Today I went to Jack London State Park. Besides also going there a few days ago, I hadn't been in probably 20 years. It's a beautiful place and I highly recommend it. I grew up about half an hour away in Santa Rosa. The stuff I found out there had me so inspired and as I was asking questions to the Docent Lou, I became filled to the brim with ideas of writing about his life.
The revelation was strange because I always like to make up my own stories or write from my own adventures but his stories were so vibrant to me that I can't help but preserving them. Some of the stuff I found out about Jack from my time at his estate:
The father he grew up with, John London, was actually his step father, and he didn't know that he wasn't his birth father until he was 20 years old. When he reached out to his biographical father through letters, the guy didn't want to have anything to do with him and said he had been impotent, so denied fathering him. Most likely it was him though, and his name was William Chaney, a professional astrologist, who apparently had other wives. When he found out Jack's mother was pregnant, he tried to convince her to abort the child and than left her. Jack mother than attempted suicide by shooting herself but didn't die. It was printed in the local newspaper so Chaney left San Francisco.
Jack got picked on at school because he used to read a lot. He was fascinated with Rudyard Kipling, Herman Melville, and Robinson Crusoe. In later years, when he was a famous writer, he cultivated a friendship with Luther Burbank, who gave him the idea to harvest spineless cactus on his land.
8 years before he died, he went on a ship called the Snark and sailed the south seas. Apparently he got sick and rubbed some kind of lotion that contained mercury. This, along with Scurvy from another journey, alcoholism and dental issues, all contributed to his illness and eventual death.
The last 5 years of his life was mainly spent in Glen Ellen, California. Years earlier he had come there because his wife Charmian had an aunt who lived there. He fell in love with the land and bought several parcels (I believe.) He died in the porch room area at the age 40.
He dreamed of cultivating eucalyptus trees, and wanted to grow several thousand of them. He gave up on this idea, but was able to convince his publishers that he needed more money because of this. He added on a study to the already large house.
The first woman he married was originally the fiance of his friend who died in the military. They become good friends, but he soon realized he wasn't in love with her. He originally wanted to marry Anna Strunsky, a friend of his he knew from a writing circle. He loved her for a while but thought that maybe she was too well to do for him. Apparently she loved him too but their lack of communication prevented it from becoming a reality. He had two daughters with his first wife but than left her. Later he married Charmian, who had been a typist in an office and he had known her for a while.
When he was still a teenager he went on a hunting expedition in Japan and got into a few fights where he felt he had to assert himself. When he came back and was working his odd jobs, his mother encouraged him to enter a writing contest and he won $25, furthering his resolve to become a writer.
The guy I was talking to also made it clear that some biographers have called London's death a suicide, but that he believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that wasn't the case.
Anyways, there was so much more and I am so fascinated by what I learned today.