American Literature

Library » Jack London

Jack London
Jack London (Jan 12, 1876 - Nov 22, 1916) was an American author best known for writing The Call of the Wild. Jack London was a pen name and he was probably born as John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco. Like the restive characters in his works, London sought a variety of experiences as a young man including sailor, hobo and an agitator for jobs during the depression.

During his vagrant period, he spent thirty days in the Erie County in New York: 

"Man-handling was merely one of the very minor unprintable horrors of the Erie 
County Pen. I say 'unprintable'; and in justice I must also say 'unthinkable'. 
They were unthinkable to me until I saw them, and I was no spring chicken in 
the ways of the world and the awful abysses of human degradation. It would take 
a deep plummet to reach bottom in the Erie County Pen, and I do but skim lightly 
and facetiously the surface of things as I there saw them."

London became a well-known writer and was one of the first to achieve true financial success from his writings. His success brought controversy as well. He was prodigious writer producing over 500 works and was often accused of plagiarism. The manner in which he chose to work contributed to those accusations; he bought plots for stories and novels from a young Sinclair Lewis and he used incidents read in newspapers as material for his stories.

His most famous short story is To Build a Fire.