1、Jack LondonGroup members：Kiwi Lesley Jackie Eudora Maia第1页，共17页。Jack Londons Credo I would rather be ashes than dust!I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.I would rather be a superb meteor,every atom of me in magnificent glow,than a sl
2、eepy and permanent planet.The function of man is to live,not to exist.I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.I shall use my time.第2页，共17页。我宁愿是燃烧过后的灰烬也不愿为地上的灰尘！我宁愿是燃烧过后的灰烬也不愿为地上的灰尘！我宁愿让点点星火猛烈燃烧殆尽也不愿任其干腐。我宁愿让点点星火猛烈燃烧殆尽也不愿任其干腐。我宁愿做一闪而过的流星，让每一点碎片都擦出我宁愿做一闪而过的流星，让每一点碎片都擦出火光，也不愿做死寂的恒星。火光，也不愿做死寂的恒
3、星。人的职责是生活，而不是存在。人的职责是生活，而不是存在。我不会浪费时间试图延长寿命。我不会浪费时间试图延长寿命。但，我会用尽生命中的每一秒。但，我会用尽生命中的每一秒。第3页，共17页。Brief introductionHe was a realism and naturalism novelist,journalist,short story writer and essayist as well as social activist.He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction
4、 and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.London was a passionate advocate of unionization,socialism,and the rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics such as his dystopian novel,The Iron Heel
5、 and The People of the Abyss.Jack London (1876-1916)第4页，共17页。Early lifeLondon at the age of nine with his dog Rollo,1885 Jack London was born in San Francisco of an unmarried mother of wealthy background,Flora Wellman.His father may have been William Chaney,a journalist,lawyer,and major figure in th
6、e development of American astrology(占星术占星术).Because Flora was ill,Jack was raised at an early age by an ex-slave,Virginia Prentiss,who had a great influence on the boy while he grew up.第5页，共17页。Early lifeAs a schoolboy,London often studied at Heinolds First and Last Chance Saloon,a port-side bar in
7、Oakland.At 17,he confessed to the bars owner,John Heinold,his desire to attend university and pursue a career as a writer.Heinold lent London tuition money to attend college.第6页，共17页。When he was in his teens,the boy adopted the name of Jack.He worked at various hard labor jobs,pirated for oysters(偷捕
8、牡蛎）on San Francisco Bay,served on a fish patrol(巡逻船）to capture poachers(偷捕者),sailed the Pacific on a sealing ship,joined Kellys Army of unemployed working men,hoboed(流浪)around the country,and returned to attend high school at age 19.In the process,he got to know some ideas about socialism and was kn
9、own as the Boy Socialist of Oakland for his street corner speech.He would run unsuccessfully several times on the socialist ticket as mayor.He read a lot of books,and consciously chose to become a writer to escape from the terrible life as a factory worker.He studied other writers and began to submi
10、t stories,jokes and poems to various publications,mostly without success.第7页，共17页。Writer Rancher Sailor第8页，共17页。Gold rush and first successOn July 12,1897,London(age 21)and his sisters husband Captain Shepard sailed to join the Klondike Gold Rush.This was the setting for some of his first successful
11、 stories.Londons time in the Klondike,however,was detrimental to his health.Like so many other men who were malnourished in the goldfields,London developed scurvy.London left Oakland with a social conscience and socialist leanings;he returned to become an activist for socialism.He concluded that his
12、 only hope of escaping the work trap was to get an education and sell his brains.He saw his writing as a business,his ticket out of poverty,and,he hoped,a means of beating the wealthy at their own game.On returning to California in 1898,London began working deliberately to get published,a struggle d
13、escribed in his novel,Martin Eden(serialized in 1908,published in 1909).London began his writing career just as new printing technologies enabled lower-cost production of magazines.This resulted in a boom in popular magazines aimed at a wide public and a strong market for short fiction.第9页，共17页。War
14、correspondentLondon accepted an assignment of the San Francisco Examiner to cover the Russo-Japanese War in early 1904,arriving in Yokohama（横滨）on January 25,1904.He was arrested by Japanese authorities in Shimonoseki(马关),but released due to the intervention of American ambassador Lloyd Griscom.第10页，
15、共17页。Bohemian clubOn August 18,1904,London went with his close friend,the poet George Sterling,to“Summer High Jinks”at the Bohemian（波西米亚的）Grove.London was elected to honorary membership in the Bohemian Club and took part in many activities.第11页，共17页。Beauty ranchIn 1905,London purchased a 1,000 acres
16、(4.0 km2)ranch in California,on the eastern slope ofSonoma Mountain,for$26,450.He wrote:Next to my wife,the ranch is the dearest thing in the world to me.He desperately wanted the ranch to become a successful business enterprise.Writing,always a commercial enterprise with London,now became even more
17、 a means to an end:I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me.I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.After 1910,his literary works were mostly potboilers,written out of the need to provide operating incom
18、e for the ranch.第12页，共17页。Death London died November 22,1916,in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch.London had been a robust man but had suffered several serious illnesses.At the time of his death,he suffered from dysentery(痢疾),uremia(尿毒症),and late stage alcoholism（酒精中毒）;he was in extreme pai
19、n and taking morphine（吗啡）,and it is possible that a morphine overdose,accidental or deliberate,may have contributed to his death.第13页，共17页。Works Jack London is a prolific American writer.During about 16 years of writing career,he created a rich literary heritage of the world.His published more than 50 works,including 21 novels,20 short stories,3 dramas and so on.Jack London gained popularity with his own creation power in the American literature.As one of the famous writer in the world,his successful through self-study.第14页，共17页。第15页，共17页。第16页，共17页。第17页，共17页。
