View source for Jack London

{{short description|American author, journalist and social activist (1876–1916)}}
{{Other people}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Jack London
| image            = Jack London young.jpg
| caption          = London in 1903
| nickname         = {{cslist|Frisco Kid|Sailor Kid|Sailor Jack|oxford=true}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Phillips |first1=Susan A. |author-link1=Susan A. Phillips |title=Following the Moniker Trail: Hobo Graffiti and the Strange Tale of Jack London, Skysail, and A-No. 1 |url=https://boomcalifornia.org/2019/10/17/following-the-moniker-trail-hobo-graffiti-and-the-strange-tale-of-jack-london-skysail-and-a-no-1/ |website=Boom California |date=17 October 2019}}</ref>
| birth_name       = John Griffith Chaney
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1876|1|12}}
| birth_place      =[[San Francisco, California]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1916|11|22|1876|1|12}}
| death_place      = [[Glen Ellen, California]], U.S.
| occupation       = {{flatlist|
* Novelist
* journalist
* short story writer
* essayist
}}
| notableworks     = ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' (1903)<br> ''[[The Sea-Wolf]]'' (1904)<br>''[[White Fang]]'' (1906)<br>''[[The Iron Heel]]'' (1908)<br>''[[Martin Eden]]'' (1909)
| movement         = [[American Realism]], [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]]
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Elizabeth Maddern|April 7, 1900|November 11, 1904|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Charmian London|Charmian Kittredge]]|1905}}
}}
| signature        = Jack London Signature.svg
| children         = [[Joan London (American writer)|Joan London]]<br />Becky London
}}

'''John Griffith London''' ({{né|'''Chaney'''}};{{sfn|Reesman|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fbrV_fwgcq4C&pg=PA23 23]}} January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as '''Jack London''',<ref>"[http://www.library.eb.com/eb/article-9048828 London, Jack]". ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Library Edition. Retrieved October 5, 2011.</ref><ref>''[http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Dictionary of American Biography Base Set]''. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006.</ref>{{sfn|London|1939|p=12}}{{sfn|New York Times November 23, 1916}} was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haley |first=James |title=Wolf: The Lives of Jack London |date=2011 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0465025039 |pages=12–14}}</ref><ref>(1910) "Specialty of Short-story Writing," The Writer, XXII, January–December 1910, p. 9: "There are eight American writers who can get $1000 for a short story—[[Robert W. Chambers]], [[Richard Harding Davis]], Jack London, [[O. Henry]], [[Booth Tarkington]], [[John Fox, Jr.]], [[Owen Wister]], and [[Frances Hodgson Burnett|Mrs. Burnett]]." $1,000 in 1910&nbsp;dollars is roughly equivalent to ${{Formatnum:{{Inflation|US|1000|1910|r=-3}}}} today</ref> He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as [[science fiction]].

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in [[San Francisco]] and a passionate advocate of [[animal welfare]], [[Labor rights|workers' rights]] and [[socialism]].<ref name="Swift2002">Swift, John N. "Jack London's 'The Unparalleled Invasion': Germ Warfare, Eugenics, and Cultural Hygiene." American Literary Realism, vol. 35, no. 1, 2002, pp. 59–71. {{JSTOR|27747084}}.</ref><ref name="Hensely2002">Hensley, John R. "Eugenics and Social Darwinism in Stanley Waterloo's 'The Story of Ab' and Jack London's 'Before Adam.'" Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 25, no. 1, 2002, pp. 23–37. {{JSTOR|23415006}}.</ref> London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his [[utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian novel]] ''[[The Iron Heel]]'', his non-fiction [[exposé (journalism)|exposé]] ''[[The People of the Abyss]]'', ''War of the Classes'', and ''[[Before Adam]]''.

His most famous works include ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' and ''[[White Fang]]'', both set in [[Alaska]] and the [[Yukon]] during the [[Klondike Gold Rush]], as well as the short stories "[[To Build a Fire]]", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the [[Polynesia|South Pacific]] in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "[[The Heathen]]".

== Family ==
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Jack London was born January 12, 1876.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/01/12/UPI-Almanac-for-Tuesday-Jan-12-2021/5231610417906/|title= UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021|work= [[United Press International]] | date= January 12, 2021|accessdate=February 27, 2021 | archive-date= January 29, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210129023331/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/01/12/UPI-Almanac-for-Tuesday-Jan-12-2021/5231610417906/|url-status=live|quote = ...novelist Jack London in 1876...}}</ref> His mother, Flora Wellman, was the fifth and youngest child of [[Pennsylvania Canal]] builder Marshall Wellman and his first wife, Eleanor Garrett Jones.  Marshall Wellman was descended from [[Thomas Wellman]], an early [[Puritan]] settler in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]].<ref name="Wellman1918">Wellman, Joshua Wyman ''Descendants of Thomas Wellman'' (1918) Arthur Holbrook Wellman, Boston, p. 227</ref> Flora left [[Massillon, Ohio]] and moved to the Pacific coast when her father remarried after her mother died. In San Francisco, Flora worked as a music teacher and [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]].<ref name="london">{{cite web |url=http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/BookJackLondon/Volume1/chapter1.html |title=The Book of Jack London |publisher=The World of Jack London |access-date=April 7, 2011 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511125518/http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/BookJackLondon/Volume1/chapter1.html |archive-date=May 11, 2011 }}</ref>

The biographer Clarice Stasz and others believe London's father was [[astrologer]] William Chaney.<ref>{{harvnb|Stasz|2001|p=14}}: "What supports Flora's naming Chaney as the father of her son are, first, the indisputable fact of their cohabiting at the time of his conception, and second, the absence of any suggestion on the part of her associates that another man could have been responsible... [but] unless [[DNA]] evidence is introduced, whether or not William Chaney was the biological father of Jack London cannot be decided.... Chaney would, however, be considered by her son and his children as their ancestor."</ref> Flora Wellman was living with Chaney in San Francisco when she became pregnant. Whether Wellman and Chaney were legally married is unknown. Stasz notes that in his memoirs, Chaney refers to London's mother Flora Wellman as having been "his wife"; he also cites an advertisement in which Flora called herself "Florence Wellman Chaney".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.booktable.net/book/9781500900946|title=Before Adam (Paperback) {{!}} The Book Table|website=www.booktable.net|language=en|access-date=February 12, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

According to Flora Wellman's account, as recorded in the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' of June 4, 1875, Chaney demanded that she have an abortion. When she refused, he disclaimed responsibility for the child. In desperation, she shot herself. She was not seriously wounded, but she was temporarily deranged. After giving birth, Flora sent the baby for [[wet nurse|wet-nursing]] to [[Virginia Prentiss|Virginia (Jennie) Prentiss]], a neighbor and former slave. Prentiss was an important maternal figure throughout London's life, and he would later refer to her as his primary source of love and affection as a child.<ref name=":0" />

Late in 1876, Flora Wellman married John London, a partially disabled [[American Civil War|Civil War]] veteran, and brought her baby John, later known as Jack, to live with the newly married couple. The family moved around the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] before settling in [[Oakland]],<ref name="Niekerken">{{Cite news |last=Niekerken |first=Bill Van |title=Jack London Square's early days: A saloon, a local sports hero and a floating restaurant |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/Jack-London-Square-s-early-days-A-saloon-a-14993216.php |access-date=2024-01-15 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en}}</ref> where London completed public grade school. The Prentiss family moved with the Londons, and remained a stable source of care for the young Jack.<ref name=":0" />

In 1897, when he was 21 and a student at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], London searched for and read the newspaper accounts of his mother's suicide attempt and the name of his biological father. He wrote to William Chaney, then living in Chicago. Chaney responded that he could not be London's father because he was impotent; he casually asserted that London's mother had relations with other men and averred that she had slandered him when she said he insisted on an abortion.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|pp=52–53}} London was devastated by his father's letter; in the months following, he quit school at Berkeley and went to the [[Klondike Gold Rush|Klondike]] during the gold rush boom.

== Early life ==
[[File:Jack London age 9 - crop.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|London at the age of nine with his dog Rollo, 1885]]

London was born near Third and Brannan Streets in San Francisco. The house burned down in the fire after the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]]; the [[California Historical Society]] placed a plaque at the site in 1953. Although the family was working class, it was not as impoverished as London's later accounts claimed.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} London was largely self-educated.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}
In 1885, London found and read [[Ouida]]'s long [[Victorian era|Victorian]] novel ''Signa''.<ref name="archive.org">{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/signastory01ouid |title=Signa. A story |last=Ouida |date=July 26, 1875 |publisher=London : Chapman & Hall |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/signastory02ouid |title=Signa. A story |last=Ouida |date=July 26, 1875 |publisher=London : Chapman & Hall |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He credited this as the seed of his literary success.<ref>London, Jack (1917) "Eight Factors of Literary Success", in ''Labor'' (1994), p. 512. "In answer to your question as to the greatest factors of my literary success, I will state that I consider them to be: Vast good luck. Good health; good brain; good mental and muscular correlation. Poverty. Reading Ouida's ''Signa'' at eight years of age. The influence of [[Herbert Spencer]]'s ''Philosophy of Style.'' Because I got started twenty years before the fellows who are trying to start today."</ref> In 1886, he went to the [[Oakland Public Library]] and found a sympathetic librarian, [[Ina Coolbrith]], who encouraged his learning. (She later became California's first ''[[poet laureate]]'' and an important figure in the San Francisco literary community).<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.sonomanews.com/lifestyle/6003083-181/jack-londons-inspirational-librarian-remembered |title=State's first poet laureate remembered at Jack London |date=August 22, 2016 |work=Sonoma Index Tribune |access-date=February 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203005853/http://www.sonomanews.com/lifestyle/6003083-181/jack-londons-inspirational-librarian-remembered |archive-date=February 3, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1889, London began working 12 to 18&nbsp;hours a day at Hickmott's Cannery. Seeking a way out, he borrowed money from his foster mother [[Virginia Prentiss]], bought the [[sloop]] ''Razzle-Dazzle'' from an [[oyster pirate]] named French Frank, and became an oyster pirate himself. In his memoir, ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]]'', he claims also to have stolen French Frank's mistress Mamie.<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=318|name=John Barleycorn|author=Jack London}} Chapters VII, VIII describe his stealing of Mamie, the "Queen of the Oyster Pirates": "The Queen asked me to row her ashore in my skiff...Nor did I understand Spider's grinning side-remark to me: "Gee! There's nothin' slow about YOU." How could it possibly enter my boy's head that a grizzled man of fifty should be jealous of me?" "And how was I to guess that the story of how the Queen had thrown him down on his own boat, the moment I hove in sight, was already the gleeful gossip of the water-front?</ref>{{sfn|London|1939|p=41}}<ref>{{harvnb|Kingman|1979|p=37}}: "It was said on the waterfront that Jack had taken on a mistress... Evidently Jack believed the myth himself at times... Jack met Mamie aboard the Razzle-Dazzle when he first approached French Frank about its purchase. Mamie was aboard on a visit with her sister Tess and her chaperone, Miss Hadley. It hardly seems likely that someone who required a chaperone on Saturday would move aboard as mistress on Monday."</ref> After a few months, his sloop became damaged beyond repair. London hired on as a member of the [[California Department of Fish and Wildlife|California Fish Patrol]].

In 1893, he signed on to the [[Seal hunting|sealing]] [[schooner]] ''Sophie Sutherland'', bound for the coast of Japan. When he returned, the country was in the grip of the [[panic of 1893|panic of '93]] and [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] was swept by labor unrest. After grueling jobs in a [[jute mill]] and a street-railway power plant, London joined [[Coxey's Army]] and began his career as a [[tramp]]. In 1894, he spent 30&nbsp;days for vagrancy in the [[Erie County, New York|Erie County]] Penitentiary at [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], New York. In ''[[The Road (London book)|The Road]]'', he wrote:

{{blockquote |text=Man-handling was merely one of the very minor unprintable horrors of the Erie County Pen. I say 'unprintable'; and in justice I must also say undescribable. They were unthinkable to me until I saw them, and I was no spring chicken in the ways of the world and the awful abysses of human degradation. It would take a deep plummet to reach bottom in the Erie County Pen, and I do but skim lightly and facetiously the surface of things as I there saw them. |sign=Jack London |source=''The Road'' }}

After many experiences as a hobo and a sailor, he returned to Oakland and attended [[Oakland High School (California)|Oakland High School]]. He contributed a number of articles to the high school's magazine, ''The Aegis''. His first published work was "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan", an account of his sailing experiences.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=JackLondons.net |title=The First Story Written for Publication |author=Charmian K. London |location=Sonoma County, California |date=August 1, 1922 |url=http://www.jacklondons.net/first_jack_london_story.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006071440/http://www.jacklondons.net/first_jack_london_story.html |archive-date=October 6, 2013 }}</ref>

[[File:Jack London Studying.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|Jack London studying at Heinold's First and Last Chance in 1886]]
As a schoolboy, London often studied at [[Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon]], a port-side bar in Oakland. At 17, he confessed to the bar's owner, John Heinold, his desire to attend university and pursue a career as a writer. Heinold lent London tuition money to attend college.

