The Sea-Wolf was started on a mossy shelf down the slope from Wake Robin Lodge on the bank of Graham Creek during the time of Jack's breakup with Bessie. The last half was written during his torrid romance with Charmian Kittredge.

According to Jack, most of the events in the book were drawn from his own experience aboard the Sophie Sutherland, but actually they were more from the "sea yarns" related either by some of the old seafarers who were his shipmates or by the newspaper accounts of Captain Alexander McLean, who was the prototype for Wolf Larsen.

The predatory wolf plays a key role in Jack London's thinking. In The Sea Wolf, Captain Larsen is known by no other name than "Wolf." Wolf Larsen perhaps best represents London's admiration for brute strength . . . the Nietzschean superman. Unlike Captain Ahab and Lieutenant Bligh, Larsen seems to have no purpose other than to exist. He beats, demeans, and tortures his crew. "Life? Bah!" says Larsen. "It has no value. Of cheap things it is the cheapest. Everywhere it goes begging. Nature spills it out with a lavish hand. Where there is room for one life, she sows a thousand lives, and it's life eats life till the strongest and most piggish life is left."

Yet somehow the man remains likable. He is well-educated without formal schooling, a superb seaman, a powerful and fearless fighter, totally without faith or humility even in the direst circumstances.