The presentation is made by Anastasia Gorokhova Julia

The presentation is made by Anastasia Gorokhova, Julia Kalashnikova (ICC 1), Milena Shaulova (1 translation group)

Biography. Childhood Jack London is actually John Griffith London (born John Griffith Chaney) who was born in the 1876. His mother, Flora Wellman, turned the baby over for care to Virginia Prentiss, an African-American woman and former slave. Flora Wellman in 1876 married John London and brought her baby John, later known as Jack, to live with the newly married couple.

Youth London was largely self-educated, but had to work 12 to 18 hours a day at Hickmott's Cannery. After many experiences as a hobo and a sailor, he returned to Oakland attended Oakland High School. He contributed a number of articles to the high school's magazine, The Aegis. His first published work was "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan", an account of his sailing experiences. London became an active socialist in the 1890 s. And retained his commitment to the socialist ideology up to his death. London wanted to attend the University of California and was admitted. However, he never graduated as in 1897 he quit school at Berkeley and went to the Klondike during the gold rush boom.

Gold rush and first success London's time in the harsh Klondike, however, was detrimental to his health. Returning the next year, still poor and unable to find work, he decided to earn a living as a writer. During the remainder of his life, London wrote and published steadily, completing some 50 books of fiction and nonfiction in 17 years. Jack London was married twice. In 1904 London was elected to honorary membership in the Bohemian Club.

Beauty Ranch (1905– 16) In 1905, London purchased a 1, 000 acres (4. 0 km 2) ranch in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, California, on the eastern slope of Sonoma Mountain. But the ranch was an economic failure. London spent $80, 000 ($2, 180, 000 in current value). Just as the mansion was nearing completion, two weeks before the Londons planned to move in, it was destroyed by fire.

Animal activism London witnessed animal cruelty in the training of circus animals, and his subsequent novels Jerry of the Islands and Michael, Brother of Jerry included a foreword entreating the public to become more informed about this practice.

Death. Suicide debate London died November 22, 1916 at the age of 40, in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch. London had been a robust man but had suffered several serious illnesses, including scurvy in the Klondike. Because he was using morphine, many older sources describe London's death as a suicide, and some still do.

Historical and literary background The literary process in the United States at the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries is a complex phenomenon. Naturalism was an intensified form of realism. Naturalism, like realism, was a literary movement that drew inspiration from French authors of the 19 th century who sought to document, through fiction, the reality that they saw around them, particularly among the middle and working classes living in cities. After the end of the civil war in 1865 and the abolition of slavery in the country, there was an active process of forming a new state, accompanied by changes in economic and political life, the spread of new philosophical and economic theories that became popular in the US (Darwin, Marx, Spencer, Nietzsche, James and others). Reflections on the progress of society and civilization occupied a prominent place in the work of American writers of the turn of the 19 th and 20 th centuries.

Historical and literary background Jack London lived during a time of major change, when industrialization and urbanization were becoming dominant. With the wave of immigrants from Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe, some people grew anxious over labor competition and even the health of the society.

Historical and literary background At the same time, workers movements responded to unhealthy conditions, long hours, and low pay. Women sought the right to vote. Pacifists arose to condemn America's overthrow of Hawaii and colonization of the Philippines. Reformers attacked a variety of concerns, including lack of sanitation, prostitution, birth control, overcrowded housing, public health, and more. Socialism developed as a viable third party, providing support of reform causes, along with demands for public ownership of utilities and control of monopolies. All was not so conflicted, of course. A genuine American literature, art, and architecture flourished. The public became better educated, and a middle-class emerged. For a passionate temperament such as Jack London's, there was much to react to, and he did.

Major works and genres Between 1900 and 1916, Jack London completed more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books, hundreds of short stories and numerous articles. Several of the books and many of the short stories are classics and still popular; some have been translated into as many as 70 languages. Among his most well-known books are The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, Martin Eden.

Naturalism is the literary movement that followed Realism. The dominant trait in Naturalism was that people’s fate was determined by their social conditions, their environment, and hereditary factors. Naturalist authors are characterized by maintaining an objective tone and detaching from the story. Description of the environment and localities were very important for naturalist writers.

