Jack London

Jack London was a man of adventure, a man of action.

He had a great physical strength, an intense intellect, and a turbulent spirit.

He died when he was only forty, but he accomplished more in this short lifetime than most men could in several lifetimes.

John Griffith Chaney was his real name. He was born in San Francisco, California, in 1876.

His family was very poor so, at the age of ten, he was on the street selling newspapers.

His vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardships were drawn mainly from his own experience.

At 17, Jack London shipped as an able seaman to Japan and the Bering Sea.

He was an oyster pirate, a gold-seeker in the first Klondike rush, a newspaper correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, and in 1914 a war correspondent in Mexico.

Jack London made his way to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897 at the age of 20. For $25.00 he and his brother-in-law, "Captain Sheppard," took the S.S. Utmatilla from San Francisco to Alaska.

They arrived in the Klondike in the autumn of 1897. London soon discovered that there was no Klondike gold.

After suffering a three-month attack of scurvy, Jack London returned to Oakland in July of 1898.

When he was in Alaska, London met up with Marshall and Louis Bond, two brothers whose dog "Jack" was immortalized as "Buck" in Jack London's great American classic Call of the Wild.

Jack London writing The Sea Wolf, 1904.

London’s Personal Life

His first wife, Bessie Maddern, and daughters, Joan and Bess.

The break up of London's marriage was imminent. Bessie was a fine woman, but they were extremely incompatible. Jack was struggling with his strong sense of family responsiblity and an equally strong realization that to continue living with Bessie was impossible."

London’s second wife was Charmian Kittredge

The day Jack London sailed from the foot of Broadway for his South Pacific adventure aboard the "Snark". 1907

Jack London died on Wednesday, November 22, 1916.

On November 26, in a silent ceremony, Charmian London placed her husband's ashes on the chosen knoll under a large lava rock.

After she passed away in 1955, Charmian's ashes were also laid to rest under the rock.