Jack London: biography as a search for an ideal. Jack London - Biography - a relevant and creative path

JACK LONDON
(1876-1916)

Born January 12, 1876 in San Francisco. At birth he received the name John Chaney, but eight months later, when his mother got married, he became John Griffith London. The writer’s mother, Flora Wellman, came from a wealthy Welsh family, was an intelligent and well-read woman who graduated from college, studied music, but had a nervous disposition with rapidly changing moods. At the age of 20, she suffered from typhus and after the illness, she was left with a certain “confusion in her head.” This led to the fact that all her life Flora was a very specific lady, she was fond of fortune-telling, spiritualism and did not pay due attention to raising her offspring. Flora did not like maternal responsibilities. She had no time to look after the boy, who began to get sick. On the doctor's advice, the family moved to a rural area. Flora began searching for a nurse. She became a black woman, Jenny Prentis, who recently lost her baby. She became for Jack not only a nurse, but also a foster mother, and transferred all her unspent love to the little snow-white boy. London always remembered his black mother with warmth and tenderness.

London spent his childhood in San Francisco. He read a lot, imagining himself as a hero of adventure novels. Jack became a regular visitor to the local public library. He practically devoured every book. He read at night, read in the morning, read when he went to school, read on the way home, and again went to the library for a new book.

At school, every morning the students sang in chorus. At one point, noticing that Jack was silent, the teacher sent him to the principal. There was a long and stern conversation, as a result of which the headmaster sent the boy back to class with a note that said that the student London could be exempted from singing, but instead Jack had to write essays every morning while the other students sang in chorus . Jack London later attributed his ability to write a thousand words every morning to this punishment.

At the age of 13, London graduated from primary school, but high school I couldn’t walk: my family didn’t have the money to pay for school. And already at the age of 15, Jack had to go to the factory to provide for his family, since his stepfather was hit by a train and became crippled. The constant lack of sleep, lethargy and the desire to rest at least one morning and not go to boring work after years inspires the world famous writer to create a piercing and powerful story “The Renegade”, the hero of which, after months of tedious work that turned him practically into an animal, rebels and instead of a smoky workshop he goes to a field, lies down in the grass and for the first time long time meets the sunrise (the creator's childhood desire is realized in a literary character).

London's youth came at a time of economic depression and unemployment, and the family's financial situation became increasingly dire. Until the age of 23, he changed a huge number of occupations: he was an “oyster pirate” (poacher); fishing patrol inspector; a sailor on the schooner Sophie Sutherland, where he participated in the hunt for fur seals; a worker at a jute factory; was arrested for vagrancy (participated in the march of the unemployed on Washington); was a prospector in Alaska during the Gold Rush. These were the years of maturation and acquisition of relevant experience, which was so useful to London in his upcoming literary activities.

In 1893, Jack London won a seat in literary competition newspaper "San Francisco Call". His essay “Typhoon off the coast of the Country rising sun"took 1st place and brought the creator the first fee - $25 (it is significant that the 2nd and third places went to students from the Californian and Stanford Institutes). This prompted London to think seriously about future prospects. Current experience gave a hint that it is difficult, and from time to time completely unrealistic, for a person of physical labor to achieve success in life, as opposed to a person of intellectual labor, who does not dry out with age, but acquires a flourishing, spiritual development. And Jack London consciously decides to become a writer. To do this, he is engaged in self-education, passes the entrance exams to the California Institute and even successfully studies during the 1st semester (he did not have enough funds for more).

The future life of a professional young man is associated with intense self-education and cruel creative work aimed at mastering the difficult work of writing and developing a personal style. This period of the writer’s life is very vividly depicted by London in autobiographical novel"Martin Eden" (1909). The year 1896 radically changed the life of Jack London: gold was found in Alaska, the so-called gold rush began, in which young writer. He was never destined to find gold after a couple of years of grueling work, but the real treasure for London became personal memories and experiences of this typical region, which received the title in the following works - “Snow White Silence”. Alaska becomes the writer's literary Klondike: he creates a personal, incomparable world of languid trials, formidable natural conditions, strong human friendship and love that overcome any obstacles. The so-called northern stories brought fame to the young creator.

In 1900, the first collection of stories “Son of the Wolf” was published, then the second - “The God of His Fathers” (1901) and, at the end after all - a novel"Daughter of the Snows" (1902). Jack London becomes a world-famous writer with his own special style, inimitable manner of writing, and unique issues. Over the next seventeen years, he published two, even three books a year. The secret of Jack London’s extraordinary popularity lies, according to the famous South American literary critic Van Wyck Brooks, in the “fresh intonation” of his works, which “contrasted so much with the general sugary orientation American literature” and was a direct challenge to the “painstakingly strained, sweetened milk of current illusions” that the creators of mass fiction treated the public to.

