Jack: A biography of Jack London

by Andrew Sinclair

. with dustjacket, bright clean copy

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Andrew Sinclair was born in Oxford in 1935 and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. After earning a Ph.D. in American History from Cambridge, he pursued an academic career in the United States and England. His first two novels, written while he was still at Cambridge, were both published in 1959: The Breaking of Bumbo (based on his own experience in the Coldstream Guards, and later adapted for a 1970 film written and directed by Sinclair) and My Friend Judas. Other early novels included The Project (1960), The Hallelujah Bum (1963), and The Raker (1964). The latter, also available from Valancourt, is a clever mix of Gothic fantasy and macabre comedy and was inspired by Sinclair’s relationship with Derek Lindsay, the pseudonymous author of the acclaimed novel The Rack (1958). Sinclair’s best-known novel, Gog (1967), a highly imaginative, picaresque account of the adventures of a seven-foot-tall man who washes ashore on the Scottish coast, naked and suffering from amnesia, has been named one of the top 100 modern fantasy novels. As the first in the ‘Albion Triptych’, it was followed by Magog (1972) and King Ludd (1988).

Sinclair’s varied and prolific career has also included work in film and a large output of nonfiction. As a director, he is best known for Under Milk Wood (1972), adapted from a Dylan Thomas play and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Sinclair’s nonfiction includes works on American history (including The Better Half: The Emancipation of the American Woman, which won the 1967 Somerset Maugham Award), books on Dylan Thomas, Jack London, Che Guevara, and Francis Bacon, and, more recently, works on the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.

Sinclair was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1972. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Adolfina García · Rating 4 out of 5]

De adolescente, una especie de obsesión me llevó a leer cuanto encontré de Jack London en bibliotecas y librerías. A lo largo de mi vida he regresado a sus cuentos en varias ocasiones, pero nunca hasta ahora había leído su biografía.

Esta de Andrew Sinclair me ha hecho sufrir, para empezar por los escatológicos problemas de salud que lo aquejaron (hemorroides y fístulas anales, problemas para vaciar la vejiga, misteriosas inflamaciones de las extremidades) pero, sobre todo, por su racismo, ideas supremacistas que le grabaron a fuego en su niñez y que, ay, iban incluso más allá de los prejuicios asentados en la época.

Es fascinante, en cualquier caso, la vida de este tipo carismático y aventurero que nació en la pobreza y llegó a ser el escritor mejor pagado del momento, con todas sus contradicciones, sus excesos, sus destellos de genialidad y sus miserias.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Contradictions and Adventures of a Conflicted Life

Jack London's short life was filled with romance, adventure, and sickness. London embodies the Anglo Saxon snobbery, Spencerian evolutionism, individualistic socialism, and synergistic spirituality... Sinclair's work weaves these themes nicely into the fabric of a life masking pain beneath a mask of supreme confidence. A fun read offering insight into the lives of one of America's great writers.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not an accurate biography of Jack London. Makes some unfounded leaps regarding London's sexuality. Completely ignores the racist bent that is a sad and pathetic black mark on London's past.

[Herb Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography appears to be well researched and is definitely extensively footnoted. I don't know if it is just this edition but its readability is harmed by lackadaisical editing. Some of the author's sentences seem to wonder off and eventually get lost. That aside, it is a well crafted examination of a complex and sometimes unpleasant man. Jack London rose from poverty and a dysfunctional family to become, for a time, the most popular author in the United States. Sinclair does not minimize his faults or shortcomings. He especially does not hide or excuse London's ugly racism, harsh even for the racist era from which he sprang.
Sinclair believes London to be an important and significant American author, however, sometimes, for me, it destroys the joy I can take from a book when I know too much about the author.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written and well-researched biography of Jack London, entertaining and narrated in a lively and accessible way. It was first published in 1977 and there may well have been further discoveries and interpretations about London since then, but as it stands it feels authoritative and certainly provides an excellent introduction to the man and his writing.

[Daniel Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeper study of Jack London, shows insights of him

Does well at separating London's self-exaggerating and myth-building from actual facts of his life.
Shows London's great achievements as a powerful writer, yet is more honest about his moral failings than several other biographies.

[Michael Bully · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful introduction to the work of Jack London. Steers a helpful middle course, not trying to elevate his life work or trying to demolish him . Not in an in depth literary criticism, there are just a few pages about ‘Call of the Wild’ and ‘White fang’ , yet there is quite an extensive survey of London’s work.

Paradoxes emerge, Jack London was the ultimate grafter, knowing poverty and insecurity, and frantically working himself to some greater limit to avoid ‘The Abyss’ , the hopelessness of poverty deprivation and despair. Jack London also done his time as a train jumping hobo, locked up for vagrancy,

A revolutionary socialist, who later became a wealthy landowner, with servants, a humanitarian whose views on race or eugenics would not be acceptable now. A Californian self-made man. Not afraid to offend public opinion concerning his divorce yet positively relieved when a fire in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake consumed the Town Hall records, helping to hide evidence of his illegitimacy.

This biographer credits him as the first American writer-hero for all his contradictions. As I know little about the work and life of London, felt that this book was both useful and will spur me to tackle at least some of his work in the future. I am not qualified to judge how useful this work is for someone who had really studied Jack London.

[Terry P · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at a flawed and driven writer whose fame and success interferes with his art and purpose. Also an engrossing glimpse of literary life in San Francisco, precursors to the beat generation.

[William Graney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very thorough look at Jack London's interesting and complex life. I found the author to be a little too opinionated in his role as biographer but it's an impressive work.

[Turtlesongs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a great bio-Jack London had more adventures in his 40 years that most people have in several lifetimes. Fascinating.

[Benedicto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Che bel libro!