Jack London: A Study of His Works and Writing Advice

Jack London was a very prolific and prominent writer in the early 20th century. His works are filled with deep and thematic prose about poverty, animals, human connection, loneliness, and nature. His best works are his books titled The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906).

Early Life

Jack London, born in San Francisco, California, in 1876, had a mother named Flora Wellman, but never knew his biological father. Many speculate he was a famous journalist and pioneering astrologist, William Henry Chaney. Flora, instead, enlisted the help of a woman named Virginia Prentiss, a former slave. Jack was very close with Virginia and viewed he as a second mother. Jack’s family struggled financially for many years, and when he grew older Jack seemed to struggle with money as well, relying on a girlfriend—Mabel Applegarth—for food sometimes.

Jack London started work very early—at the age of 14—after moving to the Bay Area. He worked as an oyster pirate, in a cannery, shoveled coal, and on a ship in the Pacific. In 1897, London went north to Canada in search of the last bit of gold in the Yukon, and returned a year after. By this time, he had already known he wanted to be a writer and was determined to sell his short stories. His mother encouraged him a couple years prior to enter a writing contest with the stories he came home with from his days journeying the sea. After winning the contest, London continued to write and find inspiration from his travels and surrounding nature.

The Call of the Wild

This novel, published in 1903, follows a dog named Buck, a Saint Bernard, who has been thrust into the Klondike Gold Rush and must survive the harsh realities of this new life. Buck is traded over and over through different hands until a man, John Thornton, volunteers to take Buck after he refuses to make a dangerous attempt to cross a river with his previous handler. Thornton takes care of Buck and is the first to actually show him kindness, respect, and love. This novel is directly inspired by the time that Jack London spent in the Yukon during the gold rush. During his year there, he was deeply inspired by the nature around him and knew that he could draw on the experiences the Yukon granted him—especially since it did not grant him any gold.

The Call of the Wild is London’s most widely read novel and received high critical acclaim among initial release. London recognized that the American audience was changing and reflected this in his writing. America was in between the Civil War and World War I, and was on the cusp of lots of change. These adventures that London was writing about were full of nostalgia, adventure, and dangerous threats of the unknown.

While there are mature themes present in the book, The Call of the Wild has been heavily classified as a children’s book. The original single-volume version was published with illustrations detailing the beautiful nature scenes of Canada. Back in 1929, the book was banned in Italy and Yugoslavia allegedly because of Jack London’s open socialist views and was also burned by the Nazi Party in 1933. This novel has been widely enjoyed by audiences all over the world and is continued to be enjoyed due to its themes of nature, individualism, civilization vs. wilderness, and man vs. animal—or vs. the natural world.

White Fang

White Fang published in 1906, aims to detail a dog’s transition from the wilderness to domesticated life. White fang, a wolf-hybrid, is eventually bought by a man named Weeden Scott and his life is completely turned around. After White Fang saves Scott’s father, he is accepted into the family.

Much of White Fang is also inspired by Jack London’s time in the Yukon. There are many underlying layers and themes of nature vs. nurture, human vs. animal, violence and its potential role in the progression of humanity, and survival of the fittest. After its release, the book was an immediate success and earned London a spot amongst the top American writers in the 20th century.

There were some, however, who saw London’s two canine novels as somewhat unsavory. The particular label being a “nature faker.” President Theodore Roosevelt, among them, said that London’s writing was absurd. Once the controversy had died down, in 1908, London responded to these types of criticism saying that the nature components in his writing were not meant to “humanize” the animals, but rather depict they exactly as they are. Animals don’t think about what they do as a human would, instead they simply rely on instinct to survive, and allow it to take over whenever necessary.

Jack London had done plenty of research on nature and nurture and evolution, and stayed with the idea that animals were animals and humans were humans. In his 1908 essay, “The Other Animals,” London explained that he felt this notion was so important he allowed it to “clog” his chronicles of his dog-heroes lives.

Martin Eden

Another of his famous works, Martin Eden, published in 1909, spans two years of a struggling writer, Martin Eden’s, life. Martin is in the process of educating himself in hopes to gain the favor of his muse, Ruth Morse, and her family by using his literary merit to move up in status and wealth. Martin is a sailor and Ruth belongs to a family of the bourgeoisie, two completely different worlds that would otherwise never intertwine, but Martin makes a promise to her that he will succeed in his education and win her honor. Unable to be patient any longer, Ruth rejects him in a letter. Martin is still determined and does eventually gain success with his writing.

Eventually, Martin becomes bitter about his success and his loss of Ruth, and holds a grudge towards those who represent the more wealthy. Instead of celebrating his wealth, Martin donates his new wealth to lower class family and friends. He feels shunned and unwanted by his unrequited love and only favored for his new-found fame, and eventually commits suicide.

