Jack London became one of the most famous and successful authors of his day with the publication of his vastly popular novels The Call of the Wild and The Sea-Wolf. Over his brief life of forty years, he wrote at least fifty books, while pursuing a host of other careers as adventurer, sailor, prospector, explorer, journalist, war correspondent, sociologist, and rancher—careers that often diverted attention from, and even eclipsed, his achievements as a writer. In fact, for several decades after his death, scholars uniformly dismissed London's writings either as second-rate hack work or as adventure and animal stories for juveniles.

Today, more than a century after London's initial literary successes, this volume offers insightful studies and analyses of the author and his works. These studies not only build on previous scholarship but also provide new interpretations, thus extending even further our understanding of the author's stories and novels.

Sara S. Hodson is the Curator of Literary Manuscripts at the Huntington Library, where she administers the Jack London Papers.
Jeanne Campbell Reesman is Ashbel Smith Professor of English at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and the Executive Coordinator for the Jack London Society.

"This is an impressive collection. It comprises essays not only by some of the most eminent London scholars but also by 'new London voices.' All the contributions are first-rate, and every essay provides fresh new insights into the complex creations of one of America's greatest 'world authors,' one of those whose literary genius is only now . . . becoming fully recognized."—Earle Labor, Wilson Professor of American Literature, Centenary College of Louisiana