Lecture №7 Modernism in American Literature (1900s). Jack London, Th. Dreiser

JACK LONDON 

(1876-1916) 

The famous American novelist Jack London (pen-name of John Griffith) 

came of an extremely poor family. Even during his school years he had to support 

himself by selling newspapers and doing other small jobs. Then he tried to work at 

a factory but it was too hard for a fourteen-year old boy. So he ran away from 

home and dreamed of becoming a pirate. At the age of seventeen he became a 

sailor, left his ship for a factory once more, and the factory for an electric station. 

When he found himself out of work he joined a group of unemployed that was 

traveling east. For several years Jack London led the life of a tramp in the United 

States and Canada and saw all there was to see of the dark side of American life. 

Some of the difficulties he met during the first years of his literary work are 

described in “Martin Eden”.  

He read a great many books on socialism and this helped him to understand 

that which he saw, although he never became a real Marxist. Jack London was a 

member of the American Socialist Party and came into close contact with the 

working class movement. In his novel “The Iron Heel” he gives a picture of the 

working class struggle.  

During the sixteen years of his literary career, London published about fifty 

books, short stories, novels and other works.  

In some of his books J. London has given very vivid pictures of the rough, 

hard life in the North, away from the great centers of civilization: “The Son of the 

Wolf”, “The Children of the Frost”, etc. His tales of animal life in Canada are very 

much liked by boys and girls all over the world (“White Fang”, “Jerry of the 

Islands”, “Michael Brother Jerry” and others). His best works reflect the social 

contradictions of capitalist society. Among these is “Martin Eden”, which was 

published in 1909.  

Summary  

This part outlines the results of the Civil War in America and development of 

realism in American literature of the 19

th 

century. There is a brief presentation of 

life and work of the first American realists – Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, O. 

Henry, Frank Norris, Jack London.