Fascinated by the thoughts of K. Marx and F. Engels (the assimilation of which coincided with the writer’s personal interest in the inconsistencies of social justice), London in 1901 joined the ranks of the Socialist Party. At the same time, the writer is interested in the works of G. Spencer and F. Nietzsche. A reflection of the preferences of London of those times can be seen on the pages of the novel “Martin Eden” (1909), full of political, philosophical and literary discussions.
Jack London's literary and contemporary path was complex. He was one of the most prominent socialists in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century and at the same time remained a staunch individualist. He made images of ordinary courageous people and was not far from “specific vanity”; he praised the resilience of “white gold miners” in battles with the “Snow White Silence” of Alaska. His pen includes novels and stories rich in the authentic breath of life, as well as handicrafts, narrow-minded and, from time to time, tinged with racist theories. And yet, observations of London of that period testify to the deepest awareness of creative originality different writers, about the ability to assess the general state of modern American literature.

Jack London was one of the founders of the animalistic tradition not only in American, but also in world literature. London’s images of wild and domestic pets are reflected not only by a great love for “our least brothers,” but also by knowledge of the animal world, their behavior and habits. The best among the animalistic works were certainly “The Call of the Wild” (1903), “White Fang” (1906), “Jerry the Islander” (1917), “Michael, Jerry's Brother” (1917). Specifically, dogs and wolves are Jack London’s most beloved animals (the writer called his own large house in the Moonlight Plain “The House of the Wolf”).

A significant phenomenon of American literature at the beginning of the 20th century was London’s novel “ Sea wolf"(1904), which, on the one hand, reveals the writer’s intrigue with the “strong personality” (which is Captain Wolf Larsen), on the other hand, is an expressive criticism and revelation of the harmfulness of the very idea of ​​the “strong personality” as antisocial.
The result of Jack London's active civilian position and socialist preferences was the famous "Heel of Steel" (1907) - a utopian novel, a warning novel.

One of the best works of Jack London is considered the novel “Martin Eden” (1909), dedicated to the fate of professional personality in bourgeois society. The autobiographical image of Martin Eaten becomes an example of the enormous capabilities of a man of the people. An ordinary sailor, thanks to superhuman perseverance and natural talent, becomes a famous writer. The novel has become a typical hymn to human creativity.
The tasks of simplification, escape from cities - carriers of social. conflicts, a return to the land, to agricultural labor receive strength and artistic play in the best novel late period"Moonplain" (1913).
At the end of his life, London is seriously ill with uremia and takes morphine to reduce pain, increasing the dose each time. On the night of November 22, 1916, he was found dead in his office in a cottage in Glen Ellen (California). A medicinal remedy and a piece of paper with calculations for a new, stronger dose of morphine, which turned out to be fatal, were found on the night table. What was it - tragic accident or a conscious step of a seriously ill person remains unclear. But if we remember the novel “Martin Eden” and the last act of the main character, we can speak with great conviction about the suicide of the great South American writer.

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.

Isn't it because once upon a time biological father 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 didn’t resemble sheets at all, 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 recognize 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: trips to the theater, and primary school, which he managed to complete, and the public library, where the kind Mrs. Ina Coolbrith kept books for him about unknown lands and brave, salty sailors and sails fluttering in anticipation of the wind ... In the present there was only the hated canning factory and work until exhaustion. And in the future?..

“I’ll be a writer, Frank, you’ll see,” Jack once said to his school friend, with whom he and he were shooting wild cats with slingshots 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 as a school teacher or a doctor, although it is clear that obtaining any diploma requires a lot of money that could never be earned 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 will 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 is 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 his eyes in the morning and dipped his buzzing head into the salty sea water, he passionately, voraciously read what Mrs. Ina Coolbrith still had in store for him. All the new products 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 gone out to 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 shrouds like a bird. He was the last one to leave his 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 America at the end of the 19th century is unable to offer you any other way. 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. The thirst for pure love in his world seemed as anomalous 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 all on fire!”), no matter how much he wanted.

