num_pages: 256
description: Jack London cut a mythic figure across the American landscape of the early twentieth century. But throughout his colorful life–from his teenage years as an oyster pirate to his various incarnations as a well-traveled seaman, Yukon gold prospector, waterfront brawler, unemployed vagrant, impassioned socialist, and celebrated writer–he retained a predilection for drinking on a prodigious scale. London’s classic "alcoholic memoirs"–the closest thing to an autobiography he ever wrote–are a startlingly honest and vivid account of his life not only as a drinker, but also as a storied adventurer. Richly anecdotal and beautifully written, John Barleycorn stands as the earliest intelligent treatment of alcohol in American literature, and as an intensely moving document of one of America’s finest writers. This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes illustrations from the original edition.
language: English
title: John Barleycorn
titlecomplete: John Barleycorn
characters: Jack London
genres: 20th Century, Literature, American, Classics, Biography, Memoir, Autobiography, Alcohol, The United States Of America, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 3383
places: California, Oakland, California, The United States of America
publisher: Modern Library