Jack London

Jack London

Quick Facts

John Griffith Chaney

Pen Name: Jack London

Born: Jan 12, 1876

Died: Nov 22, 1916

Nationality: American

Genres: Adventure, Naturalism, Realism

Notable Works: The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, Martin Eden, The Iron Heel

👶 Early Life and Background

Jack London (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco, California. His mother, Flora Wellman, was a spiritualist and music teacher; his biological father, astrologer William Chaney, abandoned the family before London's birth. Flora married Civil War veteran John London in 1876, who gave the boy his surname. The family moved several times around the San Francisco Bay Area, and young Jack grew up in working-class poverty in Oakland.

📚 Self-Education and Early Adventures

London was largely self-educated, devouring books at the Oakland Public Library under the guidance of librarian Ina Coolbrith (California's first poet laureate). At age 14, he left school to work in a cannery. By 15, he was an "oyster pirate" on San Francisco Bay, and later worked for the California Fish Patrol. At 17, he sailed to Japan aboard the sealing schooner Sophia Sutherland. He tramped across the United States as a hobo in 1894, was jailed for vagrancy for thirty days in the Erie County Penitentiary in New York, and joined the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897—experiences that would fuel his greatest fiction.

📖 Literary Career and Breakthrough

London began publishing stories in the Overland Monthly in 1899. His first collection, The Son of the Wolf (1900), established him as a powerful voice of the American frontier. His masterpiece The Call of the Wild (1903) made him internationally famous overnight. He followed it with White Fang (1906), The Sea-Wolf (1904), and Martin Eden (1909). London was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing, completing over 50 books in just 17 years.

🌿 Writing Style and Themes

London's writing is characterized by vivid, muscular prose, intense physical action, and unflinching naturalism. Influenced by Darwin, Spencer, Marx, and Nietzsche, his work explores the primal struggle for survival, the tension between civilization and the wild, and the resilience of the human (and animal) spirit. His Klondike stories—especially To Build a Fire—are masterclasses in naturalist fiction, depicting humanity's smallness against an indifferent natural world. He was also a pioneer of science fiction and dystopian fiction, with The Iron Heel (1908) predicting fascist tyranny a decade before its rise in Europe.

✒️ Notable Works

London's most enduring works include The Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1906), The Sea-Wolf (1904), Martin Eden (1909), and the autobiographical memoir John Barleycorn (1913). His most famous short story, To Build a Fire (1908), is one of the most widely anthologized American stories and a staple of school curricula. Other celebrated stories include The Law of Life, Love of Life (a favorite of Lenin's), The Mexican, and The Story of Keesh. His best-selling book during his lifetime was Burning Daylight (1910).

❤️ Personal Life

London married Bessie Maddern in 1900; they had two daughters, Joan and Bess ("Becky"), before divorcing in 1904. He married Charmian Kittredge the same year, and they remained together until his death. In 1905, he purchased a ranch in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, California, where he attempted to build his dream estate, "Wolf House"—which burned down in 1913 just before completion, devastating him. London was an outspoken socialist and war correspondent who covered the Russo-Japanese War (1904) and the Mexican Revolution (1914).

✨ Death and Legacy

London died on November 22, 1916, at age 40, at his ranch in Glen Ellen. His death certificate lists the cause as uremia following acute renal colic; most modern biographers believe it was uremia aggravated by an accidental morphine overdose, though rumors of suicide persisted for decades. Despite his short life, London produced an extraordinary body of work—over 200 short stories and 20 novels—that continues to be read worldwide. His works have been translated into more languages than those of any other American author of his era, and The Call of the Wild remains one of the most widely read American novels. The Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen preserves his ranch and legacy.

⭐ Interesting Facts

London was one of the highest-paid authors of his time, earning the equivalent of millions in today's dollars. He wrote 1,000 words every morning without fail. He was accused of plagiarism multiple times—partly because he bought story plots from a young Sinclair Lewis and used newspaper incidents as material. Leon Trotsky read The Iron Heel while in prison, and Vladimir Lenin had Love of Life read aloud to him on his deathbed.

"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."

"The most beautiful stories always start with wreckage."

"A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog."

Frequently Asked Questions about Jack London

Where can I find study guides for Jack London's stories?

We offer free interactive study guides for the following Jack London stories:

  • A Piece of Steak — comprehension questions, vocabulary review, and discussion prompts
  • That Spot — comprehension questions, vocabulary review, and discussion prompts
  • The Law of Life — comprehension questions, vocabulary review, and discussion prompts
  • The Story of Keesh — comprehension questions, vocabulary review, and discussion prompts
  • To Build a Fire — comprehension questions, vocabulary review, and discussion prompts
What is Jack London best known for?
Jack London is best known for his adventure novels The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906), both set in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. He was one of the first American authors to earn a massive fortune from writing alone, and his vivid portrayals of survival in the wild made him the most widely read American author of his era. His short story To Build a Fire remains one of the most anthologized stories in American literature, and his semi-autobiographical novel Martin Eden is considered a masterpiece of literary realism.
How did Jack London die?
Jack London died on November 22, 1916, at his ranch in Glen Ellen, California, at the age of 40. The official cause of death was uremia caused by kidney failure, compounded by years of heavy drinking and poor health. However, the circumstances remain controversial — a morphine overdose was found in his system, leading to long-standing debate over whether his death was accidental or intentional. Most modern scholars believe the kidney disease was the primary cause, with the morphine having been prescribed for the severe pain he suffered in his final days.
What was Jack London's writing style?
His writing is characterized by stark, muscular prose and an unflinching portrayal of nature as an indifferent, often brutal force. London drew heavily on naturalism and social Darwinism, placing his characters — both human and animal — in extreme survival situations that test their physical and psychological limits. This direct, action-driven style set him apart from the more ornate prose of his contemporaries and anticipated the stripped-down realism later championed by Ernest Hemingway. Stories like The Law of Life and Love of Life showcase his talent for conveying primal struggle with lean, powerful language.
Was Jack London's writing based on real experiences?
Much of London's best work was drawn directly from his own extraordinary life. At seventeen he sailed as a seaman on a sealing schooner in the Pacific — experiences that fueled The Sea-Wolf — and in 1897 he joined the Klondike Gold Rush, spending a brutal winter in the Yukon that inspired To Build a Fire, The White Silence, and his most famous novels. He also worked in canneries, rode freight trains as a hobo, and later sailed his own vessel across the South Pacific, a voyage chronicled in The Cruise of the Snark. This firsthand immersion in danger, hardship, and adventure gave his fiction an authenticity that few of his contemporaries could match.
What is "To Build a Fire" about?
The story follows an unnamed man traveling alone through the Yukon wilderness in temperatures far below zero, accompanied only by a dog. Ignoring the advice of experienced old-timers, he presses on despite the extreme cold, and after breaking through ice into a hidden spring, he desperately attempts to build a fire to save himself from freezing to death. It is a masterwork of literary naturalism — London uses the man's fatal struggle against the indifferent cold to explore human arrogance, the limits of reason, and nature's total indifference to individual survival. You can read the full text of "To Build a Fire" here on our site.