American author and advocate of socialism Jack London (1876-1916) wrote popular adventure stories and social tracts based on unusual personal experiences. At their best, his works are powerful and moving narratives.

Jack London, in full John Griffith London, was born in San Francisco, the illegitimate son of a wandering astrologer and a spiritualist. At the age of 14 he quit school to seek adventure. As a sailor, he pirated San Francisco Bay oyster beds; then, aboard a sealing ship, he cruised to Japan. Later, as a tramp, he saw much of the United States and the interior of a Niagara Falls jail. He completed his high school education in a year and went to the University of California for a semester. He traveled to the Klondike with the gold prospectors and, returning to California, launched his writing career.

London won national acclaim for his short stories about the brutal...