Comments on: Jack London, Photographer

By: Donald Baker

Donald Baker — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 15:47:55 +0000

My own Grandmother was born at 11 Crown Court in 1875 so seeing photographs like this has certainly brought home to me How lucky she was to ESCAPE the degradation of Whitechapel
She and all her siblings bar one were Christened in the Christs Church the other was christened in Bethnal green and only found as the cousins were Christened there and she was on the same page

The Family Name was Marshall

By: Chris Whittall

Chris Whittall — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 21:45:22 +0000

I live in Australia and am researching St Simon Zelotes’ Bethnal Green in the period around 1900-1925, for a biography on one of the clergy of that parish Arnold Lomas Wylde.

This book is so helpful and the photographs moving. If anyone has any further informationor photographs on St Simon’s, Wylde (or his predecessor G K S Marshall), or Bethnal Green in those early twentieth century years, I’d be thrilled.

By: diogenes

diogenes — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 10:15:04 +0000

I worked on the large-scale excavation undertaken at Spitalfields Market some years ago on the site of St Mary’s ‘Spital just off Bishopsgate near Liverpool Street station. I had a copy of Jack London’s book at the time and lent it to the director of works and it was of interest for the light it throws upon the livelihood of the inhabitants of more recent times and descriptions of the area. You can get hold of the volumes brought out about the results of the excavations there from the Museum of London bookshop and/or MOLA’s online website. Old ‘Spitalfields Market is redeveloped but some standing medieval remains are preserved and are viewable within the basement of the buildings put up over the area. Today, there is more news about the thousands of photographs Jack London took – what a great archive he left documenting east London life. May they never return.

By: karen

karen — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 12:48:21 +0000

Dear GA

Do you know if the arch in the photo of working mens housing on Wentworth Street is the same one that is now positioned as the entrance to the Flower and Dean estate?

I got the Jack London book for Christmas, and after my collection of Spitialfield Life publications (!), it is top of the tree for 2014.

Thank you for all the wonderful stories and pictures over 2014. I am looking forward to a Spitialfield Life 2015 and wish you a peaceful one.

Karen

By: Rupert Neil Bumfrey (@rupertbu)

Rupert Neil Bumfrey (@rupertbu) — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:02:27 +0000

abject misery………..

By: Ana

Ana — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:22:36 +0000

Jack London is one of the most underrated writers. He was the most adventurous of all American writers. What struck me about People of the Abyss, was the striking detail. And of course, this type of detail can only be provided by a writer who lives and moves within his material, which London did. One of the heartbreaking details was how the police would usher the homeless, just so as they didn’t sleep. So all these homeless people were lucky to have a straight uninterrupted period of sleep. Most of all, the book highlights how such a city like London, was incapable [or not interested in] of dealing with its population and poverty.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:02:52 +0000

Read this great book many years ago, I never knew it was originally illustrated with photos, ( why ever did later editions do away with the pics ?? )..it gives so much more meaning to see the actual people he was writing about and mixed with… I bought a copy right away !

By: Phyllis Oberman

Phyllis Oberman — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:50:03 +0000

My late father, Hymie Kanter, was born in the East End in 1905, left school at 13 and was largely self-educated and an ardent reader and seeker after knowledge all his life. I have a few of my father’s Jack London books, and I know how much The People of the Abyss influenced him. As I developed, Jack London;s books were an early introduction to fine writing.

By: moyra peralta

moyra peralta — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:15:12 +0000

plus ça change…

By: Dai Smile

Dai Smile — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:59:06 +0000

London’s book, and the subsequent reactions, inflamed most people in the East End who complained that it tarred them all with the same brush. As many memoires from those who grew up in the area show, most locals were the “respectable poor”. They lived a desperately hard life but never declined into the criminality and squalor portrayed almost solely by conditions in the Nichol, a notorious slum. I don’t deny the importance of London’s journalistic approach, which exposed extreme poverty close by extreme wealth. But it was no more representative of the East End than Dorset Street was of Spitalfields