Best known for writing

The Call of the Wild

, a gripping tale about a dog in the Klondike Northland who reverts to his wolf ancestry, Jack London wrote a number of other stories about dogs and the Klondike, including

White Fang

, and became associated with a rough and tumble style of writing and living, anticipating Ernest Hemingway. To some he was primarily an adventurer who occasionally stopped to write about his adventures. Thus the critic Alfred Kazin said of him that “the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived” (cit. Labor and Reesman 1).

On the other hand, London suggested privately that his reputation was in part a façade. “Ask people who know me to-day, what I am”, he wrote his future wife. “A rough, savage fellow, they will say, who likes prizefights

2706 words

Citation: Goldfarb, Sheldon. "Jack London". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 July 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2781, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2781 Jack London 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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