The Call of the Wild
Historical Context

Preface

Introduction

Historical Context

About the Author

Other Works/Adaptations

Discussion Questions

Additional Resources

Credits

Teacher's Guide

The Life and Times of Jack London

Late 1870s

The 1875 failure of the Bank of California leads to a financial crisis, draining San Francisco of capital for the rest of the decade.
Jack London is born illegitimate to Flora Wellman, January 12, 1876. Flora marries John London in September, 1876.
Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876.
Unemployment abounds in San Francisco, leading to strikes and rallies attended by thousands, 1877.

The 1880s

From 1881-85, the Canadian Pacific Railway completes a line between Ontario and the Pacific coast. It is completed in 1889.
The Londons buy a house in Oakland, California, where Jack immerses himself in books at the public library, 1886.
John Burroughs, American essayist and conservationist, publishes Signs and Seasons (1886).

The 1890s

John Muir is elected first president of the Sierra Club, 1892.
London arrested for vagrancy near Niagara Falls and spends 30 days in a New York penitentiary, 1894.
George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason, and Tagish Charley Mason find gold in Canada, 1896.
Thousands join the Klondike Gold Rush, including London, who journeys to Alaska in July 1897. He returns to Oakland one year later, suffering from scurvy.
The Treaty of Paris gives the U.S. Guam and Puerto Rico; America annexes Hawai’i, 1898.
The Spanish-American War begins, 1898.

The 1900s

London publishes 19 books, including The Call of the Wild (1903).
“The Great Sickness,” an influenza and measles epidemic, causes the death of a third of Alaska’s population, 1900.
After President William McKinley’s death, Theodore Roosevelt becomes President, 1901.
London divorces his first wife, buys a California ranch, and marries Charmian Kittredge, 1905.
San Francisco earthquake rocks the Bay Area in 1906, followed by serious aftershocks and fires.
Jack and Charmian nearly go broke building their yacht, the Snark, 1906-7.

The 1910s

Congress designates Alaska a territory in 1912, but it will not become the 49th state until 1959.
Woodrow Wilson becomes the 28th U.S. president, 1913, a year before World War I begins in Europe.
Jack London dies at his home in the Sonoma Valley, November 22, 1916.
America enters World War I, 1917; Armistice signed, November 11, 1918.