Gianfranco+P.

"Call of the Wild Background | GradeSaver." //Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver//. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. [].
 * 1) Jack London spent a single winter in the Canadian North during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1898.
 * 2) When he returned, he claimed to have come upon a mythic wolf which inspired the character of Buck.
 * 3) Whether or not London was speaking of a true encounter, his experiences with the Gold Rush provided the inspiration for a tale of resilience and exploration.
 * 4) Much of the story takes place in Alaska, traveling between Dawson and Skagway.
 * 5) The discovery of gold prompted a mass exodus to the Klondike, where gold was hypothetically free for the taking.
 * 6) The town of Dawson became the heart of the Gold Rush
 * 7) In 1886, Captain Moore, a citizen of Canada who had been prospecting for gold in the Canadian northwest, discovered a trail he called the "White Pass."
 * 8) This trail allowed for the transportation of supplies, correspondence, and men into the Alaskan interior, and it lead directly to Dawson.
 * 9) In reality, the journey to the Klondike was a dangerous and expensive undertaking.
 * 10) Canadian law stated that gold-seekers could only enter the territory if they entered with a year's worth of provisions.
 * 11) This law was rigidly enforced by police patrols.
 * 12) Meanwhile, the journey to the Klondike by ship was so dangerous that many threw supplies overboard to lighten the load.
 * 13) Once the ships had landed, the journey grew no easier.
 * 14) Numerous memoirs and diaries remain from the men and women who toiled over the icy trail in that year.
 * 15) Their accounts of the journey between Skaguay and Dawson are the best source of what life was like on an expedition.
 * 16) Writings speak of rugged canyons, boldly ascending mountains, and projecting cliffs.
 * 17) Jack London borrowed money from his sister to make the trip.
 * 18) On one hand he was spurred on by poverty, for America was in the throes of the Great Depression.
 * 19) On the other hand, he sought adventure and inspiration.
 * 20) While London did not strike it rich in the Klondike, he found the inspiration he was seeking, and that impetus would lead to tremendous success and certain amount of fortune.

Stasz, Dr. Clarice. "Jack London: Biography." //The Jack London Online Collection//. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. [].
 * 1) John Griffith London (1876-1916) was born in San Francisco of an unmarried mother of wealthy background, Flora Wellman.
 * 2) His father may have been William Chaney, a journalist, lawyer, and major figure in the development of American astrology.
 * 3) Because Flora was ill, Jack was raised through infancy by an ex-slave, Virginia Prentiss, who would remain a major maternal figure while the boy grew up.
 * 4) Late in 1876, Flora married John London, a partially disabled Civil War veteran.
 * 5) The family moved around the Bay area before settling in Oakland, where Jack completed grade school.
 * 6) Though the family was working class, it was not so impoverished as London's later accounts claimed.
 * 7) As an adolescent, the boy adopted the name of Jack.
 * 8) He worked at various hard labor jobs, pirated for oysters on San Francisco Bay, served on a fish patrol to capture poachers, and sailed the Pacific on a sealing ship.
 * 9) He also joined Kelly's Army of unemployed working men, hoboed around the country, and returned to attend high school at age 19.
 * 10) In the process, he became acquainted with socialism and was known as the Boy Socialist of Oakland for his street corner oratory.
 * 11) He would run unsuccessfully several times on the socialist ticket as mayor.
 * 12) Always a prolific reader, he consciously chose to become a writer to escape from the horrific prospects of life as a factory worker.
 * 13) He studied other writers and began to submit stories, jokes, and poems to various publications, mostly without success.
 * 14) Spending the winter of 1897 in the Yukon provided the metaphorical gold for his first stories, which he began publishing in the Overland Monthly in 1899.
 * 15) From that point he was a highly disciplined writer, who would produce over fifty volumes of stories, novels, and political essays.
 * 16) Although The Call of the Wild (1903) brought him lasting fame, many of his short stories deserve to be called classics.
 * 17) One should be his critique of capitalism and poverty in The People of the Abyss (1903)
 * 18) Another one should be his stark discussion of alcoholism in John Barleycorn (1913).
 * 19) London's long voyage (1907-1909) across the Pacific in a small boat provided material for books and stories about Polynesian and Melanesian cultures.
 * 20) He was instrumental in breaking the taboo over leprosy and popularizing Hawaii as a tourist spot.

