The Call of the Wild

On January 12, 1876, Jack London was born in San Francisco, California. But the event that shaped London’s life occurred in 1896 when he was twenty. Three men who were fishing for salmon – Shookum Jim, Dawson Charlie, and George Carmack—found gold in Rabbit Creek, a small tributary of the Klondike River in Alaska. Because of their discovery, tens of thousands came over the Chilcoot Pass, swept up in the mass hysteria of the Klondike Gold Rush. Since sled dogs provided the only reliable transportation in this uninviting climate, dogs were stolen from owners throughout America and worked to death by those hunting for their fortune. At the age of twenty-one, Jack London also became part of the gold rush, not as a prospector but as a laborer, carrying bags and packages. This experience allowed him to make observations about the men and these dogs, which turned into his great masterpiece, The Call of the Wild.

London chose to tell the story from the point of view of a dog, Buck. Weighing 140 pounds, Buck begins his life as a pampered pet. Kidnapped for service in the gold rush and beaten by his master, Buck struggles to survive. Although mistreated by humans, Buck is saved by a man and becomes devoted to him. In the end, however, Buck becomes part of a wolf pack, determined to live in the wild on his own terms. Although first published as an adult novella in 1903, the book quickly became part of the childhood canon, often read in school.

As reading guru Jim Trelease says in Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book: “The Call of the Wild…[was] my home run book…. Like one’s first big kiss or first home run—they’re unforgettable, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to duplicate or surpass them.” For Jim, and so many children age ten to fourteen, this piece of virtual reality has brought the Klondike gold rush to life.

My favorite edition of the book is the Scribner Classic, illustrated by Wendell Minor. His Buck looks exactly like I imagine him to be—although I may be partial. Wendell used a Bernese mountain dog as his model, and I share my life with members of this breed.

But whatever version you decide to pick up, there is still no better way to understand what happened over a hundred years ago in the Yukon than Jack London’s brilliant classic The Call of the Wild.

Here’s a passage from The Call of the Wild: