From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney,January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916)was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. Some of his most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well ...