Jack London, an Illuminating Life

 

by Pa Rock

Reader

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of America's greatest writers, Jack London.  While I am far from being an expert on his work, I have read enough of it to appreciate the power and strength of his writing ability.

Back in the day when I was in high school, the early 1960's, myself and many other American high school students were introduced to Jack London through a short story of his called "To Build a Fire," a tragic tale about an unarmed man and his dog who get caught in a snow storm in the Yukon wilderness.  He has seventy matches and his human intellect going for him, but he is up against the awesome power of nature - and eventually nature prevails and the man freezes to death.  It was one of those stories that sticks with you.  I hope it is still being taught, because the message about understanding, respecting, and working with the power of nature is something that so many have difficulty appreciating today.

London, who was born in San Francisco and grew up poor in Oakland, took part in the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska during the final three years of the 19th century. In addition to the short story of the man trying to build a fire in a snowstorm, that experience also inspired his first "dog" novel, "The Call of the Wild," the work that made Jack London famous.  "The Call of the Wild" is also something I read while in high school - and should read again.

The writer was  a world traveler, going abroad first as a young sailor and later as a more seasoned tourist.  He wrote hard and fast about his experiences, usually penning a thousand words each morning.  After leaving the Klondike and beginning to focus on the rest of the world, Jack London developed into an outspoken socialist and an advocate for the poor.  Two of his other novels, which I have also read, reflect those periods in his life.

"The Iron Heel," (1908) is a fictional account of the rise of a capitalist oligarchy in the United States during the early part of the 20th century, and the underground resisters who fought to bring it down.  I have actually read "The Iron Heel" twice, the last time about twenty years ago, and there are so many parallels to the sad state of political affairs in America today, that I may take it from the shelf and read the gripping novel one more time.

The other Jack London novel with which I am personally familiar is "The People of the Abyss" which was written in 1902 after he walked off into the endless slums of East London to live anonymously among its wretched masses.  The novel captures the social landscape and people of that area and that era in sharp, and often painful, detail.

Jack London lived as fast and hard as he wrote, and he died at the very young age of forty in 1916 from kidney issues, alcoholism, and self-medication with morphine.   Like that campfire in the Yukon blizzard, his light was extinguished far too early.