Jack London, born John Griffith Chaney, was born on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco, USA. He was the son of the unmarried Flora Wellman and astrologer William Cheney.
In 1876, Flora married John London, a veteran Civil War in the USA, and the family moved to the city of Oakland, neighboring San Francisco, where John graduated from school.
John began working early: as a schoolboy he sold morning and evening newspapers; at the age of 14 he entered a canning factory as a worker; for some time he caught oysters in San Francisco Bay, which was prohibited by law. In 1893, he hired himself as a sailor on a fishing schooner, going to catch seals off the coast of Japan and in the Bering Sea. Returning home seven months later, he got a job as a worker at a jute factory.
At the same time, John London took part in the San Francisco Call newspaper competition for best story and received first prize of $25 for the story “Typhoon off the Japanese Coast.”
In 1894 he joined the march of the unemployed on Washington; I spent a month in prison for vagrancy.
He prepared independently and successfully passed the exams at the University of California, but, not having sufficient funds, was forced to quit his studies after the third semester.
In the spring of 1897, the future writer succumbed to the “gold rush” and left for Alaska. Upon returning, he decided to devote himself to literature. Name Jack - literary pseudonym. Jack London's first northern stories were published in 1899, and in 1900 the collection of stories "Son of the Wolf" was published.
At the center of London's stories is a clash of strong, courageous characters, each of whom embodies their own understanding of the norms and values of life. Events unfold against the backdrop of an important choice for people - the ability and inability to live in harmony with the natural world around them, to feel and accept its strict laws, against the backdrop of an uncompromising struggle for justice and human dignity.
In 1901, the collection of stories “The God of His Fathers” was published, and in 1902 the first novel “Daughter of the Snows” was published. Then the stories about animals “The Call of the Wild” (1903) and “White Fang” (1906) were published. In 1907, a utopian warning novel, The Iron Heel, was published.
In 1907-1909, Jack London committed sea voyage on the yacht "Snark" built by him according to his own drawings.
In 1909 it was published autobiographical novel"Martin Eden", in 1913 - the novel "Moon Valley", in 1916 - "The Little Mistress of the Big House".
In total, Jack London wrote more than 50 books, hundreds of stories and numerous articles. Some of his works have been translated into 70 languages.
Jack London was a war correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). In 1914 he worked as a war correspondent in Mexico.
In 1905, London purchased a ranch in Glen Ellen, California, which he constantly expanded by purchasing new land. The writer dreamed of building huge house called "House of the Wolf", all the numerous fees were invested in the construction. On his ranch, he conducted agricultural experiments on an unprecedented scale; he employed more than 80 people. In 1913, the house, already ready for delivery, burned down.
On November 22, 1916, Jack London died at his estate in Glen Ellen. His ashes were buried on a hill near the ranch.
In 1920, the writer’s novel “Hearts of Three” was published posthumously, in which London turned to a new genre American literature- film story.
Jack London was married twice. His first wife was Bessie Maddern, from this marriage the writer had two daughters - Joan and Bassie. Jack London's second wife was Charmian Kittredge.
In 1960, the Jack London State Historical Park was opened on the writer's estate in Glen Ellen.
The material was prepared based on information open sources
Name: Jack London
Age: 40 years old
Place of birth: San Francisco, California, USA
Place of death: Glen Ellen, California, USA
Activity: writer
Marital status: was married
Jack London - biography
A writer whose work was widely read. His adventures in the books were fascinating and made me experience vivid emotions. Jack London's heroes were from reality. Where did the writer get the stories from? Why are they so realistic? The circulation of this author in the Soviet Union overtook the circulation of books.
Childhood years, the writer's family
The heroes of the writer of London are believed because the author took them from his life. He has been trying to find and expose mistakes and shortcomings since childhood. And a true American can find quite a lot of them, since in America there is no concept of “justice.” John was born in a harsh winter to an even harsher father, William Cheney. He did not want to recognize his son, who was still in the womb.
The boy's biography began bleakly. John was immediately given to be raised by a wet nurse. The writer remembered this black woman all his life, since it was she who was there when her real mother was trying to arrange her personal life.
Nurse Jenny loved Jack like her own son. Soon the boy had a real family. Her real mother, Flora Wellman, was the daughter of Wellman, who was a prominent and influential Ohio businessman. She married a man who had two daughters, new husband mother adopted Jack, giving him her last name. Happy biography, full family- everything was so sincere in the relationship between adults and children that the future writer did not even dare to imagine that he might have another father.
Jack London - Craving for reading
Jack was in excellent health and had a great desire for learning. He even taught himself to read, and from the age of five he never parted with a book. The adoptive father was a farmer, and he had to work a lot, but the family did not drown in luxury. Farming became unprofitable, and the family moved to another place, to Auckland. After a misfortune in the family, thirteen-year-old Jack was left with all the worries of making money. The boy stopped studying and got a job various works: newspaper seller, delivery man and ice peddler. His mother needed money, and Jack gave her his earnings.
