Jack London

Can someone suggest where to begin if one wants to read Jack London? From what i could see, three of his novels have been published by the LEC and Heritage. Which of these is the one to begin with? Also, is there any good edition of his short stories?

As for his short stories, the Library of America volume would be a solid choice: https://www.loa.org/books/99-novels-and-stories. There's also an Easton Press option that I can't speak to.

>2 AMindForeverVoyaging: Thank you.

I'd start with the most well known, Call of the Wild.

I read my first Jack London story a few days ago. It was called "Love of Life" and was amazingly good. The story is about a miner/prospector (let me call him the protagonist) who gets lost along with another person somewhere on the west coast. While crossing a stream the protagonist sprains his ankle and is then abandoned by his companion. Somehow he moves along slowly, and it was interesting how London depicts how he survived in the wilderness all by himself. He eats berries, catches minnows in ponds, and to survive is forced to eat the kind of meat he would probably have avoided in the normal course of things. While trudging along slowly--and encountering some remarkable experiences which I will not narrate here--he notices a sickly wolf has started following him. He is an intelligent man, and immediately realizes that the wolf is not interested in companionship. The wolf has calculated that the man is in such bad physical shape that he is not going to last very long and thus he is following the man because of the prospect of an easy meal. Since the wolf is himself in such bad shape that he is incapable of hunting. The protagonist is doing his own calculation. The berries and minnows he has been eating for the most part have not provided sufficient sustenance. In the distance, one can now see the ocean, as the wolf and the protagonist keep moving along. On the ocean bank a ship is to be seen and that's where the protagonist closely followed by the wolf are heading towards.

The story was based on an actual event that had taken place and had been reported in the newspapers. I wonder if London did any other research besides what he read in the papers.

I read the story in the Westvaco edition. This is a beautifully designed book with good paper and typography, but with one defect: the text is left-aligned, so that the left margin looks ok, but not right-aligned so that the right margin looks a bit odd.

----
I've collected all the three LEC books of London and plan to read them soon. Meanwhile, if anyone has the ML of the LEC Call of the Wild I would appreciate it if you could share it on the google drive.

>5 blue.eyes2: Thank you for the write-up. It sounds like a great story and I want to know how it ends (don't tell me!). Like you, I'm quite new to Jack London, having only read The Call of the Wild, which I really enjoyed. I have 2 of the LECs and am looking forward to diving into those too.

The Westvaco books are great aren't they? I recently read their edition of The Good Earth by Pearl Buck, which I also highly recommend, and I have their Listen! The Wind on my reading pile too.

As you say, the 'ragged-right' alignment can look a bit odd in a book to begin with. However, many people consider it to be easier to read and more natural looking than the 'fully justified' text we commonly see in most books. With ragged alignment, as we see in the Westvaco books, there's usually less need for adjusting the spacing between words or for using excessive hyphenation in order to make each line conform exactly to the margins.

Here's another book that uses ragged rather than fully justified alignment:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/353425

This is what the designer of that book said:

"Instead of the typical justified text block, ours is ragged on the right, which is the most natural approach for rightward-reading languages like English. Ragged setting makes it easier to achieve consistent white space in and between words, and reduces eye fatigue. The aesthetic result is organic, a typographic deckle that breathes."

As with the book above, perhaps the Westvaco book designer felt they were prioritising readability over uniformity. Still, I agree it can look a bit jarring when we're all so used so used to fully justified text in books!

Of course, when dealing with fully justified text, this is where a lot of the unsung skill of typesetting comes in, especially when the type is being set by hand and printed letterpress. Someone skilled in these arts can still create a beautiful (arguably more beautiful) and highly readable typographic layout that is fully justified without looking unnatural.

Likewise, even if a book has ragged alignment, the designer can still fiddle with spacing and hyphenation to ensure that the ragged edge is not so ragged as to become messy looking or distracting.