Major themes While part of what Jack London's novels are based upon is his life, there also some themes that could arguably form the basis of many of London's works. Typically, London's writings contained themes of: Jack London's life Evolution Brutality of society Socialism Adjustment of man against elemental ways of life

Writing style Jack London uses a very descriptive and straight forward Naturalist writing style. This style allows Jack to really immerse the reader in these well known settings in nature. London’s writing brings the reader back to a simpler time, much different to the complex society we live in today. Another great aspect of London’s writing is his ability to tell a story from an animal’s point of view.

Relevance Jack London was the most popular and highest paid American author of his day; the first American writer to earn a million dollars. His writings appealed to millions worldwide.

“The Law of Life” (1900) Old Koskoosh was the chief of an Eskimo tribe. Now he is blind and lame, and his tribe is preparing to leave him alone in the snow to face his death as they travel on without him. His son leaves him a pile of sticks to feed the fire beside him. When the fire dies, so will he. As he waits alone for death, he thinks of the time he left his own father in the snow. He also remembers having seen a sick, old moose killed by wolves when it straggled behind the rest of the herd. "It was the law of all life, " he decides. When he feels the cold nose of a wolf on him and hears the pack's footsteps surround him, he first fights them off, then gives in.

“The Law of Life” (1900) The three conflicts in the story are: Main symbols: Man vs himself (body vs mind) Moose - Koskoosh and his fight to live Man vs man (father vs son) Wolves - death Man vs nature (man vs snow) Fire and sticks - life itself and the futile attempts to extend life A maiden – the common life

“To Build a Fire” (1902/08) «To Build a Fire» is a short story by American author Jack London. There are two versions of this story, one published in 1902 and the other in 1908. The 1908 version is about an unnamed protagonist who ventures out in the subzero boreal forest of the Yukon Territory, accompanied by his dog, to visit his friends— ignoring warnings from an older man about the dangers of hiking alone. The protagonist underestimates the harsh conditions and slowly begins to freeze to death. After trying and failing to build a fire, he slips into unconsciousness and dies of hypothermia.

“To Build a Fire” (1902/08) The 1908 "To Build a Fire" is an oft-cited example of the naturalist movement that portrays the conflict of man vs. nature. The short story depicts the protagonist's battle of life and death while highlighting the importance of the fire. Main themes and ideas: the man's human sense of judgment contrasted with the dog's animal instincts; perseverance; stupidity and arrogance; succumbing to death; individualism.

“To Build a Fire” (1902/08) Historical background of the story: This short story is set during the Klondike Gold Rush, a surge of gold-mining activity in the Yukon region of Canada between 1896 and 1899. One-hundred thousand prospectors traveled to the Yukon to make their fortune. The majority came away with little or nothing to show for their efforts. In 1897, twenty-one-year-old Jack London sailed to the Yukon as a gold prospector. He never found gold and was soon stricken with scurvy, nagging hip pains, and a gum ailment that took four of his teeth. Despite these setbacks, his Klondike experiences provided him fodder for many of his early stories.

“Martin Eden” (1909) “Martin Eden” was written in 1909 it is a novel about a struggling to become a writer. The genre of the novel". young proletarian is Künstlerroman autodidact or "artist's He wrote Martin Eden at age 33, during the grueling two-year voyage on the Snark—as he struggled with tiredness and bowel diseases. He filled its pages with his frustrations, adolescent gangfights and struggles for artistic recognition. It is autobiographical for the most part. Martin Eden is like the author in his early years struggles to become an acclaimed writer but feels frustrated with publishers. The author claimed to have written Martin Eden to show that life is not worth living without Socialist sanctions.

“Martin Eden” Like the author, the hero is a sailor and laborer whose endurance and intellectual curiosity lead him to educate himself. Jack London had conceived of his novel as a portrait of a member of the proletariat who was attracted to the life of the bourgeoisie, only to find that most of the values of the middle-class werelike false. His fiancée Ruth, her family and class, ‘worshipping at the shrine of the established’ and financially successful, deserts him, believing him a failure when magazines will not buy his writing, and is outraged by the notoriety attaching to a newspaper’s false accusation that he is a socialist. When one of his books makes him wealthy and famous, she attempts to resume their engagement. He makes a voyage to the South Seas, and, his will to live is destroyed, jumps from the ship and drowns.

“Martin Eden” The reason that London gave for that suicide is that Martin killed himself because he discovered that his creed of individualism had failed. However, never in the novel is the reader in doubt of London’s admiration for Martin as an individualist. The spirit of the book lies in Martin’s success in going his way alone. It is, rather, the discovery that he was going nowhere and the deadly realization that he had lost his interest in life.