Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WOLF HOUSE
RESTAURANT
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The original Wolf House was built to serve as the residence for a suddenly successful author. Jack
London was born in 1876 as John Griffith Chaney, the apparently illegitimate son of an itinerant
astrologer and journalist. Chaney deserted Jack's mother before he was born and she married John
London within a year. Jack did not learn who his biological father was until two decades later.
Raised in Oakland and the surrounding towns, Jack spent some time in school but quit after the
eighth grade. He would return and finish high school at the age of nineteen but his primary educa-
tion came from reading. At the age of fifteen, London was sailing around San Francisco Bay, raiding
oyster beds because there was so much money to be made. Trading crime for government after only
one very successful year as a thief, Jack joined the California Fish Patrol and helped catch poachers.
His formal and informal education led him to join the Socialist Labor Party at the age of twenty.
He was already known at the time for his curbside lectures, and the newspaper referred to him as
the “Boy Socialist” of Oakland. The FBI created quite a file on him but his own writing vastly sur-
passed the government's efforts.
London spent a lot of time at sea, learning the ways of shipboard life and gaining many worldly
experiences. One of his ventures took him to Alaska in search of a fortune during the Klondike
Gold Rush. He failed to find a fortune and instead grew deathly ill from lack of fresh vegetables.
Returning home, he was faced with supporting his mother since his stepfather had passed away. He
took up writing.
London's first topic, The Son of the Wolf , was published in 1900 when he was twenty-four. Dur-
ing the remaining fourteen years of his life, he would write more than 50 topics, and have hundreds
of articles published.
Success allowed him to marry (twice) and buy “Beauty Ranch,” 1,200 acres on the edge of Glen
Ellen. He had elected to settle there because he was so enamored with the beauty of the hills covered
with ripe grapes. The construction of Wolf House began in 1911 on the ranch just outside of town.
Built of stone and redwood, it took two years to complete. Just before they were about to move in,
spontaneous combustion destroyed everything but the walls. London died three years later.
His property is now known as the Jack London State Historic Park. In January of 1986, Jack
London was honored on what would have been his 110th birthday with a twenty-five-cent U.S.
postage stamp as part of the Great American Series.
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