>6 GardenOfForkingPaths: The Westvaco books are really well produced with a fine design aesthetic. A lot of care has obviously been taken to design and produce them, and the best part is that most of them are so inexpensive. I think I have about ten of them now. Don't have the Good Earth, but do have the Hemingway and Steinbeck books which are my favourite Westvacos (amongst the ones I have) from the perspective of book design and production.

I am glad to know of a technical explanation for the 'ragged-right' alignment. Thank you.

Price differential on Westvaco books is interesting. Typee is a good example. Several booksellers offer it for $100 and up. I found (& grabbed) a copy on eBay for $12.00 in at least VG condition...in slipcase.

>6 GardenOfForkingPaths: Your post has enabled me to purchase the Westvaco Listen! The Wind.

>5 blue.eyes2: I don't see "Love of Life" by Heritage Press. Is there a particular edition you recommend?

>8 Glacierman: $100 seems very optimistic. Well, for $12 you can hardly go wrong! :)

>9 maisiedotes: Cool! I hope you like it. I hope I like it when I read it too! I agree with >7 blue.eyes2: assessment that the Westvaco books are great value and were designed with care. I have a couple of volumes that are still in the original cardboard mailing cartons and even those have colours and designs that tie in with the book, which is a nice touch. I should try and get the Hemingway volume too.

Century Press has a wonderful, letterpress and illustrated production of Call of the Wild for about $135 USD -- note that they are in Canada so it's Canadian dollars on their website --

https://www.centurypress.ca/products/the-call-of-the-wild

>10 maisiedotes: Heritage and LEC only published call of the wild, white fang and sea wolf so far as Jack London's writings are concerned. I read Love of Life in the Westvaco edition. I don't know of a better edition for this (or for other) London stories. By the way, the Westvaco edition of London's stories contains, along with several of his short stories, the full text of Call of the Wild.

in 2012 a film was made based on Love of Life. I haven't seen the full film, but I've seen a few clips of it. At least one scene indicated to me that the film makers were not faithful to the original story which I thought was unfortunate. (In the film scene I am referring to, the protagonist is shown holding and looking morosely at a photograph of a woman who appears to be either his wife or his lover. In the original story there is no such scene, nor any undercurrent of romantic love.) The trailer of this film, however, gives a pretty good overall idea about the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8U7F__I5qc

Note the gun the protagonist is carrying. This gun the protagonist has in the story also, but he doesn't have any bullets left. At some point of time he is obliged to discard this gun along with his other belongings (even all the gold he is carrying with him) as movement keeps becoming more and more difficult and it starts becoming a life and death situation.

>13 blue.eyes2: Ah, thanks for the lead. I've just found "Love of Life" listed in the Westvaco Farther North and purchased it.

>8 Glacierman: The colophon page of the Westvaco books says that it is a limited edition without specifying the limitation number. I think some of these books were published in fewer quantity than others which would explain the price differential.

>16 blue.eyes2: For different books, yes...but here we have the same title going for $12 or $125 and everything in between. Good example of why it pays to spend a little time searching....

>12 astropi:
It seems to be $186 in US currency.

>17 Glacierman: very true. I was talking of a price differential that seems to exist across the different Westvaco editions as well. For instance there is a Mark Twain authored Westvaco publication called 'Jumping Frog and other stories' or something like that. The LEC has a similar title of a book (a collection of stories actually), but the Westvaco book appears to be even more expensive (and rarer) than the LEC edition.

>8 Glacierman: Most Westvaco books can usually be found in great condition, in their slipcase for really low prices. The 24 titles in my collection average out at less than $10 a book including shipping. Of course I did do one bulk buy of 16 titles for $40 plus $16 in postage or $3.50 a book.

Westvaco books are beautifully designed and offer a lot of fascinating material. Although I initially found the "ragged right" justification jarring at first, I've come to quite appreciate it and it has made me more critical of typesetting in fully justified books where there is awkward spacing--or insufficient spacing--between words.

