Jack London was a short-story writer hailing from America, who was also a social activist and journalist
@Author, Life Achievements and Facts
Jack London was a short-story writer hailing from America, who was also a social activist and journalist
Jack London born at
On 7th April 1900, he married Bessie May Maddern and the couple was blessed with two children named Joan and Bessie’. However, the couple separated four years later.
In 1905, Jack got married for the second time to Charmian Kittredge and the couple went on various voyages.
This prolific writer breathed his last on 22nd November 1916, in his ranch in California. There are many speculations about his death but the cause of his death is still not determined.
He was born on 12th January, 1876 at San Francisco, California, and apparently, was an illegitimate child of Flora Wellman and William Chaney. His mother married a person named John London and, probably, after that he took up the surname of his step-father. His family first moved to Bay Area and then shifted to Oakland.
He received his elementary schooling from ‘West End School’ in Alameda, California and in 1887, joined the ‘Oakland Cole Grammar School’ situated in West Oakland, California. However, he dropped out of school after completing eighth grade.
When he was around fourteen years old he got employed at a cannery and soon after, bought a sloop named ‘Razzle Dazzle’, thus beginning his adventurous voyages.
In 1892, he joined the ‘California Fish Patrol’ department of the ‘California Natural Resources Agency’ and the following year; he was sent to the coast of Japan on a seal hunting schooner called ‘Sophie Sutherland’. His story ‘Typhoon of the Coast of Japan’ is based on this journey.
In 1893, the United States was hit by a severe economic depression. The following year, he became a member of the ‘Kelly Army’ (Coxey Army) and joined the march of the unemployed people led by the Jacob Coxey. He led a life of a vagabond and was even imprisoned for this for a short span, and sent to Erie County, New York.
He had amassed a lot of experience during his life as a vagabond and all these experiences formed the basis of his book ‘The Road’.
He enrolled at the ‘Oakland High School’ and in 1896, joined the ‘University of California’, Berkeley with a desire to pursue a literary career. However financial constraints forced the aspiring writer to drop out of the institution a year later.
This author has written many significant stories and one amongst those is his book entitled ‘The Call of the Wild’ that tells the story of a dog named Buck and narrates all the hardships it faces in its life. It revolves around the canine’s story of how it establishes its identity as a sled dog braving the harsh cold environment.
The story shows the dog’s faithfulness towards its master and once that bond is broken, it follows its call of the wild. London thought of penning a short story but finally ended up writing a book about this dog.