Jack London

• LONDON Jack (GRIFFITH CHANEY John)

• 1876 (San Francisco, USA) – 1916 (Glen Ellen, USA)

• Langue d’écriture : Anglais

Venant d’un milieu défavorisé, Jack London a mené une vie aventureuse et précaire : vagabond, chercheur d’or, docker, ouvrier, pilleur d’huîtres, blanchisseur, agriculteur, il devient au tournant du XXe siècle reporter. Il est souvent considéré comme l’ancêtre du journalisme d’investigation qui influence dans les mêmes années Upton Sinclair. Militant socialiste, enthousiaste quant à la Révolution Russe de 1905, ses récits, enquêtes et romans, prenant souvent comme thèmes les travailleurs ou les plus précaires, mettent tous en avant des thèmes fondamentaux : la liberté, l’appel de l’aventure et la justice sociale.

• 1903 : The People of the Abyss ;
• 1905 : Tales of the Fish Patrol ;
• 1905 : A Raid on the Oyster Pirates ;
• 1907 : The Road ;
• 1908 : The Iron Heel ;
• 1909 : Martin Eden ;
• 1909 : « South of the Slot »

« Old San Francisco, which is the San Francisco of only the other day, the day before the Earthquake, was divided midway by the Slot. The Slot was an iron crack that ran along the centre of Market Street, and from the Slot arose the burr of the ceaseless, endless cable that was hitched at will to the cars it dragged up and down. In truth, there were two slots, but in the quick grammar of the West time was saved by calling them, and much more that they stood for, “The Slot.” North of the Slot were the theatres, hotels, and shopping district, the banks and the staid, respectable business houses. South of the Slot were the factories, slums, laundries, machine-shops, boiler works, and the abodes of the working class.
The Slot was the metaphor that expressed the class cleavage of Society, and no man crossed this metaphor, back and forth, more successfully than Freddie Drummond. »

London, « The South of the Slot »