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... see more