Jack London

American author, journalist and social activist (1876–1916)

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Lived 1876–1916, aged 40United States

United States WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
98 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1876–1916
Aged 40
Known for
The Call of the Wild
2020

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He turned Alaska's frozen brutality into bestsellers and became one of the first writers to get rich and famous doing it — while spending his off-hours agitating for socialism and animal rights in San Francisco's radical literary scene.

Biography

About

John Griffith London was born January 12, 1876, and by the time he died at forty in 1916, he'd pioneered the model of the writer as international celebrity. His breakout came with The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both drawn from the Klondike Gold Rush and both still taught in schools. He wrote cold-country survival stories like "To Build a Fire" and ranged south to the Pacific for tales like "The Pearls of Parlay." In San Francisco he ran with a radical set called "The Crowd," pouring his socialism into The Iron Heel and The People of the Abyss. He made a fortune from magazines and commerc…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Jack London

Jack London

said2 Dec 1916

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.

— The Bulletin, San Francisco, California, December 2, 1916, part 2, p. 1.

Jack London

said1910

The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.

— "To Build a Fire" published as a collection of short stories in the book Lost Face (1910)

Jack London

said1906