John Griffith Chaney 1876 1916 better known as Jack London was an American novelist journalist and social activist A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang both set in the Klondike Gold Rush as well as the short stories To Build a Fire An Odyssey of the North and Love of Life He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as The Pearls of Parlay and The Heathen. London was part of the radical literary group The Crowd in San Fra John Griffith Chaney 1876 1916 better known as Jack London was an American novelist journalist and social activist A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang both set in the Klondike Gold Rush as well as the short stories To Build a Fire An Odyssey of the North and Love of Life He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as The Pearls of Parlay and The Heathen. London was part of the radical literary group The Crowd in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization workers rights and socialism He wrote several works dealing with these topics such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel his non fiction expos The People of the Abyss War of the Classes and Before Adam. London died November 22 1916 in a sleeping porch in a cottage on his ranch London s ashes were buried on his property not far from the Wolf House The grave is marked by a mossy boulder The buildings and property were later preserved as Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen California site_link Political essays by Jack London As yet to the average bourgeois mind socialism is merely a menace vague and formless The average member of the capitalist class when he discusses socialism is condemned an ignoramus out of his own mouth He does not know the literature of socialism its philosophy nor its politics He wags his head sagely and rattles the dry bones of dead and buried ideas His lips mumble mouldy phrases such as Men are not born equal and never can be It is Utopian and impossible Abstinence should be rewarded Man will first have to be born again Cooperative colonies have always failed and What if we do divide up in ten years there would be rich and poor men such as there are today It surely is time that the capitalists knew something about this socialism that they feel menaces them Jack London War of the Classes Revolution The Shrinkage of the Planet
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