The Call of the Wild

Jack London was an American author and journalist who became one of the first authors to become famous and
wealthy from his fiction alone. He was born John Griffith Chaney on January 12th, 1876 in San Francisco,
California to Flora Wellman, a music teacher and spiritualist, and William Chaney, an attorney and pioneer in
the field ofastrology. His parents were not married so when his mother later married John London, Jack took on
his last name. Jack grew tıp in a vorking-class family, and foıınd various jobs as a teen to keep bıısy. He also
spent a lot of time in the library reading travel books and novels. After a treacherous voyage on a ship when he
was only 17, Jack was encouraged to write his story and enter it into a contest. He won first prize. Winning the
prize in the vriting contest gaveJack London the desire to become a writer.
Jack London's famous novel The Cali of the Wild was published in 1903 This book brought him some money
and fame. The book was about a dog finding his was as a sled dog, in the Yııkon vvhere Jack previously
traveled to in an effort to find gold. He worked as a journalist while writing fiction as well. He worked for
Hearst papers in 1904, and covered the Russo-Japanese War.
Jack London only lived t o be 40 years old, but wrote a great number of novels, short stories, memoirs, non-
fiction, essays, poems, and even plays. He's most famous novels incinde The Cali of the Wild, White Fang, and
The Iron Heel.
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