An Odyssey of the North
By Jack London
()
About this ebook
John Griffith Chaney was born on January 12th, 1876 in San Francisco.
His father, William Chaney, was living with Flora Wellman when she became pregnant. Chaney insisted she have an abortion. Flora's response was to turn a gun on herself. Although her wounds were not severe the trauma made her temporarily deranged.
In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where Jack completed grade school.
Jack also worked hard at several jobs, sometimes 12-18 hours a day, but his dream was university. He was lent money for that and after intense studying enrolled in the summer of 1896 at the University of California in Berkeley.
In 1897, at 21, Jack searched out newspaper accounts of his mother's suicide attempt and for the name of his biological father. He wrote to Chaney, then living in Chicago who claimed he could not be Jack’s father because he was impotent; and casually asserted that London's mother had relations with other men. Jack, devastated by the response, quit Berkeley and went to the Klondike. Other accounts suggest that his dire finances presented Jack with the excuse he needed to leave.
In the Klondike Jack began to gather materials for his writing but also began to accumulate several health problems, including scurvy, hip and leg problems he would then carry for the rest of his life.
By the late 1890's Jack was regularly publishing short stories and, by the turn of the century, full blown novels.
By 1904 Jack had married, fathered two children and was now in the process of divorcing. A stint as a reporter on the Russian-Japanese war of 1904 was equal amounts trouble and experience. But that experience was always put to good use in a continuing and remarkable output of work.
In 1905 he married Charmian Kettridge, who at last was a soul and companion who brought him some semblance of peace despite his advancing alcoholism and his incurable wanderlust.
Twelve years later Jack had amassed a wealth both wealth and a literary reputation through such classics as ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’ and many others. He had a reputation as a social activist and a tireless friend of the workers.
Jack London died suffering from dysentery, late-stage alcoholism and uremia, aged only 40, on November 22nd 1916 at his property in Glen Ellen, California.
Jack London
Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876, and was a prolific and successful writer until his death in 1916. During his lifetime he wrote novels, short stories and essays, and is best known for ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’.
Read more from Jack London
The Classic American Short Story MEGAPACK ® (Volume 1): 34 of the Greatest Stories Ever Written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deadline Artists—Scandals, Tragedies & Triumphs: More of America's Greatest Newspaper Columns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Build a Fire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jack London: The Greatest Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassic Tales of Science Fiction & Fantasy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest American Short Stories: 50+ Classics of American Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Victorian Mystery Megapack: 27 Classic Mystery Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5TRICK OR TREAT Boxed Set: 200+ Eerie Tales from the Greatest Storytellers: Horror Classics, Mysterious Cases, Gothic Novels, Monster Tales & Supernatural Stories: Sweeney Todd, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Frankenstein, The Vampire, Dracula, Sleepy Hollow, From Beyond… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Plague, Pestilence & Apocalypse MEGAPACK ®: 18 Tales of Doom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5White Fang: Level 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Greatest American Short Stories (Vol. 1) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Post-Apocalyptic Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMoloch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Classics (Omnibus Edition) (Diversion Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe People of the Abyss Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Jack London Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to An Odyssey of the North
Related ebooks
Jack London - Six of the Best Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call Of The Wild: "I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Odyssey of the North Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJack London Complete Collection Northern Tales (annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack London: The Greatest Short Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of The Wild (Pocket Classic) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack London: The Best Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKlondike Two Pack - The Call of the Wild and White Fang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trail Of The Hawk: “He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Monkey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJack London Six Pack: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, A Day’s Lodging, John Barleycorn, Love of Life and Hobos in the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Novels Of Jack London: The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, and White Fang Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Call of the Wild & White Fang Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Gold Rush Tales: 20+ Thrilling Adventures from Yukon: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Burning Daylight and more Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild: The Original Classic Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call Of The Wild (Book Center) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Call of the Wild + White Fang: The Adventure Classics of the American North Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trail of the Hawk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild by Jack London Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Call of the Wild + White Fang + The Son of the Wolf: 3 London Classics in One Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild: London's Most Famous Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild (ArcadianPress Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild - complete edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry Appleton Boy Hero and the Burgess Gang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild (Annotated With Author Biography) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the Wild and White Fang (Illustrated by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Flying Squad Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Call of the Wild (Diversion Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Classics For You
East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Women (Seasons Edition -- Winter) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Count of Monte-Cristo English and French Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jungle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for An Odyssey of the North
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
An Odyssey of the North - Jack London
Jack London – An Introduction
John Griffith Chaney was born on January 12th, 1876 in San Francisco.
His father, William Chaney, was living with Flora Wellman when she became pregnant. Chaney insisted she have an abortion. Flora's response was to turn a gun on herself. Although her wounds were not severe the trauma made her temporarily deranged.
In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where Jack completed grade school.
Jack also worked hard at several jobs, sometimes 12-18 hours a day, but his dream was university. He was lent money for that and after intense studying enrolled in the summer of 1896 at the University of California in Berkeley.
In 1897, at 21, Jack searched out newspaper accounts of his mother's suicide attempt and for the name of his biological father. He wrote to Chaney, then living in Chicago who claimed he could not be Jack’s father because he was impotent; and casually asserted that London's mother had relations with other men. Jack, devastated by the response, quit Berkeley and went to the Klondike. Other accounts suggest that his dire finances presented Jack with the excuse he needed to leave.
In the Klondike Jack began to gather materials for his writing but also began to accumulate several health problems, including scurvy, hip and leg problems he would then carry for the rest of his life.
By the late 1890's Jack was regularly publishing short stories and, by the turn of the century, full blown novels.
By 1904 Jack had married, fathered two children and was now in the process of divorcing. A stint as a reporter on the Russian-Japanese war of 1904 was equal amounts trouble and experience. But that experience was always put to good use in a continuing and remarkable output of work.
In 1905 he married Charmian Kettridge, who at last was a soul and companion who brought him some semblance of peace despite his advancing alcoholism and his incurable wanderlust.
Twelve years later Jack had amassed a wealth both wealth and a literary reputation through such classics as ‘The Call of the Wild’ and ‘White Fang’ and many others. He had a reputation as a social activist and a tireless friend of the workers.
Jack London died suffering from dysentery, late-stage alcoholism and uremia, aged only 40, on November 22nd 1916 at his property in Glen Ellen, California.
An Odyssey of the North
The sleds were singing their eternal lament to the creaking of the harness and the tinkling bells of the leaders; but the men and dogs were tired and made no sound. The trail was heavy with new-fallen snow, and they had come far, and the runners, burdened with flint- like quarters of frozen moose, clung tenaciously to the unpacked surface and held back with a stubbornness almost human.
Darkness was coming on, but there was no camp to pitch that night. The snow fell gently through the pulseless air, not in flakes, but in tiny frost crystals of delicate design. It was very warm—barely ten below zero—and the men did not mind. Meyers and Bettles had raised their ear flaps, while Malemute Kid had even taken off his mittens.
The dogs had been fagged out early in the after noon, but they now began to show new vigor. Among the more astute there was a certain restlessness—an impatience at the restraint of the traces, an indecisive quickness of movement, a sniffing of snouts and pricking of ears. These became incensed at their more phlegmatic brothers, urging them on with numerous sly nips on their hinder quarters. Those, thus chidden, also contracted and helped spread the contagion. At last the leader of the foremost sled uttered a sharp whine of satisfaction, crouching lower in the snow and throwing himself against the collar. The rest followed suit.
There was an ingathering of back hands, a tightening of