London’s writing is closely connected with his life experiences. The year 1896 witnessed the Second Great Gold Rush in American history. Many gold prospectors left their homes and threw themselves into the Klondike gold rush, and Jack London was no exception. In 1897, this 21-year-old young man, who loved adventures and grew up in poverty, set out on his adventurous way to the Klondike area in the hope of finding gold and fortune. Although London failed in realizing his dream of striking gold, he found a mine of literary ore which was much more valuable than gold. In other words, he accumulated abundant writing materials in the wilderness through his own experiences as well as stories told by other veteran fortune hunters. Undoubtedly, this personal experience provides London with a rich resource for his early creation and even for his lifelong literary career. “The Klondike is to Jack London what the sea is to Herman Melville, and the Congo is to Joseph Conrad” (Cai 2). As London himself testifies, “It was in the Klondike I found myself. There nobody talks. Everyone thinks. You get your true perspective. I got mine” (Labor 3).

Although Jack London died at the age of 40, he left a rich literary legacy to the world. He began his literary career with the creation of short stories, most of which all took the snowy and icy wilderness in Alaska or Klondike as their setting. These short stories, together with two novels——A Daughter of the Snows and The Call of the Wild, which share the same background, consist of the well-known “Northland Tales”.

The study on Jack London has begun since he was alive, and the early research mainly focuses on the relationship between London’s life and his works. The really profound research has been conducted since the 1960s. Franklin Walker’s Jack London and the Klondike: The Genesis of an American Writer is the first objective research work discussing London’s important adventurous experiences in the north and his “Northland Tales”. James McClintock’s White Logic: Jack London’s Short Stories fully affirms the unique theme of London’s “Northlan Tales” and his superb artistic techniques, and refutes the previous negative views on London’s writing techniques. Christopher Gair’s Complicity and Resistance in Jack London’s Novels: from Naturalism to Nature takes London’s novels as the special discourse for that special period in American history, analyzing his naturalistic, urban and pastoral novels. Donald Pizer discusses genetic and environmental effects on humans, dogs and wolves in American Realism and Naturalism compiled by him, and classifies Jack London as a naturalist.

Jack London’s works have been introduced into China since the New Culture Movement in the 1920s. Early remarks on London mostly praise his socialist ideology, appreciate his criticism on capitalism and sympathy for the mass impoverished people. After the 1980s, with more works being translated and introduced, the research on Jack London has become prosperous. Qi Yikai affirms London’s great contribution to American Realism in Jack London and his novels (1981). The latest authoritative study is Yu Jianhua’s monograph——Study on Jack London (2009) since the late 20th  century. This book starts with cultural studies and historical studies, analyzes and interprets part of London’s representative novels and short stories based on the author’s life experience, change of thoughts and historical background. It also focuses on discussing the social and historical connotation of the works, as well as the cultural climate which shapes Jack London. The third chapter of this book goes deeply into London’s “Northland Tales”. In addition, some master degree theses also make contribution to the study on Jack London. For example, Wan Xiaolei’s The Battle Between Life and Death in Jack London’s Northland Tales interprets the image of “Northland” and explores the value of people’s battle there