Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that "the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." Newsboy, factory "work beast," gang member, hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader, war correspondent, utopian farmer, and world-famous adventurer: London is the closest thing America has had to a literary folk hero. His writing itself is concerned with nothing less than the largest questions and the grandest themes: What does it mean to be a human being in the natural world? What debts do human beings owe each other - and to all their fellow creatures? This collection places London, at last, securely within the American literary pantheon. It includes the complete novel The Call of the Wild; such famous stories as "Love of Life," "To Build a Fire," and "All Gold Canyon"; journalism, political writings, literary criticism, and selected letters.
Introduction Chronology of Jack London's Life and Books Note on the Texts and Selections Acknowledgments Suggestions for Further Reading
Selected Stories
To the Man on Trail In a Far Country The Law of Life A Relic of the Pliocene Nam-Bok the Unveracious To Build a Fire (1902)
Moon-Face Bâtard Love of Life All Gold Canyon The Apostate To Build a Fire (1908)
The Chinago Koolau the Leper Good-by, Jack Mauki The Strength of the Strong Samuel A Piece of Steak The Madness of John Harned The Night-Born War Told in the Drooling Ward The Mexican The Red One The Water Baby
The Call of the Wild
Selected Nonfiction
Typhoon off the Coast of Japan On the Writer's Philosophy of Life First Aid to Rising Authors Review of Frank Norris's The Octopus
Excerpts from The People of the Abyss
How I Became a Socialist Getting into Print The Terrible and Tragic in Fiction What Life Means to Me Things Alive The Story of an Eye-Witness Reports on the James J. Jeffries-Jack Johnson Championship Fight A Classic of the Sea Introduction to The Cry for Justice
Eight Factors of Literary Success
A Selection of Letters
To the Editor, San Francisco Bulletin, September 17, 1898
To Mabel Applegarth, November 27, 1898
To Mabel Applegarth, November 30, 1898
To Anna Strunsky, December 21, 1899
To Houghton, Mifflin & Co., January 31, 1900
To Cloudesley Johns, June 16, 1900
To George P. Brett, March 10, 1903
To Charmian Kittredge, September 30, 1903
To Frederick I. Bamford, May 28, 1905
To Cloudesley Johns, September 4, 1905
To "Dear Comrades," December 1905
To S.S. McClure, April 10, 1906
To the Editor of Editor Magazine, April 1907
To Becky London, October 28, 1908
To Richard W. Gilder, December 22, 1908
To William E. Walling, November 30, 1909
To the Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, January 7, 1910
To the "Comrades of the Mexican Revolution," February 4, 1911
To Ethan A. Cross, March 17, 1914
To Joseph Conrad, June 4, 1915
To Ethelda Hesser, September 21, 1915
To John R. Lindmark, September 21, 1915
To Mary Austin, November 5, 1915
To the Members of Local Glen Ellen, Socialist Labor Party, March 7, 1916
To Leo B. Mihan, October 24, 1916
To Waldo Frank, November 5, 1916
Suggestions for Further Reading
Overview
Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that "the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." Newsboy, factory "work beast," gang member, hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader, war correspondent, utopian farmer, and world-famous adventurer: London is the closest thing America has had to a literary folk hero. His writing itself is concerned with nothing less than the largest questions and the grandest themes: What does it mean to be a human being in the natural world? What debts do human ...