Set during the Klondike gold rush of 1897, Call of the Wild is Jack London's classic tale of survival in Alaska and the bitter northland.  Large and strong dogs are in huge demand as sled dogs. Buck is a 140-pound cross between a St. Bernard and a Scottish sheep dog, making him a prime candidate for pulling a sled.  This story takes us through his capture in sunny California and follows the adventure he takes to and through Alaska.  But, we see more than his travels.  We witness his transition from a refined southland dog, to a beast fit to survive in the brutual north.

Call of the Wild was first published in 1903. In it, he weaves a narative rich in both natures wonders and brutality.  Himself, a Darwinist, London wrote in defence of his work in Call of the wild,

"I have been guilty of writing two animal stories—two books about dogs. The writing of these two stories, on my part, was in truth a protest against the “humanizing” of animals, of which it seemed to me several “animal writers” had been profoundly guilty. Time and again, and many times, in my narratives, I wrote, speaking of my dog heroes: “He did not think these things; he merely did them,” etc. And I did this repeatedly to the clogging of my narrative and in violation of my artistic canons; and I did it in order to hammer into the average human understanding that these dog-heroes of mine were not directed by abstract reasoning. Also, I endeavored to make my stories in line with the facts of evolution; I hewed them to the mark set by scientific research, and awoke, one day, to find myself bundled neck and crop into the camp of the nature-faker."

While it is often considered a children's tale, Call of the Wild is very much a richly rewarding, if not at times complex, story for all ages.