The adult life of Jack London
As a fourteen-year-old teenager, Jack learned what a factory and working like an adult were. London does a lot of philosophizing while his hands work. This is probably why it was so easy to write to Jack London in the future, because he learned and experienced a lot in his personal biography. He even broke the law when he started harvesting oysters. Jack was incredibly brave and daring, for this he received, among his fellow oyster pirates, the title of Prince. Then he gets a job on an oyster patrol, then as a sailor on a ship heading to the shores of Japan.
You can talk about writing from the age of eight, but these were simple tasks from the teacher. But even then he creative works were very different from the work of other students. But already at the age of 17, one of the newspapers highly appreciated the essay that appeared about how the author himself got caught in the Japanese typhoon. This moment can be considered the official recognition of Jack London as a writer. He is the author of fifty books.
What are Jack London's books about?
All of Jack London's works are based on his many adventures. The writer is young, but full of the will to win; he writes his stories and novels for days, with very little rest. Having moved to London, the author creates masterpieces for all times: his “White Fang” and “Martin Eden” were read by everyone. The heroes had to overcome failures in life and all kinds of difficulties, just as London itself did. His entire biography is one of continuous overcoming difficulties.
All the books of the young Jack London differ from the tragic works of the mature writer. London had kidney pain, lately He used morphine for pain relief; death occurred from an overdose.
Jack London - biography of personal life
While still at university, Jack meets his sister good friend. The girl was sweet and gentle, but the guy, who was not afraid of the sea devil himself, was rude. Although this difference from many well-groomed guys attracted Mabel. The young man understands that he needs money to get married and support his family; he writes story books, but they refuse to publish them.
He starts ironing clothes, goes to Alaska for gold, but returns without the expected loot, he only gets sick with scurvy, and gets a job as a postman. Again the stories return, but not all of them; two works by London are published one after the other.
Everything is ready for marriage, but the girl’s mother does not agree to marry Mabel to Jack. Some time later the guy meets Bessie, his bride dead friend who fell in love young man. London achieved fame and recognition as a writer, but his wife does not share it literary creativity, she takes care of their daughters, the spouses have two of them.
There is no mutual understanding in the marriage, and Jack leaves for another woman. His new life partner, Charmian Kittredge, shared all the writer’s hardships, went on trips with him, and helped her husband in every possible way.
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The most legendary American writer— Jack London (books). The list contains best works author, for which he became famous throughout the world.
Martin Eden
The novel talks about difficult fate a poor guy who later became a writer. Martin's life was turned upside down by his meeting with Ruth, an intelligent, educated girl who immediately fell in love with the young man. Experiencing such strong feelings as love, Martin changes externally and internally, stops communicating with old acquaintances and suddenly realizes how insignificant the world and its love are. Further
Little Mistress of the Big House
The work, released shortly before the death of Jack London, is dedicated to the relationships of strong personalities. The novel is full of love intricacies and intrigues, but this does not prevent it from being noble. According to the writer himself, this is his best job, in which he managed to truly convey the feelings and emotions that love evokes in people’s hearts. Further
Hearts of three
The exciting story of the young millionaire Francis and his cousin Henry Morgan, whose distant ancestor was the famous pirate captain. The brothers go in search of an ancient treasure and when they are joined by charming girl named Leoncia, both fall in love with her. The novel has been filmed many times both in the West and in Russia. Further
You can subjugate a person, but you cannot kill his desire to be free - the main theme of a little-known work in Russia. Crazy by the standards of those around him, the main character knows how to leave his body and travel through ancient countries and eras. His physical body is locked, but does that matter if the soul moves freely at any time... Continue
A work called a road novel because of the hero’s constant wanderings in search of a place where he would be truly happy. In the novel, Jack London expresses his protest against socialism and sees a future in farm life. After several years of searching and wandering, the main characters leave the city, finding their happiness in life on a farm in the Valley of the Moon. Further
World big business cruel and knows no mercy. Having acquired money and long-awaited power, the main character of the novel suddenly realizes that real human values are loyalty, love and a strong family. He refuses financial well-being and remains to live with the woman he loves far from the city. The novel was banned in the Soviet Union and was not published for a long time. Further
Professor Darrell sentenced to death penalty and is awaiting punishment in prison. During a brutal straitjacket punishment, he suddenly finds himself in his previous incarnations in different countries ahs and eras: the intelligent Count Guillaume de Saint-Maur in France of the Middle Ages, a nine-year-old boy who did not cower in a moment of danger, the head of the legion under Pontius Pilate... Continue
Jack London's first novel, Daughter of the Snows, tells the story of the travels of a young American woman, Frona Wells. Many years later, she returns to her father, having received an excellent, comprehensive education, but without losing human sincerity and simplicity. The book includes several stories from different years, describing the life of treasure hunters during the gold rush. Further
