Jack London

Author and Adventurer

Man of the People

Throughout his life, Jack London held an unshakable faith in mankind. He lived according to this faith, and his writing reflected it. In his socialist convictions, in his compassionate study of the poor in the East End of London, England, and in his hobo days tramping across America, London believed in social justice and in the need to better the human condition. In his writings, as well, he explored the human condition and the need for people to embrace, rather than deny, their humanity.

Jack London. The Road, first edition, New York, Macmillan and Company, 1907.
RB 12708

In The Road, London recounts his four-month tramp across the United States and Canada. In April, 1894, London left Oakland to join Kelly's Army, the western contingent of Coxey's Industrial Army of the Unemployed, in its march on Washington to protest economic conditions. A month later, he left the group and began tramping on his own.

Arrested for vagrancy, sentenced to 30 days in prison, London saw the bottom of society, and the experience gave him the philosophical base for his socialist views and for his compassion for the plight of the common people.

Jack London's membership card in the Socialist Labor Party, Oakland, April, 1896.
JLE 1593

As a tramp on the road, and laboring at spirit-deadening jobs in canneries and factories for starvation wages, the young Jack London deplored the subjugation of the working class by the wealthy. He joined the party in Oakland in 1896, became known as the "boy socialist" for his lecturing, and even ran for mayor twice for the Social Democratic Party.

Despite his own individualism and financial success, London remained a vocal socialist throughout his life. However, he resigned from the party shortly before his death, because he felt it had lost its fire and would not take the risks necessary to achieve victory in the class struggle.

Jack London. Revolution and Other Essays, first edition, New York, Macmillan Company, 1911.
RB 12709

The essays in this volume deal with a variety of topics, including socialism.

London's human compassion and his indignation at social injustice formed the basis for his socialism. As he inscribed The People of the Abyss for George Wharton James, "God's still in his heaven, but all's not well with the world. Read here some of the reasons of my socialism, and some of my socialism. Walk with me here, among the creatures damned by men and then wonder not that I sign myself, Yours for the Revolution."

Jack London. The People of the Abyss, first edition, New York, Macmillan Company, 1903.
RB 337689

In 1902 London departed for South Africa to report for the American Press Association on the effects of peace after the end of the Boer War. When this assignment was cancelled, he decided to stay on in England to live in and study the poverty-stricken East End of the city of London. Living as one of the poor, Jack London witnessed and experienced the squalor, degradation and slow starvation that were life in the East End.

The book that resulted is a powerful and moving work that rings with London's outrage at society's inhumanity to the poor. Later, in a 1916 letter, London wrote that "Of all my books, I love most The People of the Abyss. No other book of mine took so much of my young heart and tears as that study of the economic degradation of the poor."

Jack London. Autograph notebook for The People of the Abyss, 1902.
JL 1048

As London learned and recorded in his notes even the clothing he wore exerted a powerful effect, not only providing him with the recognizable badge of his class but also infusing him with a slouching stance and a servile manner. Wearing the appropriate apparel and demeanor, he experienced the crushing poverty of body and spirit that defined life in the East End.

Writing to George and Carrie Sterling from the East End, London said, "I have heard of God's country, but this country is the country God has forgotten that he forgot. I've read of misery, and seen a bit; but this beats anything I could even have imagined. Actually, I have seen things and looked the second time in order to convince myself that it was really so. . . . I think I should die if I had to live two years in the East End of London."

Jack London. Martin Eden, first edition, New York, Macmillan Company, 1909.  
RB 337692

Written during the voyage of the Snark, Martin Eden is in many respects one of London's most autobiographical novels, as well as one of his best. The story of an ambitious and self-educated aspiring writer, the novel tells the story of Martin Eden's determined rise from the life of a common laborer and sailor to that of a wealthy, famous author.

In contrast to London, however, Martin Eden fails to find fulfillment and, overcome with despair, ends his life.

The Jack London papers also include an autograph manuscript for Martin Eden.
JL 969

Jack London. Autograph letter to Philo M. Buck, November 5, 1912.   JL 11261

London always insisted that Martin Eden is an indictment of individualism, that Martin died because he lived only for himself and failed to have faith in his fellow men and women.

In this letter, London castigates Philo Buck, a literary scholar and critic, for misinterpreting the novel.

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