John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs

Rating:
Summary: A Uniquely Candid Autobiography
Review: Following the worst of London's alcoholic periods he wrote this autobiography beginning with his first taste of alcohol, his first experience at being drunk,and his first hangover-all at the age of five. London went on to "earn his manhood spurs" through hard drinking at the steamy waterfront bars on the San Francisco Bay. Claiming never to have acquired a taste for the stuff, London stresses the important role of the saloon in cultivating alcoholism in young men. He brings to vivid life the romantic allure of a place full of sailors with names like Whiskey Bob, whose stories of 'round-the-world journeys, barroom brawls, and dangerous sea adventures mingled with the "comaraderie of drink." At once a highly personal work of intense emotional power and an unsparing social commentary on the evils of drink, this masterpiece of autobiographical literature first stunned a world audience in 1913, and today continues to strike a resounding contemporary note.

Rating:
Summary: London's unsparing look at the lure (and danger) of alcohol
Review: The novelist and adventurer Jack London was an alcoholic at an early age. This colorful memoir -- one of the first in America to treat the issue of alcohol abuse -- was written to encourage the prohibition efforts of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. London does condemn the overuse of alcohol, but makes an equally strong case for its allure. The emphasis London places on the reasons why people drink, and drink to excess, fills this book with exciting characters and locales -- "the cameraderie of drink" is London's own phrase, as another reviewer notes. This personal revelation by one of America's premier adventure writers must have been shocking to a nation that viewed its drunks with a fairly tolerant eye. It is certainly an important book for those interested in the literature of alcohol abuse in this country.