Jack London in 1903. Wikicommons/Little Pilgrimages. Some rights reserved.On November 22, 1916, the American author Jack London died. He left behind a number of important stories, but also a difficult legacy. A follower of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Herbert Spencer, he combined revolutionary socialist principles with troubling views on race. His novels continue to be popular, but his standing in academic circles has never been high. Scholars have viewed his work as lacking intellectual complexity — as being macho adventure tales or dog books for children. Most serious of all are the accusations of white supremacy. Yet London’s life, work and beliefs were more complex (if no less disturbing) than the conventional narrative suggests. A follower of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Herbert Spencer, he combined revolutionary socialist principles with troubling views on race.
London was born into a working-class family in Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay area. He never knew his real father, and his early life was a struggle. Working in a canning factory as a teenager, he received an early education in manual labour: he later claimed to have become a writer (a ‘vendor of brains’) because it was less destructive to the body than physical toil.
