CALL OF THE WILD by London Jack - 1904

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904. An early issue of the first edition, printed nine months after the first issuance of the book in July 1903. In all aspects, identical to the first printing. Illustrated with plates in colour by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull, decorated by Charles E. Hooper. 8vo, publisher’s original pictorially decorated green cloth lettered in gilt and with illustrations of dog sledding on the upper cover in white, red and black, similarly gilt lettered and pictorially decorated on the spine, pictorial endpapers. t.e.g. 231 pp. A quite fresh, attractive and well preserved copy, the cloth still bright, the text clean, solid, and sound, only a touch of minor age as is inevitable but much less than is normal. FIRST EDITION, 1904 PRINTING OF AN AMERICAN MASTERPIECE AND ONE OF THE "PERFECT" BOOKS.
London's classic tale of a St. Bernard--Buck-- who becomes the leader of a pack of wolves in the Klondike after the death of his master. One of the greatest “boys’” books and a vivid memory for countless readers the world over. Like Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” and Hemingway’s “Old Man and The Sea”, THE CALL OF THE WILD is one of the really great reads in world literature, constructed with perfection, it has never grown old or passé.
Jack London was born in San Francisco, and was the son of an itinerant astrologer and a spiritualist mother. He grew up in poverty and had a number of interesting experiences, including a stint as a sailor on a sealing expedition to Japan. Later, he traveled throughout the United States and Canada and attempted to strike gold in the gold rush of 1897. He was largely self-taught, although he did attend college for one semester. As London became a successful writer, he continued to travel and write fiction and political accounts.
These experiences resonate in London’s writing, which evokes struggle, adventure, travel, close ties to the land, and a revolutionary consciousness with regard to economic class. London was remembered by his friend, Upton Sinclair as “‘one of the great revolutionary figures’” of US history. [Ox Compan to Eng Lit]