London desperately wanted to attend the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]], located in Berkeley. In 1896, after a summer of intense studying to pass certification exams, he was admitted. Financial circumstances forced him to leave in 1897, and he never graduated. No evidence has surfaced that he ever wrote for student publications while studying at Berkeley.{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=67}}

[[File:Heinold’s First and Last Chance 2007.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Heinold's First and Last Chance, "Jack London's Rendezvous"]]

While at Berkeley, London continued to study and spend time at Heinold's saloon, where he was introduced to the sailors and adventurers who would influence his writing. In his autobiographical novel, ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]],'' London mentioned the pub's likeness seventeen times. Heinold's was the place where London met Alexander McLean, a captain known for his cruelty at sea.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacGillivray |first=Don |url=http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/MACCAP.html |title=Captain Alex MacLean |publisher=University of Washington Press |date=2009 |access-date=October 6, 2011 |isbn=978-0774814713}}</ref> London based his protagonist Wolf Larsen, in the novel ''[[The Sea-Wolf]],'' on McLean.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacGillivray |first=Don |url=http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2008/CaptainAlexMacLean.pdf |title=Captain Alex MacLean |year= 2008 |publisher=UBC Press |access-date=October 6, 2011 |isbn=978-0774814713 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515042050/http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2008/CaptainAlexMacLean.pdf |archive-date=May 15, 2011 }}</ref>

Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon is now unofficially named Jack London's Rendezvous in his honor.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/07/26/the-legends-of-oaklands-oldest-bar/ |title=The legends of Oakland's oldest bar, Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon |work=Oakland North|access-date=February 2, 2018 }}</ref>

== Gold rush and first success ==
[[File:Miners climb Chilkoot.jpg|thumb|Miners and prospectors ascend the Chilkoot Trail during the [[Klondike Gold Rush]].]]

On July 12, 1897, London (age 21) and his sister's husband Captain Shepard sailed to join the [[Klondike Gold Rush]]. This was the setting for some of his first successful stories. London's time in the harsh [[Klondike, Yukon|Klondike]], however, was detrimental to his health. Like so many other men who were malnourished in the goldfields, London developed [[scurvy]]. His gums became swollen, leading to the loss of his four front teeth. A constant gnawing pain affected his hip and leg muscles, and his face was stricken with marks that always reminded him of the struggles he faced in the Klondike. [[Father William Judge]], "The Saint of [[Dawson City, Yukon|Dawson]]", had a facility in Dawson that provided shelter, food and any available medicine to London and others. His struggles there inspired London's short story, "[[To Build a Fire]]" (1902, revised in 1908),{{efn-ua|name="To Build a Fire"| The 1908 version of "To Build a Fire" is available on [[Wikisource]] in two places: "[[s:Century Magazine/Volume 76/Issue 4/To Build a Fire|To Build a Fire]]" (Century Magazine) and "[[s:Lost Face/To Build a Fire|To Build a Fire]]" (in ''[[Lost Face]]'' – 1910).  The 1902 version may be found at the following external link: [http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Uncollected/tobuildafire.html To Build a Fire] ([[Sonoma State University#Recent and future expansion|The Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, Sonoma State University]]) ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228155008/http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Uncollected/tobuildafire.html |date=December 28, 2019 }}).}} which many critics assess as his best.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

His landlords in Dawson were mining engineers [[Marshall Latham Bond]] and Louis Whitford Bond, educated at the Bachelor's level at the [[Sheffield Scientific School]] at [[Yale]] and at the Master's level at [[Stanford]], respectively. The brothers' father, [[Judge Hiram Bond]], was a wealthy mining investor. While the Bond brothers were at Stanford, Hiram at the suggestion of his brother bought the New Park Estate at Santa Clara as well as a local bank. The Bonds, especially Hiram, were active [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]]. Marshall Bond's diary mentions friendly sparring with London on political issues as a camp pastime.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

London left Oakland with a [[social conscience]] and socialist leanings; he returned to become an activist for [[socialism]]. He concluded that his only hope of escaping the work "trap" was to get an education and "sell his brains". He saw his writing as a business, his ticket out of poverty and, he hoped, as a means of beating the wealthy at their own game.

On returning to California in 1898, London began working to get published, a struggle described in his novel ''[[Martin Eden]]'' (serialized in 1908, published in 1909). His first published story since high school was "To the Man On Trail", which has frequently been collected in anthologies.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} When ''[[The Overland Monthly]]'' offered him only five dollars for it—and was slow paying—London came close to abandoning his writing career. In his words, "literally and literarily I was saved" when ''[[The Black Cat (US magazine)|The Black Cat]]'' accepted his story "A Thousand Deaths" and paid him $40—the "first money I ever received for a story".{{citation needed|date=April 2012}}

London began his writing career just as new printing technologies enabled lower-cost production of magazines. This resulted in a boom in popular magazines aimed at a wide public audience and a strong market for short fiction.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} In 1900, he made $2,500 in writing, about ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|2500|1900|r=-3}}}} in today's currency.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}
Among the works he sold to magazines was a short story known as either "Diable" (1902) or "Bâtard" (1904), two editions of the same basic story. London received $141.25 for this story on May 27, 1902.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jacklondons.net/Fiction_of_jack_london/page8.html |website=JackLondons.net |access-date=August 29, 2013 |title=Footnote 55 to "Bâtard" |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612221236/http://www.jacklondons.net/Fiction_of_jack_london/page8.html |archive-date=June 12, 2011 }} First published as "Diable – A Dog".  ''The Cosmopolitan'', v. 33 (June 1902), pp. 218–26. [FM]
This tale was titled "Bâtard" in 1904 when included in FM. The same story, with minor changes, was also called "Bâtard" when it appeared in the ''Sunday Illustrated Magazine'' of the ''Commercial Appeal'' (Memphis, Tenn.), September 28, 1913, pp. 7–11. London received $141.25 for this story on May 27, 1902.</ref> In the text, a cruel [[French Canadian]] brutalizes his dog, and the dog retaliates and kills the man. London told some of his critics that man's actions are the main cause of the behavior of their animals, and he would show this famously in another story, ''[[The Call of the Wild]]''.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/19/100-best-novels-call-of-the-wild-jack-london "The 100 best novels: No 35 – The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)"] Retrieved July 22, 2015</ref>

[[File:Mary Austin, Jack London, George Sterling, Jimmie Hooper, restored.jpg|thumb|[[George Sterling]], [[Mary Hunter Austin|Mary Austin]], Jack London, and [[James Hopper (writer)|Jimmie Hopper]] on the beach at [[Carmel, California|Carmel]], California]]

In early 1903, London sold ''The Call of the Wild'' to ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' for $750 and the book rights to [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]].  Macmillan's promotional campaign propelled it to swift success.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080421154451/http://www.jacklondons.net/call.html "Best Dog Story Ever Written: Call of the Wild"]}}, excerpted from {{harvnb|Kingman|1979|p=}}</ref>

While living at his rented villa on [[Lake Merritt]] in Oakland, California, London met poet [[George Sterling]]; in time they became best friends. In 1902, Sterling helped London find a home closer to his own in nearby [[Piedmont, California|Piedmont]]. In his letters London addressed Sterling as "Greek", owing to Sterling's [[aquiline nose]] and classical profile, and he signed them as "Wolf". London was later to depict Sterling as Russ Brissenden in his autobiographical novel ''Martin Eden'' (1910) and as Mark Hall in ''[[The Valley of the Moon (novel)|The Valley of the Moon]]'' (1913).{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

In later life London indulged his wide-ranging interests by accumulating a personal library of 15,000 volumes. He referred to his books as "the tools of my trade".<ref>Hamilton (1986) (as cited by other sources)</ref>

== ''The Crowd'' (literary group) ==
''The Crowd'' gathered at the restaurants (including Coppa's<ref name="sfchronicle/10609139">
* {{cite news |last1=Kamiya |first1=Gary |title=SF's first hipster cafe and its descent into ruin |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-s-first-hipster-cafe-and-its-descent-into-10609139.php |access-date=4 September 2023 |work=sfchronicle.com |date=November 12, 2016}}
* {{cite book |last1=Unna |first1=Warren |title=The Coppa Murals: A Pageant of Bohemian Life in San Francisco at the Turn of the Century |date=1952 |publisher=Book Club of California |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AffEGAAACAAJ |access-date=4 September 2023 |language=en}}
* {{cite web |title=Provincial Italian Cuisines: San Francisco Conserves Italian Heritage |url=https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Provincial_Italian_Cuisines:_San_Francisco_Conserves_Italian_Heritage |website=foundsf.org - FoundSF |access-date=4 September 2023}}</ref>) at the old [[Montgomery Block]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Coppa's famous walls |url=https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2015/10/29/coppas-famous-walls/ |website=Restaurant-ing through history |access-date=4 September 2023 |language=en |date=29 October 2015}}</ref><ref name="Boylan/Revolutionary-Lives-Ch1">{{cite book |last1=Boylan |first1=James R. |title=Revolutionary Lives: Anna Strunsky and William English Walling |date=1998 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=1-55849-164-3 |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/boylan-revolutionary.html |language=en |chapter=CHAPTER ONE "Miss Annie"}}</ref> and later was a:
<blockquote>Bohemian group that often spent its Sunday afternoons picnicking, reading each other's latest compositions, gossiping about each other's infidelities and frolicking beneath the cherry boughs in the hills of [[Piedmont, California|Piedmont]]

– Alex Kershaw, historian<ref name="paintingpiedmont/crowd">{{cite web |title=The Crowd |url=https://www.paintingpiedmont.com/crowd |website=Painting Piedmont |access-date=4 September 2023 |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

Formed after 1898, they met at [[Xavier Martinez]]'s home on Sundays, and at Jack London's home on Wednesdays. The group usually included [[George Sterling]] (poet) and his wife Caroline "Carrie" E. (née Rand) Sterling, [[Anna Strunsky]],<ref>Pratt, Norma Fain  [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/walling-anna-strunsky "Anna Strunsky Walling, 1879–1964."], in ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia''. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. July 4, 2010.</ref> [[Herman Whitaker]], [[Ambrose Bierce]], Richard Partington and his wife Blanche, Joseph Noel (dramatist, novelist and journalist),<ref name="archives.nypl/21404">{{cite web |title=Joseph Noel papers |url=https://archives.nypl.org/the/21404 |website=archives.nypl.org |access-date=4 September 2023}}</ref><ref name="nytimes/1946/08/08/joseph-noel-65">{{cite news |title=JOSEPH NOEL, 65, ONCE PLAYWRIGHT; Ex-Newspaper Man and Author Dies—Wrote Book About Jack London and Ambrose Bierce |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1946/08/08/archives/joseph-noel-65-once-playwright-exnewspaper-man-and-author-dieswrote.html |access-date=4 September 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=8 August 1946}}</ref> [[Joaquin Miller]], [[Arnold Genthe]] and the hosts, Jack London and his wife, Bessie Maddern London, and Xavier Martinez and his wife, [[Elsie Whitaker Martinez]].

== First marriage (1900–1904) ==
[[File:Jack London with daughters Bess (left) and Joan (right).jpg|thumb|left|Jack with daughters Becky (left) and Joan (right)]]
[[File:Bessie Maddern London and daughters.jpg|thumb|left|Bessie Maddern London and daughters, Joan and Becky]]

London married Elizabeth Mae (or May) "Bessie" Maddern on April 7, 1900, the same day ''The Son of the Wolf'' was published. Bess had been part of his circle of friends for a number of years. She was related to stage actresses [[Minnie Maddern Fiske]] and [[Emily Stevens (actress)|Emily Stevens]]. Stasz says, "Both acknowledged publicly that they were not marrying out of love, but from friendship and a belief that they would produce sturdy children."<ref>{{harvnb|Stasz|2001|p=61}}: "Both acknowledged... that they were not marrying out of love"</ref> Kingman says, "they were comfortable together... Jack had made it clear to Bessie that he did not love her, but that he liked her enough to make a successful marriage."{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=98}}

London met Bessie through his friend at Oakland High School, Fred Jacobs; she was Fred's fiancée.  Bessie, who tutored at Anderson's University Academy in Alameda California, tutored Jack in preparation for his entrance exams for the University of California at Berkeley in 1896.  Jacobs was killed aboard the [[USAT Warren|''Scandia'']] in 1897, but Jack and Bessie continued their friendship, which included taking photos and developing the film together.<ref>Reesman 2010, p 12</ref> This was the beginning of Jack's passion for photography.

During the marriage, London continued his friendship with [[Anna Strunsky]], co-authoring ''[[The Kempton-Wace Letters]]'', an [[epistolary novel]] contrasting two philosophies of love. Anna, writing "Dane Kempton's" letters, arguing for a romantic view of marriage, while London, writing "Herbert Wace's" letters, argued for a scientific view, based on [[Darwinism]] and [[eugenics]]. In the novel, his fictional character contrasted two women he had known.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

London's pet name for Bess was "Mother-Girl" and Bess's for London was "Daddy-Boy".<ref>{{harvnb|Stasz|2001|p=66}}: "Mommy Girl and Daddy Boy"</ref> Their first child, [[Joan London (American writer)|Joan]], was born on January 15, 1901, and their second, Bessie "Becky" (also reported as Bess), on October 20, 1902. Both children were born in [[Piedmont, California|Piedmont]], California. Here London wrote one of his most celebrated works, ''[[The Call of the Wild]].''