Jack returned to Oakland 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-haired brats!), entered the University of California and fell in love with a student at the same university, Mabel Applegarth, a girl from an intelligent English family, with impeccable pronunciation and luxuriant 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 midst 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 raw, almost animalistic masculine strength, which she had not met, and could not meet in the intelligent boys of her circle, attracted Mabel as irresistibly as he was attracted to her fragility, femininity and manners of a real lady. On Sundays, when 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 left 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 of the notebooks he had kept 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 a new genius 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, really, 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 at 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.

(real name: John Griffith)

(1876-1916) American writer

The future writer spent his childhood in California. He did not know the father, who left his wife shortly before the birth of the child. The boy was raised by his stepfather, who was a carpenter, but all his life he dreamed of becoming a farmer. Several times he managed to save money and buy land, but just as many times he went broke and started all over again.

The family was constantly poor, and John began early independent life. In his youth, he changed many occupations: he sold newspapers, worked as a coal miner, delivered ice to beer owners, served in a bowling alley, and hunted oysters in forbidden places. After graduating from school, as a fourteen-year-old teenager, he became a worker at a canning factory. But the long hours of work turned out to be too exhausting for the boy. John could not stand it, left the factory and started catching oysters in the Gulf of California, becoming the so-called “oyster pirate.” This occupation provided a fairly stable income, although it was associated with the risk of going to prison.

But, like many boys, he dreamed of sea voyages. The romance of port life, “wild and free,” captured the young man, and he joined a ship as a sailor, sent to catch seals on the shores of Japan and in the Bering Sea.

He started writing by accident. On the advice of his mother, John took part in a competition held by one of the local newspapers, and unexpectedly received first prize. And the essay - “Typhoon off the coast of Japan” - was published in the city newspaper.

After that, he set off on foot across America in the hope of finding work in the capital. But, barely reaching Washington, the future writer went to prison for vagrancy and was sent back to his hometown. London would later describe his wanderings in the book of essays “The Road” (1907) and in the novel “Martin Ideas” (1909).

In 1895, Jack London joined the Socialist Labor Party and was arrested for political speech. He left the party in 1916 due to its “loss of revolutionary spirit.”

Since 1896, London has been persistently engaged in writing, working 15 hours a day. But he realizes that he lacks education, and, having passed the exams for school course, enters the University of California. However, get higher education he never got around to it. There was nothing to live on, besides, he had to support his mother, and after studying for a year, Jack rushed to the Klondike in 1897 during the “gold rush”.

There he lived for almost a year in the small village of Dawson. In the snowy expanses of Alaska, Jack London encountered the dramatic fates of gold miners and scenes of mercenary battles for gold. After all, a lot of all sorts of adventurers brought here from the eastern United States, and there was nothing cheaper here than human life. He returned home penniless, but brought with him a lot of impressions and a firm decision to become a writer. Living from hand to mouth, he ensured that magazines began to publish his stories, later compiled into the collections “Son of the Wolf” (1900), “God of His Fathers” (1901), “Children of Frost” (1902), “Male Fidelity” (1904). The fees for his first stories were so meager that London was forced to simultaneously perform various day jobs. And only after the appearance of the collection “Light of the Wolf” in 1900, he had the opportunity to fully devote himself to literary work.

Northern stories are fragments of the great Klondike epic. In them, London opened a new direction in literature, describing the romance of harsh everyday life. His heroes are left to themselves in conditions wildlife and must fight to survive. Often based on own experience, he showed how the fittest survives in a fight with animals and nature. Moreover, a person must not only be brave and strong, have strong muscles and a clear head, but no less possess qualities such as justice, courage, and honor.

London showed how the North changes people: they free themselves from selfishness, bitterness, begin to trust each other more, acquiring the original high meaning of such familiar concepts as a sense of camaraderie and responsibility towards their neighbors.

Before London, only a few authors were known who wrote about animals, including the famous American-Canadian writer E. Seton-Thompson. London did not just talk about the world of animals, but created vivid visible characteristics of representatives of the northern fauna, making them full-fledged heroes of his books. This is, for example, one of his most famous stories, “The Call of the Wild” (1903). We can say that it is London that stands at the origins of animalistic American literature.

In 1902, he managed to get a job as a war correspondent. He was supposed to cover the events of the Boer War in Africa. However, upon reaching England, the writer learned that the war had already ended. Remaining in London, he lived for some time in the city's East End slums.