Two of their publications I particularly cherish are Ring Lardner's You Know Me, Al which is unjustly neglected (probably because it is baseball-themed) but is a masterpiece in the use of vernacular and may be the finest American epistolary comic novel. The other is Willa Cather's O Pioneers!. Both of these important American works were neglected by the LEC and HP and I'm happy that Westvaco stepped in to fill the gap so wonderfully.

It's good to see Jack London getting the attention he deserves. I highly recommend the Library of America's anthology of London's writings, especially for The Road which describes London's experiences "on the bum" during the depression which followed the Panic of 1893. It is very strong stuff and may come as a jolt to those who associate London only with White Fang and Call of the Wild. I read it after seeing one of my favorite films, "Emperor of the North Pole" which mines many of its details.

>21 Django6924: A No.-1 will always be king tramp!

>21 Django6924:

Enabled for the Ring Lardner, thank you.

>18 booksforreading: I apologize, you're right. I was certain it was in Canadian dollars -- I placed my order when the book first came out, so perhaps things have changed. That said, still a great deal for an illustrated letterpress edition. In my mind, this publisher is following in the footsteps of Macy. Here is a bit more about the book --

Fully bound in vegetable-tanned, Slate Blue goatskin leather from the Hudson Valley.

Two-colour letterpress printed on premium 100% cotton 'Flurry' paper with a 1956 Heidelberg 'Windmill' platen press, typeset in Caslon.

Four brand new, full-page illustrations from Calvin Laituri.

Italian, tight-weave, cotton ribbon bookmark.

New introduction by Jack London historian, Jonah Raskin.

Original silver-stamped artwork on front cover, back cover, and spine by Mac Pogue.

Smyth-sewn by hand for maximum durability.

Measures 7.5" x 5.25"

Posting some pictures of the LEC Call of the Wild and the LEC White Fang to show their bindings and size:





Two favourite illustrations from the LEC Call of the Wild (the first of, I think, Francois and the second of John Thornton--these reminded me of some of the illustrations in the LEC Spoon River Anthology):





One illustration in the LEC Call of the Wild that was well conceptualized but could have been executed better in my opinion was this one:



I did not particularly like the illustrations featuring the wolves either in the the LEC Call of the Wild or the LEC White Fang.

The binding of the LEC Call of the Wild is particularly attractive and unusual. One current seller writes thus about the binding: 𝑯𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒖𝒏𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒔.

The paper quality and typography of the LEC Call of the Wild is also very good. (I like the typography of this book more than the one used in the LEC White Fang.)

----
I have this to say about the Call of the Wild: It is a mix of realism and romanticism. Whenever the story is grounded in realism it is a superior story, but when London indulges in romanticism it often weakens the story. The last chapter of the story is the worst in the entire book due to excessive romanticism. The book was first published in a magazine (in installments) and I imagine this has something to do with that last chapter.
Overall, though, I liked the story and am glad I read the book.

>25 blue.eyes2: The binding of the LEC Call of the Wild...

...might be prone to moth attacks per this post: https://www.librarything.com/topic/160334#4341126

>26 mr.philistine: I suspect the moth or insect attacks are more of a problem if this book is kept in a warmer climate.

After reading The Call of the Wild I turned my attention to White Fang and finished it yesterday. I liked White Fang more than The Call of the Wild. There seemed to be very few flaws in White Fang--almost every book has these--but they were by no means as glaring as the ones in The Call of the Wild. This much said the best scenes in the Call of the Wild were as good as the ones in White Fang and sometimes better.

What follows has some spoilers so you may wish to skip the rest of the post if you haven't read the books.

