King alcohol

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King Alcohol (original title: John Barleycorn ) is an autobiographical text by the writer Jack London from 1913.

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In 39 chapters, the American writer Jack London (1876–1916) traces his personal experiences with alcohol in retrospect in his book King Alcohol . As the subtitle or Alcoholic Memoirs introduced from 1914 already suggests, the author deals in this text with various sections of his own life. The focus is on the one hand on Jack London, who is still growing up, who works as a sailor, and on the other hand on the older, now wealthy Jack London, who has already established himself in society and as a writer. Jack London believes the consumption of alcohol is responsible for the wild and adventurous spirit of his youth. Looking at his writing career, he attributes alcohol to be a part of the success, although he also takes up the negative aspects of alcohol that has affected his health.

Publication history

Even before Jack London began the actual writing process of King Alcohol , he had already sold the preprint rights to the Saturday Evening Post for 15 cents per word . With 50,000 to 60,000 words, that was a total of around $ 10,000. He used this trade as a basis for arguments against the publisher The Century Company (now Prentice Hall ), so that the latter also signed his text and then published it. Without the sale of the preprint rights, London would probably not have been able to convince the publisher, as the publisher had reservations about the issue. The manuscript probably began in London in November 1912 and finished with 669 manuscript pages just two months later on January 13, 1913. Between March 15 and May 3, 1913, the preprint, illustrated by Harvey Thomas Dunn , appeared in eight sequences , which was received with both dismay and admiration and gained corresponding popularity. The printed book, which appeared in August 1913, was less successful and received mixed reviews. Although King Alcohol was not an anti-alcohol pamphlet, the prohibition movement used the work for their own purposes. Excerpts were used for propaganda literature. There are voices who believe that London's text had an impact on the US Navy ban on alcohol in 1914. In 1914 the London publisher Mills & Boon , a subsidiary of HarperCollins , published an edition and added a subtitle to the main title: John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs . Many publishers have adopted this subtitle over the decades. The British folk song John Barleycorn , which the Scottish poet Robert Burns later adapted, is the namesake of the English-language work. The expression John Barleycorn stands in the English-speaking world as a fixed term for alcohol and thus forms the counterpart to the German expression Königohol .

Film adaptations

In 1914, John Barleycorn was made into a film directed by James Charles Hayden and Hobart Bosworth . The latter also embodied the character of the illiterate Scratch Nelson in the film, with whom London became acquainted during his time at sea. In the main roles Jack London was played by Matty Roupert (1st phase of life), Antrim Short (2nd phase of life) and Elmer Clifton (3rd phase of life).

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English editions

  • John Barleycorn . Century Company, New York 1913 (American first edition) ( digitized ).
  • John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs . Mills & Boon, London 1914

Translations into German

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Lutz-W. Wolff in his epilogue John Barleycorn Must Die to his new translation of King Alcohol . dtv, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-423-14326-4 , p. 250
  2. ↑ See Wolff: Afterword, p. 251; see John Sutherland, Note on the Text , in: Jack London, John Barleycon , Oxford 1989, S XXXV ff
  3. ↑ See Wolff: Afterword, p. 251
  4. ↑ See Wolff: Afterword, p. 251
  5. ↑ See Wolff: Afterword, p. 252
  6. ↑ See Open Library John Barleycorn or Alcoholic Memoirs , digitized
  7. ↑ See Wolff: Afterword, p. 254
  8. ↑ See Internet Movie Data Base entry John Barleycorn (1914)