Biography of Jack London Jack London was born in San Francisco. He was deserted by his father, Professor William Henry Chaney, an astrologer, and raised in Oakland by his mother Flora Wellman, a music teacher. London's stepfather John London, was a failed storekeeper. London's youth was marked by poverty. At the age of ten he became an avid reader, and borrowed books from the Oakland Public Library, where Ina Coolbirth recommended him the works of …showed first 75 words of 842 total…

…showed last 75 words of 842 total…BURNING DAYLIGHT . A few months before his death, London resigned from the Socialist Party. Debts, alcoholism, illness, and fear of losing his creativity darkened the author's last years. He died on November 22, 1916, officially of gastro-intestinal uremia. However, there has been speculations that London committed suicide with morphine, but the two vials which were found did not contained the dosis acquired for a suicide - especially for someone who was trained to take morphine against suffering.