Editing Jack London (section)

=== ''Credo'' is likely by London despite doubts ===
London's [[literary executor]], Irving Shepard, quoted a ''Jack London Credo'' in an introduction to a 1956 collection of London stories:

<blockquote><poem>
I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
</poem></blockquote>

The biographer Stasz notes that the passage "has many marks of London's style" but the only line that could be safely attributed to London was the first.{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Credo}} The words Shepard quoted were from a story in the ''San Francisco Bulletin'', December 2, 1916, by journalist Ernest J. Hopkins, who visited the ranch just weeks before London's death. Stasz notes, "Even more so than today journalists' quotes were unreliable or even sheer inventions," and says no direct source in London's writings has been found. However, at least one line, according to Stasz, is authentic, being referenced by London and written in his own hand in the autograph book of Australian suffragette [[Vida Goldstein]]:

<blockquote><poem>
Dear Miss Goldstein:–
Seven years ago I wrote you that I'd rather be ashes than dust.  I still subscribe to that sentiment.
Sincerely yours,
Jack London
Jan. 13, 1909{{sfn|The Jack London Online Collection: Credo}}
</poem></blockquote>

In his short story "By The Turtles of Tasman", a character, defending her "ne'er-do-well grasshopperish father" to her "antlike uncle", says: "... my father has been a king. He has lived .... Have you lived merely to live? Are you afraid to die? I'd rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet. When you are dust, my father will be ashes."

The last three sentences of the credo have been deemed to be an authentic quotation of Jack London by ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations''.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=whg05Z4Nwo0C&pg=PA382 The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations]'', p. 382 (Oxford U. Press 2006).</ref> Likewise, [[NPR|National Public Radio]] has ascribed the quotation to Jack London, and explained that it was published via a journalist; NPR did not question the accuracy of that reporter who first published the credo in 1916.<ref>Vitale, Tom.  [https://www.npr.org/2013/10/17/230497660/jack-london-believed-function-of-man-is-to-live-not-to-exist "Jack London Believed 'Function Of Man Is To Live, Not To Exist'"], [[NPR]] (14 Oct 2013).</ref>

Part of the credo was used to describe the philosophy of the fictional character [[James Bond]], in the [[Ian Fleming]] novel ''[[You Only Live Twice (novel)|You Only Live Twice]]'' (1964), and again in the movie ''[[No Time to Die]]'' (2021).<ref name=Indy>Harrison, Ellie.  [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/no-time-to-die-quote-end-film-bond-tribute-b1932576.html "No Time to Die: What is the quote M uses about James Bond at the end of the film?"], ''[[The Independent]]'' (5 Oct 2021).</ref><ref>[[Ian Fleming|Fleming, Ian]].  ''You Only Live Twice'', p. 152 (1965).</ref>  According to a 2021 article about that Bond movie in ''[[The Independent]]'', "The quote was originally...by the American writer Jack London...."<ref name=Indy />