How Did Jack London's Impact On American Culture

The Impact of Jack London on American Culture
“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club” (London). These words quoted from Jack London thoroughly represent him as a writer and a person. His experiences throughout his life strongly shaped his unique writing style. The impact of his life on his writing is expressed in the quote explains his naturalistic and aggressive writing style. Two of London’s most famous books, Call of the Wild and White Fang, fully express London as a writer. Call of the Wild follows the unexpected challenges of Buck, a Scotch shepherd dog. White Fang follows the life of a half-wolf, half-dog that is the only survivor from his litter. London writes books with dogs as the main characters to give
Merriam-webster’s Dictionary of American Writers (2001) describes London’s relations with his family “Deserted by his father, a roving astrologer, London was raised in Oakland, Calif., by his spiritualist mother and stepfather” (p. 257). DISCovering Authors (2003) explains “Jack London grew up believing that he was the child of John London, the man who Flora subsequently married and who gave the child his name,” (p. 1). DISCovering Authors continues “ When London, at twenty, discovered the truth and wrote to Chaney, Chaney denied his paternity and refused to meet his son. London's insecurity over his parentage, Irving Stone claimed in Sailor on Horseback, was "to torment and torture him to the end of his days," (p. 1). In London’s early life “He worked as a sailor and saw muth of the United states as a hobo riding freight trains and as a member of one of the many protest armies of the unemployed born in the panic of 1893. He was jailed for vagrancy and in 1894 became a militant socialist,” (Webster, 2001). When in prison London promised to himself that be successful in life not because of his effort as a workman, but with the power of his brain as a writer (DISCovering Authors, 2003). According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of American Writers “At the age 19 he crammed a four-year high-school course into one year and entered UC-Berkeley” (p. 257). After only one year as
DISCovering Authors states “In the literary realm, according to Labor, "London was a major force in establishing for the American short story a respectable middle ground between the saloon and the salon, and he trailblazed the way for the later generations of Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, and Norman Mailer” (p. 9). DISCovering Authors continues “London dominated the literary marketplace as perhaps no author has done before or since." Labor concluded, "Truly, no other American writer, except possibly [Mark] Twain, has so captivated the vital imagination of his countrymen," (p. 9). The Dictionary of American History (2003) explains London quickly joined the Naturalism movement when it first came to America (p. 1). The Dictionary of American History defines Naturalism “A literary mode developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, characterized by detailed description, scientific and sociological themes, an objective, documentary quality, and a deterministic philosophy. The term "naturalism" is especially, but not exclusively, applied to novels” (p. 1). London’s political involvement also had an impact on American culture as described by Hampton “London became an active socialist in the 1890s. Already notorious before the age of 20, he had written an article “What Socialism is” for the San Francisco Examiner at the end of 1895” (p. 1). London founded the