The First and Last Chance
By David Seed
()
About this ebook
During Jack London’s last years in grammar school, he lived in West Oakland, the working-class district, which bordered the bay and the estuary. He frequented the water front, did odd jobs, delivered newspapers, and sold stuff to the rags-bottles-sacks men.
After the eighth grade, at fifteen, he had to get a real job to help support the household. He worked at Hickmott’s cannery on Myrtle Street, tending a machine for a minimum of 10 hours a day at 10 cents an hour, but usually he worked longer, 18 to 20 hours with very little extra pay for the overtime. Jack wore himself out, making about 50 dollars a month. He hated the job, felt trapped, and rebelled.
Before he was sixteen, he was an oyster pirate. It was a dangerous job, but he was able to make 25 dollars a day. It was quite the rollicking adventure until his boat caught fire. He went to work for the fish patrol for a while, but quit to get back to Oakland, where he worked odd jobs on the water front.
A harpooner befriended Jack and talked him into working as his boat puller on the next seal hunting voyage to the north coast of Japan. On January 20, 1893, Jack London, barely seventeen, signed articles of the Sophia Sutherland, a three masted schooner of one hundred fifty odd tons. The voyage took seven months, and it was the only time Jack served before the mast. For fifty-one days, he saw no land but Hawaii on the way to Japan. One might wonder how Jack felt when he first experienced the vastness of the ocean.
When he got home, he started high school. He had decided to further his education and pursue a writing career.
David Seed
###About the author:David Seed was born August 15, 1931 in Minot, North Dakota. In his eleventh year the family moved to Dunsmuir, California where he graduated high school, believing himself to be a writer. In the fall of 1949 he started at the University of California at Berkeley and did his best to learn what he could of life. He managed to graduate in the spring of 1956 and continued to follow his calling, experiencing a chaotic life as both participant and observer. He is now an old man writing books in Oregon.
Read more from David Seed
Kindness Among Friends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaiku Dude Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"The Scent of White Linen": A Tale of the Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Death and Redemption: A Tale of the Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen-Dollar Mona: a tale of the Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Play and Four Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJohn the Dreamer and the dagger of truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Saga of Shady Bill: A Tale of the Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFragments from the Silent Generation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Hunter, Book Two of Dunsmuir Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"An Act of Kindness": A Tale of the Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Night in Castle Crags Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Uba Uba in Love": A Tale from the Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShady Bill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Rain Sad Day: A Tale of the Sportsmens' Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMakes the Arrow Sing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Legacy of Long-Arm Lefty: A Tale of The Sportsmen's Club Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTalk About Good Grades Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStream Runner, Book 1 of Dunsmuir Boy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The First and Last Chance
Related ebooks
Drinkwaters Daughter: A Tale of Highwaymen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoe Napyank; or, The River Rifles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Haunted Pajamas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing of Nod Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSalt of the Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEarth Alert Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFilmore's Double-Dose of Dark Urban Mythos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPursuit Of The Mountain Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ain't Nothin' But a Stranger in This World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKingdoms at War: Dragon Gate, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secrets of Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuck Peters, Ranchman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnchanted: Thirst for Power, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFind Me Love: science fiction romance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bock's Canyon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFind Me Love Now Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Billionaire Family Drama 2: A Billionaire Family Drama Serial - Her Billionaire Boyfriend Series, #2 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5El Dorado - Book 1 - Search for the Lost City: An Unexpected Adventure: The Lost City, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Goldfish Pond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man Who Ended War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBox of Gaza Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Charming Neighbour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFateful Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrank Merriwell, Jr., in Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath in Uptown Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Murder in Boystown Part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Coast Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Manipulated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBriarcliff, Volume One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Literary Fiction For You
Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women Talking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The First and Last Chance
0 ratings0 reviews