Teacher Ideas:

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Teacher Ideas Use this presentation to
introduce your students to the author, his
personal life and story, and his
accomplishments. Encourage students to compare
London to other authors you have studied this
year, or to their favorite author. Encourage
students to compare Londons life to their
ownwhat lessons can they learn from his life and
choices? Use the quotes contained in this
presentation for discussion, as writing prompts,
to teach inference, to teach vocabulary
development, etc Encourage students to continue
to research the author looking for specifics
either you or they choose. After researching and
recording specific information about London,
motivate students to find characters or incidents
in To Build A Fire, or The Call of the Wild that
resemble London or his life. Use this
presentation before and after reading Londons
work so students can write about how much they
have learned from him and his novel or short
story.
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Londons Childhood

• Born in 1876 on the Barbary Coast of San
  Francisco
• Raised by mother, Flora Wellman, and stepfather,
  John London
• Childhood marked by poverty unhappiness

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London at age 8 with dog Rollo ChildhoodReference
sites http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/jack.htm
l http//www.jacklondon.com/
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London as a school boy
http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/
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• Became an avid reader at age 10 when an Oakland
  librarian encouraged him to escape his life of
  poverty through reading.
• Bought his first sailboat at age 12loved to sail

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YouthAdventure/Responsibility

• Dropped out of school at age 14 had series of
  low-paying jobs
• Seaman delivered paperssweatshop worked
  in canneryfreight train hobo cleaned local
  saloon

• Loved to listen to stories about the California
  Gold Rush of 1849

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Forming Ideas/Attitudes

• Experiences that shaped Londons life and
  attitudes
• -oyster pirate -seal hunter in the
  North Pacific -1894arrested jailed in
  Niagara Falls for vagrancy -adopted
  socialistic views

• Educated self by reading in public library
• Attended University of California at Berkeley
• Left school after 1 year to seek his fortune in
  gold fields

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Adventure

• Traveled to Klondike Gold Rush in 1897
• Spent one winter at Split-Up Island, near the
  Stewart River
• Did not find gold had a wealth of experiences he
  would later use to write stories and books
• Returned home to support himself and his family
  by publishing his writing

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Gold DISCOVERED in the Yukon
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Jack London outfitted to travel to the gold
fields of the Klondike Gold Rush Photo actually
taken in at Truckee, CA. http//sunsite.berkeley.e
du/London
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Adult Life

• An avid sailorloved his boat, the Snark

http//www.parks.sonoma.net/JLStory.html
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http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/jack.html
Aboard the Snark with friends
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Married twicetwo daughters
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• Bess MaddernLondons first wife
• Becky and Joan LondonLondons daughters

http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Images/
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Charmian London Jack Londons second
wife http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Images
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London owned and loved a ranch in Sonoma Valley
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Londons Directions to his ranch at Glen Ellen
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Next to my wife, the ranch is the dearest
thing in the world to me.
Jack London
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The Londons at home
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I believe the soil is our greatest asset.
Jack London http//www.geocities
.com?NapaValley/7996/
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I hope to do two things with the ranchTo leave
the land better for my having beenTo enable 30
or 40 families to live happily on the ground that
was so impoverished when I bought it.
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• ..he was mighty good to us, and there never was
  a man who came here who went away hungry.
• Ranch workman

http//www.parks.sonoma.net/JLStory.html
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Londonthe Author

• Began avidly writing in 1897
• He commonly spent 15 hours a day writing
• Daily quota of 1000 written words a day
• Became recognized as a talented successful
  writer

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http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Images
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Jack London wrote 50 books and 1,000 articles
between 1899 and 1916.
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The greatest story London ever told was the
story he lived. Alfred
Kazin Literary critic
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http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Images
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By 1916, London was the highest-paid writer in
the country and the most widely read American
author in the world.
http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London
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His literary works like The Road, written in
1907, inspired later writers like John Steinbeck
and Jack Kerouac.
http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London
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Life Then and Now

• Then1900
• 1 in 7 homes had a bathtub
• 1 in 13 homes had a telephone
• Camera cost 1.00
• 1 lb sugar--4 cents
• Dozen eggs--14 cents
• 1 lb. Butter24 cents

• Now2000
• 2.3 tvs per household
• 20 of U.S. connected to the Internet
• 1 lb sugar43 cents
• Dozen eggs--1.12
• 1 lb. Butter--2.35
• Cameratoo many to list

See bibliography slide
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The Londons several weeks prior to his death
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• Jack London died on November 22, 1916.
• A memorial for he and his second wife, Charmian
  Kittredge, is located at Glen Ellen.

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One of the reasons Jack Londons popularity as
an author remainsso high in the world today is
because his life was as interesting as his
works. http//www.geocities.com/NapaValley/79
96/
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from Jack London journals
Thoughts about life..
http//www.geocities.com/NapaValley/7996 http//ww
w.parks.sonoma.net/JLStory.html http//sunsite.ber
keley.edu/London/
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It is so simple a remedy, merely service.
Jack London
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Not one ignoble thought or act is demanded of
any or all men and women than to make fair
the world.
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The call is for service, and such is the
wholesomeness of it.He who serves all best
serves himself. Jack London
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Londons Creedo
http//sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/
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Jack London's "Credo"I would rather be ashes
than dust! I would rather that my spark should
burn out     in a brilliant blaze than it should
be stifled by dry-rot.The function of man is to
live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days
trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
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What others thought of Jack London
See bibliography slide
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No writer, unless it were Mark Twain, ever had a
more romantic life than Jack London. Ernest J.
Hopkins http//www.parks.sonoma,net/JL
Story.html
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The story of his adventure-filled life still
intrigues readers of all ages and from all walks
of life. Russ Kingman
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London was described as a born teller of tales
who wrote as he livedin a hurry.
Howard Lachtman
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The fact that his gift for writing was ever
realized came to be used as an example of someone
achieving The American Dream.
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http//www.homestead.com/wolf29/wolves.html
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Title The Call of the WildGenre Realistic
FictionSetting Late 1800s, Klondike
gold rush
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Call of the Wild--Comments
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In his story the Klondike became not only a
real country, but a territory of the mind where
his characters lived or died because of what they
had in them.
(Lachtman, 1984)
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He was paid three cents per word for the story,
which he had shortened by 5,000 words.
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London received a total of 2,750.00 for his
work.
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The book has never been out of print during the
last seventy-five years
http//www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html
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The Call of the Wild is the greatest dog story
ever written and is at the same time a study of
one of the most curious and profound motives that
play hide-and-seek in the human soul.
Carl Sandburg
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From the time The Call of the Wild caught the
imagination of the world in 1903, until his death
by a stroke and heart attack in 1916,
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his 51 books, hundreds of short stories, essays
and other writings had more newspaper coverage
than any other writer.
http//www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html
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I have everything to make me glad I am alive. I
am filled with dreams and mysteries.
Jack London
http//www.parks.sonoma.net/JLPark.html
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Jack London siteshttp//www.geocities.com/jack
londons/index.htmlhttp//www.smithsonianmag.com/
smithsonian/issuesall/issues98/feb98/jack.htmlht
tp//dcps.dade.k12.fl.us/technology/reading/wild/C
OW/worksheet.htmhttp//ofcn.org/cyber.serv/resou
rce/bookshelf/callw10/http//sunsite.berkeley.ed
u/London/Organizations/jl_society.htmlhttp//sun
site.berkeley.edu/London/