Jack London: A Writer's Fight for a Better America

by Cecelia Tichi

Overview

Jack London (1876–1916) found fame with his wolf-dog tales and sagas of the frozen North, but Cecelia Tichi challenges the long-standing view of London as merely a mass-market producer of potboilers. A onetime child laborer, London led a life of poverty in the Gilded Age before rising to worldwide acclaim for stories, novels, and essays designed to hasten the social, economic, and political advance of America. In this major reinterpretation of London’s career, Tichi examines how the beloved writer leveraged his written words as a force for the future.

Tracing the arc of London’s work from the late 1800s through the 1910s, Tichi profiles the writer’s allies and adversaries in the cities, on the factory floor, inside prison walls, and in the farmlands. Thoroughly exploring London’s importance as an artist and as a political and public figure, Tichi brings to life a man who merits recognition as one of America’s foremost public intellectuals.

The enhanced e-book edition of Jack London features significant archival motion picture footage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469636054
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Cecelia Tichi is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and professor of American studies at Vanderbilt University. She is author of Civic Passions, Exposés and Excess, and Embodiment of a Nation.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This book is a brilliant integration of the age and its literatures, reaching deeply into London’s significance as an artist and political and public figure of his era. Cecelia Tichi has created a stunning contribution to Jack London studies.” — Jeanne Reesman, University of Texas at San Antonio

“Cecelia Tichi reflects Jack London’s astounding energy and emphasizes the importance of journalism to the essential drive that defines him. This is a valuable and rewarding work.” — Joseph Flora, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Editorial Reviews

“[A] persuasive reappraisal of Jack London. . . . Brings a fresh perspective to an author and thinker frequently dismissed as a mere writer of adventure fiction.” — Publishers Weekly

“Strongly recommended for London devotees and for anyone with an interest in the evolution of social reforms in America.” — Library Journal

“An illuminating study of a literary figure long receded into stereotype. . . . A fruitful, well-written blend of cultural history, literary criticism, and biography.” — Kirkus Reviews

“London steps from Tichi’s pages as a self-educated intellectual absorbed by the plight of the downtrodden and the oppressed.” — Foreword Reviews

“Tichi’s reframing of London offers a significant rethinking of early twentieth-century America.” — American Historical Review

“Tichi paints a portrait of Jack London as a champion of progressive causes.” — Chapter 16

“A study of the world in a man and how he hoped to change it.” — Jay Williams, Studies in American Naturalism

From the Publisher

2015-06-28
Jack London—socialist agitator, rancher, and, oh yes, writer: an illuminating study of a literary figure long receded into stereotype. Tichi's (English and American Studies/Vanderbilt Univ.; Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America (and What They Teach Us), 2009, etc.) resurrection of London and her elevation of him from writer of hoary Arctic tales for children to wizened philosopher of the barricades is certainly timely. He lived in the first Gilded Age, a time "undershot with stupendous wealth inequality, cycles of joblessness…and an imperial global presence that brought indigenous populations to heel while exploiting their natural resources." Though London was a marquee writer whose work elevated him from want to wealth, he remained true to his working-class roots and never surrendered his vision of an America reformed to allow for a greater share for all. He conveyed this vision in sometimes heavy-handed ways, as with his late novel The Iron Heel (1908), but Tichi credits him for displaying "a certain subtlety." London's message rings true in such books as White Fang (1906) but never at the expense of a walloping good story. Tichi traces the growth of London's activism as he moved from place to place, especially when he visited the South Pacific and saw predatory capitalism at work undisguised: "In boyhood he had seen the flags of distant nations flying from the masts along the Oakland waterfront….Many of those flags signified political, corporate, and military power, and the word for that nexus was ‘imperialism.' " Tichi also limns a London who was far more evolved than the square-jawed prizefighter and adventurer of legend, a sophisticated political thinker who brought immense learning to bear—not least on his work establishing what today we would call an organic farm not far from San Francisco, building a vast working knowledge of agriculture, construction, irrigation, and other fields. A fruitful, well-written blend of cultural history, literary criticism, and biography. Now the only question is, where's the Jack London of today?

Kirkus Reviews