The People of the Abyss (1903) is a work of nonfiction by American
writer Jack London. Written after the author spent three months living
in London's poverty-stricken East End, The People of the Abyss bears
witness to the difficulties faced by hundreds and thousands of people
every day in one of the wealthiest nations on earth. Inspired by
Friedrich Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England
(1845) and Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives, London hoped to
expose the indignities faced by those left behind by industrialization.
In 1902, Jack London traveled to England to live in the slums of
London's East End. Hoping to learn about the lives and experiences of
the city's working class, he spent three months staying in workhouses,
sleeping on the streets, and lodging with a poor family in the area.
Drawing on his own experience as a working-class American, and informed
by his dedicated understanding of socialism, London recorded what he saw
of the lives of London's poor, the hundreds of thousands of humans held
back from the nation's progress toward modernization. The People of the
Abyss was a popular and critical success upon publication and would
inspire the young George Orwell to conduct his own research on poverty
and urban life, which he recorded in his groundbreaking work Down and
Out in Paris and London. Although he is known more for his
contributions to fiction, London was a talented journalist whose
experiences as a world traveler and worker allowed him to capture the
deprivations of impoverished life while preserving a sense of humanity
and advocating for much needed change. With a beautifully designed cover
and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Jack London's
The People of the Abyss is a classic of American literature reimagined
for modern readers.