One of best novels Jack London. After a storm on the ship, the captain of the schooner "Ghost" saves the life of a young sailor, Humphrey. To survive and be able to protect his love, the young man will have to fight a cunning and cruel captain who promotes a special philosophy. Only true love will help Humphrey overcome obstacles and become a real sea wolf himself. Further
White Fang
The harsh North leaves a mark on the souls of people and animals. The main character of the story, a wolf named White Fang, learned to survive even in the most terrible conditions. Jack London describes in detail the psychology, behavior and actions of White Fang, showing how care and affection towards the animal teaches him to give love. But for a tame wolf love was worth more valuable than life. Further
Adventure
The novel "Adventure" tells about the dangerous life of white colonists among the cannibal natives in the Solomon Islands. The work depicts in detail the lifestyles, traditions and rituals of indigenous peoples of some of the most mysterious islands on Earth. In the Soviet Union, the novel was called racist and was banned from publication for sixty-four long years. Further
Iron heel
The writer, as if looking into the future, accurately describes the society that appeared a few years after the publication of the novel. And to this day, the work has not lost its relevance: billionaires, terrorists, spies... Nineteen years have already passed, and, despite all efforts, no one has been able to figure out who dropped the bomb. It was some member of the Iron Heel, but how could he get past our agents undetected? Further
Scarlet Plague
In 2013, an unknown virus hits the Earth, killing people in a few hours. A disease called the Scarlet Plague takes over the planet, leaving only a few alive. Jack London's book "The Scarlet Plague" talks about a new society where completely different rules apply, similar to the laws of the animal world and absolutely wild for modern man. Further
An exciting story about a dangerous voyage in the southern seas on a sailing ship sailing to Cape Horn. After tragic death Captain, the crew of the sailing ship was divided into two groups. Conflicts among the sailors and the raging elements force the main character to stop silently observing what is happening and finally become himself - strong-willed and strong man with leadership qualities. Further
The girls carefully cut out his portraits from magazines. Publishers fought for the right to publish his manuscript. Intellectuals considered him one of the most interesting interlocutors. The tramps who came to his house knew for sure: Jack always had a glass of whiskey waiting for them... All his life he was loved - and all his life he suffered from ineradicable loneliness.
Is it because his own father once refused to consider him a son? Or because the mother of the girl he loved also did not want to call him “my son”? Or maybe because the Lord did not give him his own son, whom he so passionately dreamed of?
He was born in a part of the world where people at most allowed themselves to dream of a hearty dinner, a pair of strong shoes and a roof that didn’t leak. But he turned out to be an incorrigible dreamer and, working at a canning factory, he dreamed of becoming a great writer, conquering the sea and forcing the land to reckon with his existence.
His working day lasted 10 hours and he was paid 10 cents an hour. He kept strict records of money: 5 cents spent on lemons, 6 on milk, 4 on bread. This is in a week. His mother made sure that when he washed himself, he used the dirty soap sparingly: otherwise, how would she, pray tell, wash the dishes? My stepfather, John London, who had recently been run over by a train, lay on a trestle bed covered with rags that did not resemble sheets, and cursed fate: does it take such an unfortunate accident to remain crippled, but at the same time - crippled alive?! Now Jack has to feed the whole crowd: his mother Flora, two half-sisters (his, John's, daughters), John himself... And the boy is only 13, and yet, it seems, he has a head on his shoulders. He would read books, go to that library of his in Auckland - you see, he would become very good... Damn fate! And John, groaning, turned on his other side so as not to accidentally meet Jack's gaze. He loved his stepson and almost forgave Flora that she gave birth to him from who knows who...
They said that his father was a famous astrology professor, Irishman, Mr. Chani. They also chatted that he was never married to his mother, although he lived with her in furnished rooms on First Avenue in San Francisco, and it was thanks to him that for some time she also studied astrology, and along the way, spiritualism... They chatted also that, having become pregnant, Flora first frankly told the professor that the child was unlikely to be his: he was too old (Chani was about fifty at that time), and when he refused to acknowledge the child, she attempted suicide. There was a terrible scandal: the Chronicle newspaper poured more than one bucket of dirt on Mr. Chani, although no one even bothered to check whether this person really unsuccessfully shot herself in the temple, or (more likely) simply picked the skin on her head to arouse the sympathy of her neighbors ... Little Jack, however, was born a strong and healthy baby with a well-trained voice. He wanted to live, wanted to eat and screamed like crazy. And Flora absolutely did not know how to help him, for she was completely and completely absorbed in the prospect of her upcoming marriage with John London, a widower and a very worthy man. They found a nurse for the baby, so that he would leave her alone - a black woman, Jenny. Jenny's heart was as huge as her bust size. She sang Negro songs to the little white boy, combed his locks and loved him with the tenderness of which his eccentric mother was not capable. As an adult, Jack forgave Flora and did not forget Jenny. He helped them both, considering himself the son of both.