11disguised as a poor man, London penetrates the slums of the East End to study the life of the pariahs of the richest power in the world, and writes a truthful book, The People of the Abyss, raising his voice in defense of the outcast and despised. The writer’s confidence is strengthened that people have yet to build “a new and higher civilization, based on love for man.” It is curious that its Russian translation was released under the title “At the Depths.” By coincidence, M. Gorky’s play of the same name appeared in the same year, and the analogies with the English slums were close to the Russian reader.

In the adventure novel “The Sea Wolf” (1904), the writer condemns the idea of ​​Nietzscheanism - the superman. The captain of the ship "Ghost" Wolf Larsen considers himself an exceptional person and treats the crew and passengers with contempt and cruelty. Wolf Larsen is a complex character. Courageous, intelligent, he is fluent in his profession, he is a god at sea. His philosophy is this: to be strong is good, to be weak is evil. He is immoral and cynical. Jack London emphasizes the primitive strength, rudeness, even sadism in his character. Larsen has a half-starved childhood behind him, beatings, naval service, he achieved everything in life on his own, and therefore relies only on his mind and strength. Wolf conditions gave birth to an individualist. The writer brings us to the conclusion: modern society either bends a person and turns him into a slave, or raises a superman. Iron will and Larsen’s mighty fists subjugate the crew and passengers to his will. The category of such “supermen” in America included industrial magnates, financial tycoons, predators of various calibers who found favorable soil for prosperity in America.

Another event in the creative biography of Jack London was the novel “White Fang” (1906) - the story of a wolf cub who turned into a wise and brave animal. White Fang goes through four ascending stages of experience: animal world, Indians, the cruel world of Handsome Smith and, finally, the world of reason and love. The cub manages to survive only thanks to his natural strength, health and ability to adapt, which, according to London, is equal to understanding the laws of the world. The theme of the human master runs through the entire novel, embodying the idea of ​​man's superiority over animals due to his reason and the humane, fair laws he established. The idea of ​​the power of love will run through the entire work of the writer.

In 1904, he was sent as a correspondent to the Russian-Japanese War. On a small junk, he rushed to the site of the naval battle at the very time when the crews of the Russian cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Koreets sank their ships so as not to surrender them to the Japanese. In 1905, Jack London appeals to the American people to support the Russian Revolution. He is closely associated with the socialist movement and signs his letters “Yours in the name of the revolution, Jack London.”

In 1906, London finally achieved what he dreamed of at the very beginning of his literary activity: his books were read throughout America and were translated into foreign languages.

As a response to the development of the labor movement in the world and to the Russian revolution, about which his friend socialist Anna Strunskaya told him so much, Jack London wrote the novel The Iron Heel (1907). This is a fantastic novel about the people's struggle against the tyranny of monopoly capital and financial oligarchy - the iron heel. Although the people who rose up to fight are defeated, the hero of the novel, the revolutionary Evergard, is convinced of the final victory of the revolution in the future. The hero's speeches reproduce the thoughts of the articles and lectures of Jack London himself. At that time, London could not have imagined that just a few decades later his predictions would begin to come true.

In 1907-1909 Jack London sets off on a circumnavigation of the world on the yacht “Snark”, later described in the book “The Voyage of the Snark” (1911). His plans are to visit Russia, but in Australia tropical fever drove him to the hospital. During the journey, Jack London gets acquainted with the life of the islanders and understands their hatred of foreigners. Thus, in the story “Kulau the Leper,” the native leader Kulau fights the white conquerors to the last drop of blood.

In the summer of 1907, while the Snark yacht was moored in Hawaii, the writer began the novel Martin Ideas. This is the story of a simple working guy's struggle for a place in the sun. The novel is largely autobiographical, main character goes through a difficult path from the very bottom to the heights of glory. This is a social novel and at the same time a novel about love. It is his love for Ruth Morse that inspires Martin to break through to the heights of art and become a famous writer.

Martin wanted to tell people the truth. But material dependence forces him to conform to low literary tastes; social conditions distort his soul and life. Having lost his ideals and proud impulses in the struggle, embittered by unsuccessful battles with the world of corruption and meanness, he acquired, along with fame, an insurmountable aversion to creativity. Martin opens the porthole and dies in the depths of the ocean.

The novel debunked the idea of ​​American exceptionalism, the opportunity for everyone to succeed and become rich. Jack London exposed the hypocrisy, deceit, and spiritual squalor of a world where a person is valued according to his wallet.

London works hard and hard. Gradually, the main genre of his work became the adventure novel. The author sent his heroes into the jungle Latin America, on uninhabited islands, to the southern seas to pirates and whalers. The dynamic plot was filled with the actions of bright and strong personalities whom I wanted to imitate. The heroes of London were courageous, fair and, as a rule, turned out to be winners in the fight against evil.

