Jack London

Jack London was born in 1876 to a mother who had attempted to commit suicide during her pregnancy. His biological father’s identity is unconfirmed. Some believe, as Jack London’s mother reported, that she became pregnant by astrologer William Chaney whose demand that she have an abortion caused her suicide attempt. When London was a baby, his mother married the man whose name he carries: John London. The family moved to Oakland, California. At age 13, London began to work 12 to 18 hours per day at the local cannery. Seeking escape from this backbreaking work, London went to sea as an oyster pirate and then on a sealing schooner. He returned to Oakland to attend high school, and at 17 hoped to attend college at the University of California, Berkeley and become a writer. He started college, but had to leave due to financial circumstances and never graduated. At 21, he followed the Klondike Gold Rush to seek his fortune in the Yukon, where he worked harder than ever. London returned to California in 1898 with a deep appreciation for nature, in its beauty and brutality, and a wealth of material to fuel his writing, and by the early 1900s was making a living off the income from the writing he published. He published his most famous novel, Call of the Wild, in 1903 and was soon wealthy and well-known. Jack London married twice: first, Bessie Maddern in 1900, although the pair divorced in 1904. London then married Charmian Kittredge in 1905. In the same year, London purchased a ranch in Glen Ellen, California. The ranch was very important to London and he wrote and published many popular stories, especially after 1910, with the intention of financially supporting the ranch. London died at the ranch on November 22, 1916 after struggling with various health issues including dysentery, alcoholism, and uremia. Because he was prescribed morphine for his extreme pain at the end of his life, rumors and speculation have continued to surround his death as a possible suicide.