And he loved his stepfather, John, too. It was great to wander through the fields with him, saying nothing to each other, but understanding everything. It was great to go with him to the market to sell potatoes - in those happy, but quickly sunk into oblivion, years when John was a completely successful farmer, and Flora, with her destructive energy, had not yet managed to make a couple of rationalization proposals on the farm and thereby completely ruin it. With him you could fish on the embankment or hunt ducks: John even gave Jack a small gun and a fishing rod, real ones! With John, finally, it was possible to sometimes go to the Auckland theater. On Sundays, the public there was treated to simple plays, sandwiches and beer, so it was more like a cross between a pub and a temple of the arts, but little Jack liked everything: his stepfather sat him right on the table, from where he had a clear view of the stage, patted him on the top of his head, laughed merrily... But father! Who is he? What is he like? Why did he abandon the dissolute but good-natured Flora Wellman back in 1876?.. Why did he never make himself known, never come to even catch a glimpse of his son?..
However, all this was in the past: going to the theater, and primary school, which he managed to finish, and the public library, where the kind Mrs. Ina Coolbrith kept books for him about unknown lands and brave, thoroughly salted sailors and sails fluttering in anticipation of the wind... In the present there were only the hated canning factory and work until exhaustion. And in the future?..
“I’ll be a writer, Frank, you’ll see,” Jack once told his school friend, with whom he and he were slingshotting wild cats in the Piedmont Hills.
Well, you said it! Writer! - Frank whistled.
In his mind, one might as well want to become the king of England or the crown prince. In the vicinity of their life there was not a single living writer - all were completely exhausted factory workers, postmen, janitors and porters. With a certain amount of imagination, one could dream of a career school teacher or a doctor, although it is clear that to obtain any diploma you need a lot of money that you would never earn by twisting tin cans. Who else is there in the world? Oh yes, sailors!
The sea splashed right there, nearby, three steps from the shack that Jack called home. The sea attracted freedom, space, blueness, and it was inhabited by characters more similar to heroes of adventure novels than to living people: honest fishermen and oyster pirates, raiding other people's cages... "Oysters, oysters, buy oysters!" - the traders shouted on the pier in the morning, having bought them at dawn from pirates who “took” someone else’s catch at night. These pirates - Jack knew - made as much in a day as he earned in several months. And not for the first time, returning barely alive from the factory and hearing the pirates, swearing and laughing, getting ready for work, I thought: it’s better to live not too honestly - like them, than to die, obediently defending the years allotted to you at the machine. .. But where can I get a boat?..
And one day he learned that one of the pirates, nicknamed the Frenchman, a drunkard and a brawler, was selling his sloop. Price - 300 dollars. Jack said without hesitation: “I’m buying it!” - and rushed to his nurse, black mother Jenny.
Jenny, I need money!
Of course, my boy,” she said and reached under the mattress, where she kept all her treasures. - How many?
Three hundred dollars, Jenny!
Okay, Jack... But that's all I have.
I'll give it back. You'll see, I'll give it back. Very soon, Jenny!
It never occurred to him that grown, seasoned men “work” as pirates, and he is not yet fifteen, that the sea is not only beautiful, but also dangerous, and that if there were a strong storm, he would never be able to cope with the sloop, and the nanny will forever lose his $300, and perhaps his beloved boy. Such a simple and common, in essence, feeling - fear - was completely unfamiliar to him. He had never experienced it.
And Jack bought a boat from the Frenchman, and with it, as it turned out, his girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Mamie. Mamie fell in love with the blond handsome man as soon as she looked at him. And while the Frenchman was counting the money, she hid in the sloop's cabin. Having completed the deal, overjoyed, Jack walked around his treasure - and discovered a girl, and a very pretty one at that.
“I’ll be yours now, Jack,” Mamie said. - Can?
Well, okay,” Jack mumbled. He can’t admit to this big girl that he still doesn’t really know what real pirates do to girls!
However, Mamie quickly taught him this simple science, and he, apparently, turned out to be a capable student. And although Jack had to use his fists for the right to “register” in this peculiar group and steal other people’s oysters like everyone else (and even with someone else’s girl!) - so what! But on his first foray, he earned the same amount as in three months of working at the factory. He bought Mamie a shiny trinket, paid part of the debt to the nanny, and brought the rest of the money to his mother. And Flora, without saying a word, bought a new bar of soap that same day.
Jack hasn't really grown up yet, but his adult life has already begun. He drank whiskey as much as the pirates, and even more than them. He swore like them, and even louder. He got involved in the most brutal fights, where it was easier to die than to survive, and in one of them he lost his two front teeth. He took his sloop out to sea on nights when even the most desperate remained on the shore. He allowed Mamie to take care of herself and kissed her on the lips in front of everyone. In general, he did everything so that no one would dare to doubt: he - a real man. “This guy won’t last a year,” the old sailors, whose life experience weighed more than the largest oyster catch. “It’s a pity: he would make an excellent captain.” “He’ll get drunk,” some sighed. “He’ll kill,” others shook their heads. “He’ll die on the reefs!” predicted still others. “But the sea loves him,” others objected to them. “And he’s not afraid of a damn thing...” “The sea loves him too much,” was the answer. - And he's not too afraid. The sea takes such desperate people for itself..."
