Book Series Guide
Jack London

Author guide

Jack London Books in Order

Jack London (1876–1916) was an exceptionally prolific American writer whose fiction, journalism, essays, memoirs, travel writing, plays, and poetry drew on working-class experience, the Klondike Gold Rush, seafaring, socialism, naturalism, and debates about civilization and evolution. His major works include The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf, Martin Eden, The Iron Heel, The People of the Abyss, and John Barleycorn. Several novels and collections appeared posthumously, including Jerry of the Islands, Michael, Brother of Jerry, Hearts of Three, and The Assassination Bureau, Ltd.

adventure fictionnaturalismshort storiesnovelsnonfictionmemoirtravel writingsocialist writingplayspoetry

Catalog record updated .

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild

The clearest introduction to London's adventure fiction, naturalism, and animal-centered storytelling.

Cover of The Sea-Wolf

The Sea-Wolf

A major sea novel that presents London's philosophical conflict between individualism, brutality, and human solidarity.

Cover of Martin Eden

Martin Eden

The strongest entry point for London's concerns with class, literary ambition, and the tensions between art and society.

Cover of The People of the Abyss

The People of the Abyss

An important nonfiction starting point for London's journalism, social criticism, and socialist commitments.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (24)
  1. A Daughter of the Snows

    novel · 1902

    From the book:"All ready, Miss Welse, though I'm sorry we can't spare one of the steamer's boats." Frona Welse arose with alacrity and came to the first officer's side. "We're so busy," he explained, "and gold-rushers are such perishable…

  2. The Call of the Wild

    novel · 1903

    First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of…

  3. The Kempton-Wace Letters

    novel · 1903

  4. The People of the Abyss

    nonfiction · 1903

    In 1902, Jack London purchased some secondhand clothes and, posing as a stranded American sailor, set out to discover how the London poor lived. His research makes shocking reading. Moving through the slums as one of the poor; eating,…

  5. The Sea-Wolf

    novel · 1904

    Jack London's novel The Sea Wolf became an instant bestseller on its release in 1904. Ambrose Bierce wrote "The great thing - and it is among the greatest of things - is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen...the hewing out and setting…

  6. The Game

    novel · 1905

    "On the eve of their wedding, twenty-year-old Jack Fleming arranges a secret ringside seat for his sweetheart to view her only rival: the "game." Through Genevieve's apprehensive eyes, we watch the prizefight that pits her fair young…

  7. White Fang

    novel · 1906

    White Fang is part dog and part wolf, and the lone survivor of his family. In his lonely world, he soon learns to follow the harsh law of the North--kill or be killed. But nothing in White Fang's life can prepare him for the cruel owner…

  8. Before Adam

    novel · 1907

    A young man in modern America is terrorized by visions of an earlier, primitive life. Across the enormous chasm of thousands of centuries, his consciousness has become entwined with that of Big-Tooth, an ancestor living at the dawn of…

  9. The Iron Heel

    novel · 1908

    Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian," The Iron Heel chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are most explicitly on…

  10. Martin Eden

    novel · 1909

    The semiautobiographical Martin Eden is the most vital and original character Jack London ever created. Set in San Francisco, this is the story of Martin Eden, an impoverished seaman who pursues, obsessively and aggressively, dreams of…

  11. Burning Daylight

    novel · 1910

    Burning Daylight was Jack London's best selling book during his lifetime. The book begins as a two-fisted macho adventure on the Klondike, as the hero--nicknamed Burning Daylight--becomes the most successful entrepreneur during the…

  12. Adventure

    novel · 1911

    He was a very sick white man. He rode pick-a-back on a woolly-headed, black-skinned savage, the lobes of whose ears had been pierced and stretched until one had torn out, while the other carried a circular block of carved wood three…

  13. Smoke Bellew

    novel · 1912

  14. The Abysmal Brute

    novel · 1913

    A breezy tale showing the crookedness of the methods of prize-ring managers specially in fleecing the prize-ring public in betting. The hero is a successful young giant who has been trained by his father in the mountains, and who thinks…

  15. The Valley of the Moon

    novel · 1913

    Jack London is a great writer. He's a great storyteller, a great drawer of characters, an artist with natural descriptions, and able to bring any adventure to life by drawing on his own wildly varied experience, in addition to his talent.…

  16. The Mutiny of the Elsinore

    novel · 1914

    **The Mutiny of the Elsinore** is a novel by the American writer *Jack London* first published in 1914. After death of the captain, the crew of a ship split between the two senior surviving mates. During the conflict, the narrator…

  17. The Scarlet Plague

    novella · 1915

    Jack London's dystopian vision of the future. Sixty years after Great Red Death, a scarlet plague, wipes out mankind, a handful of survivors have established their own civilization. In this savage world, art, science, and learning have…

  18. The Star Rover

    novel · 1915

    The Star Rover, in the UK published as The Jacket, is a collection of short stories revolves around the concept of reincarnation. It tells the story of San Quentin death-row inmate Darrell Standing, who escapes the horror of prison life…

  19. The Little Lady of the Big House

    novel · 1916

    He awoke in the dark. His awakening was simple, easy, without movement save for the eyes that opened and made him aware of darkness. Unlike most, who must feel and grope and listen to, and contact with, the world about them, he knew…

  20. Jerry of the Islands

    novel · 1917

    From the book:It is a misfortune to some fiction-writers that fiction and unveracity in the average person's mind mean one and the same thing. Several years ago I published a South Sea novel. The action was placed in the Solomon Islands.…

  21. Michael, Brother of Jerry

    novel · 1917

    Michael, a likeable, gentle dog, is found on the beach by the crewmen of a whaleboat who believe he can be a turned into a profitable show dog. However, such an endeavor cannot be launched without cruelty to the animal.

