• The marked decline of his writing after 1913 coincides with his drifting away from the socialist movement. He became a millionaire. He spent money on the building of his ship for the voyage around the world and on his splendid “Wolf House,” but both ventures failed. • He died of a guestrointestinal type of uraemia （尿毒症） on November 22.1916.
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1. Biography 2. Major Works 3. Writing Style 4. Theme of Jack London’s Works 5. Comments on London’s life philosophy
Biography
He is the one of the representative writers.
• In 1903 he wrote “The Call of the Wild”, an alltime best seller. • This book made him immediately popular, and his name was soon known all over the county. • For the next twelve years he wrote reports in Asia at the time of the Russian-Japanese War, and served in the same capacity in the Mexican Civil War in 1914. He liked the excitement of it. Wherever there was action London was present.
• London believed both in the success of the working class and in the survival of the strongest. He also learned practical knowledge in between journeys as a tramp and participation in the Klondike gold rush in 1897. He failed to find gold, but the experience became a rich source for his literary creation later.
• the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity • combative • love of knowledge • love for the whole humankind • Rebellious ,individualism, superman ,strong will, freedom • Hope for human civilization.
• Subjectivity and enthusiasm • His characterizations were often stiff and his dialogue stereotyped.
Theme of Jack London’s Works
• primitive violence, Anglo-Saxon supremacy, biological evolution, class warfare, and mechanistic determinism.
Jack and Charmian LondonĶ) ↓ Oyster pirate (16) ↓ A hard laborer (muscle seller)
↓ A tramp流浪者, beggar (at 18)
• A knowledge pursuer ↓ • A successful writer ↓ • A rancher (大农场主)
• At the age of 13, he took a job in a cannery, and at the age of 15 he was the captain of an oyster pirate boat. He supported himself with menial and dangerous jobs, experiencing the struggle for survival. He lived on the fringes of society until he was seventeen. In 1893 he became a sailor. For the next four years he worked his way around the world. He learned the jungle law of nature, the survival of the strong and the death of the weak. He wandered his way across the United State, even begging his food from door to door.
• London believed both in the success of the working class and in the survival of the strongest. He also learned practical knowledge in between journeys as a tramp and participation in the Klondike gold rush in 1897. He failed to find gold, but the experience became a rich source for his literary creation later.
• For a period of many years, especially between 1905-1907, London was a strong supporter of the socialist movement in the United States. Many of his writings reflect his interest in socialist ideas. • With the success of his fiction he was also in demand on the lecture circuit.
Jack’s notable sayings
★Youth is always young and elderly will only grow old. 青年总是年青的，只有老年才会变老。 ★ The only way to get smart is to buy with the youth . 得到智慧的惟一办法，就是用青春去买。 ★ I would rather be ashes than dust! 我宁愿化作灰烬，也不要做尘埃。
• Determined to get an education, he went to high school at the age of nineteen, entered preparatory school, and then spend a semester as a special student at the University of California in 1896. • He had to drop out after a few months to make money for the family. But he read extensively by himself.
• He was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, the illegitimate son of a self-taught man and an eccentric woman. He took the last name of his stepfather and was called John Griffith London. He grew up in extreme poverty as a street urchin along the water-front where he began at an early age to indulge his boundless appetite for adventure. Before he was ten years old, he had to work before and after school and even on weekends in order to support the family.
Writing Style • Social Darwinism(社会达尔文主义 ),
Neitzchean superman, socialist doctrines of Marx • Naturalism mingled with Romanticism Forceful, and colorful;
• Father of American proletariate literature • Realist, spokesman of socialism • Great thinker • His writings inspired later writers like John Steinbeck and Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Ruark, Sinclair