All of Jack London's stories are baser on personal experiences, which shows that he is fascinated by pain and nature. He was the child of Flora Wellman and William Henry Chaney. However, Chaney refused to acknowledge London as his own. Afterwards, "Flora married John London, a Civil War veteran, who had recently moved to San Francisco, eight months after Jack was born."" (Wilson) While growing up, London never knew true happiness and because of this, he often turned to nature. "London's youth was marked by poverty- and it gave him survival skills, which he used in other aspects of his life. (Jalic LLC) In his later years, he paid attribute to nature by writing books and being a nature and animal activist.
Although London is an avid reader and writer, he attended school until he was an adolescent and returned to academics, only in an effort to cram high school and college in a few months. However, London was unsuccessful and took a few odd jobs. Some of the jobs prepared him for his trip to the Klondike. In example, being an oyster pirate probably taught him how to survive on the lowest circumstances. During his time at the Klondike, he listened to other people tell their stories. After hearing their stories, he would collaborate a selected few and produce his own. In his teens, he joined Coxey's Army in its famous march on Washington, D.C., and was later arrested for vagrancy in Erie County, New York. As a journalist, Jack covered the Russo-Japanese War for the Hearst newspapers in 1904, and in 1914, he covered the Mexican Revolution for Collier's.
In 1900, Jack married his math tutor and friend, Bess Maddern. It was a Victorian marriage typical of the time, based on "good breeding-, not love. With Bess, he had two daughters " Joan and Bess. However, London often left them at home while he went on his adventures. As a father and husband to the Maddern's, he neglected his duties.