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JACK LONDON Chronology

1876	Born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, in San Francisco to Flora Wellman, common-law wife of William Henry Chaney. She married John London on September 7, and Jack took his surname.
1891	Bought sloop Razzle Dazzle and became an oyster pirate on San Francisco Bay.
1893	Served eight months as a seaman aboard sealing vessel Sophia Sutherland. His "Story of a Typhoon off the Coast of Japan" won first prize in a contest sponsored by the San Francisco Call.
1894	Worked as laborer; tramped "on the road" with Coxey's Industrial Army of the Unemployed and then on his own; served 30-day sentence for vagrancy. His 1907 book, The Road, was based on these experiences.
1895	Attended Oakland High School; his articles and short stories appeared in The High School Aegis.
1896	Joined the Socialist Labor Party.
1897	Left the University of California after one semester. Worked in a laundry before leaving for Alaska in July for the Klondike gold rush. Returned to Oakland in July, 1898.
1898	Submitted "A Thousand Deaths" to The Black Cat magazine, which published the story in May, 1899. The "first money I ever received for a story."
1899	"To the Man on Trail" published in the Overland Monthly.
1900	"An Odyssey of the North" published in the Atlantic Monthly in January. Married Bess Maddern on April 7; Published his first book, The Son of the Wolf.
1901	Daughter Joan born on January 15.
1902	Second daughter Bess born on October 20. Lived for six weeks (Aug.-Sept.) among the poor in the East End of London, England, leading to The People of the Abyss. Published A Daughter of the Snows (his first novel), Children of the Frost and The Cruise of the Dazzler.
1903	Published The Call of the Wild, The Kempton-Wace Letters (written with Anna Strunsky), and The People of the Abyss.
1904	War correspondent for Russo-Japanese War. Bess Maddern London filed for divorce. Published The Sea Wolf and The Faith of Men.
1905	Purchased his first 129 of the eventual 1400 acres of the Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen in the Sonoma Valley. Married Charmian Kittredge. Published War of the Classes, The Game, and Tales of the Fish Patrol.
1906	Began building schooner Snark for projected seven-year, round-the-world voyage. Reported San Francisco earthquake. Published Moon-Face and Other Stories, White Fang, and Scorn of Women.
1907	Snark, with Jack, Charmian and crew, sailed to Hawaii, Marquesas Islands, and Tahiti. Published Before Adam, Love of Life and Other Stories, and The Road.
1908	Snark continued to Samoa, Fiji Islands, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, and Australia, where Jack and Charmian were hospitalized and forced to abandon cruise. Published The Iron Heel.
1909	Returned to Glen Ellen. Published Martin Eden.
1910	Step-sister Eliza London Shepard became ranch superintendent. Daughter Joy born on June 19, died on June 21. Published Lost Face, Revolution and Other Essays, Burning Daylight, and Theft: A Play in Four Acts.
1911	Spent summer driving wagon and four horses to Oregon and back, with Charmian and valet Yoshimatsu Nakata. Published When God Laughs and Other Stories, Adventure, The Cruise of the Snark, and South Sea Tales.
1912	With Charmian, sailed aboard the Dirigo from Baltimore to Seattle around Cape Horn. Published The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii, A Son of the Sun, and Smoke Bellew.
1913	Wolf House destroyed by fire. Attended San Francisco premier of The Sea Wolf, the first feature-length film produced in the U.S. Published The Night Born, The Abysmal Brute, John Barleycorn, and The Valley of the Moon.
1914	Went to Vera Cruz to report on the Mexican Revolution, then left for Hawaii after returning to Glen Ellen for health. Published The Strength of the Strong and The Mutiny of the Elsinore.
1915	Sailed to Hawaii in February and again in December. Published The Scarlet Plague and The Star Rover.
1916	Resigned from the Socialist Party. Returned from Hawaii in July. Died at the Beauty Ranch on November 22. Published The Acorn-Planter: A California Forest Play, The Little Lady of the Big House, and The Turtles of Tasman.