Read complete books and articles on: The Call of the Wild

London, Jack - (John Griffith London), 1876–1916, American author, b. San Francisco. The illegitimate son of an astrologer and a Welsh farm girl, he had a poverty-stricken childhood, brought up by his mother and her husband, John London. At 17, Jack London shipped as an able seaman to Japan and the Bering Sea. He was an oyster pirate, a gold-seeker in the first Klondike rush, a newspaper correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, and in 1914 a war correspondent in Mexico. His stories, romantic adventures with realistic setting and character, began to appear first in the Overland Monthly. In 1900, The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North was published. London's Klondike tales are exciting, vigorous, and brutal. The Call of the Wild (1903), about a tame dog who eventually leads a wolf pack, is one of the best animal stories ever written. Among his other works are The Sea-Wolf (1904), White Fang (1905), and Smoke Bellew (1912). Martin Eden (1909) and Burning Daylight (1910) are partly autobiographical. Although he was a highly paid writer of extremely popular fiction, London, a socialist, considered his social tracts—The People of the Abyss (1903) and The Iron Heel (1907)—as his most important work. The Cruise of the Snark (1911) is a vivid account of his interrupted voyage around the world in a 50-ft (15.2-m) ketch-rigged yacht, and John Barleycorn; or, Alcoholic Memoirs (1913) is autobiographical. Beset in his later years by alcoholism and financial difficulties, London committed suicide at the age of 40.

See Charmian London (his second wife), The Log of the Snark (1915), Our Hawaii (1917), and The Book of Jack London (2 vol., 1921); biographies by his daughter, Joan London (1969), and by J. Hedrick (1982), A. Sinclair (1983), C. Stasz (1988), and A. Kershaw (1998); studies by E. Labor (1977) and C. Watson (1982).

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6 of the Best Books and Articles on: The Call of the Wild

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories » Read Now
by Jack London, Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz III. 368 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

'It was true, there were other dogs. There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count.' Buck, the magnificent offspring of a St Bernard and Scotch shepherd dog, lives contentedly on a California estate until he is stolen and shipped northwards to be trained as a sledge...
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'It was true, there were other dogs. There could not but be other dogs on so vast a place, but they did not count.' Buck, the magnificent offspring of a St Bernard and Scotch shepherd dog, lives contentedly on a California estate until he is stolen and shipped northwards to be trained as a sledge dog. Uprooted from the civilized world, he is thrown into the cruel and savage struggle of the Klondike gold rush. The story of his heroic adventures and his response to the 'call of the wild' has not only excited readers but also struck a deeper, mythic chord. Of all Jack London's fictions none has been so popular as his dog stories. Included in this selection is the companion novel to The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and five famous short stories: 'Batard', 'Moon-Face', 'Brown Wolf', 'That Spot', and 'To Build a Fire', all with canine themes. * Introduction * Textual Note * Bibliography * Chronology * Explanatory Notes * Map.
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2.

Understanding the Call of the Wild: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents » Read Now
by Claudia Durst Johnson. 268 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

London's adventure tale The Call of the Wild explores the complex relationships between man and nature, and animals' struggle with their own nature in man's world. In this interdisciplinary study, a rich collection of primary documents point out the many issues that make this story as poignant and...
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London's adventure tale The Call of the Wild explores the complex relationships between man and nature, and animals' struggle with their own nature in man's world. In this interdisciplinary study, a rich collection of primary documents point out the many issues that make this story as poignant and pertinent today as when it was written nearly a century ago. Compiled here for the first time is documentation from sources as varied as century-old newspaper accounts, legislative materials, advertisements, poetry, journals, and other startling firsthand accounts. The story's historical setting, the Yukon Gold Rush, is brought vividly into focus for readers, with firsthand accounts of the unimaginable hardships faced by the prospectors in the Klondike and Alaskan Gold Fields.
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3.

Male Call: Becoming Jack London (includes "'Congested Mails': Buck and Jack's 'Call'") » Read Now
by Jonathan Auerbach. 289 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...albeit mild, interest in The Call of the Wild and a more sudden interest in...version of Chapter 3 on The Call of the Wild 67 March 1995 : 52-76...Northland short stories...
4.

The Critical Response to Jack London (includes a chapter on The Call of the Wild) » Read Now
by Susan M. Nuernberg. 298 pgs.

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Essays and reviews document the critical response to Jack London's writings from the turn of the century to the present day.
5.

The Dream of Success: A Study of the Modern American Imagination (includes information on Call of the Wild in "Jack London: The Brain Merchant") » Read Now
by Kenneth S. Lynn. 272 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...reprint from The Rise of the City , by Arthur M. Schlesinger . Copyright 1933 by The Macmillan Company. The Call of the Wild , by Jack London. Copyright 1903 by The...
6.

Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (includes information on Call of the Wild in "Jack London: The Problem of Form") » Read Now
by Donald Pizer. 234 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...been occupied with what it is possible to call the horizontal and vertical extensions of realism--that is, the fiction of external...intrinsically extraordinary and...