Jack London, War, and the Journalism that Acts

Jack London’s reportorial work for American newspapers remains rich territory for investigation, especially given the porous boundaries between fact and fiction, news and story at the turn of the century—porous boundaries evident in London’s style, as well. This essay examines the articles he penned as a correspondent for William Randolph Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). The dispatches from the Far East reveal how London deployed his literary skill to produce provocative reportage, and how he cast himself as a character type—that of the fearless newspaper man—in his own articles as he attempted to experience the real-life adventures of war and, in turn, offer those adventures up to readers through his true stories of the news.