Jack London

Death

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Grave of Jack and Charmian London

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Jack London's death is controversial. Many older sources describe it as a suicide, and some still do (e.g., the Columbia Encyclopedia http://www.bartleby.com/65/lo/London-J.html). However, this appears to be at best a rumor, or speculation based on incidents in his fiction writings. His death certificate gives the cause as uremia. It is known he was in extreme pain and taking morphine, and it is possible that a morphine overdose, accidental or deliberate, may have contributed. The noted London scholar Dr. Clarice Stasz writes, "Following London's death, for a number of reasons a biographical myth developed in which he has been portrayed as an alcoholic womanizer who committed suicide. Recent scholarship based upon firsthand documents challenges this caricature."http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/jackbio.html

Related Topics:
Suicide - Columbia Encyclopedia - Uremia - Morphine - Alcoholic - Womanizer

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Suicide does figure in London's writing. In his autobiographical novel Martin Eden, the protagonist commits suicide by drowning. In his autobiographical memoir John Barleycorn, he claims, as a youth, while under the influence of alcohol, "some maundering fancy of going out with the tide suddenly obsessed me," and he jumped into the Bay intending to drown himself and nearly succeeded. An even closer parallel occurs in the denouement of The Little Lady of the Big House, in which the heroine, confronted by the pain of a mortal and untreatable gunshot wound, undergoes a physician-assisted suicide by means of morphine. These accounts in his writings probably contributed to the "biographical myth."

Related Topics:
Martin Eden - Drown - John Barleycorn - The Little Lady of the Big House

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Jack London's ashes are buried, together with those of his wife Charmian, in Jack London State Historic Park, in Glen Ellen, California. The simple grave is marked only by a mossy boulder.

Related Topics:
Jack London State Historic Park - Glen Ellen, California

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