Background
When Jack London wrote Martin Eden at age 33, he had already achieved international acclaim with The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf and White Fang. However, London quickly became disillusioned with his fame and set sail through the South Pacific on a self-designed ketch called the Snark. On the grueling two-year voyage—as he struggled with tiredness and bowel diseases—he wrote Martin Eden, filling its pages with his frustrations, adolescent gangfights and struggles for artistic recognition. The character of Ruth Morse was modelled on Mabel Applegarth — the first love of London's life.
The character Brissenden is modeled on London's real life friend/ writing inspiration George Sterling. With the plot central, posthumously successful poem Ephemera, being based on Sterling's seminal work A Wine of Wizardry.
Read more about this topic: Martin Eden
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