Martin Eden’s major themes include wealth and class, individualism, loneliness, and education. If you were wondering about reoccurring themes in Jack London’s work, you would be on to something. Martin Eden takes a close look at the juxtaposition between the American working class and the bourgeoisie who revel in their fame and wealth.

This book was written at the height of London’s literary career and was based on his troubles with fame, wealth, and literary critics.

Other Notable Works

Jack London’s other notable works include The Sea-Wolf (1904), The Iron Heel (1907), and his short stories like “Love of Life” (1907), “To Build a Fire” (1902), and “An Odyssey of the North” (1900). The Iron Heel, a dystopian novel, delves in Jack London’s socialist views and gave him a chance to dabble in science fiction, as well.

Socialism

Jack London was inspired by his early start in labor and his work amongst the seas. He witnessed the economic disparities occurring and delved into the socialist world, joining the Socialist Labor Party in 1896, and then in 1901 he joined the new Socialist Party of America.

London went on to run for Mayor of Oakland twice—gaining 245 votes. During his run for the second term, he was able to quadruple his votes, but still was not successful in winning the election. Despite this, there were still some that wanted him to be the name on the presidential ticket representing the socialists.

The socialist views that London illustrated in his dystopian novel, The Iron Heel, were criticized because London was what you could call a sort of socialist realist. The utopian society that London created for The Iron Heel takes about 300 years until it finally comes to fruition. Many socialists deemed this unacceptable, but London realized that political change in America was an often untimely and slow process. He went on to give lectures discussing his socialist views around the world in 1904.

Jack London’s Writing Advice

If manifestation is the kind of thing you believe in, you should know that Jack London, while surviving on bread and beans deep in the Yukon’s icy winter, carved “Jack London Miner Author Jan 27, 1898” into the wall of his cabin. After striking out during the gold rush, London decided to fully commit himself to writing and try to make a career based off of his experiences. A few short years later, London did strike gold with his first two novels and at one point was making over $10,000 a month—nearly $250,000 by today’s standards.

Over the short years of his writing career, London gave out some advice for his fellow writers. One of his top pieces of advice is to be prolific. If you can write as much as you can, in as many different formats and genres as you are able to, you will eventually find where you are most skillful and successful. London—in a 1905 article for a magazine called The Editor—said that when he first began writing, he wrote in the format of “short stories, articles, anecdotes, jokes, essays, sonnets, ballads, villanelles, triolets, songs, light plays in iambic tetrameter, and heavy tragedies in blank verse.”

While this is some substantial advice, London also contradicted himself when he advocated that there is such a thing as writing too much. He did not spend all his inspiration at one time. When he felt good about something he wrote, and he knew what would happen next, he would pause and pick it back up the next day. He also set a goal for himself—1,000 words a day—and got into the habit of hitting that goal. He viewed it as a way to practice his craft and perfect the habit of maintaining his inspiration and productivity. Essentially, London always provided his future self with something to write about. This is how be was able to produce so many works, and how he was able to make so much money from his writing. It should be stated that there are many writers who write just as much, if not more, than London and never get the chance to be published. Obviously, these methods won’t work for everyone, but it is interesting to see which methods and practices Jack London used and saw fit to continue throughout the years of his writing career.

Over some five years, he was rejected 644 times by various publishers and eventually was published in a few Bay Area magazines. This determination led him to write over 50 books—and at least two to three each year until his death in 1916. London struggled with his health for many years of his life—surviving scurvy while in the Yukon to a tropical disease called yaws to being diagnosed in 1913 with a significant kidney problem. There were rumors that circulated around the time of his death that London actually committed suicide due to the fact that he was using morphine and opium—both over-the-counter drugs at the time—for the extreme pain he was in. Jack London ultimately passed 1916 from uremia followed by renal colic, as stated on his death certificate.

One biographer, Clarice Stasz—who also believes that William Chaney is London’s biological father, says that he may have accidentally taken a fatal dose of morphine provoking his uremia. There are several different counts that have different interpretations of how the morphine and opium played a role in Jack London’s death, but all them agree that 40 years was far too short for London’s life.

Discussion Questions

Below you can find a few discussion questions regarding the author Jack London. Feel free to answer these in a comment under this article or in a journal of your choosing. These are meant to be fun, and there are no right or wrong answers. Enjoy and have fun with it!

·       Do you agree or disagree with Jack London’s writing advice?

·       Have you ever been inspired by a trip you’ve taken somewhere? Where did you go? What did you end up writing about?

·       Have you ever written in the perspective of anything besides a human? An animal or another kind of creature? What was your experience like? Easy or difficult? Fast or more time consuming?

·       Have you ever read any of Jack London’s novels or short stories? If you have, what do you think of them? Do you agree with the critics that claim London to be a “nature faker?” Why or why not?