Jack London

Jack London (real name was John Griffith Chaney) was an American journalist, novelist, and activist. London was born on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco. London's mother was a spiritualist, and his biological father was an astrologist. When London’s mother was too sick to care for him, a former slave named Virginia Prentiss took him into her house. Virginia Prentiss remained a significant maternal figure throughout his life.

London led a difficult life. At age 14, he quit school to escape poverty. In September of 1896, Jack London became a student at the University of California at Berkeley, but he was only a student there for one semester before running out of money. As he couldn’t afford proper education, he was largely self-educated.

Jack London's first book, "The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North" (1900), was a collection of short stories that he had previously published in magazines. He is the author of many novels. His famous novels include "Call of the Wild," "White Fang," "The Sea Wolf," and "Martin Eden." He was one of the founders of the genre known as science-fiction.

See, he was poor and struggled a lot, but eventually, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.