Jack London (born John Griffith Cheney) is an American writer best known as the author of adventure stories and novels. Born January 12, 1876 in San Francisco . Jack London began his independent working life early, full of deprivations. The student sold morning and evening newspapers .. At the end of elementary school at the age of fourteen, he entered the cannery of workers. The job was very hard, and he left the factory. He was an "oyster pirate" who illegally caught oysters in San Francisco Bay. In 1893, he was hired as a seaman on a fishing schooner, going to catch cats to the shores of Japan and the Bering Sea. The first voyage gave London many vivid impressions, which later formed the basis of many of his sea stories and novels. Subsequently, he also worked as an ironer in the laundry and as a fireman.. London's first essay, "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan", which marked the beginning of his literary career, for which he received the first prize of a San Francisco newspaper, was published on November 12, 1893.