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Jack London desperately wanted to attend the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]] and, in 1896 after a summer of intense cramming, did so; but financial circumstances forced him to leave in 1897 and so he never graduated. Kingman says that "there is no record that Jack ever wrote for student publications there".<ref>Kingman (1979) p. 67.</ref>
== Gold Rush and First Success ==
While living at his rented villa on [[Lake Merritt]] in Oakland, London met poet [[George Sterling]] and in time they became best friends. In 1902, Sterling helped London find a home closer to his own in nearby [[Piedmont, California|Piedmont]]. In his letters London addressed Sterling as "Greek" owing to his aquiline nose and classical profile, and signed them as "Wolf". London was later to depict Sterling as Russ Brissenden in his autobiographical novel ''[[Martin Eden]]'' (1909) and as Mark Hall in ''[[The Valley of the Moon (novel)|The Valley of the Moon]]'' (1913).▼
In later life Jack London indulged his very wide-ranging interests with a personal library of 15,000 volumes, referring to his books as "the tools of my trade."<ref>Hamilton (1986) (as cited by other sources)</ref>▼
On [[July 25]] [[1897]], Jack London and his brother-in-law, James Shepard, sailed to join the [[Klondike Gold Rush]] where he would later set his first successful stories. London's time in the Klondike, however, was quite detrimental to his health. Like so many others malnourished while involved in the Klondike Gold Rush, he developed [[scurvy]]. His gums became swollen, eventually leading to the loss of his four front teeth. A constant gnawing pain affected his abdomen and leg muscles, and his face was stricken with scars that would forever remind him of the struggles he faced in the Klondike. Fortunately for him and others who were suffering with a variety of medical ills, a [[Father William Judge]], "The Saint of [[Dawson City, Yukon|Dawson]]," had a facility in Dawson which provided shelter, food and any available medicine. London survived the hardships of the Klondike, and these struggles inspired what is often called his best short story, [[#Short stories|To Build a Fire]] (v.i.).
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This short story for the Saturday Evening Post "The Call of the Wild" ran away in length. The story begins on an estate in [[Santa Clara Valley]] and features a St. Bernard/Shepherd mix named Buck. In fact the opening scene is a description of the Bond family farm and Buck is based on a dog he was lent in Dawson by his landlords. London visited Marshall Bond in California having run into him again at a political lecture in San Francisco in 1901.
▲While living at his rented villa on [[Lake Merritt]] in Oakland, London met poet [[George Sterling]] and in time they became best friends. In 1902, Sterling helped London find a home closer to his own in nearby [[Piedmont, California|Piedmont]]. In his letters London addressed Sterling as "Greek" owing to his aquiline nose and classical profile, and signed them as "Wolf". London was later to depict Sterling as Russ Brissenden in his autobiographical novel ''[[Martin Eden]]'' (1909) and as Mark Hall in ''[[The Valley of the Moon (novel)|The Valley of the Moon]]'' (1913).
▲In later life Jack London indulged his very wide-ranging interests with a personal library of 15,000 volumes, referring to his books as "the tools of my trade."<ref>Hamilton (1986) (as cited by other sources)</ref>
== First marriage (1900-1904) ==
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