Despite an unprepossessing childhood spent along the Oakland waterfront, Jack London became an iconic literary figure in the San Francisco Bay Area renowned for his adventure stories. His relatively short career as an author, from 1899 until his death at the age of 40 in 1916, produced a body of work that included at least 19 novels, 3 plays, 18 anthologies of his short stories and articles, and 8 autobiographical or sociological books.
London’s inspirations were mainly derived from his experiences as an adolescent and young adult when he crewed on a whaler off the coast of Siberia, tramped on a freight train across the United States and Canada, and prospected for gold during the Klondyke gold rush. His most popular novels, The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang, evolved from his recollections of his youthful adventures.
In celebration of the centennial of Jack London’s death, the Library has created two exhibits on the 2nd floor. In the Archival Display Case is an array of some of London’s early writings (from 1899 and 1900) which were stories submitted for publication by the author to various periodicals such as Overland Monthly and Atlantic Monthly. The periodicals on display are from MI’s Special Collections.
The other exhibit (located in the center of the reading room) is an imagined corner of Jack London’s study with a typewriter and desk and a number of titles in the MI collection authored by Jack London or about him. (The books in the display are available for checkout.) While the display is not authentic, the purpose is to draw the attention of our members to the great number of items by and about Jack London that are in our collection.
Please stop by the Library’s 2nd floor and check out the exhibits and select a Jack London book to peruse and enjoy!
