The Call of the Wild - Couverture souple

"This is the best scholarly edition of The Call of the Wild currently available, with a superb, wide-ranging introduction by Nicholas Ruddick that is a model of judicious lucidity. The edition is also greatly enhanced by a series of fascinating primary documents situating the novella in an array of turn-of-the-twentieth-century cultural contexts, including the Klondike gold rush, Darwin on dogs and men, theories of atavism and instinct, and controversies surrounding charges of plagiarism against Jack London. Highly recommended." - Jonathan Auerbach, University of Maryland

This is the best scholarly edition of The Call of the Wild currently available, with a superb, wide-ranging introduction by Nicholas Ruddick that is a model of judicious lucidity. The edition is also greatly enhanced by a series of fascinating primary documents situating the novella in an array of turn-of-the-twentieth-century cultural contexts, including the Klondike gold rush, Darwin on dogs and men, theories of atavism and instinct, and controversies surrounding charges of plagiarism against Jack London. Highly recommended. --Jonathan Auerbach, University of Maryland

"This is the best scholarly edition of The Call of the Wild currently available, with a superb, wide-ranging introduction by Nicholas Ruddick that is a model of judicious lucidity. The edition is also greatly enhanced by a series of fascinating primary documents situating the novella in an array of turn-of-the-twentieth-century cultural contexts, including the Klondike gold rush, Darwin on dogs and men, theories of atavism and instinct, and controversies surrounding charges of plagiarism against Jack London. Highly recommended." --Jonathan Auerbach, University of Maryland

"This is the best scholarly edition of The Call of the Wild currently available, with a superb, wide-ranging introduction by Nicholas Ruddick that is a model of judicious lucidity. The edition is also greatly enhanced by a series of fascinating primary documents situating the novella in an array of turn-of-the-twentieth-century cultural contexts, including the Klondike gold rush, Darwin on dogs and men, theories of atavism and instinct, and controversies surrounding charges of plagiarism against Jack London. Highly recommended." --Jonathan Auerbach, University of Maryland

Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco, California. It is unknown whether or not his parents were actually married, but apparently his father disowned the family upon his birth. His mother attempted suicide and he was raised by Virginia Prentiss, a former slave. In 1876, his mother married a partially disabled Civil War veteran, whose last name was London. When he was thirteen, he began working eighteen hour days in a cannery. Borrowing money from Prentiss, he bought a boat and became an oyster pirate. In 1893, he joined the crew of a seal boat in Japan. By 1894, he was in jail in Buffalo, New York for vagrancy, then returned to Oakland, California to attend high school and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1897, he left to join the Klondike Gold Rush, but became ill. By 1898, he was a socialist, and working on his first novel, using his real-life experiences in the books. He was married in 1900, had two daughters in 1901 and 1902, then was divorced in 1903. He married a second time in 1905 and was in San Francisco to witness the great earthquake of 1906 firsthand. He died on November 22, 1916 at age 40, in Glen Ellen, California of kidney failure, having written twenty-three novels, 67 short stories, twenty-one short story collections and three plays in a thirteen year span.