Jack London lived during the Progressive Era (end of the 19th, beginning of the 20thcentury). He used his experiences as a poor and needy child as the inspiration for his adventurous and exciting writing, which brought him worldwide success.
On January 12, 1879, Jack London was born in San Francisco as an illegitimate child. His mother, Flora Wellman was left as an unwed mother because his birth father denied paternity. Later that year she married John London, who adopted her son. He was named John Griffith London, which he later changed to the pen name Jack London. Jack was close to his stepfather who taught him about farming and fishing and a love for the land.
Jack grew up in poverty. His family lost their home many times often due to his mother’s over spending. When he was thirteen, he discovered his passion for sailing and bought a small boat to sail on San Francisco Bay. One year later, when he was fourteen, Jack left school because he couldn’t afford to go to high school. He helped support his family by working in several jobs. He became an expert sailor and got a larger boat named the Razzle Dazzle when he was fifteen. Then his stepfather, John London, suffered an injury and Jack became responsible f

Although London is generally known as a short fiction writer, he also had very popular novels. The most famous one is Call of the Wild. Call of the Wild is an example of the contradictory theories of individualism and socialism. This romance and beast fable is the most famous and widely read of Jack London’s novels. It describes the struggle between barbarity and civilization. London’s style is full of action. He shows the development of a hero through rites of passage that lead to self-knowledge. The protagonist in this novel is a sheepdog with strength and courage.

In the following years London became more and more a businessman and his reasons and motivations for writing changed from self-expression and love for the art to greed for money and fame. Overwork, financial difficulties, and heavy alcoholism caused London’s literary output to deteriorate. He died on November 22, 1916 after taking morphine tablets. It is believed by some that his death was suicide. Others write that he died from kidney failure.

Jack married his first wife, Bessie Maddern, and had two daughters by her. Later, after his divorce, he married his second wife, Charmian Kittredge. During this time he wrote for several newspapers. To do his stories he lived three months “undercover” in London’s poor areas, to get as close as possible to the people he wrote about. His successes grew bigger and bigger in the following years and his life became influenced by popularity and success. His own experiences of poverty, grinding factory work, life on the road, and imprisonment had shown him that life was a brutal struggle for survival. He expressed that in his books. Jack wrote the Call of the Wild, which he sold for $2,000. He later wrote and published the Sea Wolf for which he earned $4,000. He became one of the most popular, and best paid writers of his time. Jack and Charmian bought and developed Beauty Ranch. Jack wanted a place for people to come and enjoy the land, something he had learned from his stepfather. He loved ranch life. He and his wife started a successful winery and were well known for their fine horses and pigs. Beauty Ranch is now a State Historic Park in California.

London was inspired by one thought of the Progressive Era, evolution. The survival of the primitive instincts in the civilized world, frequently used topics in his writin