The Call of the Wild, is Jack London's masterpiece about a dog learning to survive in the wilderness, telling the story of pampered pet Buck, snatched from his home and set to work as a sled-dog.   

Jack London (1876-1916) was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco, California.  By the age of sixteen he had left school, worked in a canning factory, spent time as an oyster pirate and been a member of the Fish Patrol in the San Francisco Bay.   In 1893 he joined a sealing cruise, which took him as far abroad as Japan.   In 1896 he was caught up in the gold rush to the Klondike river in north-west Canada, which became the inspiration for The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906).