Short Stories of Jack London: Authorized One-volume Edition

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Macmillan, 1990 - Fiction - 738 pages
"Story of a Typhoon Off the Coast of Japan", "The White Silence", "To The Man On Trail", "In a Far Country", "An Odyssey of the North", "Semper Idem", "The Law of Life", "A Relic of the Pliocene", "Nam-Bok the Unveracious", "The One Thousand Dozen", "To Build a Fire", "Moon-Face", "Batard", "The Story of Jees Uck", "The League of the Old Men", "Love of Life", "The Sun-Dog Trail", "All Gold Canyon", "A Day's Lodging", "The Apostate", "The Wit of Porportuk", "The Unparalleled Invasion", "To Build a Fire (1908)", "The House of Pride", "The House of Mapuhi", "The Chinago", "Lost Face", "Koolau the Leper", "Chun ah Chun", "The Heathern", "Mauki", "The Strength of the Strong", "South of the Slot", "Samuel", "A Piece of Steak", "The Madness of Jahn Harned", "The Night-Born", "War", "Told in the Drooling Ward", "Wonder of Woman", "The Red One", "On the Makaloa Mat", "The Tears of Ah Kim", "Shin Bones", "When Alice Told Her Soul", "Like Argus of the Ancient Times", "The Princess", "The Water Baby."

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Contents

THE WHITE SILENCE
8
IN A FAR COUNTRY
25
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
39
Copyright

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About the author (1990)

One of the pioneers of 20th century American literature, Jack London specialized in tales of adventure inspired by his own experiences. London was born in San Francisco in 1876. At 14, he quit school and became an "oyster pirate," robbing oyster beds to sell his booty to the bars and restaurants in Oakland. Later, he turned on his pirate associates and joined the local Fish Patrol, resulting in some hair-raising waterfront battles. Other youthful activities included sailing on a seal-hunting ship, traveling the United States as a railroad tramp, a jail term for vagrancy and a hazardous winter in the Klondike during the 1897 gold rush. Those experiences converted him to socialism, as he educated himself through prolific reading and began to write fiction. After a struggling apprenticeship, London hit literary paydirt by combining memories of his adventures with Darwinian and Spencerian evolutionary theory, the Nietzchean concept of the "superman" and a Kipling-influenced narrative style. "The Son of the Wolf"(1900) was his first popular success, followed by 'The Call of the Wild" (1903), "The Sea-Wolf" (1904) and "White Fang" (1906). He also wrote nonfiction, including reportage of the Russo-Japanese War and Mexican revolution, as well as "The Cruise of the Snark" (1911), an account of an eventful South Pacific sea voyage with his wife, Charmian, and a rather motley crew. London's body broke down prematurely from his rugged lifestyle and hard drinking, and he died of uremic poisoning - possibly helped along by a morphine overdose - at his California ranch in 1916. Though his massive output is uneven, his best works - particularly "The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang" - have endured because of their rich subject matter and vigorous prose.

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