The works of Jack London, with their sharp, extraordinary plot and memorable characters, attracted the attention of filmmakers from many countries. Many of his stories and novels were filmed, and some of them, such as “Hearts of Three”, “White Fang”, “Johnny and Kish”, “The Call of the Wild”, were staged more than once.

However, having achieved worldwide fame and fame, the writer did not find happiness. It turned out that he had much more creative powers than physical ones. The backbreaking work and hardships that Jack London experienced in his youth undermined his health. He was tormented by attacks of uremia, which became more unbearable day by day. During one of the attacks, London committed suicide by taking a lethal dose of morphine. The writer was only 40 years old. He was buried on a hillside in the Valley of the Moon. On the grave there is a fragment of rock left from the “house of the Wolf”, which the writer built in the Valley of the Moon and which suddenly burned down. Only two words were inscribed on the stone by an inept hand - “Jack London”. The writer's novels have been translated into 68 languages.

He did not have any children of his own, and he adopted his nephew, who, after London's death, created a museum in his home in Glen Ellen.

Who is Jack London? The biography of this person is extensive and varied. We can say that it is full of adventures worthy of its heroes. Yes it is: he wrote, drawing stories from own life, the conditions surrounding it, the people passing through it, their struggles and victories.

He always strived for the truth, tried to understand the value system permeating society and expose errors. How similar he is to a Russian in this! But Jack is 100% American by birth. His phenomenon of similarity will continue to surprise for a long time, until the boundaries of mentalities are erased.

Childhood

In the middle of winter, on January 12, 1876, John Griffith Cheney saw the light of day in Frisco. Unfortunately, the father did not recognize the pregnancy and left Flora without seeing his child. Flora was in despair. Leaving the newborn in the arms of the black nurse Jenny, she rushed to arrange her personal life.

As an adult, Jack London, whose biography is replete with adventures, did not forget her. He helped these women, considering both of them his mothers. Jenny sang songs to him and surrounded him with love and care. Later, it was she who lent him money for a sloop, giving him all her savings.

When the son was not even a year old, the family was reunited. Flora married a widower farmer with daughters Louise and Ida. The family constantly moved. Disabled war veteran John London adopted Jack and gave him his last name. He grew up a strong, healthy child. He taught himself to read and write at the age of five, and since then he was constantly seen with a book in his hand. He even got caught for shirking household chores.

The stepfather became a real father to Jack. Until the age of 21, the boy had no idea that he was not his own. They fished together, went to the market, and hunted ducks. John gave him a real gun and a good fishing rod.

Young hard worker

There was always a lot to do on the farm. Coming home from school, Jack immediately got into work. He hated this “dull work,” as he called it. Even with great effort, this lifestyle did not lead to prosperity. The family rarely ate meat.

Finally broke, the family moved to Auckland. Jack London has always loved books, he becomes a regular at libraries here. He reads voraciously. When John was hit by a train and became crippled, thirteen-year-old Jack began to feed the whole family. I was done with my studies.

He worked as a newspaper seller, as an errand boy in a bowling alley, and as an ice deliverer. He gave all his earnings to his mother. From the age of 14 he becomes a worker at a cannery, and there is no time left for anything. But my head is free! And he thinks and thinks... Why do you need to turn into draft animals in order to live? Is there no other way to make money?

Jack himself believed that his job robbed him of his adolescence.

Oyster Pirate

Jack London did a lot of different things! His biography also includes piracy. Oyster fishing was regulated on the coast, and a patrol kept order. But sea romantics managed to illegally collect oysters under their noses and deliver them to a restaurant. There were frequent chases.

He was called the Prince of Oyster Pirates for his courage at age 15. He himself said that if he had been convicted of all sins before the law, he would have received a sentence of hundreds of years. Afterwards he already served on the other side, in the oyster patrol. It was no less dangerous: desperate pirates could take revenge.

At the age of 17, he enlists as a sailor and goes to the Japanese shores to get the seals.

How he started writing

When Jack was eight years old, he read a book about an Italian peasant boy who became a famous writer. From then on, he pondered, discussing with his sister, whether it was possible for him or not. His elementary school teacher gave him writing assignments during music lessons. Then he began to call himself Jack. This was the beginning of his writing career.

At the age of 17, his essay, written based on his own impressions, “A Typhoon off the Coast of Japan,” was highly praised by the city newspaper of San Francisco. He writes about what he knows well, which he himself witnessed. At this moment, the writer Jack London was born. In 18 years he will write 50 books.