"Jack London in the American West, Jack London Ebooks, Jack London First Editions, Jack London Tours LiteraryTraveler.com." //Literary Traveler, Literary Tours, Travel Writing, Travel Literature, Ereaders, EBooks, Travel, HemingwayLiteraryTraveler.com//. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. [].
 * 1) When the steamer, "Portland", docked in Seattle on July 17, 1897, people were just sitting down to their breakfasts, unaware that this day would be any different from the one before.
 * 2) An enterprising reporter for the //Post-Intelligencer// knew differently.
 * 3) He had already been on board the "Portland "and he knew that she carried two tons of gold from the Canadian northwest.
 * 4) It was welcome news to a nation grappling with a severe economic recession.
 * 5) "Prosperity is here", the reporter wrote confidently, "the depression is at an end."
 * 6) Within weeks, tens of thousands were heading for the gold fields of the Klondike, convinced that the nuggets were lying so thick on the ground that you could literally pick them up and stuff your pockets full.
 * 7) One of those who heeded the siren's call was a twenty-one year-old Oakland, California native named Jack London.
 * 8) Like millions of other Americans, London was desperate.
 * 9) He had been an oyster pirate, a sealer, and a hobo.
 * 10) He had worked in a cannery, a jute mill and a laundry; and had dreamed of being a writer, but had met with little success.
 * 11) Borrowing money from his step-sister, he set sail for the Klondike, confident of making his fortune.
 * 12) There were several routes to the goldfields.
 * 13) Some took the overland route through the Canadian West.
 * 14) Others took the steamer up the Yukon River from Alaska.
 * 15) But most, like London, booked a passage on one of many steamships leaving from ports like San Francisco, sailed up the Inside Passage to the Lynn Canal and then disembarked at Dyea or Skagway in the Dyea Inlet.
 * 16) In Dyea, London would have to hump his gear (quite literally a ton of supplies) over the Chilkoot Pass to Lindemann Lake, the head of navigation on the Yukon River.
 * 17) On the shores of Lindemann Lake, in a great tent city, London and his three companions built a pair of flat-bottomed boats he christened Yukon Belle and The Belle of the Yukon to carry them downstream to Dawson.
 * 18) All around them the spruce forest fell as eager prospectors constructed simple craft to navigate the river to the gold fields.
 * 19) It was a race and everyone knew that the first to arrive would stake the best claim.
 * 20) London's first test was the pair of rapids at Miles Canyon and Whitehorse.
 * 21) He and his companions could either play it safe and take two days to portage everything around the rapids, or they could risk everything and run the rapids in a matter of minutes.
 * 22) They took a vote and opted for the latter.
 * 23) Spectators cheered them on as they successfully ran the rapids and the next thing they knew they were being offered money to pilot other outfits through the dangerous waters.
 * 24) At a price of twenty-five dollars per journey, Jack and his crew steered 120 boats through the rapids over the next few days.
 * 25) They could have stayed all summer and earned themselves a fortune, but they were impatient to reach the gold fields.

1913,, August. "Jack London, His Life and Books (Jack London State Historic Park)." //Parks and Recreation in Sonoma County, California//. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. [].
 * 1) Jack London fought his way up out of the factories and waterfront dives of West Oakland to become the highest paid, most popular novelist and short story writer of his day.
 * 2) He wrote passionately and prolifically about the great questions of life and death, the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity.
 * 3) He wove these elemental ideas into stories of high adventure based on his own firsthand experiences at sea, or in Alaska, or in the fields and factories of California.
 * 4) As a result, his writing appealed not to the few, but to millions of people all around the world.
 * 5) Along with his books and stories, however, Jack London was widely known for his personal exploits.
 * 6) He was a celebrity, a colorful and controversial personality who was often in the news.
 * 7) Generally fun-loving and playful, he could also be combative, and was quick to side with the underdog against injustice or oppression of any kind.
 * 8) He was a fiery and eloquent public speaker, and much sought after as a lecturer on socialism and other economic and political topics.
 * 9) Despite his avowed socialism, most people considered him a living symbol of rugged individualism, a man whose fabulous success was due not to special favor of any kind, but to a combination of unusual mental ability and immense vitality.
 * 10) Jack London ascribed his literary success largely to hard work.
 * 11) He tried never to miss his early morning 1,000-word writing stint, and between 1900 and 1916 he completed over fifty books, including both fiction and non-fiction, hundreds of short stories, and numerous articles on a wide range of topics.
 * 12) Several of the books and many of the short stories are classics of their kind, well thought of in critical terms and still popular around the world.
 * 13) Today, almost countless editions of London's writings are available and some of them have been translated into as many as seventy different languages.
 * 14) While his barn and other ranch improvements were still under construction he decided to build a ship and go sailing around the world which would give him still more material to write about.
 * 15) The great voyage was to last seven years and take Jack and Charmian around the world.
 * 16) In fact it lasted 27 months and took them only as far as the South Pacific and Australia.