Jack just laughed listening to such prophecies. He generally did everything loudly, almost ostentatiously. And he indulged in only one activity in complete solitude, carefully making sure that the doors in the sloop's cabin were properly closed - reading. Having barely opened my eyes in the morning and dipped my buzzing head in the salty sea water, he passionately, voraciously read what Mrs. Ina Coolbrith still had in store for him. All the new items on the New York book market, the volumes of Zola, Melville and Kipling that still smelled of printing, were read up and down and almost learned by heart. Satan Nelson would have died of laughter if he had known what exotic leisure activities his young friend indulged in when he was not drunk and banditry!
But Satan Nelson died from a knife in some drunken fight, without having time to convict Jack of this weakness. And Jack, not having time to die, went on a real big voyage - and thank God, otherwise the gloomy predictions of the old sailors would have come true. He, who had never set out on the open sea, hired himself out - unheard of impudence! - a first-class sailor on one of the last sailing ships in the world - the high-speed schooner "Sophie Sutherland", heading for Korea and Japan... And if he had been just a little more cowardly and a little bit lazier, if he had known at least an iota less about the psychology of sailors , he would not have fared well on this voyage. “Snotty brat! He should run around as a cabin boy!” thought the sailors, who had spent more than one year at sea. “And he babbled God knows what to earn more...” Jack read all this in their narrowed eyes, as in his favorite books. And he knew that there was only one way to prove that you were not a yap: open your mouth as little as possible and work as hard as possible. He flew up the cables like a bird. He was the last to leave watch. He went down to the cockpit only when he was personally convinced that all the rigging was in order. And yet, he was forgiven for his youth only when the Sophie Sutherland was caught in a fierce storm and he, choking from the wind, steered the ship on the right course for an hour - so that even the captain, nodding approvingly, calmly went to dinner... After this No one said a word to Jack, but he realized that he had become one of his own.
He could have stayed in this world forever. He loved the sea, and it loved him. But lying on the deck at night, looking at the huge sky, counting the stars above his head, Jack looked for his own among them - the largest and brightest - and told her in a whisper: “I will become a writer. Do you hear? I will become a writer, and my father, whoever no matter what, he will be proud of me!” It didn't sound like a request - more like an agreement or even an order.
But he didn’t yet know what to do for this. And so every time, returning to Auckland, Jack, consoling his mother, promised to change his mind and got some dreary job that paid a pittance - now even less than before, because the crisis of 1893 struck. Eight thousand American businesses failed, and cheerful wits noticed that there were more unemployed people in the United States than dead people. But he was lucky so far, he was so young and strong that he was taken either to the jute factory or to the power station of the Auckland tram park to transport coal. He transported coal to the firehouse so quickly that the workers could not keep up with him, and received $30 a month for this... And then again he could not stand it, broke down, left, ran away, swam away. When the “gold rush” breaks out, he will go to the Klondike and bring from there more than the most successful gold miner - “ore” for his brilliant stories. But that's later. In the meantime, he found himself a new adventure, a new brotherhood - the brotherhood of the people of the Road. This meant the following: you live nowhere, but travel everywhere. Of course, without money or tickets. Of course, at your own peril and risk. Wherever you can, beg for alms or a piece of bread. Where you can't, you'll steal. For what? And to see the world, while others die of hunger or fatigue, working 15 hours a day. If you stay at home and your last name is not Rockefeller, then there is another way America late XIX centuries are not able to offer you. But the Road is always waiting for you!
And Jack became the Knight of the Road. He traveled around the country, sometimes on the roof of a carriage, sometimes under it, clinging tightly to the iron protrusions; dying from the cold and suffocating from the heat; for three days without having a single crumb in my mouth. Once he was incredibly lucky: he spent the whole evening telling stories to some wealthy, impressionable old lady, and for this she fed him real pies with real meat... Jack was not the first to tell stories: sometimes he did not end up in the police station only because could speak to death, weave three boxes and completely convince the “cop” that he was not a tramp, but simply an unfortunate person who had fallen behind the train.
The lady ran out of pies before Jack ran out of stories, and she offered him tea and cheese pie. And then she asked who he would have become if not for the fatal circumstances of life (which he only slightly sprinkled with fiction, but basically gave out the pure truth: about his father, almost an astrologer, and his mother, almost crazy, about oysters and pirates, about I catch fur seals off the coast of Japan). “Who would I be?” repeated Jack, devouring the pie and sipping tea from a thin porcelain cup, which he was afraid of crushing out of habit. “I would be a writer. Yes, I will be one anyway!” The lady looked at him - a ragged, dirty, missing front teeth, but still an incredibly handsome 18-year-old boy - and laughed heartily. How could she have known that that same evening he would sketch her portrait in his greasy notebook with a pencil stub and she would become one of the characters in his Road, thereby going down in history - along with his porcelain cups, cheese pie and slight burr?
Do you know that you are good-looking? - The lady asked after laughing to smooth out the awkwardness.
