Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that "the greatest story Jack London
ever wrote was the story he lived." Newsboy, factory "work beast, " gang
member, hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader, war
correspondent, utopian farmer, and world-famous adventurer: London is
the closest thing America has had to a literary folk hero. His writing
itself is concerned with nothing less than the largest questions and the
grandest themes: What does it mean to be a human being in the natural
world? What debts do human beings owe each other - and to all their
fellow creatures? This collection places London, at last, securely
within the American literary pantheon. It includes the complete novel
The Call of the Wild; such famous stories as "Love of Life, " "To Build
a Fire, " and "All Gold Canyon"; journalism, political writings,
literary criticism, and selected letters.