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London (JACK an American writer born)

JACK, an American writer born in San Francisco, Cal., 1876; died on his ranch in Marin co., Cal., 1916. At the age of seventeen he made a trip to sea on a sealer, before the mast, cruising in Behring Sea. On his return a year later he tramped throughout the country, associating with the migratory laborers labor known as "hoboes." At the age of twenty- JACK LONDON one he took a special course in literature and sociology at the University of California, at Berkeley, but cut his studies short to join in the gold rush to the Alaskan gold fields. On his return, two years later, he began writing short stories on the North country, the first of which were published in the "Overland Monthly," in San Francisco. Later he contributed short stories to "McClure's Magazine," which attracted country-wide attention. It was "The Call of the Wild," however, published as a serial in "The Saturday Evening Post," then as a book, in 1903, that established his reputation as a writer of forceful fiction. His essays and books on sociological subjects, with a strong socialistic trend, also gained him a wide audience. His style much resembles that of Kipling, without the humor of Kipling. Among his most notable books are: "The Call of the Wild" 1