Jack London

Jack London was born in the USA in 1876. His mother did not want the baby and gave him to an ex-slave. All his life, London was unsure who his father was. This caused him great sadness when he was at university and he left without getting a degree. However, the many adventures that he had as a tramp, pirate, thief and while looking for gold, gave him valuable information that he later used when writing his novels and short stories. London became one of the best-selling authors of his time and was the first American writer to make a million dollars from his work. Many of his stories are about animals (‘The Call of the Wild’, ‘White Fang’ and ‘The Sea Wolf’) but he also wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, ‘Martin Eden’, and novels about his socialist beliefs, like ‘The Iron Heel’. London died in 1916 of alcoholism. His autobiographical account of his drinking, ‘John Barleycorn’, led to the laws that made alcohol illegal in the USA soon after his death.