The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Call of the Wild

by Jack London

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A picture for the book The Call of the Wild The Call of the Wild is one of Jack London’s most popular novels. The story follows a dog named Buck, a 140lb Saint Bernard and Scotch Shepard mix. Buck is abducted from a comfortable life as a pet and tossed into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush and the brutal realities of frontier life. Buck changes hands a number of times before landing in the kindly hands of John Thornton.

Thornton takes ownership of Buck from a trio of ignorant stampeders, intent upon making a dangerous river crossing. Buck refuses to cross, despite a vicious beating. Thornton recognizes the dogs intelligence and strength. He steps in to claim the dog and nurses Buck back to health. But Buck is forever changed by the treatment he has received at the hands of other men.

Jack London spent a year living in the Yukon and drew heavily upon his experiences there while writing the book. He later said, “It was in the Klondike that I found myself.”

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.

London’s best-selling book during his lifetime was his 1910 novel Burning Daylight

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