JACK LONDON: "The Golden City"
Synopsis
The greatest story that Jack London never wrote was the story of his life.
The Golden City is about the first American pop star--novelist Jack London. In the early part of the 20th Century Jack’s popularity was worldwide. But it was during the Gold Rush of the 1890’s when Jack experienced his only real adventure. What transpired during the year 1897 became the source for all his subsequent writing and fame.
As Jack discovers his gift for writing, he dreams of becoming a successful novelist. But his articles and stories are rejected by publishers and doubts creep in. While a depression grips the nation and his dreams fade, Jack asks Mabel, his childhood sweetheart, to marry him. But Jack is unemployed and penniless and Mabel’s father puts a stop to their marriage plans.
Just 21, Jack hears about a gold rush in the Yukon and heads out on a steamship to strike it rich. Along the way he meets three characters who band together to carry hundreds of pounds of supplies through hundreds of miles of ice storms, landslides and deadly rapids. Jack witnesses first hand the power of nature and the depth of human depravity. The gold rush births an abundance of greed, murder, brothels and even cannibalism, which shape his worldview and provide rich material for his writing.
As winter approaches, they barely survive nature’s fury and arrive in the Golden City---Dawson City, Yukon. Unfortunately, they find little gold there and are robbed of all their winter food by one of Dawson City’s most despicable gold diggers. Soon after, Jack and his friends are overcome by illness and near starvation.
Jack gives up on his writing and dream of marrying Mabel. In the dead of winter he contracts the horrible condition, scurvy. As Jack lay in his deathbed a mysterious visitor arrives and convinces Jack of his gift of writing and the need to pursue it.
When Jack recovers from scurvy he returns to America with only $5.00 worth of gold, but a treasure of stories the world will never forget. After two years he writes his first novel and soon after marries Mabel. Jack would write 19 novels and numerous short stories in the span of only 14 years, traveling the world and becoming the most popular celebrity of his time.
FULL STORY
