Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist and social activist. Pioneering the genre of magazine fiction and prototyping science fiction, he became one of the first writers, who gained worldwide fame and a large fortune. "The Call of the Wild" is a short adventure novel set in Yukon, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush. The story starts when someone steals the main character, a dog Buck of a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, from his home and sells him into service as a sled dog in Alaska.