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For the remainder of 1898 London again tried to earn his living by writing. His early stories appeared in the Overland Monthly and Atlantic Monthly. In 1900 he married Elisabeth (Bess) Maddern, but left her and their two daughters three years afterwards, eventually to marry Charmian Kittredge. .
In 1901 London ran unsuccessfully on the Socialist party ticket for mayor of Oakland. He started to produce steadily novels, non-fiction and short stories, becoming in his lifetime one of the most popular authors. London had early built his system of producing a daily quota of thousand words, which he did not give up during his travels and drinking periods. London's first novel, THE SON OF THE WOLF, appeared in 1900.
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London had purchased in 1910 a large tract of land near Glen Ellen in Sonoma County, and devoted his energy and money improving and enlarging his Beauty Ranch. He also travelled widely and reported on the Mexican revolution. In 1913 London's Beauty Ranch burned to the ground, and he was told by his doctor that his kidneys were failing. .
Among London's major works are The Sea-Wolf (1904), remembered from its Nietzschean hero, visionary fantasy The Iron Heel (1908), which became very popular in the Soviet Union, THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK (1911), a travel book from his journeys in South Pacific, and semi-autobiographical MARTIN EDEN (1909), London's most ambitious novel.
A few months before his death, London resigned from the Socialist Party. Debts, alcoholism, illness, and fear of losing his creativity darkened the author's last years. He died on November 22, 1916.
London's literary models: Kipling, Stevenson. He was also influenced by the theories of Darwin, Spencer, Marx and Nietzsche. In his later years London was interested in the work of Carl Jung. His influence has been considerable on such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, and Robert Ruark.
As for "The Sea Wolf", none of this author's stories of wild out-of-door life has ever equalled the popularity of this romance of the seas.