A SELECTION OF JACK LONDON STORIES

More tales of adventure, drama, skulduggery and comedy during the great Klondike Gold Rush in 1897-98 around Dawson City in Canada’s Northwest Territories. An e-book is available for downloading below. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. THE TEST: A KLONDIKE WOOING (1898) Lucky Jack has struck it rich in the Klondike and has also gotten lucky with Lucille, the prettiest girl in Dawson. Lucille loves music too and begs Jack to teach her the violin which he plays marvellously – so he puts her true (...)

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1. A KLONDIKE CHRISTMAS (1898) Two brothers are writing home at Christmas describing their life on a mining claim in the Yukon, but are somewhat embarrassed to have to reveal that all they have for Xmas dinner is the miners’ standard fare of beans, bread and bacon. But then things surprisingly start looking up. (2,500 words).
2. THE MEN OF FORTY-MILE (1899) In the middle of winter in the rough settlement town of Forty Miles, an animated discussion about different (...)

Jack London was a major precursor in the domain of science fiction, with these remarkably innovative tales centered on the potential of science for good or (especially) evil that were as far as we have been able to determine the very first science fiction stories ever published in the US of A – and possibly anywhere else.
Although there had been a few novels throughout the history of literature with what we can call today a science fiction theme, the theme (and the term itself) of (...)

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1. IN THE TIME OF PRINCE CHARLEY (1899) After the decisive Battle of Culloden in 1746 that put an end to Scottish dreams of independance a British officer escorts the captured Prince Charlie through the highlands to a rendezvous with a ship, but opposition from fierce Highlanders and the wiles of a woman have to be dealt with. (5,100 words).
2. TO REPEL BOARDERS (1902) Two boys in a sailboat are chatting about how adventurous life must have been in the days of the (...)

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1. The Misogynist (1897) A confirmed bachelor wakes up one morning to find that all females have suddenly disappeared and the world is now a purely masculine one! Things start rapidly going to pot as everyone, including our hero, desperately tries to survive. (8,600 words)
2. Their Alcove (1900) A man watches all the letters and mementos of the woman he had loved burn in his fireplace as he muses over the impact that their break-up has made on his life, and tries to (...)

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1. Pluck and Pertinacity (1899) In the words of the author: “The true story of a man who practically achieved the impossible in his hazardous ice-journey in the dead of the Arctic winter. Happily, success crowned the effort.” (1,450 words).
2. The Scorn of Women (1901) Floyd Vanderlip has at last struck it very rich on Bonanza Creek in the Klondike and has sent funds for his young sweetheart down south to come up to Dawson for a wedding. But in the meantime the star (...)

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1. The Wife of a King (1899) A prospector has left his half-Indian wife to join the flood of gold-seekers in Dawson, and when he fails to return word comes back about his dallying with a casino dancer, the plucky wife sets off for Dawson in the thick of winter to see for herself what is going on. She is taken in hand by several old hands who prepare her for a surprise confrontation with the erring husband at the city’s annual masked ball. (5,700 words).
2. At the (...)

1. To the Man on the Trail (1899) - a group of gold miners are preparing punch for the celebration of Christmas Eve when an exhausted but heavily-armed stranger enters their cabin (3,100 words).
2. Uri Bram’s God (1900) - a gambler fleeing from a frenzied mob after he has slain a man in a casino is offered shelter in a hidden corner of a shack by a stranger who has followed him during his flight (5,800 words).
3. Siwash (1901) - a very high-spirited girl-prospector berates a couple of (...)

The narrator is a prehistoric youth who recounts his adventures in the middle Pleistocene era long before our time, when he and his tribe had to coexist and fight against not only ferocious carnivorous animals such as wild dogs, great boars, hyenas, and especially sabre-tooth tigers, but also primitive Tree-People who hated his kind and and especially the newly-emerged Fire-People, who had not only mastered fire but also speech (unlike his own people who did not yet have proper language) (...)

Jack London wrote only four stories about boxing, but when he did they were winners!
Not only do these stories get you inside the minds and hearts of the fighters and of their entourages — managers, promoters, betters and (bloodthirsty) spectators — more intensely and grippingly and insightfully than, well, just about anyone else has ever done, but they are all penetrated with a sense of something higher and of great significance, in particular the vital sociological significance of food (...)