Martin Eden

Martin Eden, a rough young sailor from the docks of Oakland, saves a young man from a fight and is invited to dinner with his wealthy family, where he falls in love with the delicate Ruth Morse. Determined to become worthy of her, he educates himself in libraries and starts to write, through poverty, hunger and hundreds of rejection letters.

Published in 1909 and drawing heavily on Jack London's own life, the novel is a portrait of a self-made writer and a bitter look at success, class and individualism. Many readers find it London's best book. For London at sea, read The Sea-Wolf.

Jack London (1876–1916) grew up poor in San Francisco and Oakland and lived a life as wild as his books: an oyster pirate at fifteen, a sailor on a sealing ship to Japan, a tramp, a socialist agitator and a gold seeker in the Klondike in 1897, where he caught scurvy and gathered material for a lifetime.

The Call of the Wild made him famous in 1903, and he became one of the best-paid writers of his day, producing White Fang, The Sea-Wolf and Martin Eden among more than fifty books. He died on his California ranch at forty.