John Barleycorn

Jack London cut a mythic figure across the American landscape of the early twentieth century. But throughout his colorful life—from his teenage years as an oyster pirate to his various incarnations as a well-traveled seaman, Yukon gold prospector, waterfront brawler, unemployed vagrant, impassioned socialist, and celebrated writer—he retained a predilection for drinking on a prodigious scale.

London’s classic “alcoholic memoirs”—the closest thing to an autobiography he ever wrote—are …