Jack London

Bio

(1876-1916) Writer, novelist. London wrote in “The Road” (1907) of his experiences as a drifter coming to Niagara Falls in 1894, being enthralled for hours by the falls, but then (having no money for a hotel room) being arrested for vagrancy and sentenced to a month in the Erie County Penitentiary. “The Call of the Wild (1903),” about a tame dog who eventually leads a wolf pack, is one of the best animal stories ever written. Among his other works are “The Sea-Wolf (1904),” “White Fang (1905),” ” Smoke Bellew” (1912). “Martin Eden” (1909) and “Burning Daylight” (1910) are partly autobiographical. “The People of the Abyss” (1903) and “The Iron Heel” (1907) London considered his most important work. “The Cruise of the Snark” (1911) is a vivid account of his interrupted voyage around the world in a ketch-rigged yacht, and “John Barleycorn; or, Alcoholic Memoirs” (1913) is autobiographical. Beset in his later years by alcoholism and financial difficulties, London died at the age of 40.