Jack London

I-Search on Jack London

Jack London was an amazing poet & story writer.

I don’t know much about Jack London but what I do know is that

he wrote “To Build a Fire” & “White Fang” along with many other novels.

As I researched London I wanted to find more things out about Jack London so I came up with

three questions, How Jack London Lived [childhood],What other novels he wrote and How he died.

What I found was that Jack London had a bad childhood, Born at 615 Third Street, San

Francisco, California, January 12. Son of Flora Wellman, and William Henry Chaney. Chaney, an

astrologer, lived with Flora Wellman during 1874-1875, Chaney deserted his wife upon learning of

her pregnancy and later in 1897 denied to London that he could have been his father.

On Sept. 7, Flora (who used the name Chaney), marries John London, a native of Pennsylvania and

Union Army veteran, a widower with two daughters. John London accepts Flora's son as his own and

he is renamed John Griffith Chaney, the middle name deriving from a favorite nephew of Flora

Wellman's, Griffith Everhard. At 14 year old Jack obtained a steady job in a salmon cannery at ten

cents an hour. And at 15 he Graduated from Cole Grammar School (eighth grade) and took job in

cannery. Borrowed $300 from his former wet nurse, Aunt Jenny Prentiss to buy the sloop Razzle

Dazzle and became an oyster pirate on San Francisco Bay.

I also found out a lot of info for my second question...

The Abysmal Brute (1911)A prize fighter faces the corruption of civilization and finds

redemption in the wilds of California.

Adventure (1911)

Located in the Solomon Islands, this devastating portrayal of copra plantation slavery has scholars

arguing whether London was criticizing the racism of the colonialists or approving of it.

Before Adam (1907)

The modern narrator's dreams transport him to a prehistoric community.