Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco, California. After working in the Klondike, London returned home and began publishing stories. London, who was also a journalist and an outspoken socialist, died in 1916. Richard Jefferies (born November, 1848died August, 1887), English naturalist, novelist, and essayist whose best work combines fictional invention with expert observation of the natural world. Mary Shelley was born on August 30, 1797, in London, England. She married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Two years later, she published her most famous novel, Frankenstein. Shelley died of brain cancer on February 1, 1851, in London, England.