While London had pride in his children, the marriage was strained. Kingman says that by 1903 the couple were close to separation as they were "extremely incompatible". "Jack was still so kind and gentle with Bessie that when Cloudsley Johns was a house guest in February 1903 he didn't suspect a breakup of their marriage."{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=121}}

London reportedly complained to friends Joseph Noel and George Sterling:

{{Blockquote |text=[Bessie] is devoted to purity. When I tell her morality is only evidence of low blood pressure, she hates me. She'd sell me and the children out for her damned purity. It's terrible. Every time I come back after being away from home for a night she won't let me be in the same room with her if she can help it.<ref>{{harvnb|Noel|1940|p=150}}, "She's devoted to purity..."</ref>}}

Stasz writes that these were "code words for [Bess's] fear that [Jack] was consorting with prostitutes and might bring home [[venereal disease]]."<ref>{{harvnb|Stasz|2001|p=80}} ("devoted to purity... code words...")</ref>

On July 24, 1903, London told Bessie he was leaving and moved out. During 1904, London and Bess negotiated the terms of a divorce, and the decree was granted on November 11, 1904.{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=139}}

== War correspondent (1904) ==
[[File:Jack_London's_flag.png|left|thumb|13 star American flag carried by Jack during the War<ref>{{Cite web |title=U. S. flag made by Koreans for Jack London and carried by him during the Russo-Japanese War |url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/0f11f9a0-eadc-0138-422c-0242ac110003 |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=NYPL Digital Collections |language=en}}</ref>]]
London accepted an assignment of the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' to cover the [[Russo-Japanese War]] in early 1904, arriving in [[Yokohama]] on January 25, 1904. He was arrested by Japanese authorities in [[Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi|Shimonoseki]], but released through the intervention of American ambassador [[Lloyd Griscom]].  After travelling to [[Korea]], he was again arrested by Japanese authorities for straying too close to the border with [[Manchuria]] without official permission, and was sent back to [[Seoul]].  Released again, London was permitted to travel with the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] to the border, and to observe the [[Battle of Yalu River (1904)|Battle of the Yalu]].

London asked [[William Randolph Hearst]], the owner of the ''San Francisco Examiner'', to be allowed to transfer to the [[Imperial Russian Army]], where he felt that restrictions on his reporting and his movements would be less severe. However, before this could be arranged, he was arrested for a third time in four months, this time for assaulting his Japanese assistants, whom he accused of stealing the fodder for his horse. Released through the personal intervention of President [[Theodore Roosevelt]], London departed the front in June 1904.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kowner |first=Rotem |author-link=Rotem Kowner |year=2006 |title=Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00libg_334 |url-access=limited |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-4927-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00libg_334/page/n256 212]}}</ref>

== Bohemian Club ==
[[File:Bohemian Grove Camp - Garnett, Sterling, London.jpg|thumb|upright|London ''(right)'' at the [[Bohemian Grove]] with his friends [[Porter Garnett]] and [[George Sterling]]; a painting parodies his story ''[[The White Silence]]''.]]

On August 18, 1904, London went with his close friend, the poet [[George Sterling]], to "Summer High Jinks" at the [[Bohemian Grove]]. London was elected to honorary membership in the [[Bohemian Club]] and took part in many activities. Other noted members of the Bohemian Club during this time included [[Ambrose Bierce]], [[Gelett Burgess]], [[J. Allan Dunn|Allan Dunn]], [[John Muir]], [[Frank Norris]],{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} and [[Herman George Scheffauer]].

Beginning in December 1914, London worked on ''The Acorn Planter, A California Forest Play'', to be performed as one of the [[List of Grove Plays|annual Grove Plays]], but it was never selected. It was described as too difficult to set to music.{{sfn|London|Taylor|1987|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=AFfqbTjG7OkC&pg=PA394 394]}} London published ''The Acorn Planter'' in 1916.{{sfn|Wichlan|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=utnD3Wf2cV0C&pg=PA131 131]}}

== Second marriage ==
[[File:Londons surfing in hawaii.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Jack and Charmian London (c. 1915) at [[Waikiki]]]]

After divorcing Maddern, London married [[Charmian London|Charmian Kittredge]] in 1905. London had been introduced to Kittredge in 1900 by her aunt [[Netta Eames]], who was an editor at ''Overland Monthly'' magazine in San Francisco.  The two met prior to his first marriage but became lovers years later after Jack and Bessie London visited Wake Robin, Netta Eames' Sonoma County resort, in 1903.  London was injured when he fell from a buggy, and Netta arranged for Charmian to care for him.  The two developed a friendship, as Charmian, Netta, her husband Roscoe, and London were politically aligned with socialist causes.  At some point the relationship became romantic, and Jack divorced his wife to marry Charmian, who was five years his senior.<ref>Labor 2013</ref>

Biographer Russ Kingman called Charmian "Jack's soul-mate, always at his side, and a perfect match."<!--https://web.archive.org/web/18990101080101/http://www.jacklondons.net/charmianpage.html for now, better reference later--> Their time together included numerous trips, including a 1907 cruise on the yacht ''[[The Cruise of the Snark|Snark]]'' to Hawaii and Australia.<ref>"The Sailing of the Snark", by [[J. Allan Dunn|Allan Dunn]], ''Sunset'', May 1907.</ref> Many of London's stories are based on his visits to Hawaii, the last one for 10&nbsp;months beginning in December 1915.{{sfn|Day|1996|pp=113–19}}

The couple also visited [[Goldfield, Nevada|Goldfield]], Nevada, in 1907, where they were guests of the Bond brothers, London's Dawson City landlords. The Bond brothers were working in Nevada as mining engineers.

London had contrasted the concepts of the "Mother Girl" and the "Mate Woman" in ''The Kempton-Wace Letters''. His pet name for Bess had been "Mother-Girl"; his pet name for Charmian was "Mate-Woman".<ref>{{harvnb|London|2003|p=59}}: copy of "John Barleycorn" inscribed "Dear Mate-Woman: You know. You have helped me bury the Long Sickness and the White Logic." Numerous other examples in same source.</ref> Charmian's aunt and foster mother, a disciple of [[Victoria Woodhull]], had raised her without prudishness.{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=124}} Every biographer alludes to Charmian's uninhibited sexuality.{{sfn|Stasz|1999|p=112}}{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=133}}

[[File:StateLibQld 1 165259 Snark (ship).jpg|thumb|The ''Snark'' in Australia, 1921]]

Joseph Noel calls the events from 1903 to 1905 "a domestic drama that would have intrigued the pen of an [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]].... London's had comedy relief in it and a sort of easy-going romance."{{sfn|Noel|1940|p=146}} In broad outline, London was restless in his first marriage, sought extramarital sexual affairs, and found, in Charmian Kittredge, not only a sexually active and adventurous partner, but his future life-companion. They attempted to have children; one child died at birth, and another pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Dale|editor-last1=Walker |editor-first2=Jeanne|editor-last2=Reesman |title=No Mentor But Myself: Jack London on Writers and Writing|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kU7CjupoZGsC&pg=PA213 |chapter=A Selection of Letters to Charmain Kittredge |date=1999 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0804736367 |access-date=July 8, 2019}}</ref>

In 1906, London published in ''[[Collier's Weekly|Collier's]]'' magazine his eye-witness report of the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|San Francisco earthquake]].<ref>[https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24206 Jack London "Story Of An Eyewitness"]. California Department of Parks & Recreation.</ref>

== Beauty Ranch (1905–1916) ==
In 1905, London purchased a {{convert|1000|acre|km2}} ranch in [[Glen Ellen, California|Glen Ellen]], [[Sonoma County, California|Sonoma County]], California, on the eastern slope of [[Sonoma Mountain]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uuMtEHq3Nu8C&pg=PA102 |last=Stasz |first=Clarice |title=Jack London's Women |page=102 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=978-1625340658 |year=2013 |access-date=July 8, 2019}}</ref> He wrote: "Next to my wife, the ranch is the dearest thing in the world to me." He desperately wanted the ranch to become a successful business enterprise. Writing, always a commercial enterprise with London, now became even more a means to an end: "I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate."

[[File:Portrait photograph of Jack London.jpg|right|thumb|London in 1914]]

Stasz writes that London "had taken fully to heart the vision, expressed in his [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] fiction, of the land as the closest earthly version of [[Garden of Eden|Eden]] ... he educated himself through the study of agricultural manuals and scientific tomes. He conceived of a system of ranching that today would be praised for its [[ecological wisdom]]."<ref name="American dreamers: Charmian and Jack London">{{cite book |last=Stasz |first=Clarice |title=American Dreamers: Charmian and Jack London |date=1 January 1988 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0-312-021607 |page=250 |url=https://archive.org/details/americandreamers00stas/page/250/mode/2up |access-date=9 December 2023}}</ref> He was proud to own the first concrete [[silo]] in California. He hoped to adapt the wisdom of Asian [[sustainable agriculture]] to the United States. He hired both Italian and Chinese stonemasons, whose distinctly different styles are obvious.

The ranch was an economic failure. Sympathetic observers such as Stasz treat his projects as potentially feasible, and ascribe their failure to bad luck or to being ahead of their time. Unsympathetic historians such as [[Kevin Starr]] suggest that he was a bad manager, distracted by other concerns and impaired by his alcoholism. Starr notes that London was absent from his ranch about six months a year between 1910 and 1916 and says, "He liked the show of managerial power, but not grinding attention to detail .... London's workers laughed at his efforts to play big-time rancher [and considered] the operation a rich man's hobby."<ref>Starr, Kevin. [https://books.google.com/books?id=V9brMMe5PtIC&dq=London's%20workers%20laughed%20at%20his%20efforts%20to%20play%20big-time%20rancher%20%5Band%20considered%5D%20the%20operation%20a%20rich%20man's%20hobby&pg=PT293 ''Americans and the California Dream, 1850–1915'']. Oxford University, 1986.</ref>

London spent $80,000 (${{Formatnum:{{Inflation|US|80000|1905|r=-4}}}} in current value) to build a {{convert|15000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} stone mansion called [[Wolf House (Glen Ellen, California)|Wolf House]] on the property. Just as the mansion was nearing completion, two weeks before the Londons planned to move in, it was destroyed by fire.

London's last visit to Hawaii,<ref name="TherouxSpiritOfAloha">{{cite web |url=http://www.spiritofaloha.com/features/0307/writehawaii.html |title=They Came to Write in Hawai'i |author=Joseph Theroux |work=Spirit of Aloha ([[Aloha Airlines]]) March/April 2007 |quote=He said, "Life's not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes playing a poor hand well." ...His last magazine piece was titled "My Hawaiian Aloha"<big>*</big> [and] his final, unfinished novel, ''Eyes of Asia,'' was set in Hawai'i. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121211749/http://www.spiritofaloha.com/features/0307/writehawaii.html |archive-date=January 21, 2008 }} ({{cite web |url=http://www.spiritofaloha.com/features/0307/aloha.html |title=My Hawaiian Aloha |author=Jack London |work=<big>*</big>From Stories of Hawai'i, Mutual Publishing, [[Honolulu]], 1916. Reprinted with permission in Spirit of Aloha, November/December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121211719/http://www.spiritofaloha.com/features/0307/aloha.html |archive-date=January 21, 2008 }})</ref> beginning in December 1915, lasted eight months. He met with [[Duke Kahanamoku]], [[Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole|Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana'ole]], [[Liliuokalani|Queen Lili'uokalani]] and many others, before returning to his ranch in July 1916.{{sfn|Day|1996|pp=113–19}} He was suffering from [[Renal failure|kidney failure]], but he continued to work.

The ranch (abutting stone remnants of Wolf House) is now a [[National Historic Landmark]] and is protected in [[Jack London State Historic Park]].

