John Barleycorn: "Alcoholic Memoirs" (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Jack London (Author), John Sutherland (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: November 19, 1998

Published in 1913, this harrowing, autobiographical 'A to Z' of drinking shattered London's reputation as a clean-living adventurer and massively successful author of such books as White Fang and The Call of the Wild.

Editorial Reviews

Review

one of the most memorable of all boozing odysseys' Times Higher Education Supplement

'It is an extraordinary work, boastful and denying by turns ... suspiciously protesting in its detestation of alcohol, but also wholeheartedly committed to the machismo of hard drinking.' Brian Morton, The Times

About the Author

Jack London was born in a poor family and lived a very short life. He had a long list of jobs, writer and journalist were among them. Call of the Wild remains his most famous book. John Sutherland is at Pasadena, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192837176
• ISBN-13: 978-0192837172
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,128,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It happens even to the greatest, maybe especially to them, July 30, 2001

By 

Kenneth E. Wagner Jr. (Highland Springs, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Barleycorn: "Alcoholic Memoirs" (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

John Barleycorn is a tremondous book. One of the first things that will impress you about this book is London's life. London was a literal 'super-man' in the Carlyle sense. This book details how London raised himself from incredible child hood poverty and lower class surroundings while still a teen, engaging in rugged, manly adverntures that were simply amazing. This book also relates how London's love of books changed his life, and it will amaze you that his knowledge is so broad (throughout the book London dazzles us with philosophical qoutes and insights).

Most of all though, this book is about alcoholism. As one reviewer correctly notes, London had a strong liking for intoxication. However, one would be wrong to think of this book as pro-drinking, London is fairly fanatical in his dislike of alcohol and what it eventually did to him and other young men of his age. However, the brilliance of these 'alcoholic memoirs' is that he successfully illuminates the thought processes of most intelligent persons that have drinking problems. You will come away from this book understanding why many people, even an almost super-human person like Jack London, can fall prey to this vice. An absorbing read, and the book has a much more reader friendly and 'modern' style than many of London's fiction.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But is it really against alcohol?, August 8, 2000

By 

Daniel P. Smith "Daniel P. B. Smith" (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Barleycorn: "Alcoholic Memoirs" (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

It may seem silly to ask this of a book that, at the time of its publication was used by the WCTU for their campaign, and which is recommended today by Alcoholics Anonymous; but ask it I will.

Let me note that "John Barleycorn" is one of Jack London's best books, and the closest thing to an autobiography he ever wrote. Chapters XXXVI and XXXVII, where he describes the "White Logic," contain some the finest, most lyrical, most poetic writing he ever did.

He describes the minuses of alcohol, AND he describes the plusses of alcohol. He describes BOTH the minuses AND plusses vividly, with all the skill of a great writer. He is a man who LOVES alcohol. He is a man who knows he has been damaged by alcohol. He describes both.

He praises saloon-keepers:

"Saloon-keepers are notoriously good fellows. On an average they perform vastly greater generosities than do business men. When I simply had to have ten dollars, desperate, with no place to turn, I went to Johnny Heinhold. Several years had passed since I had been in his place or spent a cent across his bar. And when I went to borrow the ten dollars I didn't buy a drink, either. And Johnny Heinhold let me have the ten dollars without security or interest...."

Of course, he balances this by explaining how this is in saloon-keepers own interest, and says "this is not to exalt saloon-keepers."

He praises the physical strength alcohol provides:

"And here again we come to another side of many-sided John Barleycorn. On the face of it, he gives something for nothing. Where no strength remains he finds new strength. The wearied one rises to greater effort. For the time being there is an actual accession of strength. I remember passing coal on an ocean steamer through eight days of hell, during which time we coal-passers were kept to the job by being fed with whisky. We toiled half drunk all the time. And without the whisky we could not have passed the coal.

This strength John Barleycorn gives is not fictitious strength. It is real strength."

Of course, he balances this by saying "But it is manufactured out of the sources of strength, and it must ultimately be paid for, and with interest."

He makes alcohol sound exciting, dangerous, comradely, glamorous, manly. Alcohol is his adventure, like his other adventures--indeed, as he explains, an integral PART of his other adventures.

And in the end, when he adds it all up, plusses and minuses, where does HE strike the balance? What total does HE come up with?

"And so I pondered my problem. I should not care to revisit all these fair places of the world except in the fashion I visited them before. GLASS IN HAND! There is a magic in the phrase. It means more than all the words in the dictionary can be made to mean. It is a habit of mind to which I have been trained all my life. It is now part of the stuff that composes me. I like the bubbling play of wit, the chesty laughs, the resonant voices of men, when, glass in hand, they shut the grey world outside and prod their brains with the fun and folly of an accelerated pulse.

No, I decided; I shall take my drink on occasion."

I don't drink. John Barleycorn is the only thing I have ever read that has made me feel that maybe I've missed something...

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LONDON'S BARLEYCORN IS A MOST LAUDABLE WORK, November 21, 1999

By 

Steven J. Conifer - See all my reviews

This review is from: John Barleycorn: "Alcoholic Memoirs" (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

A stirring, deeply affecting account of one man's gradual resignation to the unrelenting grip of alcoholism. London at his electrifying, almost unsettling best. A must-read for all students of language and writing.