The Call of the Wild is an adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and
set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs
were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The
story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen
from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes
progressively more primitive and wild in the harsh environment, where he is
forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the
veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience
to emerge as a leader in the wild. London spent about a year in Yukon, and his
observations form much of the material for the book. The story was serialized in
The Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and was published later that
year in book form. The book's great popularity and success made a reputation for
London. As early as 1923, the story was adapted to film, and it has since seen
several more cinematic adaptations.