John Barleycorn by Jackon London 1913 John Barleycorn is an autobiographical novel by Jack London dealing with his enjoyment of and struggles with alcoholism. It was published in 1913. The title is taken from the British folksong "John Barleycorn". In this memoir, there are the themes of masculinity and male comradeship. London discusses various life experiences he has had with alcohol, and at widely different stages in his life. Key stages are his late teen years when he earned money as a sailor and later in life when he was a wealthy, successful writer. When it first appeared in 1913, John Barleycorn was an immediate sensation. America's most famous author, the creator of The Sea Wolf and The Call of the Wild, had confessed to a lifelong struggle with alcohol. Temperance advocates used John Barleycorn in the push for prohibition; liquor companies denounced it; a popular movie was made of it; ministers cited it in sermons. John Barleycorn is, however, more than a tract against demon rum and an insightful portrait of the mind of the drinker. It is, above all, a powerful and revealing look at Jack London himself. Into this unique confession, London poured much of his astonishing life, from his days as a work beast in the Oakland canneries to his exploits as an oyster pirate on San Francisco Bay, from his sailing adventures to his triumphs as an author. It is the closest London came to writing his autobiography. Jack London (1876-1916), was an American author and a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction. He was one of the first Americans to make a lucrative career exclusively from writing. London was self-educated. He taught himself in the public library, mainly just by reading books. In 1898, he began struggling seriously to break into print, a struggle memorably described in his novel, Martin Eden (1909). Jack London was fortunate in the timing of his writing career. He started 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. In 1900, he made $2,500 in writing, the equivalent of about $75,000 today. His career was well under way. Among his famous works are: Children of the Frost (1902), The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), The Game (1905), White Fang(1906), The Road (1907), Before Adam (1907), Adventure (1911), and The Scarlet Plague (1912).

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