Editing Jack London (section)

== Family ==
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 | footer =Flora and John London, Jack's mother and stepfather
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Jack London was born January 12, 1876.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/01/12/UPI-Almanac-for-Tuesday-Jan-12-2021/5231610417906/|title= UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021|work= [[United Press International]] | date= January 12, 2021|accessdate=February 27, 2021 | archive-date= January 29, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210129023331/https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2021/01/12/UPI-Almanac-for-Tuesday-Jan-12-2021/5231610417906/|url-status=live|quote = ...novelist Jack London in 1876...}}</ref> His mother, Flora Wellman, was the fifth and youngest child of [[Pennsylvania Canal]] builder Marshall Wellman and his first wife, Eleanor Garrett Jones.  Marshall Wellman was descended from [[Thomas Wellman]], an early [[Puritan]] settler in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]].<ref name="Wellman1918">Wellman, Joshua Wyman ''Descendants of Thomas Wellman'' (1918) Arthur Holbrook Wellman, Boston, p. 227</ref> Flora left Ohio and moved to the Pacific coast when her father remarried after her mother died. In San Francisco, Flora worked as a music teacher and [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]].<ref name="london">{{cite web |url=http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/BookJackLondon/Volume1/chapter1.html |title=The Book of Jack London |publisher=The World of Jack London |access-date=April 7, 2011 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511125518/http://www.jacklondons.net/writings/BookJackLondon/Volume1/chapter1.html |archive-date=May 11, 2011 }}</ref>

Biographer Clarice Stasz and others believe London's father was [[astrologer]] William Chaney.<ref>{{harvnb|Stasz|2001|p=14}}: "What supports Flora's naming Chaney as the father of her son are, first, the indisputable fact of their cohabiting at the time of his conception, and second, the absence of any suggestion on the part of her associates that another man could have been responsible... [but] unless [[DNA]] evidence is introduced, whether or not William Chaney was the biological father of Jack London cannot be decided.... Chaney would, however, be considered by her son and his children as their ancestor."</ref> Flora Wellman was living with Chaney in San Francisco when she became pregnant. Whether Wellman and Chaney were legally married is unknown. Stasz notes that in his memoirs, Chaney refers to London's mother Flora Wellman as having been "his wife"; he also cites an advertisement in which Flora called herself "Florence Wellman Chaney".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.booktable.net/book/9781500900946|title=Before Adam (Paperback) {{!}} The Book Table|website=www.booktable.net|language=en|access-date=February 12, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

According to Flora Wellman's account, as recorded in the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' of June 4, 1875, Chaney demanded that she have an abortion. When she refused, he disclaimed responsibility for the child. In desperation, she shot herself. She was not seriously wounded, but she was temporarily deranged. After giving birth, Flora sent the baby for [[wet nurse|wet-nursing]] to [[Virginia Prentiss|Virginia (Jennie) Prentiss]], a neighbor and former slave. Prentiss was an important maternal figure throughout London's life, and he would later refer to her as his primary source of love and affection as a child.<ref name=":0" />

Late in 1876, Flora Wellman married John London, a partially disabled [[American Civil War|Civil War]] veteran, and brought her baby John, later known as Jack, to live with the newly married couple. The family moved around the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] before settling in [[Oakland]],<ref name="Niekerken">{{Cite news |last=Niekerken |first=Bill Van |title=Jack London Square's early days: A saloon, a local sports hero and a floating restaurant |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/Jack-London-Square-s-early-days-A-saloon-a-14993216.php |access-date=2024-01-15 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |language=en}}</ref> where London completed public grade school. The Prentiss family moved with the Londons, and remained a stable source of care for the young Jack.<ref name=":0" />

In 1897, when he was 21 and a student at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], London searched for and read the newspaper accounts of his mother's suicide attempt and the name of his biological father. He wrote to William Chaney, then living in Chicago. Chaney responded that he could not be London's father because he was impotent; he casually asserted that London's mother had relations with other men and averred that she had slandered him when she said he insisted on an abortion.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|pp=52–53}} London was devastated by his father's letter; in the months following, he quit school at Berkeley and went to the [[Klondike Gold Rush|Klondike]] during the gold rush boom.