Editing Jack London (section)

== Early life ==
[[File:Jack London age 9 - crop.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|London at the age of nine with his dog Rollo, 1885]]

London was born near Third and Brannan Streets in San Francisco. The house burned down in the fire after the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]]; the [[California Historical Society]] placed a plaque at the site in 1953. Although the family was working class, it was not as impoverished as London's later accounts claimed.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} London was largely self-educated.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}
In 1885, London found and read [[Ouida]]'s long [[Victorian era|Victorian]] novel ''Signa''.<ref name="archive.org">{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/signastory01ouid |title=Signa. A story |last=Ouida |date=July 26, 1875 |publisher=London : Chapman & Hall |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/signastory02ouid |title=Signa. A story |last=Ouida |date=July 26, 1875 |publisher=London : Chapman & Hall |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He credited this as the seed of his literary success.<ref>London, Jack (1917) "Eight Factors of Literary Success", in ''Labor'' (1994), p. 512. "In answer to your question as to the greatest factors of my literary success, I will state that I consider them to be: Vast good luck. Good health; good brain; good mental and muscular correlation. Poverty. Reading Ouida's ''Signa'' at eight years of age. The influence of [[Herbert Spencer]]'s ''Philosophy of Style.'' Because I got started twenty years before the fellows who are trying to start today."</ref> In 1886, he went to the [[Oakland Public Library]] and found a sympathetic librarian, [[Ina Coolbrith]], who encouraged his learning. (She later became California's first ''[[poet laureate]]'' and an important figure in the San Francisco literary community).<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.sonomanews.com/lifestyle/6003083-181/jack-londons-inspirational-librarian-remembered |title=State's first poet laureate remembered at Jack London |date=August 22, 2016 |work=Sonoma Index Tribune |access-date=February 2, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203005853/http://www.sonomanews.com/lifestyle/6003083-181/jack-londons-inspirational-librarian-remembered |archive-date=February 3, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1889, London began working 12 to 18&nbsp;hours a day at Hickmott's Cannery. Seeking a way out, he borrowed money from his foster mother [[Virginia Prentiss]], bought the [[sloop]] ''Razzle-Dazzle'' from an [[oyster pirate]] named French Frank, and became an oyster pirate himself. In his memoir, ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]]'', he claims also to have stolen French Frank's mistress Mamie.<ref>{{Gutenberg|no=318|name=John Barleycorn|author=Jack London}} Chapters VII, VIII describe his stealing of Mamie, the "Queen of the Oyster Pirates": "The Queen asked me to row her ashore in my skiff...Nor did I understand Spider's grinning side-remark to me: "Gee! There's nothin' slow about YOU." How could it possibly enter my boy's head that a grizzled man of fifty should be jealous of me?" "And how was I to guess that the story of how the Queen had thrown him down on his own boat, the moment I hove in sight, was already the gleeful gossip of the water-front?</ref>{{sfn|London|1939|p=41}}<ref>{{harvnb|Kingman|1979|p=37}}: "It was said on the waterfront that Jack had taken on a mistress... Evidently Jack believed the myth himself at times... Jack met Mamie aboard the Razzle-Dazzle when he first approached French Frank about its purchase. Mamie was aboard on a visit with her sister Tess and her chaperone, Miss Hadley. It hardly seems likely that someone who required a chaperone on Saturday would move aboard as mistress on Monday."</ref> After a few months, his sloop became damaged beyond repair. London hired on as a member of the [[California Department of Fish and Wildlife|California Fish Patrol]].

In 1893, he signed on to the [[Seal hunting|sealing]] [[schooner]] ''Sophie Sutherland'', bound for the coast of Japan. When he returned, the country was in the grip of the [[panic of 1893|panic of '93]] and [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] was swept by labor unrest. After grueling jobs in a [[jute mill]] and a street-railway power plant, London joined [[Coxey's Army]] and began his career as a [[tramp]]. In 1894, he spent 30&nbsp;days for vagrancy in the [[Erie County, New York|Erie County]] Penitentiary at [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], New York. In ''[[The Road (London book)|The Road]]'', he wrote:

{{blockquote |text=Man-handling was merely one of the very minor unprintable horrors of the Erie County Pen. I say 'unprintable'; and in justice I must also say undescribable. They were unthinkable to me until I saw them, and I was no spring chicken in the ways of the world and the awful abysses of human degradation. It would take a deep plummet to reach bottom in the Erie County Pen, and I do but skim lightly and facetiously the surface of things as I there saw them. |sign=Jack London |source=''The Road'' }}

After many experiences as a hobo and a sailor, he returned to Oakland and attended [[Oakland High School (California)|Oakland High School]]. He contributed a number of articles to the high school's magazine, ''The Aegis''. His first published work was "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan", an account of his sailing experiences.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=JackLondons.net |title=The First Story Written for Publication |author=Charmian K. London |location=Sonoma County, California |date=August 1, 1922 |url=http://www.jacklondons.net/first_jack_london_story.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006071440/http://www.jacklondons.net/first_jack_london_story.html |archive-date=October 6, 2013 }}</ref>

[[File:Jack London Studying.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|Jack London studying at Heinold's First and Last Chance in 1886]]
As a schoolboy, London often studied at [[Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon]], a port-side bar in Oakland. At 17, he confessed to the bar's owner, John Heinold, his desire to attend university and pursue a career as a writer. Heinold lent London tuition money to attend college.

London desperately wanted to attend the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]], located in Berkeley. In 1896, after a summer of intense studying to pass certification exams, he was admitted. Financial circumstances forced him to leave in 1897, and he never graduated. No evidence has surfaced that he ever wrote for student publications while studying at Berkeley.{{sfn|Kingman|1979|p=67}}

[[File:Heinold’s First and Last Chance 2007.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Heinold's First and Last Chance, "Jack London's Rendezvous"]]

While at Berkeley, London continued to study and spend time at Heinold's saloon, where he was introduced to the sailors and adventurers who would influence his writing. In his autobiographical novel, ''[[John Barleycorn (novel)|John Barleycorn]],'' London mentioned the pub's likeness seventeen times. Heinold's was the place where London met Alexander McLean, a captain known for his cruelty at sea.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacGillivray |first=Don |url=http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/MACCAP.html |title=Captain Alex MacLean |publisher=University of Washington Press |date=2009 |access-date=October 6, 2011 |isbn=978-0774814713}}</ref> London based his protagonist Wolf Larsen, in the novel ''[[The Sea-Wolf]],'' on McLean.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacGillivray |first=Don |url=http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2008/CaptainAlexMacLean.pdf |title=Captain Alex MacLean |year= 2008 |publisher=UBC Press |access-date=October 6, 2011 |isbn=978-0774814713 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515042050/http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2008/CaptainAlexMacLean.pdf |archive-date=May 15, 2011 }}</ref>

Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon is now unofficially named Jack London's Rendezvous in his honor.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/07/26/the-legends-of-oaklands-oldest-bar/ |title=The legends of Oakland's oldest bar, Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon |work=Oakland North|access-date=February 2, 2018 }}</ref>