London, Jack

London, Jack (1876-1916), American writer, whose work combines powerful realism and humanitarian sentiment. London is perhaps best remembered for his dramatic tales of outdoor adventure, including The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906).

John Griffith London was born in San Francisco, California. After completing grammar school he worked at various odd jobs, including canning salmon, shovelling coal in a power station, and illegally harvesting oysters. London eventually abandoned regular work to travel the United States in search of new experiences. At one point during this time he was arrested and briefly imprisoned for vagrancy. His experiences as a wanderer and in jail led him to embrace the philosophy of socialism and sparked his desire to become a professional writer.

In 1895 London returned to California to continue his education, first at Oakland High School and later at the University of California at Berkeley. During this time he published his first stories and developed a reputation as a socialist activist. In the late 1890s London left college to join the gold rush in Alaska’s Klondike region. After he returned to the San Francisco area he began to write about his experiences. A collection of his short stories, The Son of the Wolf, was published in 1900.

London authored more than 50 books during his brief but colourful life. His style—brutal, vivid, and exciting—made him enormously popular outside the United States, and his works were translated into numerous languages. Many of his stories, including his masterpiece The Call of the Wild (1903), deal with the reversion of civilized creatures to a primitive state, and the struggle for survival.

Among Jack London's important works were People of the Abyss (1903), a non-fiction book about poverty in the city of London; The Sea-Wolf (1904), a novel based on the author's experiences on a seal-hunting ship; The Iron Heel (1908), a science fiction book about a capitalist dystopia; Martin Eden (1909), an autobiographical work of fiction about a writer's life; John Barleycorn (1913), a novel drawn from London's real-life struggle with alcoholism; and The Star Rover (1915), a collection of related stories dealing with reincarnation (transmigration).

London died on his California ranch at the age of 40. Although for many years it was believed that London killed himself, his death certificate cites uraemia and nephritis. The true cause of his death remains a subject of uncertainty and debate.