The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild is a novel written by Jack London, published serially by The Saturday Evening Post in 1903 and then as a single-volume book by Macmillan & Co. the same year. It is often considered to be his masterpiece and is the most widely read of all his publications. This novel was often mistakenly classified as a children’s book. The main protagonist was a St. Bernard/Collie mix dog named Buck who was living a happy life in California until he was abducted and sold to pay a gambling debt. He was taken to the Klondike to become a sled dog during the Alaska gold rush. There, he had to adapt to brutal and harsh conditions and had to learn the harsher rules of survival in the North. He was later on saved and acquired by a loving man in the form of John Thornton. Buck, later on, hears a call emanating from the woods and speaking to the wild heart of his distant ancestors. Buck follows the ‘call of the wild and joins a pack of wolves. Jack London lived for most of a year in the Yukon collecting material for this book. The book's great popularity and success made a reputation for London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted to film, and it has since seen several more cinematic adaptations.

Tom Crawford