London went undercover to live among the destitute of the East End and expose their misery. Journalism of social outrage.
Books mentioned in The People of the Abyss (3)
A Child of the Jago by Arthur Morrison: “We next visited the municipal dwellings erected by the London County Council on the site of the slums where lived Arthur Morrison's "Child of the Jago."”
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: “When I asked for two rooms, the sublettees looked at me very much in the manner, I imagine, that a certain personage looked at Oliver Twist when he asked for more.”
The Galley-Slave by Rudyard Kipling: “at once there came to me a bit of Kipling's "Galley Slave":— "By the brand upon my shoulder, by the gall of clinging steel;”
Books that mention The People of the Abyss (2)
The Job by Sinclair Lewis: “The book was The People of the Abyss, by Jack London, which Mamie Magen had given to Una”
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn: “One of the influences on Upton Sinclair's thinking was a book, People of the Abyss, by Jack London”