== Animal activism ==
London witnessed animal cruelty in the training of circus animals, and his subsequent novels ''[[Jerry of the Islands]]'' and ''[[Michael, Brother of Jerry]]'' included a foreword entreating the public to become more informed about this practice.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beers |first=Diane L. |title=For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/forpreventionofc00dian_0 |url-access=registration |year=2006 |publisher=Swallow Press/Ohio University Press |location=Athens |isbn=0804010870 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/forpreventionofc00dian_0/page/105 105–06]}}</ref> In 1918, the [[Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]] and the American Humane Education Society teamed up to create the Jack London Club, which sought to inform the public about cruelty to circus animals and encourage them to protest this establishment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beers |first=Diane L. |title=For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/forpreventionofc00dian_0 |url-access=registration |year=2006 |publisher=Swallow Press/Ohio University Press |location=Athens |isbn=0804010870 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/forpreventionofc00dian_0/page/106 106–07]}}</ref> Support from Club members led to a temporary cessation of trained animal acts at [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus|Ringling–Barnum and Bailey]] in 1925.<ref>{{cite book |last=Beers |first=Diane L. |title=For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/forpreventionofc00dian_0 |url-access=registration |year=2006 |publisher=Swallow Press/Ohio University Press |location=Athens |isbn=0804010870 |page=[https://archive.org/details/forpreventionofc00dian_0/page/107 107]}}</ref>

== Death ==
[[File:Jacklondongrave.jpg|thumb|left|Grave of Jack and Charmian London]]

London died November 22, 1916, in a [[sleeping porch]] in a cottage on his ranch. London had been a robust man but had suffered several serious illnesses, including [[scurvy]] in the Klondike.<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0112.html |title=On This Day: November 23, 1916: Obituary – Jack London Dies Suddenly On Ranch |access-date=January 6, 2014}}</ref> Additionally, during travels on the ''Snark'', he and Charmian picked up unspecified tropical infections and diseases, including [[yaws]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Jack London |title=The Cruise of the Snark |url=https://archive.org/details/cruisesnark01londgoog |year=1911 |publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> At the time of his death, he suffered from [[dysentery]], late-stage alcoholism, and [[uremia]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://contentdm.marinlibrary.org/digital/collection/npmct/id/7321 |title=Marin County Tocsin |website=contentdm.marinlibrary.org |access-date=July 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726181750/https://contentdm.marinlibrary.org/digital/collection/npmct/id/7321 |archive-date=July 26, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> he was in extreme pain and taking [[morphine]] and [[opium]], both common [[over-the-counter drug]]s at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McConahey |first=Meg |date=July 22, 2022 |title=Was Jack London a drug addict? New technology examines old mysteries |url=https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/new-technology-examines-old-jack-london-mysteries/ |access-date=August 7, 2022 |website=Santa Rosa Press Democrat |language=en-US}}</ref>

London's ashes were buried on his property not far from the Wolf House. London's funeral took place on November 26, 1916, attended only by close friends, relatives, and workers of the property. In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated and buried next to some pioneer children, under a rock that belonged to the Wolf House. After Charmian's death in 1955, she was also cremated and then buried with her husband in the same spot that her husband chose. The grave is marked by a mossy boulder. The buildings and property were later preserved as [[Jack London State Historic Park]], in [[Glen Ellen, California|Glen Ellen]], California.
[[File:Jack London Drawing.jpg|thumb|Cartoon of Jack London by [[James Montgomery Flagg]]. From ''The Book of Jack London'' by [[Charmian London]]]]

===Suicide debate===
Because he was using morphine, many older sources describe London's death as a suicide, and some still do.<ref>''Columbia Encyclopedia'' [http://www.bartleby.com/65/lo/London-J.html "Jack London"], "Beset in his later years by alcoholism and financial difficulties, London committed suicide at the age of 40."</ref> This conjecture appears to be a rumor, or speculation based on incidents in his fiction writings. His death certificate{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Jack London's death certificate}} gives the cause as [[uremia]], following acute [[renal colic]].

The biographer Clarice Stasz writes, "Following London's death, for a number of reasons, a biographical myth developed in which he has been portrayed as an alcoholic womanizer who committed suicide. Recent scholarship based upon firsthand documents challenges this caricature."{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Biography}} Most biographers, including Russ Kingman, now agree he died of uremia aggravated by an accidental morphine overdose.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080914134621/http://www.jacklondons.net/nosuicide.html "Did Jack London Commit Suicide?"<!-- bot-generated title -->]}}, The World of Jack London</ref>

London's fiction features several suicides.  In his autobiographical memoir ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]]'', he claims, as a youth, to have drunkenly stumbled overboard into the [[San Francisco Bay]], "some maundering fancy of going out with the tide suddenly obsessed me."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nelson |first=Kevin |date=April 1, 2021 |orig-date=April 1, 2021 |title=Hidden Benicia: How Benicia Saved Jack London's Life |url=https://www.beniciamagazine.com/hidden-benicia-how-benicia-saved-jack-londons-life/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226183714/https://www.beniciamagazine.com/hidden-benicia-how-benicia-saved-jack-londons-life/ |archive-date=February 26, 2024 |access-date=2024-08-06 |website=Benicia Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref> He said he drifted and nearly succeeded in drowning before sobering up and being rescued by fishermen. In the dénouement of ''[[The Little Lady of the Big House]]'', the heroine, confronted by the pain of a mortal gunshot wound, undergoes a physician-assisted suicide by morphine. Also, in ''[[Martin Eden]]'', the principal protagonist, who shares certain characteristics with London, drowns himself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |date=June 5, 2019 |title=Jack London: Martin Eden - by Franklin Walker |url=https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/books/jack-london-martin-eden-franklin-walker/ |access-date=July 22, 2022 |website=Scraps from the loft |language=en-GB}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

== Plagiarism accusations ==
{{more citations needed section|date=September 2017}}
[[File:JackLondon-office-1916.jpg|thumb|upright|London in his office, 1916]]

London was vulnerable to accusations of plagiarism, both because he was such a conspicuous, prolific, and successful writer and because of his methods of working. He wrote in a letter to Elwyn Hoffman, "expression, you see—with me—is far easier than invention." He purchased plots and novels from the young [[Sinclair Lewis]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Jack London letters to Sinclair Lewis, dated September through December 1910 |url=http://exhibits.lib.usu.edu/files/original/ed7011613724ee3e734106a0e25af9a2.pdf |website=Utah State University University Libraries Digital Exhibits |access-date=January 5, 2023}}</ref> and used incidents from newspaper clippings as writing material.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anna V, Deadrick, 'The Case of Jack London: Plagiarism, Creativity and Authorship' |url=https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncw/f/deadricka2003-1.pdf |website=University of North California at Wilmington |access-date=May 7, 2024}}</ref>

In July 1901, two pieces of fiction appeared within the same month: London's "[[Moon-Face]]", in the ''San Francisco Argonaut,'' and [[Frank Norris]]' "The Passing of Cock-eye Blacklock", in ''[[Century Magazine]]''. Newspapers showed the similarities between the stories, which London said were "quite different in manner of treatment, [but] patently the same in foundation and motive."<ref>{{cite news |title=The Literary Zoo |magazine=Life |date=Jan–Jun 1907 |volume=49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=56JGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA130 |page=130}}</ref> London explained both writers based their stories on the same newspaper account. A year later, it was discovered that Charles Forrest McLean had published a fictional story also based on the same incident.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |title=The Retriever and the Dynamite Stick -- A Remarkable Coincidence. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/08/16/101280108.html?pageNumber=17 |work=The New York Times |agency=The New York Times Company |date=August 16, 1902 |access-date=April 20, 2022}}</ref>

[[Egerton Ryerson Young]]<ref>{{cite news |work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography |title=Young, Everton Ryerson |access-date=January 6, 2014 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/young_egerton_ryerson_13E.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Memorable Manitobans: Egerton Ryerson Young (1840–1909) |work=The Manitoba Historical Society |access-date=January 7, 2014 |url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/young_er.shtml}}</ref> claimed ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' (1903) was taken from Young's book ''My Dogs in the Northland'' (1902). London acknowledged using it as a source and claimed to have written a letter to Young thanking him.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=The Literary Digest |volume=34 |year=1907 |page=337 |title=Is Jack London a Plagiarist? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIE4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA337}}</ref>

In 1906, the ''[[New York World]]'' published "deadly parallel" columns showing eighteen passages from London's short story "Love of Life" side by side with similar passages from a nonfiction article by Augustus Biddle and J. K. Macdonald, titled "Lost in the Land of the Midnight Sun".{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=118}} London noted the ''World'' did not accuse him of "plagiarism", but only of "identity of time and situation", to which he defiantly "pled guilty".<ref>Letter to "The Bookman," April 10, 1906, quoted in full in {{cite book |title=No mentor but myself: Jack London on writing and writers |author1=Jack London |author2=Dale L. Walker |author3=Jeanne Campbell Reesman |year=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0804736350|page= 97}} "The ''World'', however, did not charge me with plagiarism. It charged me with identity of time and situation. Certainly I plead guilty, and I am glad that the ''World'' was intelligent enough not to charge me with identity of language."</ref>

The most serious charge of plagiarism was based on London's "The Bishop's Vision", Chapter 7 of his novel ''[[The Iron Heel]]'' (1908). The chapter is nearly identical to an ironic essay that [[Frank Harris]] published in 1901, titled "The Bishop of London and Public Morality".<ref>{{cite book |title=No mentor but myself: Jack London on writing and writers |author1=Jack London |author2=Dale L. Walker |author3=Jeanne Campbell Reesman |year=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0804736350|page=121}} "The controversy with Frank Harris began in the ''Vanity Fair'' issue of April 14, 1909, in an article by Harris entitled 'How Mr. Jack London Writes a Novel.' Using parallel columns, Harris demonstrated that a portion of his article, 'The Bishop of London and Public Morality,' which appeared in a British periodical, ''The Candid Friend'', on May 25, 1901, had been used almost word-for-word in his 1908 novel, ''The Iron Heel''."</ref> Harris was incensed and suggested he should receive 1/60th of the royalties from ''The Iron Heel,'' the disputed material constituting about that fraction of the whole novel. London insisted he had clipped a reprint of the article, which had appeared in an American newspaper, and believed it to be a genuine speech delivered by the [[Bishop of London]].{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

== Views ==
{{Socialism US|people}}

===Atheism===
London was an [[atheist]].<ref name="Stewart Gabel 2012 14">{{cite book |title=Jack London: a Man in Search of Meaning: A Jungian Perspective |year=2012 |publisher=AuthorHouse |isbn=978-1477283332 |page=14 |author=Stewart Gabel |quote=When he was tramping, arrested and jailed for one month for vagrancy at about 19 years of age, he listed "atheist" as his religion on the necessary forms (Kershaw, 1997).}}</ref> He is quoted as saying, "I believe that when I am dead, I am dead. I believe that with my death I am just as much obliterated as the last mosquito you and I squashed."<ref>''Who's Who in Hell: A Handbook and International Directory for Humanists, Freethinkers, Naturalists, Rationalists, and Non-Theists''. Barricade Books (2000), {{ISBN|978-1569801581}}</ref>

=== Political views ===
London wrote from a socialist viewpoint, which is evident in his novel ''[[The Iron Heel]]''. Neither a theorist nor an intellectual socialist, London's socialism grew out of his life experience. As London explained in his essay "How I Became a Socialist",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/WarOfTheClasses/socialist.html |title=War of the Classes: How I Became a Socialist |website=london.sonoma.edu |access-date=April 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112150432/http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/WarOfTheClasses/socialist.html |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> his views were influenced by his experience with people at the bottom of the social pit. His optimism and individualism faded, and he vowed never to do more hard physical work than necessary. He wrote that his individualism was hammered out of him, and he was politically reborn. He often closed his letters "Yours for the Revolution".<ref>See Labor (1994) p. 546 for one example, a letter from London to William E. Walling dated November 30, 1909.</ref>

London joined the [[Socialist Labor Party]] in April 1896. In the same year, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' published a story about the twenty-year-old London's giving nightly speeches in Oakland's [[Frank H. Ogawa Plaza|City Hall Park]], an activity he was arrested for a year later. In 1901, he left the Socialist Labor Party and joined the new [[Socialist Party of America]]. He ran unsuccessfully as the high-profile Socialist candidate for mayor of Oakland in 1901 (receiving 245 votes) and 1905 (improving to 981 votes), toured the country lecturing on socialism in 1906, and published two collections of essays about socialism: ''War of the Classes'' (1905) and ''Revolution, and other Essays'' (1906).

Stasz notes: "London regarded the [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobblies]] as a welcome addition to the Socialist cause, although he never joined them in going so far as to recommend sabotage."{{sfn|Stasz|2001|p=100}} Stasz mentions a personal meeting between London and [[Big Bill Haywood]] in 1912.{{sfn|Stasz|2001|p=156}} In his 1913 book ''The Cruise of the Snark'', London writes about appeals to him for membership of the ''Snark'''s crew from office workers and other "toilers" who longed for escape from the cities, and of being cheated by workmen.

