Jack London

Author and Adventurer

Journalist

As both adventurer and author, London himself often made headlines. But he also had a journalist's nose for a good story, and he managed to be at the center of some of the world's major events. Reporting on such events as the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 allowed him not only to pursue the adventuring he loved, but also to observe and learn from the human outcome of these events.

Jack London. "San Francisco Earthquake and Fire," autograph manuscript, April 18, 1906.
JL 1151

Shaken awake in Glen Ellen by the rumbling of the ground early on the morning of April 18, 1906, Jack and Charmian quickly checked the damage to the ranch and then traveled by train to San Francisco. Walking the city for hours, they witnessed first-hand the destruction caused by the temblor and fires. They saw the human result of the disaster -- the widespread death and personal tragedies, but also heroism and compassion.

London initially declined to try to write about such a cataclysmic event, but he finally agreed to an offer from Collier's magazine. The resulting article is one of the first eyewitness accounts, and a masterpiece of journalism. In fast-paced cadence using terse, almost telegraphic sentences, he simply but eloquently described the devastation he had witnessed.

San Francisco earthquake damage, 1906.
JLP 480, Album 42, #05505

Jack London. "A Camera and a Journey," in In Many Wars, Tokyo, Tokyo Printing Company, 1904.
RB 288712

In 1904, London covered the Russo-Japanese War as a correspondent for the Hearst newspaper syndicate. Not content to wait in Japan with other correspondents for permission to travel to the front in Korea, London set out on his own by rickshaw and train. He got as far as Moji, where taking some innocent photographs landed him in jail with his camera confiscated. Moji was a naval base, and it took the intervention of fellow correspondent Richard Harding Davis to free London and his camera. London pressed on to Korea, via junk and sampan.

London had become famous with the publication of The Call of the Wild in 1903, and his own escapades at the front made even better news than the war stories he filed. His camera essay first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner on February 3, 1904, with the headline, "How Jack London got in and out of jail in Japan." In Many Wars is a compilation of war essays by the correspondents.

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