John Griffith London (born John Griffith Chaney;[1] January 12, 1876 - November 22, 1916)[2][3][4][5] was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.[citation needed] He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.[6]His most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote about the South Pacific in stories such as "The Pearls of Parlay", and "The Heathen".Featuring the short stories: On the Makaloa mat -- The bones of Kahelili -- When Alice told her soul -- Shin-bones -- The water baby -- The tears of Ah Kim -- The Kanaka surf. Reformatted and revised, while keeping the integrity of the great author's original text.London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, workers' rights, socialism, and eugenics.[7][8] He wrote several works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, War of the Classes, and Before Adam.