In his Glen Ellen ranch years, London felt some ambivalence toward socialism and complained about the "inefficient Italian labourers" in his employ.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=245}} In 1916, he resigned from the Glen Ellen chapter of the Socialist Party. In an unflattering portrait of London's ranch days, California cultural historian [[Kevin Starr]] refers to this period as "post-socialist" and says that "[...] by 1911 [...] London was more bored by the class struggle than he cared to admit."<ref>{{cite book |last=Starr |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpMI4z-tDPMC&pg=PA215 |title=Americans and the California Dream |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1973 |access-date=March 2, 2013 |isbn=0195016440}}</ref>

[[George Orwell]], however, identified a fascist strain in London's outlook:<blockquote>But temperamentally he was very different from the majority of Marxists. With his love of violence and physical strength, his belief in 'natural aristocracy', his animal-worship and exaltation of the primitive, he had in him what one might fairly call a Fascist strain.<ref>{{cite book |author=George Orwell |url=https://archive.org/details/georgeorwellcoll00orwe |title=George Orwell: My country right or left, 1940–1943 |publisher=David R Godine |year=2000 |page=[https://archive.org/details/georgeorwellcoll00orwe/page/31 31] |isbn=9781567921359 |url-access=registration}}</ref></blockquote>

====Electoral history====
{{Election box begin no change | title=1901 Oakland, California mayoral election<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Campaigns - Oakland Mayor Race - Mar 11, 1901 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=754573 |website=www.ourcampaigns.com |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref>}}
{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change|
  |party      = Republican Party (United States)
  |candidate  = Anson Barstow
  |votes      = 2,944
  |percentage = 30.95
}}
{{Election box candidate no change|
  |party      = Citizens Municipal
  |candidate  = Walter G. Manuel
  |votes      = 2,808
  |percentage = 29.52
}}
{{Election box candidate no change|
  |party      = Independent
  |candidate  = John L. Davie (incumbent)
  |votes      = 2,471
  |percentage = 25.98
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change|
  |party      = California Democratic Party
  |candidate  = [[Warren B. English]]
  |votes      = 982
  |percentage = 10.32
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change|
  |party      = Socialist Party of America
  |candidate  = Jack London
  |votes      = 247
  |percentage = 2.6
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change|
  |party      = Prohibition Party
  |candidate  = Allen Shorkley
  |votes      = 60
  |percentage = 0.63
}}
{{Election box total no change
| votes = 9,512
| percentage = 100.00
}}
{{Election box end}}

{{Election box begin no change | title=1905 Oakland, California mayoral election<ref>{{cite web |title=Our Campaigns - Oakland Mayor Race - Mar 10, 1905 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=754574 |website=www.ourcampaigns.com |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref>}}
{{Election box winning candidate no change|
  |party      = Fusion
  |candidate  = [[Frank K. Mott]]
  |votes      = 5,459
  |percentage = 47.72
}}
{{Election box candidate no change|
  |party      = Independent
  |candidate  = John L. Davie
  |votes      = 3,199
  |percentage = 27.97
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change|
  |party      = Union Labor Party (California)
  |candidate  = George Randolph
  |votes      = 1,800
  |percentage = 15.74
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link no change|
  |party      = Socialist Party of America
  |candidate  = Jack London
  |votes      = 981
  |percentage = 8.58
}}
{{Election box total no change
| votes = 11,439
| percentage = 100.00
}}
{{Election box end}}

=== Race ===
{{Original research section|date=January 2016}}
[[File:Johnson jeff.jpg|thumb|upright|Jeffries (left) vs. Johnson, 1910]]
London shared common concerns among many European Americans in California about [[Asian immigration to the United States|Asian immigration]], described as "[[yellow peril|the yellow peril]]"; he used the latter term as the title of a 1904 essay.{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: The Yellow Peril}} This theme was also the subject of a story he wrote in 1910 called "[[The Unparalleled Invasion]]". Presented as an historical essay set in the future, the story narrates events between 1976 and 1987, in which China, with an ever-increasing population, is taking over and colonizing its neighbors with the intention of taking over the entire Earth. The western nations respond with [[biological warfare]] and bombard China with dozens of the most infectious diseases.{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: The Unparalleled Invasion}} On his fears about China, he admits (at the end of "The Yellow Peril"), "it must be taken into consideration that the above postulate is itself a product of Western race-egotism, urged by our belief in our own righteousness and fostered by a faith in ourselves which may be as erroneous as are most fond race fancies."

By contrast, many of London's short stories are notable for their empathetic portrayal of Mexican ("The Mexican"), Asian ("The Chinago"), and Hawaiian ("Koolau the Leper") characters. London's war correspondence from the [[Russo-Japanese War]], as well as his unfinished novel ''Cherry'', show he admired much about Japanese customs and capabilities.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121017134905/http://www.jacklondons.net/Journalism/jackLondonsWar.html "Jack London's War"]}}, Dale L. Walker, ''The World of Jack London''. "According to London's reportage, the Russians were "sluggish" in battle, while "The Japanese understand the utility of things. Reserves they consider should be used not only to strengthen the line...but in the moment of victory to clinch victory hard and fast...Verily, nothing short of a miracle can wreck a plan they have once started and put into execution.""</ref> London's writings have been popular among the Japanese, some of whom believe he portrayed them positively.<ref name=":0">Jeanne Campbell Reesman, ''Jack London's Racial Lives: A Critical Biography'', University of Georgia Press, 2009, pp. 323–24</ref>

In "Koolau the Leper", London describes Koolau, who is a Hawaiian leper—and thus a very different sort of "superman" than Martin Eden—and who fights off an entire cavalry troop to elude capture, as "indomitable spiritually—a&nbsp;... magnificent rebel". This character is based on Hawaiian leper [[Kaluaikoolau]], who in 1893 [[Leper War on Kauaʻi|revolted and resisted capture]] from forces of the [[Provisional Government of Hawaii]] in the [[Kalalau Valley]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

Those who defend London against charges of racism cite the letter he wrote to the ''Japanese-American Commercial Weekly'' in 1913:

{{blockquote|
In reply to yours of August 16, 1913. First of all, I should say by stopping the stupid newspaper from always fomenting race prejudice. This of course, being impossible, I would say, next, by educating the people of Japan so that they will be too intelligently tolerant to respond to any call to race prejudice. And, finally, by realizing, in industry and government, of socialism—which last word is merely a word that stands for the actual application of in the affairs of men of the theory of the Brotherhood of Man.

In the meantime the nations and races are only unruly boys who have not yet grown to the stature of men. So we must expect them to do unruly and boisterous things at times. And, just as boys grow up, so the races of mankind will grow up and laugh when they look back upon their childish quarrels.<ref>Labor, Earle, Robert C. Leitz, III, and I. Milo Shepard: ''The Letters of Jack London: Volume Three: 1913–1916,'' Stanford University Press 1988, p. 1219, Letter to ''Japanese-American Commercial Weekly'', August 25, 1913: "the races of mankind will grow up and laugh [at] their childish quarrels..."</ref>}}

In 1996, after the [[Whitehorse, Yukon|City of Whitehorse]], [[Yukon]], renamed a street in honor of London, protests over London's alleged racism forced the city to change the name of "Jack London Boulevard"{{failed verification|date=January 2016}} back to "Two-mile Hill".{{sfn|Lundberg}}

Shortly after boxer [[Jack Johnson (boxer)|Jack Johnson]] was crowned the first black world heavyweight champ in 1908, London pleaded for a white candidate to come forward to defeat Johnson. [[Nat Fleischer]], a boxing writer, reported that London told [[Jim Jeffries (boxer)|Jim Jeffries]]: "it's up to you, to save the white race."  The phrase about saving the "white race" was an embellishment by Fleischer, but it is clear from London's writings that he preferred that a white boxer win the title of champion. The term "great white hope" in boxing is often attributed to London, but it was first used in contexts outside of boxing in the 19th century, and in the 1960s to refer to Jeffries.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hutchison |first1=Phillip J. |title=Usually White, but Not Always Great: A Journalistic Archaeology of White Hopes, 1908-2013 |journal=Journalism History |date=2014 |volume=39 |issue=4|pages=238; 232–233|doi=10.1080/00947679.2014.12062920 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00947679.2014.12062920|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Early |first1=Gerald |title=The Cambridge Companion to Boxing |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107631205 |pages=246–247}}</ref>

===Eugenics===
{{Eugenics sidebar}}
With other modernist writers of the day,<ref>Leonard, Thomas C., ''Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era'', Princeton University Press, Princeton Univ. Press, 2016, p. 114</ref> London supported [[eugenics]].<ref name=Swift2002/> The notion of "good breeding" complemented the Progressive era scientism, the belief that humans assort along a hierarchy by race, religion, and ethnicity. The [[Progressive Era]] catalog of inferiority offered basis for threats to American Anglo-Saxon racial integrity. London wrote to Frederick H. Robinson of the periodical ''Medical Review of Reviews'', stating, "I believe the future belongs to eugenics, and will be determined by the practice of eugenics."{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=109}} Although this led some to argue for [[forced sterilization]] of criminals or those deemed [[Intellectual disability|feeble-minded]],<ref>''Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court'', and Buck V. Bell, JHU Press, October 6, 2008, p. 55.</ref> London did not express this extreme. His short story "[[Told in the Drooling Ward]]" is from the viewpoint of a surprisingly astute "feebled-minded" person.

Hensley argues that London's novel ''[[Before Adam]]'' (1906–07) reveals pro-eugenic themes.<ref name=Hensely2002/> London advised his collaborator [[Anna Strunsky]] during preparation of ''[[The Kempton-Wace Letters]]'' that he would take the role of eugenics in mating, while she would argue on behalf of romantic love. (Love won the argument.) <ref>Williams, Jay, ''Author Under Sail,'' Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1014, p. 294.</ref> ''[[The Valley of the Moon (novel)|The Valley of the Moon]]'' emphasizes the theme of "real Americans," the Anglo Saxon, yet in ''[[Little Lady of the Big House]]'', London is more nuanced. The protagonist's argument is not that all white men are superior, but that there are more superior ones among whites than in other races; encouraging the best in any race to mate will improve its population qualities.<ref>Craid, Layne Parish, "Sex and Science in London's America," in Williams, Jay, ed., ''The Oxford Handbook of Jack London'', Oxford Univ. Press, 2017, pp. 340–41.</ref> Living in Hawaii challenged his orthodoxy. In "My Hawaiian Aloha," London noted the liberal intermarrying of races, concluding how "little Hawaii, with its hotch potch races, is making a better demonstration than the United States."<ref>London, Charmian, ''Our Hawaii: Islands and Islanders'', Macmillan, 1922, p. 24.</ref>

== Works ==
=== Short stories ===
[[File:Jack london nd 2.jpg|thumb|Jack London (date unknown)]]
[[File:Famous fantastic mysteries 194806.jpg|thumb|London's 1903 story "The Shadow and the Flash" was reprinted in the June 1948 issue of ''[[Famous Fantastic Mysteries]]'']]
[[File:(Bookplate of Jack London) (LOC) (15585512686).jpg|thumb|[[Bookplate]] used by Jack London]]
Western writer and historian [[Dale L. Walker]] writes:<ref name="DaleWalker">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051025095617/http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/shortFiction/part1.html Dale L. Walker, "Jack London: The Stories"]}}, The World of Jack London</ref>

{{blockquote|
London's true métier was the short story ... London's true genius lay in the short form, 7,500 words and under, where the flood of images in his teeming brain and the innate power of his narrative gift were at once constrained and freed. His stories that run longer than the magic 7,500 generally—but certainly not always—could have benefited from self-editing.
}}

London's "strength of utterance" is at its height in his stories, and they are painstakingly well-constructed.{{citation needed|date=June 2010}} "[[To Build a Fire]]" is the best known of all his stories. Set in the harsh Klondike, it recounts the haphazard trek of a new arrival who has ignored an old-timer's warning about the risks of traveling alone. Falling through the ice into a creek in seventy-five-below weather, the unnamed man is keenly aware that survival depends on his untested skills at quickly building a fire to dry his clothes and warm his extremities. After publishing a tame version of this story—with a sunny outcome—in ''[[The Youth's Companion]]'' in 1902, London offered a second, more severe take on the man's predicament in ''[[The Century Magazine]]'' in 1908. Reading both provides an illustration of London's growth and maturation as a writer. As Labor (1994) observes: "To compare the two versions is itself an instructive lesson in what distinguished a great work of literary art from a good children's story."<ref name="To Build a Fire" group="upper-alpha" />

Other stories from the Klondike period include: "All Gold Canyon", about a battle between a gold [[Prospecting|prospector]] and a [[land claim|claim jumper]]; "[[The Law of Life]]", about an aging American Indian man abandoned by his tribe and left to die; "Love of Life", about a trek by a prospector across the Canadian tundra; "To the Man on Trail," which tells the story of a prospector fleeing the Mounted Police in a sled race, and raises the question of the contrast between written law and morality; and "An Odyssey of the North," which raises questions of conditional morality, and paints a sympathetic portrait of a man of mixed White and [[Aleut people|Aleut]] ancestry.

London was a [[boxing]] fan and an avid amateur boxer. "A Piece of Steak" is a tale about a match between older and younger boxers. It contrasts the differing experiences of youth and age but also raises the social question of the treatment of aging workers. "The Mexican" combines boxing with a social theme, as a young Mexican endures an unfair fight and ethnic prejudice to earn money with which to aid the revolution.

Several of London's stories would today be classified as science fiction. "The Unparalleled Invasion" describes [[germ warfare]] against China; "Goliath" is about an irresistible energy weapon; "The Shadow and the Flash" is a tale about two brothers who take different routes to achieving invisibility; "A Relic of the Pliocene" is a tall tale about an encounter of a modern-day man with a [[mammoth]]. "[[The Red One]]" is a late story from a period when London was intrigued by the theories of the [[psychiatrist]] and writer [[Carl Jung|Jung]]. It tells of an island tribe held in thrall by an extraterrestrial object.