  22. Hearts of Three

    novel · 1920

Nonfiction (3)
  1. The Road

    memoir · 1907

    "The Road" is an autobiographical memoir presenting stories from the time that Jack London spent as a hobo in the late 19th century.

  2. The Cruise of the Snark

    travel-memoir · 1911

  3. John Barleycorn

    memoir · 1913

    Jack London cut a mythic figure across the American landscape of the early twentieth century. But throughout his colorful life–from his teenage years as an oyster pirate to his various incarnations as a well-traveled seaman, Yukon gold…

Short fiction (18)
  1. The Son of the Wolf

    short-story-collection · 1900

  2. The God of His Fathers

    short-story-collection · 1901

    On every hand stretched the forest primeval, the home of noisy comedy and silent tragedy. Here the struggle for survival continued to wage with all its ancient brutality. Briton and Russian were still to overlap in the Land of the…

  3. Children of the Frost

    short-story-collection · 1902

  4. The Faith of Men

    short-story-collection · 1904

    Though best known for the novel The Call of the Wild, American author and activist Jack London was also a prolific short story writer. "The Faith of Men" is a tale packed with twists and turns that follows two wealthy friends as they…

  5. Tales of the Fish Patrol

    short-story-collection · 1905

    In this classic collection of stories drawn from his own experiences, the author looks back on his days as a teenager aboard the fishing boats of San Francisco Bay. In the early 1900s, men of all stripes descended on these waters to…

  6. Lost Face

    short-story-collection · 1910

    A short story collection first published in 1910: Lost Face Trust To Build a Fire That Spot Flush of Gold The Passing of Marcus O'Brien The Wit of Porportuk

  7. South Sea Tales

    short-story-collection · 1911

    Despite the heavy clumsiness of her lines, the Aorai handled easily in the light breeze, and her captain ran her well in before he hove to just outside the suck of the surf. The atoll of Hikueru lay low on the water, a circle of pounded…

  8. A Son of the Sun

    short-story-collection · 1912

  9. The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii

    short-story-collection · 1912

    Trieste Publishing has a massive catalogue of classic book titles. Our aim is to provide readers with the highest quality reproductions of fiction and non-fiction literature that has stood the test of time. The many thousands of books in…

  10. The Strength of the Strong

    short-story-collection · 1914

    "The Strength of the Strong" is a collection of short stories containing some of Jack Londons best work. Besides the title piece there are six tales: South of the Slot, The Unparalleled Invasion, The Enemy of all the World, The Dream of…

  11. The Turtles of Tasman

    short-story-collection · 1916

  12. The Red One

    short-story-collection · 1918

    THERE it was! The abrupt liberation of sound! As he timed it with his watch, Bassett likened it to the trump of an archangel. Walls of cities, he meditated, might well fall down before so vast and compelling a summons. For the thousandth…

  13. On the Makaloa Mat

    short-story-collection · 1919

Essays and speeches (2)
  1. The War of the Classes

    essay-collection · 1905

  2. Revolution, and Other Essays

    essay-collection · 1910

Plays (5)
  1. The Scorn of Women

    play · 1906

    Once Freda and Mrs. Eppingwell clashed. Now Freda was a Greek girl and a dancer. At least she purported to be Greek; but this was doubted by many, for her classic face had overmuch strength in it, and the tides of hell which rose in her…

  2. Theft

    play · 1910

  3. Daughters of the Rich

    play · 1971

  4. Gold

    play · 1972

Other (1)
  1. The Human Drift

    mixed-collection · 1917

Frequently asked questions about Jack London

Who was Jack London, and when did he live?

Jack London was an American novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and essayist best known for adventure fiction. He was born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, and died on November 22, 1916, aged 40.

Sources: jacklondonpark.com (opens in a new tab)loa.org (opens in a new tab)

How did Jack London’s early life shape his writing career?

His experiences at sea, in California’s fields and factories, and in the Yukon supplied material for his fiction and journalism. He became internationally famous by age 30 and credited disciplined hard work with much of his success.

Source: jacklondonpark.com (opens in a new tab)

What ideas and experiences influenced Jack London’s writing?

The Klondike, seafaring, poverty, and working-class life shaped his subjects, while his self-education exposed him to writers and thinkers including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Rudyard Kipling. These influences helped produce fiction concerned with survival, society, and human nature.

Sources: jacklondon.org (opens in a new tab)arts.gov (opens in a new tab)

Was Jack London a socialist?

Yes. London joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1896, later joined the Socialist Party of America, and became a prominent lecturer and writer on socialism and economic justice.

Sources: encyclopedia.ushmm.org (opens in a new tab)jacklondonpark.com (opens in a new tab)

What is Jack London best known for today?

He remains best known for powerful adventure fiction that combines wilderness storytelling with social and philosophical themes. His work continues to be republished, studied, and read internationally, with major editions preserved by organizations such as the Library of America.

Sources: loa.org (opens in a new tab)neh.gov (opens in a new tab)jacklondonpark.com (opens in a new tab)