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Short stories of Jack London : authorized one-volume edition /

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : Macmillan : Maxwell Macmillan International ; Toronto : Collier Macmillan, 1990.Description: xli, 738 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780025671805
  • 0025671804
Uniform titles:
  • Short stories
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 813/.52 20
LOC classification:
  • PS3523.O46 A6 1990b
Other classification:
  • HU 4281
Contents:
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 (1902) -- 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 heathen -- Mauki -- The strength of the strong -- South of the slot -- Samuel -- A piece of steak -- The madness of John Harned -- The night-born -- War -- Told in the drooling ward -- The mexican -- The pearls of Parlay.
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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Holdings
Item type Current library Home library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Standard Loan Hayden Library Adult Fiction Hayden Library Book LONDON (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 50610023920809
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (pages 735-738).

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 (1902) -- 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 heathen -- Mauki -- The strength of the strong -- South of the slot -- Samuel -- A piece of steak -- The madness of John Harned -- The night-born -- War -- Told in the drooling ward -- The mexican -- The pearls of Parlay.

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

London's vital stories, set most frequently in the far Northwest or the Pacific islands, have always been popular but have received little critical attention. This generous selection draws from authoritative first editions and complements the 1982 Library of America volumes Novels and Social Writings and Novels and Stories (the latter includes about half the 50 works gathered here). Recommended for American literature collections, especially public libraries lacking an attractive edition of London's stories.-- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Fifty of Jack London's 200 short stories make up this well-edited volume, which includes stories from 1893 to 1918, most of them from the rich decade 1900-1910. They represent London exceptionally well, so that an extensive assessment of his work could be made from this collection alone. London's socialist, working-class sympathies lend his short pieces power that is unusual in so brief a form, giving him an important place in the development of the short story as well as in the formation of a California tradition in literature. Stories based on travels to Hawaii, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Korea, and Manchuria give his work an Oriental cosmopolitanism unusual at so early a date. Unlike so many writers of the period to come, London faced west, rather than toward Europe, and set the direction in which California writers would look as a regional tradition developed. These stories are useful not only for assessing London's accomplishments but also for deciding whether to study the longer works, and they are very readable. As a result they are well suited for graduate, undergraduate and community college students and also for public library patrons. The editors have included a good bibliography, an excellent introduction, and useful notes. -Q. Grigg, Hamline University

Booklist Review

When faced with this impressive anthology, it is difficult to accept Alfred Kazin's statement that "the greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." However, the biographical essay that prefaces the collection--featuring 50 of London's 200-plus stories--certainly lends weight to Kazin's claim. London's stories travel as he did--"from the frozen wilderness of the Klondike to the putrid jungles of Melanesia, from Hawaii to Australia, from city to country, from South America to the Valley of the Moon." This volume is so subtitled because the stories have been reprinted in the form in which London originally delivered them for publication (without the changes and deletions performed by magazine editors for serialization). Appended notes detail when each story was written, what magazines ran it (and often which ones rejected it), and brief notes from London's letters about content and sales. A splendid volume that will lure readers of The Call of the Wild. ~--Denise Perry Donavin

Author notes provided by Syndetics

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.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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