Jack London on Adventure: Words of Wisdom from an Expert Adventurer

by Jack London

Jack London was a writer, but more than that, he was an adventurer who wrote about his adventures. Growing up working class in San Francisco, London diligently scrounged out a life riding trains, pirating oysters, working on a sealing ship, and working at a cannery, all the while using his free time to hole up in libraries reading novels and travel books. A harrowing voyage aboard a sealing ship, where he and the crew were almost killed by a typhoon, convinced him to start writing stories.

After a brief time on the east coast and a stint in the Yukon mining for gold, London returned to California. He published his stories in the Overland Monthly , which prompted him to become more disciplined in his writing. He published numerous novels over the years, including The Call of the Wild , a story about a dog who becomes a sled dog in the Yukon, The People of the Abyss , which heavily critiqued capitalism, and John Barleycorn , a memoiristic novel that detailed his struggles with alcoholism.

With quotes from the array of Jack London’s writings, readers will get a sense of his life as well as a keen yearning for undertaking their own adventures.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published June 2, 2015

About the author

John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of animal rights, workers’ rights and socialism. London wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.

His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in Alaska and the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen".

Reviews

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and wonderful book! It quotes from a variety of Jack London's other books. It inspires the reader to want to be in nature, live adventurously, and remember that death is just around the corner!

[Mark Moxley-Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice small volume of collected writings. About adventure, to some extent. But also about inspiration, writing, life, dogs, and sailing. Quick read that will make you think.