The critics, noses held high, smelled bullshit.

How could the novel’s protagonist, Martin Eden, go from uneducated sailor to literary phenom and public intellectual in just three years of self-directed study?

It was unrealistic.

Jack London’s response? The verbal equivalent of an eye roll:

“The critics say this is impossible. Yet I was Martin Eden.”

Here is the story of Jack London’s self-directed apprenticeship, broken into 8 study tactics you can use to learn your chosen craft.