Some nineteen original collections of short stories were published during London's brief life or shortly after his death. There have been several posthumous anthologies drawn from this pool of stories. Many of these stories were located in the Klondike and the Pacific. A collection of ''[[Jack London's San Francisco Stories]]'' was published in October 2010 by Sydney Samizdat Press.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181106190339/https://www.jacklondon-sanfrancisco.com/ Jack London: San Francisco Stories] (Edited by Matthew Asprey; Preface by Rodger Jacobs)</ref>

=== Novels ===
[[File:J London writing 1905.jpg|thumb|upright|London writing, 1905]]

London's most famous novels are ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'', ''[[White Fang]]'', ''[[The Sea-Wolf]]'', ''[[The Iron Heel]]'', and ''[[Martin Eden]]''.<ref>These are the five novels selected by editor Donald Pizer for inclusion in the [[Library of America]] series.</ref>

In a letter dated December 27, 1901, London's Macmillan publisher [[George Platt Brett, Sr.]], said "he believed Jack's fiction represented 'the very best kind of work' done in America."{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=109}}

Critic [[Maxwell Geismar]] called ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' "a beautiful prose poem"; editor Franklin Walker said that it "belongs on a shelf with ''[[Walden]]'' and ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Huckleberry Finn]]''"; and novelist [[E.L. Doctorow]] called it "a mordant parable ... his masterpiece."{{citation needed|date=June 2010}}

The historian Dale L. Walker<ref name="DaleWalker" /> commented:

{{blockquote|
Jack London was an uncomfortable novelist, that form too long for his natural impatience and the quickness of his mind. His novels, even the best of them, are hugely flawed.
}}

Some critics have said that his novels are episodic and resemble linked short stories. Dale L. Walker writes:

{{blockquote|
''[[The Star Rover]]'', that magnificent experiment, is actually a series of short stories connected by a unifying device ... ''Smoke Bellew'' is a series of stories bound together in a novel-like form by their reappearing protagonist, Kit Bellew; and ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]]'' ... is a synoptic series of short episodes.<ref name="DaleWalker" />
}}

[[Ambrose Bierce]] said of ''[[The Sea-Wolf]]'' that "the great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen ... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime." However, he noted, "The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful."<ref>''Letters of Ambrose Bierce'', ed. S. T. Joshi, Tryambak Sunand Joshi, David E. Schultz, Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003</ref>

''[[The Iron Heel]]'' is an example of a [[dystopian]] novel that anticipates and influenced [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref name="Shelden">''Orwell: the Authorized Biography'' by Michael Shelden, [[HarperCollins]] {{ISBN|978-0060921613}}</ref> London's socialist politics are explicitly on display here. ''The Iron Heel'' meets the contemporary definition of [[soft science fiction]]. ''[[The Star Rover]]'' (1915) is also science fiction.

=== ''Credo'' is likely by London despite doubts ===
London's [[literary executor]], Irving Shepard, quoted a ''Jack London Credo'' in an introduction to a 1956 collection of London stories:

<blockquote><poem>
I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
</poem></blockquote>

The biographer Stasz notes that the passage "has many marks of London's style" but the only line that could be safely attributed to London was the first.{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Credo}} The words Shepard quoted were from a story in the ''San Francisco Bulletin'', December 2, 1916, by journalist Ernest J. Hopkins, who visited the ranch just weeks before London's death. Stasz notes, "Even more so than today journalists' quotes were unreliable or even sheer inventions," and says no direct source in London's writings has been found. However, at least one line, according to Stasz, is authentic, being referenced by London and written in his own hand in the autograph book of Australian suffragette [[Vida Goldstein]]:

<blockquote><poem>
Dear Miss Goldstein:–
Seven years ago I wrote you that I'd rather be ashes than dust.  I still subscribe to that sentiment.
Sincerely yours,
Jack London
Jan. 13, 1909{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Credo}}
</poem></blockquote>

In his short story "By The Turtles of Tasman", a character, defending her "ne'er-do-well grasshopperish father" to her "antlike uncle", says: "... my father has been a king. He has lived .... Have you lived merely to live? Are you afraid to die? I'd rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet. When you are dust, my father will be ashes."

The last three sentences of the credo have been deemed to be an authentic quotation of Jack London by ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations''.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=whg05Z4Nwo0C&pg=PA382 The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations]'', p. 382 (Oxford U. Press 2006).</ref> Likewise, [[NPR|National Public Radio]] has ascribed the quotation to Jack London, and explained that it was published via a journalist; NPR did not question the accuracy of that reporter who first published the credo in 1916.<ref>Vitale, Tom.  [https://www.npr.org/2013/10/17/230497660/jack-london-believed-function-of-man-is-to-live-not-to-exist "Jack London Believed 'Function Of Man Is To Live, Not To Exist'"], [[NPR]] (14 Oct 2013).</ref>

Part of the credo was used to describe the philosophy of the fictional character [[James Bond]], in the [[Ian Fleming]] novel ''[[You Only Live Twice (novel)|You Only Live Twice]]'' (1964), and again in the movie ''[[No Time to Die]]'' (2021).<ref name=Indy>Harrison, Ellie.  [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/no-time-to-die-quote-end-film-bond-tribute-b1932576.html "No Time to Die: What is the quote M uses about James Bond at the end of the film?"], ''[[The Independent]]'' (5 Oct 2021).</ref><ref>[[Ian Fleming|Fleming, Ian]].  ''You Only Live Twice'', p. 152 (1965).</ref>  According to a 2021 article about that Bond movie in ''[[The Independent]]'', "The quote was originally...by the American writer Jack London...."<ref name=Indy />

=== Diatribe about scabs has unknown author ===
A short diatribe on "The [[Strikebreaker|Scab]]" is often quoted within the U.S. labor movement and frequently attributed to London. It opens:

{{blockquote|
After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and Angels weep in Heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out....<ref name=thescab>{{cite web |url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=418&invol=264 |title=Letter Carriers v. Austin, 418 U.S. 264 (1974) |access-date=23 May 2006 |date=25 June 1974 |author=Thurgood Marshall}}</ref>
}}

In 1913 and 1914, a number of newspapers printed the first three sentences with varying terms used instead of "scab", such as
"knocker",<ref>Callan, Claude, 1913, "Cracks at the Crowd", ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', December 30, 1913, p. 6: "Saith the Rule Review: 'After God had finished making the rattlesnake, the toad and the vampire, He had some awful substance left, with which he made the knocker.' Were it not for being irreverent, we would suggest that He was hard up for something to do when He made any of those pests you call his handiwork."</ref><ref>"The Food for Your Think Tank", ''The Macon Daily Telegraph'', August 23, 1914, p. 3</ref>
"stool pigeon"<ref>" Madame Gain is Found Guilty. Jury Decides Woman Conducted House of Ill Fame at the Clifton Hotel," ''The Duluth News Tribune'', February 5, 1914, p. 12.</ref>
or "scandal monger".<ref>"T. W. H.", (1914), "Review of the Masonic 'Country' Press: The Eastern Star" ''The New Age Magazine: A Monthly Publication Devoted to Freemasonry and Its Relation to Present Day Problems,'' published by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States; June 1917, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GMVNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA283 p. 283]: "Scandal Monger: After God had finished making the rattlesnake, the toad and the vampire, He had some awful substance left, with which He made a scandal monger. A scandal monger is a two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-sogged brain and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where other men have their hearts he carries a tumor of decayed principles. When the scandal monger comes down the street honest men turn their backs, the angels weep tears in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. —Anon"</ref>  Those newspapers did not attribute those sentences to London.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

This passage as given above was the subject of a 1974 Supreme Court case, ''[[Letter Carriers v. Austin]]'',<ref>{{ussc|name=Letter Carriers v. Austin|link=|volume=418|page=264|pin=|year=1974}}.</ref> in which Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]] referred to it as "a well-known piece of trade union literature, generally attributed to author Jack London". A union newsletter had published a "list of scabs", which was granted to be factual and therefore not libelous, but then went on to quote the passage as the "definition of a scab". The case turned on the question of whether the "definition" was defamatory. The court ruled that "Jack London's... 'definition of a scab' is merely rhetorical hyperbole, a lusty and imaginative expression of the contempt felt by union members towards those who refuse to join", and as such was not libelous and was protected under the First Amendment.<ref name="thescab" />

Despite being frequently attributed to London, the passage does not appear at all in the extensive collection of his writings at [[Sonoma State University]]'s website. However, in his book ''War of the Classes'', he published a 1903 speech titled "The Scab" which gave a much more balanced view of the topic:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/WarOfTheClasses/scab.html |title=War of the Classes: The Scab |website=london.sonoma.edu |access-date=April 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807072644/http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/WarOfTheClasses/scab.html |archive-date=August 7, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
{{blockquote|The laborer who gives more time or strength or skill for the same wage than another, or equal time or strength or skill for a less wage, is a scab. The generousness on his part is hurtful to his fellow-laborers, for it compels them to an equal generousness which is not to their liking, and which gives them less of food and shelter. But a word may be said for the scab. Just as his act makes his rivals compulsorily generous, so do they, by fortune of birth and training, make compulsory his act of generousness.

[...]

Nobody desires to scab, to give most for least. The ambition of every individual is quite the opposite, to give least for most; and, as a result, living in a tooth-and-nail society, battle royal is waged by the ambitious individuals. But in its most salient aspect, that of the struggle over the division of the joint product, it is no longer a battle between individuals, but between groups of individuals. Capital and labor apply themselves to raw material, make something useful out of it, add to its value, and then proceed to quarrel over the division of the added value. Neither cares to give most for least. Each is intent on giving less than the other and on receiving more.
|sign=|source=}}

== List of publications ==
Source unless otherwise specified: {{harvnb|Williams}}

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}

=== Novels ===
* ''[[The Cruise of the Dazzler]]'' (1902)
* ''[[A Daughter of the Snows]]'' (1902)
* ''[[The Call of the Wild]]'' (1903)
* ''[[The Kempton-Wace Letters]]'' (1903) <br /> (published anonymously, co-authored with [[Anna Strunsky]])
* ''[[The Sea-Wolf]]'' (1904)
* ''[[The Game (London novel)|The Game]]'' (1905)
* ''[[White Fang]]'' (1906)
* ''[[Before Adam]]'' (1907)
* ''[[The Iron Heel]]'' (1908)
* ''[[Martin Eden]]'' (1909)
* ''[[Burning Daylight]]'' (1910)
* ''[[Adventure (novel)|Adventure]]'' (1911)
* ''[[The Scarlet Plague]]'' (1912)
* ''[[A Son of the Sun (novel)|A Son of the Sun]]'' (1912)
* ''[[The Abysmal Brute]]'' (1913)
* ''[[The Valley of the Moon (novel)|The Valley of the Moon]]'' (1913)
* ''[[The Mutiny of the Elsinore (novel)|The Mutiny of the Elsinore]]'' (1914)
* ''[[The Star Rover]]'' (1915) <br /> (published in England as ''The Jacket'')
* ''[[The Little Lady of the Big House]]'' (1916)
* ''[[Jerry of the Islands]]'' (1917)
* ''[[Michael, Brother of Jerry]]'' (1917)
* ''[[Hearts of Three]]'' (1920) <br /> (novelization of a script by [[Charles Goddard (playwright)|Charles Goddard]])
* ''[[The Assassination Bureau, Ltd]]'' (1963) <br /> (left half-finished, completed by [[Robert L. Fish]])

=== Short story collections ===
* ''Son of the Wolf'' (1900)
* ''The God of His Fathers & Other Stories'' (1901){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''Children of the Frost'' (1902)
* ''The Faith of Men and Other Stories'' (1904){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''Tales of the Fish Patrol'' (1906)
* ''Moon-Face and Other Stories'' (1906){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''Love of Life and Other Stories'' (1907){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''[[Lost Face]]'' (1910)
* ''[[South Sea Tales (1911)|South Sea Tales]]'' (1911)
* ''When God Laughs and Other Stories'' (1911){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''The House of Pride & Other Tales of Hawaii'' (1912)
* ''[[Smoke Bellew]]'' (1912)
* ''A Son of the Sun'' (1912){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''The Night Born'' (1913){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''The Strength of the Strong'' (1914){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''The Turtles of Tasman'' (1916)
* ''The Human Drift'' (1917)
* ''The Red One'' (1918){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''On the Makaloa Mat'' (1919)
* ''Dutch Courage and Other Stories'' (1922){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}

=== Autobiographical memoirs ===
* ''[[The Road (Jack London)|The Road]]'' (1907)
* ''[[The Cruise of the Snark]]'' (1911)
* ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]]'' (1913)

=== Non-fiction and essays ===
* ''Through the Rapids on the Way to the Klondike'' (1899)
* ''From Dawson to the Sea'' (1899)
* ''What Communities Lose by the Competitive System'' (1900)
* ''The Impossibility of War'' (1900)
* ''Phenomena of Literary Evolution'' (1900)
* ''A Letter to Houghton Mifflin Co.''  (1900)
* ''Husky, Wolf Dog of the North'' (1900)
* ''Editorial Crimes – A Protest'' (1901)
* ''Again the Literary Aspirant'' (1902)
* ''[[The People of the Abyss]]'' (1903)
* ''How I Became a Socialist'' (1903)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003UZY72Y |title=How I Became a Socialist. The Comrade: An illustrated socialist monthly. Volume II, No. 6, March, 1903: Jack London: Books |website=Amazon |date=September 9, 2009 | access-date=August 26, 2011}}</ref>
* ''War of the Classes'' (1905){{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
* ''The Story of an Eyewitness'' (1906)
* ''A Letter to Woman's Home Companion'' (1906)
* "The Lepers of Molokai" in ''Woman's Home Companion'' (1908)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=London |first1=Jack |title=The Lepers of Molokai |journal=Woman's Home Companion |date=1908 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=6–7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LgiAQAAMAAJ|access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref>
* "[[Ernest Wilfred Darling|The Nature Man]]" in ''Woman's Home Companion'' (1908)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=London |first1=Jack |title=The Nature Man |journal=Woman's Home Companion |date=1908 |volume=35 |issue=9 |pages=21–22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LgiAQAAMAAJ|access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref>
* "The High Seat of Abundance" in ''Woman's Home Companion'' (1908)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=London |first1=Jack |title=The High Seat of Abundance |journal=Woman's Home Companion |date=1908 |volume=35 |issue=11 |pages=13–14, 70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LgiAQAAMAAJ|access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref>
* ''Revolution, and other Essays'' (1910)
* ''Mexico's Army and Ours'' (1914)
* ''Lawgivers'' (1914)
* ''Our Adventures in Tampico'' (1914)
* ''Stalking the Pestilence'' (1914)
* ''The Red Game of War'' (1914)
* ''The Trouble Makers of Mexico'' (1914)
* ''With Funston's Men'' (1914)

