Historical Context
The
Klondike is a region in the Yukon Territory in the Northwest of Canada near the
Alaskan border. Rich placer-gold
deposits were discovered in Rabbit (now Bonanza) Creek, a tributary of the
Klondike in 1896. When news of the
find reached the US in July of 1897, thousands rushed to the virtually
uninhabited region by any means possible. This
explosion swelled the local population to around 25,000.
With the increase in humans came an increased demand for transportation,
mostly in the form of strong, sturdy dogs.
With the help of these animals, gold was extensively mined in the Yukon
for 10 years.
Jack
London was born in 1876 and died in 1916 at the age of forty.
He was born an illegitimate child in poverty, and worked obsessively to
rise above his situation. London
spent his early years as a boy criminal in San Francisco, and traveled
throughout the US and Canada as a tramp on the railroads.
When he was nineteen, he enrolled in the University of California, but
left well before graduation to search for gold in Alaska.
Though he never struck gold, London returned from the journey and
declared, “It was in the Klondike that I found myself.”
Indeed, it was this search for gold during the Klondike Gold Rush of
1897-98 that inspired London’s mythical wolf, the hero of The Call of the
Wild.
When
London died at the age of forty, he left behind a great literary legacy of
stories. His second novel, The
Call of the Wild, however, is considered one of his best.
When it was published in 1903, London was faced with a series of debts,
so he completed the work in a mere five weeks, and agreed to sell all rights to
it for only $200. The book was
heavily promoted, and sold out immediately.
Though he gained little financially from the work, the impact it had on
his reputation continues to be felt today.
