JACK LONDON (personality)

John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney) was an American sailor, adventurer novelist, journalist, and social activist from the 1880s to the 1910s. A pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction. Some of 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, and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf. Since 1907, his works have been adapted into well over 100 films and shorts. London also wrote one of the first great dystopian novels, The Iron Heel, in 1908, but it was never adapted into a movie, until 1999 when there was a Russian version! London passed away in 1916 at the age of 40. Debate remains as to whether or not his death was intentional.