Jack London, personal life

While studying at the university, Jack met a young man whose sister, Mabel, seemed to be an unearthly creature. The girl liked this rude guy, but marriage is out of the question - how can she provide for her family? Jack is sure that you can’t earn much with your hands. He needs knowledge, and he sits down at his desk.

Jack London writes stories with the same tenacity with which he worked on the assembly line. He writes and sends them to editors. But all manuscripts are returned. Then he becomes an ironer in a laundry until he leaves for Alaska. He doesn’t find any gold, returns home and works as a postman. Still writing. Manuscripts are still being returned.

But the story is accepted by a monthly magazine, paying a fee. Then another magazine accepted another work. The young couple decided to get married, but Mabel's mother was against it. In a funeral mood at the grave of a friend, he meets Bessie, mourning her groom. Their feelings coincided, and they became spouses.

Jack becomes a famous writer, but Bessie is not interested in his work. The house is full and two daughters do not make him happy. Three years later, in 1904, he went to Charmian. This " new woman“, as the writer called her, is a true friend, they go through life together. They had no children, but with Charmian he sailed the Pacific Ocean.

She was his secretary, typing and answering letters. A true ally. She wrote a book about him. We now know first-hand what Jack London was like, whose biography was written down by his closest person. She outlived her husband by four years and wished to lie next to him after death.

Alaska

In 1987, America was hit by a gold rush. Jack and his sister's husband go to try their luck. This is where his sailor skills came in handy. His name was Wolf. All the whites were called that by the Indians, but Jack signed the letters “Wolf.” Later he will build the "Wolf House", dreaming of gathering friends there.

The area that was staked out was rich not in gold, but in mica. Scurvy finished off Jack, and he returned to his home. As always, he was in need. He sat down to write. He had plenty to fill the pages with: during the long winter, he absorbed the stories of hunters, prospectors, Indians, postmen and traders.

Jack London filled his stories with their speech, their laws. Belief in goodness is the core of the entire Klondike series. He said that he found himself there. “Nobody talks there,” he wrote. “Everyone thinks.” Everyone, while there, received their own worldview. Jack got his.

Data

Interesting facts about Jack London:

• He covered the events of the Russo-Japanese War, clearly condemning Japan's methods. When civil war broke out in Mexico, he returned to writing on the front lines.
• He went on a circumnavigation of the world. The sailing ship "Snark" was built according to his drawings. Charmian learned to sail the ship just like him. For two years they conquered the Pacific Ocean.

• He advocated for the protection of animals from cruelty.
• Films based on Jack London from 1910 to 2010 alone amount to a huge number - 136.
• Jack London Lake is in Russia, in the Magadan region.
• He is the first writer whose work brought in a million dollars.

Jack London for children

Unshakable faith in the good beginnings in man, the triumph of friendship over meanness, self-sacrifice true love- all these principles make the writer’s stories indispensable for raising children. When you cannot see worthy examples in the life around you, literature saves you:

• “White Fang” is a story that will not leave anyone indifferent. The adventures of the wolf dog and his gratitude for the friendship of his new owner completely change the nature of the animal. He even saves the house and those living in it from a dangerous criminal, and when the owner is in trouble, he tries to bark for the first time.
• “The Call of the Wild” is a story about a dog and written from her point of view, it nevertheless tells a lot about the people of the icy desert exploring the earth.
• "Hearts of Three" are the first films based on Jack London. But even despite the many film adaptations, reading the book is still much more exciting.
• "White Silence" - stories about Alaska.

Jack London, whose books are in every library, promotes courage in the face of adversity. His heroes are strong, noble people. He was like that himself.

Best books

The works of Jack London, the list of which includes 20 novels, can be divided according to the focus of the plot:

• This is, first of all, “Northern Stories”, the novel “Daughter of the Snows”.
• Then “Stories from the Fishing Patrol” and other maritime works, the novel “The Sea Wolf”.
• Social works: “John the Barleycorn”, “People of the Abyss” and “Martin Eden”.
• "Tales of the South Seas", written on voyages on the schooner "Snark".
• His dystopian novel The Iron Heel (1908) foreshadows the victory of fascism.
• “Valley of the Moon”, “The Little Mistress of the Big House”, where he describes life on the ranch using his own experience.
• The play "Theft".
• Scenario "Heart of Three".