London had clearly acquired a deep knowledge about wolves. I suspect this was done through a combination of observation and communication with a wolf expert(s). Despite this knowledge, I am certain he makes mistakes--sometimes glaring mistakes. I am not sure whether these mistakes had to do with artistic license or if he actually believed what he was writing. Here are some of these mistakes or flaws:

In The Call of the Wild, in the last chapter, we are informed that Buck manages to kill 'a big black bear'. Of course the black bear had been bitten by mosquitos and so couldn't see clearly but it stretches the imagination to think a large dog can bring down a large black bear--even if the bear has a problem with his eyes due to mosquito bites. Then, again in the last chapter, when the Indians have killed John Thornton and the two other men and two other dogs while Buck had gone into the forest and when Buck comes back to witness what has happened he leaps into the Indians and kills the first person he manages to get hold of. This person happens to be the chief of the Indians. He then manages to kill or injure a few other Indians after which they run away. Buck then retreats into the forest, joins the pack of wolves he has been introduced to during his sojourns to the forest, and becomes its leader--as evidence for which we are informed that that the area around that forest soon becomes populated with wolf-dogs who have some resemblance to Buck.

One other flaw in the Call of the Wild. On two occasions, once in the last chapter and once in an earlier chapter, Buck has a strange reverie while sitting near a fire. He dreams or imagines there is a humanoid creature not far from him. The creature resembles humans, but is not actually human. He is covered with hair, has a bent posture, and is able to climb into trees. This is not a creature Buck has seen himself, but who Buck's wolf ancestors--many generations removed-- have seen. (Probably the creature is an intermediate species between apes and humans if you believe in Darwinian evolution.) This dream or vision is part of the process through which he becomes a creature of the wild. But all this just seems romantic fantasy not grounded in reality.

Another one: Buck starts off at 140 pounds, but then we are informed he reaches 150 pounds eventually while in the North. Can it be that a 150 pound dog is able to drag a 1,000 pound weight for 100 yards (because of a bet made by his owner)? Seems unlikely to me. In the introduction to the LEC Call of the Wild we are informed that the scene is so vividly written that one is inclined to believe it actually happened, and I agree with this with this caveat: I think a 150 pound dog may have actually pulled a weight for 100 yards but the weight may have been significantly less than 1,000 pounds.

Some of the best scenes in both books are the fight scenes and the hunting scenes. My favourite fight scene was the fight with Spitz in The Call of the Wild. One other memorable fight scene was White Fang's fight with a pit bull (London says it was a bull dog but the description seems to match a pit bull). In this scene we are informed that White Fang's fighting style was to 'dance', to quickly get close and do some damage to the opponent and then as swiftly move away out of reach. While the pit bull's fighting strategy was to relentlessly pursue the opponent, despite the damage being done to him. This seemed to remind me of the fighting styles of Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier. I wonder whether some of the fight scenes in the two books may have been written keeping in mind some boxing matches London may have witnessed.

There is one other aspect to both books and it seems to be a message from London to humans which has relevance even today: do not torture dogs. Treat them with respect. There are scenes in both books where Buck and White Fang are treated with great cruelty by their human owners (who keep changing). White Fang was lucky in that eventually he ended up with a kind guardian who has some experience dealing with dogs and who manages to win White Fang's confidence over a period of time.

The whole premise of White Fang--of a wolf-dog who was born and grew up in the wild but eventually became tame-- seems to have a lot more verisimilitude than the concept of a tame dog who grew up amongst humans but eventually became a leader of a wild wolf pack.

I should mention that my preference for White Fang is a preference shared by London himself as per the introduction in the LEC White Fang.

One of the many fight scenes in White Fang:

I was reading a book titled 'No Mentor but Myself' which contains some assorted writings of Jack London. The book contains an extract of an interview of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a contemporary of London, along with London's written response to this interview extract. Roosevelt had read White Fang and he offered two pieces of criticism for the book. One of these criticisms pertained to White Fang's fight with the pit bull. Based on his knowledge of wildlife and animals, Roosevelt opined that White Fang would have beaten the pit bull in an actual fight. London responded by saying that well it's a matter of two different opinions and that after all Roosevelt did not provide any evidence to support his opinion. But I went on YouTube to see if I could find a video of a fight between a wolf and a pit bull and the one video I saw--of a relatively small wolf fighting and apparently getting the better of a pit bull--seemed to support Roosevelt's view.