrote "People of the Abyss", as he was a person who was not indifferent and politicized. But the wife, quite an ordinary woman, refused to understand his "red" views, and Jack London divorced her, although in this marriage he has two daughters. At the height of the Russian-Japanese war, he sent a correspondent to the Far East and brings out the hardest feelings from there. In Japanese imperialism, he saw a formidable danger for the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. The article "Yellow Danger" was written. He did not see the US desire to redivide the world by weakening Russia. The rebel-writer married a woman who became for him both a wife and a friend. For two years they go on a yacht trip. This is the most fruitful period of creativity of Jack London. Here the "Iron Heel" and "Martin Eden" are finished. Returning from the journey, London saw himself as a famous writer.

A sharp turn

He decided to settle in California, to build a house that he wanted to call the "House of the Wolf" - his lair, where it would be convenient for him to spend the remaining years. The house under construction turned into a palace, on which were the most expensive and rare materials. But before the new home the incarnate dream was set on fire. He was simply shocked. But I stayed to live next door in a small modest house. The last years, outwardly prosperous, brought him more and more fame and money. But he was tormented by a disease brought from the tropics, bouts of alcoholism and strongly disturbed the liver. So much that he was forced to take drugs. He died at the age of 40 from their overdose.

Expected or unexpected final, but this is the biography. Jack London briefly predicted it in "Martin Eden," although, of course, he can not be fully identified with this hero. In all his photographs he looks like a sunny person until the very last days.