The most noteworthy fact about criticism of White Fang—and of London's work in general—is the lack of it. In his day, London was considered a popular, not a literary, author. More recently, his novels have most often been classified as young-adult literature. As a result, literary publications and scholars have had little interest in London and his work. In addition, London's works featuring animals as main characters have received even less attention than others. The Call of the Wild has garnered some interest for the sheer power of its hold on the reading public and because it is the premier novel of its kind. White Fang, as a later and lesser novel, has largely been ignored.

Critic Maxwell Geismar does mention White Fang in his Rebels and Ancestors: The American Novel, 1890—1915 but judges it inferior to The Call of the Wild because of...