Jack London, a great American novelist, was born in San Francisco and spent the first years of life there.
John London, father of the family, left the farm and moved to town. He tried a lot of trades, but couldn't make enough money to send the children to school. Jack London had to begin earning a living
at an early age. He sold morning and evening newspapers in streets.
At the age of fourteen he began working in a factory. He worked
eighteen or twenty hours a day. Then he became a sailor. Jack London
travelled a lot. He had to do very hard work, but he also read a lot and tried to get an education. He went to school and university. In addition he read a lot of books on History and
Philosophy. Jack London's ambition was to become a writer.
Later
London went to the Far North of America. He didn't bring back any
gold from there, but he brought something much better than the yellow
metal. It was a book of stories about life in the North. He
had realized an/the ambition; he had become a writer.