“I know,” Jack muttered.
Where? - the lady was feignedly surprised.
“My mother told me,” he replied.
In fact, Mamie, whom he left long ago, told him about this. And those unambiguous glances that the broken women from the Road threw at him, and the ease with which the simple girls at the port shared a bed with him, and the fact that it was not difficult for him to get anywhere without a ticket if the ticket inspector was female. But the trouble was that Jack liked completely different girls. Those who wore long, full skirts and modest blouses with round collars. Those who left the house only to go to church, college or university. Those who, not only did not speak, never heard curses. In short, Jack liked girls “from good families.” And he, who was not afraid of either the devil or the devil, was desperately timid even to approach such girls. He examined them from afar, on the sly, just as afraid of being caught by surprise in this unworthy activity as he had once been while reading books. Thirst pure love in his world it seemed as anomalous a phenomenon as the thirst to read, and even more so to write. In this world, women were given to men for two essential needs - pleasure and procreation. Having feelings for them was as strange as loving a glass of beer or a piece of meat. Jack wanted to admire them. And he couldn’t admire the girl who, having spat deliciously, immediately lifted her skirt (“Hey, handsome... Come on, I’m burning!”), no matter how much he wanted.
Jack returned to Auckland again, finished high school(God only knows what it cost him, a 19-year-old sea tamer and Knight of the Road, to be in the same class with yellow-mouthed brats!), entered the University of California and fell in love with a student of the same university, Mabel Applegarth, a girl from an intelligent English family, with impeccable pronunciation and lush hair the color of the sun. Jack could have wrapped his fingers around the waist of this heavenly creature - if, of course, he had dared to touch it. Mabel Applegarth played the piano and had never washed dishes in her life... In short, she was perfection, and Jack realized that he was lost forever.
Fortunately, Mabel had a brother, Edward, an intelligent guy without arrogant manners and with the virus of socialist ideas about universal equality. Edward found Jack's company very entertaining. They spent hours having serious conversations about a classless society, interpreting to each other the postulates of communism, which was already wandering like a ghost not only throughout Europe, but also throughout America. Sometimes Mabel joined these conversations. Back then, Jack especially made sure that salty words did not come out of his mouth in the heat of an argument, and therefore he often lost in these discussions...
The most incredible thing was that Mabel Applegarth also fell in love with Jack London. However, this seemed impossible only to himself. In fact, his rough, almost animalistic male power, whom she had not met, and could not meet among the intelligent boys of her circle, attracted Mabel as irresistibly as he was attracted to her fragility, femininity and manners of a real lady. Sundays When the weather and time permitted, they sailed together on a boat. She read him the sad poems of the poet Swinburne. He told her: “I will be a writer!” And Mabel was the first who was not surprised or laughed when she heard these words from Jack.
However, no. Another woman believed that he could write. Oddly enough, it was Flora. After burying my husband and waiting once again return of his prodigal son“This time he went for gold to Alaska,” she showed Jack a newspaper that announced a competition for the best story. And it was Flora who allowed him to take a few cents from the family budget for paper, a stamp and an envelope. (However, Jack supplemented this meager budget by working in the laundry in his spare time, where he sorted, washed, starched and ironed someone’s shirts, trousers and collars until he was stupefied.) He sent his story - and won! He earned his first few dollars by writing! He will be a real writer, a rich man, and Mabel Applegarth will certainly become his wife! Let her just wait - she waited while Jack dropped out of university for 16 months and wandered around the North in search of mountains of gold. But when he left, he didn’t even dare to ask for her hand: what could he offer her except his crazy love? The fate of Flora, who has been wearing the same dress for twenty years?..
He didn't say anything to her goodbye. But during the year and a half while he was gone, the reasonable Mabel realized: no one would ever give her more than this handsome man without money, to his family and tribe. With no one she will feel as calm and reliable as with him, a hot-tempered and hot-tempered guy from the very bottom. No one will look at her as if she were a treasure from a museum. And - most importantly - no one's hands will attract her to him more strongly than his big, rough, hard and so... so... Mabel could not think further: she was losing her breath.
Jack suffered from scurvy and returned from the North without a single cent. I found out that my stepfather died. I realized that I loved Mabel even more than before. I almost got a job as a postman - that is, I passed a selection interview (the consequences of the crisis were still making themselves felt, the competition for even the lowest paid positions was very high). He just had to wait until the place for which he was accepted became available, and then run with a bag on his belt around the outskirts of Auckland for more or less tolerable money. Jack sat down to write: the time had come to empty the contents notebooks, which he led since the days of the Road. Everything that he saw, learned, felt, experienced on his own skin, all the people with whom he swam, wandered, panned for gold, who became family to him and whom he lost forever - everything was asking, rushing out. He sifted through his life like a prospector sifts through rock to find a few grains of pure gold. It was necessary to carefully transfer these grains onto paper, not to lose them, to find the right words... He wrote a hundred pages a day. Flora was obediently silent and brought him liquid coffee. Almost all the money was spent on stamps and envelopes. The magazines responded with polite refusals. Jack allowed himself to eat once a week, at Mabel’s dinner, and then he did not have enough (the girl he loved should not suspect that he was starving), and he seriously thought about suicide. Suddenly the famous magazine "Transcontinental Monthly" announced that his story about Alaska - "For those on the road" - would be published! And then another magazine sent a response: another story was accepted!..
