London's first novel published in 1902 was something of a critical failure, offset, of course, by the success of Call of the Wild just one year later. But A Daughter of the Snows did establish him as a writer of strong, independent female characters, contrary to other writers of his time. From one of the characters of this novel, after parting company with the heroine: "'Jove!' he muttered, doffing his cap gallantly. 'There is a woman!' And a sudden hunger seized him, and a yearning to see himself mirrored always in the gray eyes of Frona Welse. He was not analytical; he did not know why; but he knew that with her he could travel to the end of the earth."