Editing Jack London (section)

== Gold rush and first success ==
[[File:Miners climb Chilkoot.jpg|thumb|Miners and prospectors ascend the Chilkoot Trail during the [[Klondike Gold Rush]].]]

On July 12, 1897, London (age 21) and his sister's husband Captain Shepard sailed to join the [[Klondike Gold Rush]]. This was the setting for some of his first successful stories. London's time in the harsh [[Klondike, Yukon|Klondike]], however, was detrimental to his health. Like so many other men who were malnourished in the goldfields, London developed [[scurvy]]. His gums became swollen, leading to the loss of his four front teeth. A constant gnawing pain affected his hip and leg muscles, and his face was stricken with marks that always reminded him of the struggles he faced in the Klondike. [[Father William Judge]], "The Saint of [[Dawson City, Yukon|Dawson]]", had a facility in Dawson that provided shelter, food and any available medicine to London and others. His struggles there inspired London's short story, "[[To Build a Fire]]" (1902, revised in 1908),{{efn-ua|name="To Build a Fire"| The 1908 version of "To Build a Fire" is available on [[Wikisource]] in two places: "[[s:Century Magazine/Volume 76/Issue 4/To Build a Fire|To Build a Fire]]" (Century Magazine) and "[[s:Lost Face/To Build a Fire|To Build a Fire]]" (in ''[[Lost Face]]'' – 1910).  The 1902 version may be found at the following external link: [http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Uncollected/tobuildafire.html To Build a Fire] ([[Sonoma State University#Recent and future expansion|The Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, Sonoma State University]]) ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228155008/http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/Uncollected/tobuildafire.html |date=December 28, 2019 }}).}} which many critics assess as his best.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

His landlords in Dawson were mining engineers [[Marshall Latham Bond]] and Louis Whitford Bond, educated at the Bachelor's level at the [[Sheffield Scientific School]] at [[Yale]] and at the Master's level at [[Stanford]], respectively. The brothers' father, [[Judge Hiram Bond]], was a wealthy mining investor. While the Bond brothers were at Stanford, Hiram at the suggestion of his brother bought the New Park Estate at Santa Clara as well as a local bank. The Bonds, especially Hiram, were active [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]]. Marshall Bond's diary mentions friendly sparring with London on political issues as a camp pastime.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

London left Oakland with a [[social conscience]] and socialist leanings; he returned to become an activist for [[socialism]]. He concluded that his only hope of escaping the work "trap" was to get an education and "sell his brains". He saw his writing as a business, his ticket out of poverty and, he hoped, as a means of beating the wealthy at their own game.

On returning to California in 1898, London began working to get published, a struggle described in his novel ''[[Martin Eden]]'' (serialized in 1908, published in 1909). His first published story since high school was "To the Man On Trail", which has frequently been collected in anthologies.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} When ''[[The Overland Monthly]]'' offered him only five dollars for it—and was slow paying—London came close to abandoning his writing career. In his words, "literally and literarily I was saved" when ''[[The Black Cat (US magazine)|The Black Cat]]'' accepted his story "A Thousand Deaths" and paid him $40—the "first money I ever received for a story".{{citation needed|date=April 2012}}

London began his writing career just as new printing technologies enabled lower-cost production of magazines. This resulted in a boom in popular magazines aimed at a wide public audience and a strong market for short fiction.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} In 1900, he made $2,500 in writing, about ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|2500|1900|r=-3}}}} in today's currency.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}
Among the works he sold to magazines was a short story known as either "Diable" (1902) or "Bâtard" (1904), two editions of the same basic story. London received $141.25 for this story on May 27, 1902.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jacklondons.net/Fiction_of_jack_london/page8.html |website=JackLondons.net |access-date=August 29, 2013 |title=Footnote 55 to "Bâtard" |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612221236/http://www.jacklondons.net/Fiction_of_jack_london/page8.html |archive-date=June 12, 2011 }} First published as "Diable – A Dog".  ''The Cosmopolitan'', v. 33 (June 1902), pp. 218–26. [FM]
This tale was titled "Bâtard" in 1904 when included in FM. The same story, with minor changes, was also called "Bâtard" when it appeared in the ''Sunday Illustrated Magazine'' of the ''Commercial Appeal'' (Memphis, Tenn.), September 28, 1913, pp. 7–11. London received $141.25 for this story on May 27, 1902.</ref> In the text, a cruel [[French Canadian]] brutalizes his dog, and the dog retaliates and kills the man. London told some of his critics that man's actions are the main cause of the behavior of their animals, and he would show this famously in another story, ''[[The Call of the Wild]]''.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/19/100-best-novels-call-of-the-wild-jack-london "The 100 best novels: No 35 – The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)"] Retrieved July 22, 2015</ref>

[[File:Mary Austin, Jack London, George Sterling, Jimmie Hooper, restored.jpg|thumb|[[George Sterling]], [[Mary Hunter Austin|Mary Austin]], Jack London, and [[James Hopper (writer)|Jimmie Hopper]] on the beach at [[Carmel, California|Carmel]], California]]

In early 1903, London sold ''The Call of the Wild'' to ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' for $750 and the book rights to [[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]].  Macmillan's promotional campaign propelled it to swift success.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080421154451/http://www.jacklondons.net/call.html "Best Dog Story Ever Written: Call of the Wild"]}}, excerpted from {{harvnb|Kingman|1979|p=}}</ref>

While living at his rented villa on [[Lake Merritt]] in Oakland, California, London met poet [[George Sterling]]; in time they became best friends. In 1902, Sterling helped London find a home closer to his own in nearby [[Piedmont, California|Piedmont]]. In his letters London addressed Sterling as "Greek", owing to Sterling's [[aquiline nose]] and classical profile, and he signed them as "Wolf". London was later to depict Sterling as Russ Brissenden in his autobiographical novel ''Martin Eden'' (1910) and as Mark Hall in ''[[The Valley of the Moon (novel)|The Valley of the Moon]]'' (1913).{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

In later life London indulged his wide-ranging interests by accumulating a personal library of 15,000 volumes. He referred to his books as "the tools of my trade".<ref>Hamilton (1986) (as cited by other sources)</ref>