=== Plays ===
* ''Theft'' (1910)
* ''Daughters of the Rich: A One Act Play'' (1915)
* ''The Acorn Planter: A California Forest Play'' (1916)

=== Poetry ===
* ''A Heart'' (1899)
* ''Abalone Song'' (1913)
* ''And Some Night'' (1914)
* ''Ballade of the False Lover'' (1914)
* ''Cupid's Deal'' (1913)
* ''Daybreak'' (1901)
* ''Effusion'' (1901)
* ''George Sterling'' (1913)
* ''Gold'' (1915)
* ''He Chortled with Glee'' (1899)
* ''He Never Tried Again'' (1912)
* ''His Trip to Hades'' (1913)
* ''Homeland'' (1914)
* ''Hors de Saison'' (1913)
* ''If I Were God'' (1899)
* ''In a Year'' (1901)
* ''In and Out'' (1911)
* ''Je Vis en Espoir'' (1897)
* ''Memory'' (1913)
* ''Moods'' (1913)
* ''My Confession'' (1912)
* ''My Little Palmist'' (1914)
* ''Of Man of the Future'' (1915)
* ''Oh You Everybody's Girl'' (19)
* ''On the Face of the Earth You are the One'' (1915)
* ''Rainbows End'' (1914)
* ''Republican Rallying Song'' (1916)
* ''Sonnet'' (1901)
* ''The Gift of God'' (1905)
* ''The Klondyker's Dream'' (1914)
* ''The Lover's Liturgy'' (1913)
* ''The Mammon Worshippers'' (1911)
* ''The Republican Battle-Hymn'' (1905)
* ''The Return of Ulysses'' (1915)
* ''The Sea Sprite and the Shooting Star'' (1916)
* ''The Socialist's Dream'' (1912)
* ''The Song of the Flames'' (1903)
* ''The Way of War'' (1906)
* ''The Worker and the Tramp'' (1911)
* ''Tick! Tick! Tick!'' (1915)
* ''Too Late'' (1912)
* ''Weasel Thieves'' (1913)
* ''When All the World Shouted my Name'' (1905)
* ''Where the Rainbow Fell'' (1902)
* ''Your Kiss'' (1914)

{{col-break}}

=== Short stories ===
* "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan" (November 12, 1893)
* " 'Frisco Kid's' Story" (February 15, 1895)
* "Sakaicho, Hona Asi and Hakadaki" (April 19, 1895)
* "Night's Swim In Yeddo Bay" (May 27, 1895)
* "Who Believes in Ghosts!" (October 21, 1895)
* "And 'Frisco Kid Came Back" (November 4, 1895)
* "One More Unfortunate" (December 18, 1895)
* "O Haru" (1993; written in April 1897)
* "The Mahatma's Little Joke" (1993; written in May 1897)
* "The Strange Experience of a Misogynist" (1993; written between May and September 1897), originally titled "The Misogynist"
* "Two Gold Bricks" (September 1897)
* "The Plague Ship" (1993; written between September and December 1897)
* "The Devil's Dice Box" (December 1976; written in September 1898)
* "The Test: A Clondyke Wooing" (1983; written in September 1898)
* "A Klondike Christmas" (1983; written in November 1898)
* "A Dream Image" (1898)
* "To the Man on Trail: A Klondike Christmas" (January 1899)
* "[[The White Silence]]" (February 1899)
* "The Son of the Wolf" (April 1899)
* "The Men of Forty-Mile" (May 1899)
* "[[A Thousand Deaths (London short story)|A Thousand Deaths]]" (May 1899)
* "An Old Soldier's Story" (May 20, 1899)
* "In a Far Country" (June 1899)
* "The Priestly Prerogative" (July 1899)
* "The Handsome Cabin Boy" (July 1899)
* "The Wife of a King" (August 1899)
* "In the Time of Prince Charley" (September 1899)
* "Old Baldy" (September 16, 1899)
* "The Grilling of Loren Ellery" (September 24, 1899)
* "The Rejuvenation of Major Rathbone" (November 1899)
* "The King of Mazy May" (November 30, 1899)
* "The Wisdom of the Trail" (December 1899)
* "A Daughter of the Aurora" (December 24, 1899)
* "Pluck and Pertinacity" (1899)
* "An Odyssey of the North" (January 1900)
* "A Lesson in Heraldry" (March 1900)
* "The End of the Chapter" (June 9, 1900)
* "Uri Bram's God" (June 24, 1900)
* "Even unto Death" (July 28, 1900)
* "Grit of Women" (August 1900)
* "Jan the Unrepentant" (August 1900)
* "The Man with the Gash" (September 1900)
* "Their Alcove" (September 1900)
* "Housekeeping in the Klondike" (September 16, 1900)
* "The Proper 'Girlie' " (October 1900)
* "Thanksgiving on Slav Creek" (November 24, 1900)
* "Where the Trail Forks" (December 1900)
* "The Great Interrogation" (December 1900)
* "Semper Idem" (December 1900)
* "A Northland Miracle" (November 4, 1926; written in 1900)
* "Dutch Courage" (November 29, 1900)
* "A Relic of the Pliocene" (January 12, 1901)
* "[[The Law of Life]]" (March 1901)
* "Siwash" (March 1901)
* "The Lost Poacher" (March 14, 1901)
* "At the Rainbow's End" (March 24, 1901)
* "The God of His Fathers" (May 1901)
* "The Scorn of Woman" (May 1901)
* "The Minions of Midas" (May 1901)
* "Chris Farrington: Able Seaman" (May 23, 1901)
* "A Hyperborean Brew" (July 1901)
* "Bald Face" (September 6, 1901)
* "Keesh, Son of Keesh" (January 1902)
* "An Adventure in the Upper Sea" (May 1902)
* "[[To Build a Fire]]" (May 29, 1902, revised August 1908)
* "[[Bâtard|Diable&nbsp;— A Dog]]" (June 1902), renamed ''[[Bâtard]]'' in 1904
* "To Repel Boarders" (June 1902)
* "The 'Fuzziness' of Hoockla-Heen" (July 3, 1902)
* "[[Moon-Face]]" (July 21, 1902)
* "Nam-Bok, the Liar" (August 1902)
* "Li Wan the Fair" (August 1902)
* "The Master of Mystery" (September 1902)
* "In the Forests of the North" (September 1902)
* "The Sunlanders" (September 1902)
* "The Death of Ligoun" (September 1902)
* "The Story of Jees Uck" (September 1902)
* "The Sickness of Lone Chief" (October 1902)
* "The League of the Old Men" (October 4, 1902)
* "Lost Face" (1902)
* "In Yeddo Bay" (February 1903)
* "The One Thousand Dozen" (March 1903)
* "The Shadow and the Flash" (June 1903)
* "The Faith of Men" (June 1903)
* "[[The Leopard Man's Story]]" (August 1903)
* "The Marriage of Lit-Lit" (September 1903)
* "Local Color" (October 1903)
* "Too Much Gold" (December 1903)
* "Amateur Night" (December 1903)
* "The Dominant Primordial Beast" (1903)
* "Keesh, The Bear Hunter" (January 1904); often reprinted as "The Story of Keesh"
* "The Banks of the Sacramento" (March 17, 1904)
* "White and Yellow" (February 16, 1905)
* "The King of the Greeks" (March 2, 1905)
* "A Raid on the Oyster Pirates" (March 16, 1905)
* "The Siege of the 'Lancashire Queen' " (March 30, 1905)
* "Charley's Coup" (April 13, 1905)
* "Demetrios Contos" (April 27, 1905)
* "Yellow Handkerchief" (May 11, 1905)
* "All Gold Cañon" (November 1905)
* "Love of Life" (December 1905)
* "The Sun-Dog Trail" (December 1905)
* "A Nose for the King" (March 1906)
* "Planchette" (June 1906)
* "The Unexpected" (August 1906)
* "Brown Wolf" (August 1906)
* "The Apostate" (September 1906)
* "Up the Slide" (October 25, 1906)
* "A Wicked Woman" (November 1906)
* "The White Man's Way" (November 4, 1906)
* "The Wit of Porportuk" (December 1906)
* "When God Laughs" (January 1907)
* "Just Meat" (March 1907)
* "Created He Them" (April 1907)
* "Morganson's Finish" (May 1907)
* "A Day's Lodging" (May 25, 1907)
* "Negore the Coward" (September 1907)
* "Chased by the Trail" (September 26, 1907)
* "The Passing of Marcus O'Brien" (January 1908)
* "Trust" (January 1908)
* "That Spot" (February 1908)
* "Flush of Gold" (April 1908)
* "Make Westing" (April 1908)
* "The Enemy of All the World" (October 1908)
* "Aloha Oe" (December 1908)
* "A Curious Fragment" (December 10, 1908)
* "[[The Dream of Debs]]" (January 1909)
* "The House of Mapuhi" (January 1909)
* "The Seed of McCoy" (April 1909)
* "The Madness of John Harned" (May 1909)
* "[[South of the Slot]]" (May 22, 1909)
* "Good-by, Jack" (June 1909)
* "The Chinago" (June 26, 1909)
* "The Sheriff of Kona" (August 1909)
* "[[The Heathen]]" (September 1909)
* "[[A Piece of Steak]]" (November 20, 1909)
* "Koolau the Leper" (December 1909)
* "Mauki" (December 1909)
* "The Mission of John Starhurst" (December 29, 1909); reprinted as "The Whale Tooth"
* "Samuel" (1909)
* "Chun An Chun" (Spring 1910)
* "The Terrible Solomons" (March 1910)
* "The Inevitable White Man" (May 14, 1910)
* "[[The Unparalleled Invasion]]" (July 1910)
* "Winged Blackmail" (September 1910)
* "When the World was Young" (September 10, 1910)
* "The Benefit of the Doubt" (November 12, 1910)
* "Under the Deck Awnings" (November 19, 1910)
* "Yah! Yah! Yah!" (December 1910)
* "The House of Pride" (December 1910)
* "To Kill a Man" (December 10, 1910)
* "Bunches of Knuckles" (December 18, 1910)
* "Goliath" (1910)
* "The 'Francis Spaight' " (January 1911)
* "The Hobo and the Fairy" (February 11, 1911)
* "The Strength of the Strong" (March 1911)
* "The Eternity of Forms" (March 1911)
* "A Son of the Sun" (May 27. 1911)
* "The Taste of the Meat" (June 1911)
* "The Proud Goat of Aloysius Pankburn" (June 24, 1911)
* "The Meat" (July 1911)
* "The Night Born" (July 1911)
* "War" (July 29, 1911)
* "The Goat Man of Fuatino" (July 20, 1911)
* "The Stampede to Squaw Creek" (August 1911)
* "[[The Mexican (short story)|The Mexican]]" (August 19, 1911)
* "Shorty Dreams" (September 1911)
* "A Little Account with Swithin Hall" (September 2, 1911)
* "A Goboto Night" (September 30, 1911)
* "The Man on the Other Bank" (October 1911)
* "The Pearls of Parlay" (October 14, 1911)
* "The Race for Number Three" (November 1911)
* "The End of the Story" (November 1911)
* " The Jokers of New Gibbon" (November 11, 1911)
* "By the Turtles of Tasman" (November 19, 1911)
* "The Little Man" (December 1911)
* "The Unmasking of the Cad" (December 23, 1911)
* "The Hanging of Cultus George" (January 1912)
* "The Mistake of Creation" (February 1912)
* "A Flutter in Eggs" (March 1912)
* "The Sea-Farmer" (March 1912)
* "The Feathers of the Sun" (March 9, 1912)
* "The Town-Site of Tra-Lee" (April 1912)
* "Wonder of Woman" (May 1912)
* "The Prodigal Father" (May 1912)
* "[[The Scarlet Plague]]" (June 1912)
* "The Captain of the Susan Drew" (December 1, 1912)
* "Samuel" (May 1913)
* "The Sea-Gangsters" (November 1913)
* "Told in the Drooling Ward" (June 1914)
* "The Hussy" (December 1916)
* "Man of Mine" (February 1917)
* "Like Argus of the Ancient Times" (March 1917)
* "Jerry of the Islands" (1917)
* "When Alice Told Her Soul" (March 1918)
* "The Princess" (June 1918)
* "The Tears of Ah Kim" (July 1918)
* "The Water Baby" (September 1918)
* "[[The Red One]]" (October 1918)
* "In the Cave of the Dead" (November 1918)
* "Shin-Bones" (1918)
* "On the Makaloa Mat" (March 1919)
* "The Bones of Kahekili" (July 1919)
* " Whose Business Is to Live" (September 1922)
* "Eyes of Asia" (September 1924)

{{col-break}}
[[File:The Cruise of the Dazzler book cover.png|thumb|First edition (1902)]]
[[File:Famous fantastic mysteries 194902.jpg|thumb|''The Scarlet Plague'' was reprinted in the February 1949 issue of ''[[Famous Fantastic Mysteries]]'']]
{{col-end}}

== Legacy and honors ==
[[File:Jack London Lake by bartosh.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Jack London lake]]
* [[Mount London]], also known as Boundary Peak 100, on the [[Alaska]]-[[British Columbia]] boundary, in the [[Boundary Ranges]] of the [[Coast Mountains]] of [[British Columbia]], is named for him.<ref>{{cite bcgnis |id=21180 |title=London, Mount}}</ref>
* [[Jack London Square]] on the waterfront of [[Oakland, California|Oakland]], California was named for him.<ref name="Niekerken"/>
* He was honored by the [[United States Postal Service]] with a 25¢ [[Great Americans series]] postage stamp released on January 11, 1986.
* [[Jack London Lake]] ({{langx|ru|[[:ru:Озеро Джека Лондона|Озеро Джека Лондона]]}}), a mountain lake located in the upper reaches of the [[Kolyma River]] in Yagodninsky district of [[Magadan Oblast]].
* Fictional portrayals of London include [[Michael O'Shea (actor)|Michael O'Shea]] in the 1943 film ''[[Jack London (film)|Jack London]]'', [[Jeff East]] in the 1980 film ''[[Klondike Fever]]'', [[Michael Aron (actor)|Michael Aron]] in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode [[Time's Arrow (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Time's Arrow]] from 1992, [[Aaron Ashmore]] in the ''[[Murdoch Mysteries]]'' episode "[[List of Murdoch Mysteries episodes#Season 5 (2012)|Murdoch of the Klondike]]" from 2012, and [[Johnny Simmons]] in the 2014 miniseries ''[[Klondike (miniseries)|Klondike]]''.