The works of Jack London (everyone has their own list of favorites) do not leave you indifferent. Some people like strength, struggle and victory over the elements. Others value love of life. Still others admire the moral choices of the heroes.

To understand what it is like to freeze to death - to turn into an emotionless machine, to decide whether to live free or die - you can read the stories “The Bonfire”, “The Renegade” and “Kulau the Leper”.

Ranch Museum

When Jack became disillusioned with the talk about socialism, he became interested in the idea of ​​farming. Reasoning that everything comes from the earth - food, clothing, shelter - he literally started with himself, buying a barren ranch with depleted soil. At first, they didn’t collect anything from it, they just invested it.

The neighbors were surprised at the success of the newcomer: his pigs were brought in several times more income. The owner simply bought purebred animals and cared for them according to science.

He named his ranch "Beauty" and lived here for the last 11 years. He insisted: “This is not a dacha, but a house in the village, because I am a farmer.” In the center of the valley of vineyards, among the heady smells, it was supposed to become the family nest of London. The “Wolf House”, similar to a castle, is being built. But on the eve of the housewarming he is burning. Jack is sure: arson. Now this skeleton stands as a monument to his good intentions.

After the death of the writer, a park and museum are located here. He bequeathed to bury himself immediately.

grave

The writer died on November 22, 1916 at his ranch in Glen Ellen. Even when he bought it, he noticed the fenced oak tree. It turned out to be the grave of the children of the first settlers of Greenlaw. “They must be very lonely here,” Jack said. He chose this place for himself as his last refuge.

Shortly before his death, he expressed his wish to his sister and Charmian that his ashes be buried on the hill where the Greenlaw children lie. And he ordered to put instead tombstone big red boulder. And so it was done. The stone was taken out of the ruins of the “Wolf House” and carried on four horses.

It blended organically into the surrounding landscape. The fact that there is nothing made by human hands on the grave evokes many thoughts and feelings. He wanted it that way himself. And to this day his grave speaks silently.

“I love my ranch so much!” - we feel, looking around. “David and Lilly, you are no longer alone. I’m with you,” we understand the choice of place. “Don’t you dare erect a monument to me. “I’m not the Commander,” emanates from the stone. “Friends, I am with you. I'm in my books. These are my letters to you,” we realize the message years later.

"Typhoon off the coast of Japan"

After the birth of the baby, Flora left him for some time in the care of her former slave Virginia Prentiss, who remained for London important person throughout his life. At the end of the same 1876, Flora married John London, a disabled veteran of the American Civil War, after which she took the baby back to her. The boy's name began to be John London (Jack is a diminutive form of the name John). The London family (John London brought his two daughters into the family, the eldest of whom, Eliza, became Jack's faithful friend and guardian angel for life) settled in a working-class area of ​​San Francisco, south of Market Street. At this time, the country was gripped by a severe economic crisis that began in 1873, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and wandered from city to city in search of odd jobs. Jack's stepfather made several attempts to start farming, which were frustrated by Flora, who constantly hatched adventurous plans to get rich quick. Constantly in need, the family moved from place to place until they settled in the city of Oakland, neighboring San Francisco, where London eventually graduated from elementary school.

Jack London. 1914

Jack London began an independent working life full of hardships early. As a schoolboy, he sold morning and evening newspapers, and on weekends he worked part-time in a bowling alley, arranging pins, and also as a cleaner of beer pavilions in the park. After graduating from primary school at the age of fourteen, he entered a canning factory as a worker. The work was very hard, and he left the factory. With $300 borrowed from Virginia Prentiss, he bought a used schooner and became an "oyster pirate" (illegally catching oysters in San Francisco Bay), and then served on a fishing patrol (described in Tales of a Fishing Patrol). In 1893, he hired a sailor on the fishing schooner Sophie Sutherland, going to catch seals off the coast of Japan and in the Bering Sea. The first voyage gave London a lot vivid impressions, which then formed the basis of many of his sea stories and novels (“The Sea Wolf”, etc.). Subsequently, he also worked at a jute factory, as an ironer in a laundry and as a fireman (described in the novels “Martin Eden” and “John Barleycorn”).

First sketch of London "Typhoon off the coast of Japan", which served as the beginning of it literary career, for which he received first prize from a San Francisco newspaper, was published on November 12, 1893.

