Jack London: A Biography as a Search for the Ideal

Romance of the images created by Jack's talentLondon, the stubbornness of his heroes, striving to achieve this goal, in spite of all obstacles, the extraordinary environment that he places his characters magically acts on the reader, discovering for himself, especially if this is the first time, his best works.

Childhood

The child was born to a very fussy woman in1876 ​​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 to work forcanning factory. He was in the shop for eighteen and twenty hours in a row. Such a hard school of life Jack London (biography shows it) passed in adolescence. Later he will describe it in Martin Eden.

Romance of the sea

Port of San Francisco, along with the 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, squash, 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 about 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, biography tells this, fistfightswins 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 many 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 were likedfamily, 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"

At the age of eighteen, unemployed Jack joinedmany thousands of the same unemployed and went to Washington. It was the so-called "army of Kelly", 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, enters the "Socialist Labor Party of America".

He, at last, realizes that only as a writer he can stand on his own and give an analysis of current events and everything already 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 prospectors 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 journey to the bitter, which he, of course, does not know.

Writer

Seriously Jack London began to write (the norm was1000 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 his wife, a very ordinary woman, refused to understand his "red" views, and Jack London divorced her, although in this marriage he has two daughters. In the midst of the Russo-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. An article entitled "Yellow Danger" was written. He did not see the US desire to redivide the world by weakening Russia. The rebel writer has married a woman who has become for him both a wife and a friend. For two years they go on a trip on a yacht. 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, build a house,who wanted to call the "House of the Wolf" - his lair, where he would be comfortable 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, apparently prosperous, broughthe has more and more fame and money. But he was tormented by a disease brought from the tropics, seizures 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.