num_pages: 10
description: First published in 1913, John Barleycorn is the first intelligent literary treatise on alcohol in American literature. London offers acute generalizations on Barleycorn together with a close narrative of his own drinking career, which was heroic in scale. It is, however, as an exercise in autobiography that his book principally attracts the modern reader. London's life was tragically short but packed with episode and adventure. In John Barleycorn he records his early hardships in Oakland, his experiences as oyster pirate, deep-sea sealer, hobo, Yukon goldminer, student, drop-out, and - ultimately - best-selling author. Long neglected by London partisans (who wish he had never written it) and used against him by critics who would see him as a self-confessed drunk, John Barleycorn deserves to be celebrated for what it is: a classic of American autobiography.
language: English
title: John Barleycorn: or, Alcoholic Memoirs
titlecomplete: John Barleycorn: or, Alcoholic Memoirs
characters: Jack London
genres: 20th Century, American, Biography, Alcohol, Literature, Classics, The United States Of America, Nonfiction, Autobiography, Memoir
ratings_count: 3383
places: The United States of America, Oakland, California, California
publisher: Signet Classics