The next day, on a hill overlooking all of San Francisco, he allowed himself to kiss Mabel Applegarth for the first time. And he proposed to her. She, flushing with happiness, answered: “Yes...” And added carefully: “But what will mom say?” Her mother's anger was nothing compared to the storm on the Sophie Sutherland, Jack reassured. Within a year they would be engaged, and that year would be enough for him to become famous writer. When this happens, her mother will be simply happy that her daughter married so well. He will buy a small house. Her paintings, books, piano - all this will move there. He will write, she will look through his manuscripts for grammatical errors... And of course, she will bear him a son. “Yes,” she agreed again...
But everything turned out a little differently than Jack saw on that clear day from a high hill. His stories began to be published, but they had not yet paid enough for them to be able to eat at least every day. For five published items, he received only about 20 dollars, but nevertheless managed to refuse the post of postman that finally arrived. Fabulous fees, publishers' fights for his manuscripts, the purchase of thousands of acres of land - simply because he wanted it, the construction of his own ship, the glory of the new genius of the new America - all this was ahead, but so far away that Mabel was unable to discern future happiness on the horizon.
Maybe you'll still go to work at the post office? - she asked six months after the engagement.
No, honey, no! Then I won't be able to become a writer! I just don’t have enough time, you know?.. I beg you, wait a little longer, please!
And then Mabel Applegarth began to cry. She cried and said what she shouldn’t have said: that she didn’t like his stories at all, they were crudely made, that his language was clumsy, uncouth, and that he only wrote about suffering and death, while in life there is also love... She loves him, loves him... But he, Jack, is not a writer, just a fan... fanta... She was never able to fully pronounce this word, it was drowned in her tears and sobs.
Their engagement slowly fizzled out. She just froze, like water freezes in the cold... No, he still continued to love her. I rode my bike 40 kilometers a day just to see her. He wrote her letters, passionate, as it should be. But he didn’t go to work at the post office and didn’t give up his “fantasies” about writing, and suddenly he noticed that there were a lot of women in San Francisco, and many of them were beautiful, smart, sophisticated, well-mannered and not at all shy about him, a boy with an Oakland embankment...
He made his last attempt to marry Mabel Applegarth at the very beginning of the new 20th century.
Well, great,” Mabel’s mother said coldly. “But my husband, Mabel’s father, as you probably know, is dead.” So I set a condition: either you live here, in this house, or I live with you in your... what's his name? Auckland. My daughter, isn't she, Mabel? - he won’t leave me alone in my old age.
It’s true, mom... - Mabel whispered, realizing that her only, truest love in her life was being signed with a death sentence.
But Mrs. Applegarth, I don’t yet earn enough to support a house like yours... And as for Auckland, my mother, Flora... I doubt you’ll get along with her... - And while Jack was saying these words, he realized that his only, true love was crumbling, going to hell and no one could help her. To withstand the constant presence of this woman who will begin to lead him - him who is impossible to lead! No, this life will not be happiness. It will be a nightmare that will not stop for a moment... Also, what good, they will again point out to him the groundlessness of his fantasies and send him to work in the post office or in the laundry... or even in the government! The main thing is that he won’t be allowed to become a writer... Now if Mabel said now that she would leave with him, no matter what... Mabel, come on, Mabel!..
Of course, mom... I will always be with you...
Jack London soon married Mabel Applegarth's friend, Bessie. Not because he loved her, but because she loved his stories. Bessie bore him two children - unfortunately, girls, but he so dreamed of a son! And he did not find his father, although all his life he had been waiting for someone to suddenly appear from oblivion and say: “Hello, I am your father!” As for the astrology professor Chani, in his youth Jack wrote him a polite letter - and received a polite answer: no, no and no again, the professor is very sorry, but has nothing to do with it... A few years later, Jack divorced Bessie and married Charmian - not because he could not live without her, but because he was bored with Bessie. Moreover, Charmian was much more desperate than the insipid Bessie, and in some way reminded him of Flora. But Charmian did not give him a son either. He was about to part with Charmian, but suddenly this whole thing called “life” seemed to him an empty and uninteresting matter. And, having become a great, real writer, famous, rich and adored by everyone, at the 41st year of his life, Jack London committed suicide by taking a lethal dose of morphine.
And Mabel Applegarth never married. And I never loved anyone else. Charmian once met her at a public reading of Martin Eden: a thin woman sat in the fifth row, listened to her love story and cried.
The romance of the images created by the talent of Jack London, the tenacity of his heroes striving to achieve their goal, despite all obstacles, the extraordinary environment in which he places his characters, have a magical effect on the reader who discovers for himself, especially if this happens for the first time, his best works.
