There are many authors in this world today. Some are known for classic writings of poetry or hundreds and hundreds of books written by them. This author, however, was someone who portrayed himself through dozens of stories. His name is Jack London. Jack London is a writer who shows the conflict between Nature and Man in his writings and supports this theme through his work "To Build a Fire". Jack was born on January 12, 1876 and died on November 22, 1916. He is best known for his nature novels which describe how nature can sometimes be so powerful that it surpasses man. Jack was abandoned by his father when he was eleven and was raised primarily by his mother in Oakland, California. When his mother fell ill, she placed him in the care of a former slave named Virginia Prentiss. Not much is known about his childhood because the San Francisco records were destroyed by fires after the 1906 earthquake. When London was thirteen he began working 12 to 18 hours a day at Hickmott's Cannery. To get out of this job he borrowed money from Virginia Prentiss (Jack's adoptive mother) and bought a sloop, which is a small wooden ship, from an oyster pirate named French Frank. Jack also became an oyster pirate himself. Jack wanted to attend the University of California after finishing high school, and did so after the summer of 1896. After 1897, however, he had to drop out due to financial problems. In 1897, after leaving college, Jack and his brother-in-law, James Shepard, left to participate in the infamous Klondike Gold Rush. The gold rush caused serious health problems in London, such as; developing scurvy in which his gums swelled and led to the loss of his four front teeth. However, on the bright side, the paper's center's struggles led him to work on many short stories depicting the conflict between man and nature. His use of imagery and symbolism in "To Build a Fire" made this story one of his best known and most memorable. To be abandoned at age 11 and live on his own and then return and become one of the first American authors to make a living as a writer makes him a truly remarkable man. Works Cited “To Build a Fire, Jack London: Introduction.” Criticism of short stories. Ed. Publisher Justin Karr. vol. 49. Gale Group, Inc., 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 7 April 2008 build-fire-jack-london> To build fire study guide. April 6, 2008 Wikipedia. Jack London. By various authors, 4 April 2008. 7 April 2008 >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London>.