In 1894, he took part in the march of the unemployed on Washington (essay “Hold On!”), was arrested near Niagara Falls for vagrancy, after which he spent a month in prison (“Straitjacket”). While wandering the roads with an army of vagabonds, London came to the conclusion that physical work cannot provide a person with a decent existence and only intellectual work is valued. At this time, he became convinced that he should become a writer. During the campaign, he first became thoroughly acquainted with socialist ideas (and, in particular, with the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” by Marx and Engels, which made a huge impression on him. In 1895, he joined the Socialist Labor Party of America, since 1900 (in some sources indicated 1901) - a member of the Socialist Party of America, from which he left in 1914 (some sources indicate 1916); the reason for the break with the party in the statement was the loss of faith in its “fighting spirit” (meaning the party’s departure from the path of revolutionary transformation); society and the course she took on a gradual reformist path to socialism).Having returned home, Jack entered high school. In the school magazine "Aegis", he published his first socialist essays and stories about the times of his wanderings along the roads of the United States. The pace of his studies was categorically not satisfactory. and he decides to quit school and prepare on his own.

Having prepared independently and successfully passed the entrance exams, Jack London entered the University of California, but after the 3rd semester, due to lack of funds for his studies, he was forced to leave.

"Sea Wolf". 1904. First edition

In the spring of 1897, Jack London succumbed to the Gold Rush and left for Alaska. At first, Jack and his comrades were lucky - ahead of many other gold miners, they managed to make their way to the upper reaches of the Yukon River and stake out a plot. But there was no gold on the site, and it was not possible to stake out a new one until spring and, to top it all off, during the winter London fell ill with scurvy. He returned to San Francisco in 1898, having experienced all the delights of the northern winter. Instead of gold, fate gifted Jack London with meetings with the future heroes of his works.

He began to study literature more seriously at the age of 23, after returning from Alaska: his first northern stories were published in 1899, and already in 1900 his first book, a collection of short stories, was published "Son of the Wolf". The following collections of stories followed: "The God of His Fathers"(Chicago,), "Children of Frost"(NY , ), "Faith in Man"(NY , ), "Moon Face"(NY , ), "Lost Face"(New York,), as well as novels "Daughter of the Snows" () "Sea Wolf" (), "Martin Eden"() which created the widest popularity for the writer. The writer worked very hard, 15-17 hours a day, and wrote about 40 books throughout his not very long writing career.

London's artistic method is expressed primarily in the desire to show a person in a difficult life situation, at a turning point in fate, combining realistic descriptions of circumstances with the spirit of romance and adventure (the author himself defined his style as “inspired realism, imbued with faith in a person and his aspirations”). London's works are characterized by a special poetic language, a quick introduction of the reader into the action of his work, the principle of narrative symmetry, and characterization of characters through dialogues and thoughts. He considered R. Stevenson and R. Kipling his literary teachers (although London did not agree with the latter’s worldview, admiring only his stylistic merits). G. Spencer, C. Darwin, K. Marx and F. Engels and, to some extent, F. Nietzsche had a huge influence on the writer’s philosophy of life. Jack London highly appreciated the works of Russian writers, especially M. Gorky (London calls his novel “Foma Gordeev” a “healing book” that “affirms goodness”).

In recent years, London has been experiencing a creative crisis, which is why he began to abuse alcohol (he later quit). Because of the crisis, the writer was even forced to purchase a plot for a new novel. Such a plot was sold to London to beginners American writer Sinclair Lewis. London managed to give the future novel a title - “The Murder Bureau” - however, he managed to write very little, since he soon died.

Jack London's grave at Jack London State Park (Jack London State Park, Glen Ellen, CA)

• For the love of gold (English) For Love of Gold , )

In the USSR and Russia, films based on London’s works were also staged repeatedly:

Literature about Jack London

• Stone, Irving. Sailor in the saddle. - ISBN 5-85880-382-2
• Bykov, Vil. In the footsteps of Jack London. - ISBN 5-211-03473-2
• Rosin, Alexander. House of the Wolf. Return to Jack London // Florida. - 2005. - No. 3 (51).
• Foner F. Jack London - American rebel. M: Progress, 1966. 240 p.
• Bogoslovsky V. N. Jack London. M.: Education, 1964. 240 p.
• Sadagursky A. Jack London: Time, ideas, creativity. Chisinau, 1978. 200 p.
• Bykov Vil. Jack London. Saratov: State Publishing House. University, 1968. 284 p.

see also

Notes

Links

• The Jack London Collection
• “How I Became a Socialist” “What Life Means to Me” Jack London
• "Jack's Cabin" Russian newspaper" - Week No. 5084 (5) of January 14, 2010
• Alexander Karpenko The other side of dreams