John Griffith Biography

Let me put this heavy load down and take some of these bulky clothes off

and I'll tell you about how I became a short story and novel writer.

My name is John Griffith London. But I like to be called Jack. I was born

in San Francisco in 1876. Most of my childhood I was very poor. I had to help

my parents earn a living by doing odd jobs. I delivered papers, worked on ice-

wagons, cleaned up bowling alleys, helped in the cannery and only made ten cents

an hour. I usually worked ten hours a day. I learned what it was like being a

member of the working-class and I always had a distaste for its drudgery. I

kept telling myself, "Jack, some day you will be rich." I loved to read and

often borrowed books of adventure, travel, and sea voyages.

At fourteen, I left school to lead a wandering and adventurous life, so I

thought. Jobs were hard to find but I was employed by the fish patrol in San

Francisco Bay. Imagine hopping on every boat that pulls into the bay and

counting the number of fish on board and having to write fines to the sailors

that had too many fish. This sure wasn't a popular job in the bay area. I was

smart enough to figure I could be on the other side of the law and rob and steal

vessels so I became an oyster pirate.

I had a real passion for the sea and so in 1893 I took a job as a common

sailor aboard a sealing vessel that ventured as far as Japan. This lasted about

a year. When I returned back to the bay area I drifted from job to job.

I told you I liked to wander. I left the bay and headed for New York City.

I went on the road and lived as a tramp. Without any place to stay I was soon

jailed for vagrancy. I spent one month in jail and there I realized I needed to

make something of myself. I returned to California and to school. My reading

continued. Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson became my liteary gods

and Darwin, Herbert Spencer, and Karl Marx made me a Socialist. I began writing

while in college but could not find a market for my writings.

In the mid-1897's I joined the Klondike gold rush. I packed 8,000 pounds

of supplies and books to take with me. After a year I became very ill and had