Most people know Jack London from such books as Call of the Wild or White Fang. London was also a Socialist and attempted to motivate public opinion to correct social ills, uplift the poor and champion the working class in such books as People of the Abyss. For the last book, London went undercover in the notorious East End of London, where the poorest of the poor lived. If you can read this book and remained unmoved about the vileness of unfettered capitalism, you are a stronger person than I.
John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs is a very interesting book to read. For someone like myself who knows more than a few folks who have shipwrecked their lives on one or both of the conjoined reefs of depression and addiction, it is also a very hard book to read. London’s goal in writing this book was as a warning to generations coming after him on the dangers of John Barleycorn aka alcohol.
There is some controversy over how Jack London died. The immediate cause was an overdose of morphine. Whether it was accidentally or purposeful is the controversy. What is not at controversy was that he was in the late stages alcoholism. He was also suffering from various diseases picked up in his travels.
Perhaps one of the most telling of passages in the book is the beginning of chapter one: Continue reading “John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs by Jack London”