Jack London
1876 - 1916

Biography
Born in San Francisco, London grew up in poverty and worked variously in a cannery, as a seaman, as a jute-mill worker, and as a coal-shoveler in a power plant. He was once arrested in New York for vagrancy and spent thirty days in jail. London, who always loved to read, later enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley, but financial difficulties forced him to leave after only one semester. He then joined the Oakland chapter of the Socialist Labor Party, whose working-class principles he embraced along with the Darwinian idea that only the fittest will survive. His most famous novels, The Call of the Wild (1903) and The Sea Wolf (1904), both attest to the law of survival; The People of the Abyss (1903) and War of the Classes (1905) empathize with socialism. An astoundingly prolific writer, producing twenty novels, two hundred stories, and more than four hundred works of nonfiction, London was the first American author to become a millionaire through his writing.

Explorations

To Build a Fire (1908 version) is one of the best-known and most graphic works of American literary naturalism. But literary naturalism has an odd commerce with social history and fact. Sometimes we read these works as faithful to actual events and to human nature and prospects; sometimes these works are read as fables, as narratives with (at best) oblique connections to "life" or "truth," more suggestive of romanticism than of realism or reportage. The historical setting is accurate enough: the Yukon Gold Rush at the end of the nineteenth century and the hard, cold trail to the Chilcoot Pass. But beyond that, we have to ask ourselves what we are reading.

1. Who narrates To Build a Fire? The nameless protagonist, "the man," is by himself in the middle of a frozen wilderness, accompanied only by his dog. Describe the narrative strategy and viewpoints, and comment on the overall effectiveness of this strategy. Consider especially the passages which tell the tale from the point of view of the dog--including the thoughts of the animal.

2. Why do the man and the dog have no names? Are there perhaps several reasons for this reticence in the tale?

3. Does the story induce us to see this journey in the Yukon as a representation or allegory of life elsewhere, or even everywhere? Or are we led by the story to see its action as representing life at one particular extreme or edge, where the usual rules and protections have no bearing? Are we supposed to learn something from "the man's" mistake and from his death? If so, what is it? And how true do you think it is?

Other sites to consult:

  • The Jack London Collection. An impressive collection from the University of California, Berkeley. Includes numerous London documents and letters; an audio and video archive; and images of London, his family, and contemporaries.
  • Jack London page. Includes a detailed bibliography, overview, and a San Francisco Chronicle review of Alex Kershaw's 1997 biography of London. Also includes links to other London sites. From the PAL: Perspectives in American Literature site maintained by Paul P. Reuben (California State University, Stanislaus).
  • Works by Jack London online. A useful resource for finding electronic versions of London texts.
  • Jack London State Historic Park. Features information about the park, and its connection to the London family, plus a listing of books written by London.