Jack London was born in 1876 in San Francisco. His real name was John Griffit. His father was a farmer. The family was extremely poor and the boy had to earn his living after school. He sold newspapers, worked at a factory. Later he became a sailor; during some time he wandered vrith the unemployed.For a year he attended the Oakland High school and spent a semester at the University of California, but as he had no money he had to stop his studies and went to work again.
This time it was a laundry. In 1897 he went to the Klondike as a gold miner. His first short story was published in 1898.
Some of the difficulties he met during the first years of his literary work are described in his novel "Martin Eden".
During the sixteen years of his literary career Jack London published about fifty books: short stories, novels and essays. In his best stories London described the severe life and struggle of people against nature.He died at the age of forty in 1916.