The League of the Old Men" in THE SPINNERS' BOOK OF FICTION by London, Jack - 1907

1907. With a Dedicatory Poem by George Sterling. Collected by the Book Committee of the Spinners' Club. San Francisco and New York: Paul Elder and Company, n.d.[1907]. Original coarse unbleached linen decorated in dark green with front cover applied illustration, top page edges gilded. First Edition of this volume of stories by California writers, illustrated by California artists, designed by John Nash and printed at the Tomoye Press for Paul Elder of San Francisco. In addition to this tale by Jack London, there are literary contributions by fifteen others (about half of them women) -- such as Gertrude Atherton, Frank Norris, Charles Warren Stoddard and Isobel Strong (stepdaughter of R. Louis Stevenson). As for Jack London's contribution (which had appeared in his CHILDREN OF THE FROST in 1902): "The League of Old Men" is one of the four pieces 'which are essential to the London vision of the Northwest,' according to Calder-Marshall, and London often said that it was his personal favourite. In it, London gives a sensitive description of the white man's destruction of the lives of the Indians of the Yukon..."[Lundberg]. In this book, London's tale is accompanied by a color plate by Maynard Dixon. This copy is in the binding that is listed by Blanck ("in probable order") second of four -- coarse unbleached linen stamped in dark green, with top edges gilded. Condition is, in a word, fine (very light rubbing to the front cover illustration). Blanck 11999.