==See also==
* [[List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist-ua}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book |last=Day |first=A. Grove  | editor-first = Bob  | editor-last = Dye |year=1996 |orig-year=1984 |chapter=Jack London and Hawaii |title=Hawaiʻi Chronicles |publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]] |location=Honolulu |pages=113–19 |isbn=0824818296 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Alex |year=1999 |title=Jack London |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=031219904X }}
* {{cite book |last=Kingman |first=Russ |year=1979 |title=A Pictorial Life of Jack London |url=https://archive.org/details/pictoriallifeofj00king |url-access=registration |publisher=Crown Publishers, Inc. (original); also "Published for Jack London Research Center by David Rejl, California" (same ISBN) |location=New York |isbn=0517540932 }}
* {{cite book |last=London |first=Charmian |author-link=Charmian London |year=2003 |orig-year=1921 |title=The Book of Jack London, Volume II |publisher=Kessinger |isbn=0766161889 }}
* {{cite book |last1=London |first1=Jack |last2=Taylor |first2=J. Golden |title=A Literary history of the American West |publisher=Texas Christian University Press |location=Fort Worth |year=1987 |isbn=087565021X |url=https://archive.org/details/literaryhistoryo00west }}
* {{cite book |last=London |first=Joan |author-link=Joan London, U.S. writer |year=1939 |title=Jack London and His Times |publisher=Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc |location=New York |lccn= 39-33408 }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/jack_london.html |last=Lundberg |first=Murray |title=The Life of Jack London as Reflected in his Works |work=Explore North |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610160906/http://www.explorenorth.com/library/yafeatures/jack_london.html |archive-date=June 10, 2008 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite book |last=Noel |first=Joseph |year=1940 |title=Footloose in Arcadia: A Personal Record of Jack London, George Sterling, Ambrose Bierce |url=https://archive.org/details/footlooseinarcad00noel |url-access=registration |publisher=Carrick and Evans |location=New York }}
* {{cite book |last=Reesman |first=Jeanne Campbell |year=2009 |title=Jack London's Racial Lives: A Critical Biography |publisher=[[University of Georgia Press]] |location=Athens, GA |isbn=978-0820327891 }}
* {{cite book |last=Stasz |first=Clarice |year=1999 |orig-year=1988 |title=American Dreamers: Charmian and Jack London |publisher=toExcel (iUniverse, Lincoln, Nebraska) |isbn=0595000029 |url=https://archive.org/details/americandreamers00clar }}
* {{cite book |last=Stasz |first=Clarice |year=2001 |title=Jack London's Women |publisher=[[University of Massachusetts Press]] |location=Amherst, MA |isbn=1558493018 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wichlan |first=Daniel J. |year=2007 |title=The Complete Poetry of Jack London |publisher=Little Red Tree Publishing |location=Waterford, CT |isbn=978-0978944629 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Reesman |first1=Jeanne |last2=Hodson |first2=Sara |last3=Adam |first3=Philip |year=2010 |title=Jack London Photographer |publisher=University of Georgia Press |location=Athens and London }}
* {{cite news |title=Jack London Dies Suddenly On Ranch |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 23, 1916 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0112.html |access-date=September 22, 2011 |quote=Novelist is Found Unconscious from Uremia, and Expires after Eleven Hours. Wrote His Life of Toil—His Experience as Sailor Reflected in His Fiction—'Call of the Wild' Gave Him His Fame." 'The New York Times,' story datelined Santa Rosa, Cal., Nov. 22; appeared November 24, 1916, p. 13. States he died 'at 7:45 o'clock tonight,' and says he was 'born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876.' |ref={{sfnRef|New York Times November 23, 1916}}
  }}

'''The Jack London Online Collection'''
* {{cite web |title=Jack London's death certificate, from County Record's Office, Sonoma Co., Nov. 22, 1916. |date=November 22, 1916 |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Documents/I0040981.html |access-date=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: Jack London's death certificate}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427111702/http://london.sonoma.edu/Documents/I0040981.html |archive-date=April 27, 2015 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web |last=Stasz |first=Clarice |year=2001 |title=Jack &#91;John Griffith&#93; London |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/London/jackbio.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629003440/http://london.sonoma.edu/London/jackbio.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 29, 2012 |access-date=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: Biography}}
}}
* {{cite web |title=Revolution and Other Essays: The Yellow Peril |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Writings/Revolution/yellow.html |access-date=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: The Yellow Peril}}
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://archive.today/20121211070619/http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Writings/Revolution/yellow.html
 |archive-date = December 11, 2012
}}
* {{cite web |title=The Unparalleled Invasion |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/StrengthStrong/invasion.html |access-date=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: The Unparalleled Invasion}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529213234/http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/StrengthStrong/invasion.html |archive-date=May 29, 2014 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web |title=Jack London's "Credo", Commentary by Clarice Stasz |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/London/credo.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121215010151/http://london.sonoma.edu/London/credo.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2012 |access-date=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: Credo}}
}}
* {{cite web |title=Jack London's Writings |author=Roy Tennant and Clarice Stasz |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/ |access-date=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: Writings}}
  }}<!-- 'The Scab' is not referred to at this point...
* {{cite web |title=The Scab |date=April 5, 1903 |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/London/Writings/WarOfTheClasses/scab.html |accessdate=August 14, 2014 |ref={{sfnRef|The Jack London Online Collection: "The Scab"}}
  }}-->
* {{cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Rodger |author-link=Rodger Jacobs |date=July 1999 |title=Running with the Wolves: Jack London, the Cult of Masculinity, and "Might is Right" |journal=Panik |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Bibliographies/redbeard.html |access-date=August 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816012844/http://london.sonoma.edu/Bibliographies/redbeard.html |archive-date=August 16, 2014 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web |last=Williams |first=James |title=Jack London's Works by Date of Composition |publisher=The Jack London Online Collection |url=http://london.sonoma.edu/Bibliographies/comp_date.html |access-date=August 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816012818/http://london.sonoma.edu/Bibliographies/comp_date.html |archive-date=August 16, 2014 |url-status=dead }}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book  | editor-last = Asprey  | editor-first = Matthew |last1=Jacobs |first1=Rodger (preface) |year=2010 |title=Jack London: San Francisco Stories |publisher=Sydney Samizdat Press |location=Sydney |isbn=978-1453840504}}
* {{cite book |last=Haley |first=James L. |author-link=James L. Haley |year=2010 |title=Wolf: The Lives of Jack London |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York  |isbn=978-0465004782 |url=https://archive.org/details/wolflivesofjackl00hale }}
* {{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=David |year=1986 |title=The Tools of My Trade: Annotated Books in Jack London's Library |publisher=University of Washington|isbn=0295961570 |url=https://archive.org/details/thetoolsofmytrad00davi }}
* {{cite book |last=Herron |first=Don |year=2004 |title=The Barbaric Triumph: A Critical Anthology on the Writings of Robert E. Howard |publisher=Wildside Press |isbn=0809515660}}
* {{Cite CAB|wstitle= London, Jack |last= Homans |first= James E. |author-link= |page= |short=}}
* {{cite book |last=Howard |first=Robert E. |author-link=Robert E. Howard |year=1989 |title=Robert E. Howard Selected Letters 1923–1930 |publisher=Necronomicon Press |location=West Warwick, RI |isbn=0940884267}}
* {{cite book |title=Jack London: An American Life |last=Labor |first=Earle |author-link=Earle Labor |year=2013 |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0374178482 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/jacklondonameric0000labo }}
* {{cite book  | editor-last = Labor  | editor-first = Earle |year=1994 |title=The Portable Jack London |publisher=Viking Penguin|isbn=0140179690}}
* {{cite book |last1=London |first1=Jack |last2=Strunsky |first2=Anna |author-link2=Anna Strunsky |year=2000 |orig-year=1903 |title=The Kempton-Wace Letters |publisher=Triality |location=Czech Republic |isbn=8090187684 |url=https://archive.org/details/kemptonwacelett01strugoog}}
* {{cite book |last=Lord |first=Glenn |author-link=Glenn Lord |year=1976 |title=The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert E. Howard |publisher=Donald M. Grant, Publisher |location=West Kingston, RI}}
* {{cite book |last=Oates |first=Joyce Carol |author-link=Joyce Carol Oates |year=2013 |title=The Accursed |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0062231703}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Pizer |editor-first=Donald |editor-link=Donald Pizer |year=1982 |title=Jack London: Novels and Stories |publisher=Library of America|isbn=978-0940450059 |url=https://archive.org/details/novelsstories00lond }}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Pizer |editor-first=Donald |year=1982 |title=Jack London: Novels and Social Writing |publisher=Library of America |isbn=978-0940450066 |url=https://archive.org/details/novelssocialwrit00lond }}
* {{cite book  | editor-last = Raskin  | editor-first = Jonah  | editor-link = Jonah Raskin |year=2008 |title=The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution |publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520255463}}
* {{cite book |last=Sinclair |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Sinclair |year=1977 |title=Jack: A Biography of Jack London |publisher=HarperCollins |location=United States |isbn=0060138998 |url=https://archive.org/details/jackbiographyofj00sinc }}
* {{cite book |last=Starr |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Starr |orig-year=1973 |title=Americans and the California Dream 1850–1915 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1986 |isbn=0195042336 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americanscalifor0000star }}
* {{cite book |last=Stasz |first=Clarice |year=1988 |title=American Dreamers: Charmian and Jack London |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0312021603 |url=https://archive.org/details/americandreamers00stas }}
* {{cite book |last=Wichlan |first=Daniel |year=2014 |title= The Complete Poetry of Jack London. 2nd. ed.|location=New London, CT |publisher=Little Tree }}
* {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Jay |year=2014 |title=Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London, 1893–1902 |location=Lincoln, NE |publisher=Univ. of Nebraska}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Williams |editor-first=Jay |year=2017 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Jack London |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote|Jack London}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
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* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jack-london}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=120}}
* {{FadedPage|id=London, Jack (John Griffith)|name=Jack (John Griffith) London|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jack London}}
* {{Librivox author |id=143}}
* {{OL author}}
* [http://westernamericanliterature.com/jack-london/ Western American Literature Journal: Jack London]
* [http://london.sonoma.edu/ The Jack London Online Collection] Site featuring information about Jack London's life and work, and a collection of his writings.
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060615024937/http://www.jacklondons.net/ The World of Jack London]}} Biographical information and writings
* [http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=478 Jack London State Historic Park]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040604041358/http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/JackLondon.html The Huntington Library's Jack London Archive]
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf3t1nb062/ Guide to the Jack London Papers] at [[The Bancroft Library]]
* [http://london.sonoma.edu/ Jack London Collection] at [http://library.sonoma.edu/ Sonoma State University Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070808132144/http://carl-bell-2.baylor.edu/~bellc/JL/ Jack London Stories], scanned from original magazines, including the original artwork
* 5 short [https://web.archive.org/web/20110515030211/http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/london.html radio episodes] from Jack London's writing at California Legacy Project
* {{cite web |last=Howser |first=Huell |title=Jack London – California's Gold (502) |url=http://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/1994/12/10/jack-london-californias-gold-502/ |work=California's Gold |publisher=[[Chapman University]] Huell Howser Archive |author-link=Huell Howser |date=December 10, 1994}}
* [http://www.shapell.org/Collection/Historical-Figures/London-Jack Jack London Personal Manuscripts]
* {{cite web |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?415342-1/life-legacy-jack-london |title=The Life and Legacy of Jack London |publisher=C-Span TV |date=September 19, 2016}}

{{Jack London|state=expanded}}
{{The Call of the Wild}}
{{Martin Eden}}
{{The Sea-Wolf}}
{{White Fang}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:London, Jack}}
[[Category:Jack London| ]]
[[Category:1876 births]]
[[Category:1916 deaths]]
[[Category:1906 San Francisco earthquake survivors]]
[[Category:19th-century American short story writers]]
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[[Category:Works by Jack London| ]]
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