Which American author wrote 'The Call of the Wild'?

Jack London wrote “The Call of the Wild,” an adventure novel published in 1903. Its central character is Buck, a large dog stolen from a comfortable California home and forced into service as a sled dog during the Klondike Gold Rush.

The novel moves between California’s Santa Clara Valley and the Yukon, where Buck faces brutal weather, rival dogs, exhaustion, and violence. Through Buck’s transformation, London explores instinct, survival, loyalty, and the tension between domesticated life and the natural world.

London drew on his own experience in the Yukon during the gold rush. The book was first serialized in five installments in The Saturday Evening Post before Macmillan published it in book form. Its success helped make London one of the most popular American writers of his era.

Readers sometimes confuse the novel with London’s “White Fang,” which also features dogs and the Yukon. “The Call of the Wild” follows Buck as he moves toward the wild, while “White Fang” follows a wolf-dog who gradually moves toward human companionship. The two books are related in setting but tell opposite kinds of transformation stories.