Jack London

The Call of The Wild Jack London

The Call of the Wild is a novella by American author Jack London published in 1903. Set during the Alaskan gold rush of 1897, Jack London's classic adventure story inspired Kerouac and Orwell. In this Folio edition, Abigail Rorer's drawings depict the fierce beauty of the frozen Yukon. David Vann introduces.

The Call of the Wild opens during the Alaskan gold rush 'in the fall of 1897, when the Klondike strike dragged men from all the world into the frozen North'. Not just men but dogs are required, strong pack animals with long coats to pull sleighs full of gold ore and provisions. Buck, a 140-pound cross-breed, is stolen from his comfortable home in California and sold into a life of slavery. He is passed from owner to owner, brutally clubbed and whipped, and forced to drag backbreaking loads over thin ice. After being beaten nearly to death, he is rescued by a prospector named John Thornton, who earns Buck's passionate devotion. In Thornton's care Buck flourishes, and becomes the most famous pack dog in all Alaska. But when the tie with Thornton is broken, Buck escapes the world of humans and fulfils his destiny to become a leader of wolves.