Childhood
The child was born to a very eccentric woman in 1876 in San Francisco out of wedlock. Native father, an Irishman, an eccentric astrologer, abandoned the child. Eight months later, the mother marries a man who gives her adopted son the name John (Jack is diminutive name from John) Griffith London, and real fatherly care. And Jack, in turn, became a loving and caring son to the one who raised him. The family lived in the suburbs big city, in Auckland, and lived worse and worse. Having gotten up at three o'clock in the morning and delivered the morning newspapers, the ten-year-old boy then ran to school and then delivered the evening newspapers.
When he grew up a little, he began working in a canning factory. He was in the shop for eighteen and twenty hours at a time. Jack London (his biography shows this) went through such a difficult school of life in his adolescence. He would later describe this in Martin Eden.
Romance of the sea
The port of San Francisco, along with ships arriving from different countries, turned the teenager's head. He was accepted into the “oyster pirates.” After the stuffy, dark workshops, this life seemed very attractive to young Jack. Freedom, fights, zucchini, whiskey - Jack London fell in love with all this surroundings. The biography could end tragically: he could easily and quickly drink himself to death. But Jack joined the maritime patrol, which fought pirates, and changed his lifestyle. The book “Stories from the Fishing Patrol” will be published later. But he dreams of a wide range of adventures all over the world, and therefore at the age of 17 he is hired on a schooner sailing to the Bering Sea for seals. Jack London, as the biography tells it, wins his place and respect on a schooner among seasoned Scandinavian sailors through fist fights. He managed to prove to the crew that he was real." sea wolf" This voyage did not harden or coarse him, but gave him many new impressions. They will later form the basis of his maritime works, which are read in one sitting. They will bring him love and fame all over the world. Jack London, his biography shows, passed the courage test.
When he returned, the family liked his stories, so Jack wrote an essay on the edge of the kitchen table, “A Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan,” which was published. Thus was born the American writer Jack London, whose biography will follow a very difficult path, from poverty to a man with money, from socialism and Marxism, which he was fond of, to their complete opposite.
Essays "Hold On!" and "Road"
Unemployed Jack, at the age of eighteen, joined a crowd of thousands of similarly unemployed people and went to Washington. This was the so-called “Kelly’s army,” which gradually lost participants along the way, so Kelly himself had little idea of the goals of the campaign. Here Jack London gets acquainted with Marxism, with the ideas of socialism, and with all the fervor of an adept joins the Socialist Labor Party of America.
He finally realizes that only as a writer will he be able to get on his feet and give an analysis of the events taking place and everything he has already seen in his short life. Jack London, short biography who tells about this, feels the ability and strength to write. But he lacks education.
Gold rush
There is no money for study. To earn them, he goes to Alaska. Thus began the Klondike epic of Jack London. She did not bring him money, but impressions that he would later express in the collections of stories “Son of the Wolf” and “Moon Face”. In them and many others he will describe real life gold miners without embellishment, all at the turning point of fate, but colored with the spirit of romance and faith in man.
Only forty years were allotted by fate to a writer named Jack London, a short biography, very short, bitterly short life path, which he still doesn’t know, of course.
Writer
Jack London began writing seriously (the norm was 1,000 words a day, five sheets on a typewriter) beginning in the early 20th century. He wrote collections of stories and novels, which brought him popularity, fame, and money.
Years of relative prosperity followed. He was sent to England for the coronation. And he became interested in the situation of workers in England and wrote “People of the Abyss”, since he was a caring and politicized person. But his wife, a completely ordinary woman, refused to understand his “red” views, and Jack London divorces her, although in this marriage he has two daughters. In the midst Russo-Japanese War he is sent by a correspondent to Far East and takes out the most difficult sensations from there. In Japanese imperialism he saw a terrible danger for the peoples of Asia and the Pacific Ocean. The article "Yellow Peril" was written. He did not see the US desire to redistribute the world by weakening Russia. The rebel writer married a woman who became both his wife and friend. They go on a yacht trip for two years.
This is the most fruitful period of Jack London's work. "The Iron Heel" and "Martin Eden" were completed here. Returning from his trip, London saw himself as a famous writer.
Sharp turn
He decided to settle in California, build a house that he wanted to call the “Wolf House” - his lair, where it would be convenient for him to spend his remaining years. The house under construction was turned into a palace, for which the most expensive and rare materials were used. But before the housewarming party, the dream come true was set on fire. He was simply shocked. But he stayed to live nearby in a small modest house.
His last years, which were outwardly prosperous, brought him more and more fame and money. But he was tormented by an illness brought from the tropics, bouts of alcoholism, and his liver was seriously bothered. So much so that he was forced to take drugs. He died at the age of 40 from an overdose.
An expected or unexpected ending, but such is the biography. Jack London seemed to predict a brief summary of it in “Martin Eden,” although, of course, he cannot be completely identified with this hero.
In all his photographs he looks like a sunny man until his very last days.