Jack London

Born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, Jack London became one of America’s best-known novelists, journalists, and social activists. His varied life included work at sea, travels through the United States and Canada, and experience connected to the Klondike Gold Rush—adventures that supplied the vivid settings and dramatic energy of his fiction.

London achieved international fame with The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904), and White Fang (1906). He also wrote Martin Eden, The Iron Heel, short stories such as “To Build a Fire,” and nonfiction shaped by his interest in socialism and social justice. He died in Glen Ellen, California, on November 22, 1916.