John Barleycorn

Published in 1913, John Barleycorn was an autobiographical book dealing with London's enjoyment of alcohol. This is a very frank account in which London discusses what it means to be an alcoholic and explaining in detail what his daily habits turn to after years of abuse through drink. He claims early on not to have been a hereditary alcoholic, meaning someone whose body chemistry is predisposed to the substance but rather to have learned his trade through his love of 'the kick'. While London didn't directly die of alcohol, by the time he was forty he suffered from advanced kidney disease in the form of stones and it was while trying to alleviate the pain of this illness that he took an overdose of morphine. This was three years after John Barleycorn was published.