The book, 'The Call of the Wild' is authored by Jack Landon. The book follows a dog named Buck, a half St. Bernard half Sheepdog. In the time that the story takes place, the 1890's, sled dogs were in high demand, as the gold rush had taken a tight hold on Alaska and California. Buck is a heavyweight dog, one that'd be especially welcomed as a sled dog. He is owned by an elderly man, who shows favor for Buck over all of the other dogs on his land. During this time in history, people weren't afraid to steal things to turn a profit, and stealing a dog, to these thieves, was no worse than stealing a pen. This is what leads to Buck's eventual theft. Buck is brought by the man who stole him, a gardener who works for Buck's owner, sells him off to dog traders. Buck, a strongheaded and brave dog, tries to fight back with the two men who he'd been sold to. His hardheadedness brought him a beating with a wooden club repeatedly, breaking his trust of men. He is subsequently shipped of by boat into the cold Canadian climate. On the train, he meets a small dog named Curly. They share their stories until they get to their destination. As they are forced to exit, a group of huskies brutally mauls and kills Curly. Buck, horrified by this, refuses to let himself fall to a similar fate. He's then sold off to two Canadian mailcarriers, and he begins to adjust to life as a sled dog. He begins to recover the skills of his ancestors; fighting, scavenging, and general life on the snow. In his sled team, the lead dog who runs at the front of the team. Buck and Spitz have a fierce rivalry. Buck tests Spitz's leadership repeatedly, leading to a fight between the two. The fight leads to the death of Spitz and Buck becoming the leader of the sled team. With Buck in the front, the mail team makes record times. Soon, the mail carriers pass off the team to another pair of sledders, but this pair is far less experienced, making the team pull heavier loads. On one of this new team's runs, a particualarly long one, one of the dogs get so sick that the sledders have to shoot him. At the end of this run, the pair sell their worndown dogs to a trio of American gold miners. These miners are the least experienced of all of Buck's prior owners. They overload the dogs, endlessly beat their dogs, and plan horrendously. On one of their poorly planned trips, they begin to run out of food. The miners continually fight over how they are going to live without actually trying to enact one of their plans. By the time they find a place to seek refuge, five dogs of the original 14 dog team are alive. They rest for a while, and begin to head off. The owner of the land they were staying on warns them that the ice they were planning to travel over was weak and could easily break. The miners ignored him, and attempted to continue on. Buck refuses to move on. One of the miners goes to force him on by hitting him, but one of the miners, named Thornton, stopped him from hurting him and cuts Buck loose. The miners force the dogs along no matter, and hardly a quarter mile in, a large hole in the ice breaks, swallowing everyone whole. Buck, seeing this, saves Thornton, because he saved his life. Buck grows to know Thornton as his master. While Buck continues life onwards, he still feels the pulling of the wild. He continues to live torn between the wild and Thornton, him continually running off to chase moose and bear, but he'd always return to Thornton. One day, when he returned to his master, he finds he had been killed by local Indians. In a rage, he attacked them, killing many and scaring away the rest. He afterwards returns to the wild, no longer torn between pleasing himself and his owner's wishes. Buck becomes a leader from a wolf pack, and he fathers many pups. No matter his loyalty to the wild, every year he returns to where his owner had died to pay his respect, but always, he'd return to the call of the wild.
