Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876. He grew up in a poor working class family. As a teenager he pirated oysters, but then joined the fish patrol to capture poachers. He traveled as a hobo, joined a major protest march against unemployment, and was jailed for vagrancy. As a young man, he participated in the gold rush in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon and sailed the Pacific. Later, he became a political activist, journalist and successful writer.

Jack London is best known for his stories about the harsh struggle for survival on the sea and in the wilderness by both men and animals. He also wrote about the difficulties of the poor, the sick and homeless.

Jack London was a committed socialist, but also believed in rugged individualism and survival of the fittest.