Jack London Books

Irving Stone, in his insight and convincing recreation of historically influential people and days of yore bringing them once again alive and present, brought Jack London's life, family, physical surroundings and love of adventure out in such a way that I never wanted to see it end.

I have read many of Stone's biographical novels from The Agony and The Ecstasy to Depths of Glory to Lust for Life all incredible adventures of creative geniuses who struggled in many ways but understood that their creative mediums must be expressed. Sailor On Horseback is no different but one of Stone's lesser-known and should not be forgotton. I was discouraged to find that I must wait for a copy but found twice the wait would have been worth it.

There are many points in this biography which encouraged me to go back and reread Jack London's novels and short stories as if for the first time. For after reading Stone's depiction of London's self-reliant and rare view of the world his stories took on a new breath and meaning I never encountered the first time around.

This volume contains 6 Jack London stories:
1. The Scarlet Plague - the year 2073
2. The Dream of Debs - speculation of what would be the effect of a General Strike
3. The Shadow and the Flash - possibilities of invisibility
4. The Unparalleled Invasion - bacteriological warfare
5. The Heathen - a hurricane
6. The Mexican - a revolutionary prize-fighter

This is not a book that one easily forgets. True, you can read it as a simple adventure story of life on a turn-of-the-century seal-hunting schooner, but it is far more than this. It is essentially the story of Wolf Larson- and Wolf Larson is the entire mainstream of 19th and 20th century America in microcosm.

Larson is no simple brute. He is, rather, a complex brute. He is a master of men and a master of the seas- but that is ALL that he is. Larson is an intelligent, driven, ruthless master of industry (in this case, seal hunting.) He has succeeded through his own abilities, hard work, and talent- or so he would have you believe. Truth is, brutal backstabbing, deception, exploitation, and disregard for the law has played an equal measure in his rise and dominance. You see, Larson believes in the rule of the jungle. He believes in it so much that he is driven to prove that this is all there is to existence. He must always seek to degrade and destroy anyone who seeks to rise above this state. This is also why he must disregard the possibility of the existence of a human soul. Larson is an intelligent, hard-nosed materialist that simply cannot conceive of anything beyond a social Darwinist hell of survival of the fittest. And Wolf Larson must be the fittest of them all. As much as money means to Wolf, it is really power over other beings- men and animals that means the most to him. Without this power to sadistically degrade and dominate others, the money would have no meaning. Ultimately that explains why he has risen to command his own vessel at all costs- he is a control freak that MUST be in absolute, totalitarian command of his whole world. This is why he only mans his ship with the lowest, most bestial types of human being, and does everything in his power to make them worse- not unlike many modern corporations. This is also why the sudden presence of a higher sort of individual, with ideals that transcend mere survival and materialism are so totally threatening to him.

There are moments when one is almost tempted to sympathize with the Wolf as a champion of freedom- until you realize that in his sort of world his "freedom" means that everyone else must be a slave.

Ultimately, the Wolf meets the inevitable fate in a world ruled like the jungle. When he loses his sight and strength, the monsters that he has surrounded himself with turn on him. In the last measure there is nothing great about Larson after all, for in facing death he proves to be a petty, murdering, weakling that would rather take all those around him down with him. It seems that despite his grand pretensions, he was no Lucifer at all, but merely a sick, pathetic, sociopath incapable of making the leap into being truly human.

This is not a book that one easily forgets. True, you can read it as a simple adventure story of life on a turn-of-the-century seal-hunting schooner, but it is far more than this. It is essentially the story of Wolf Larson- and Wolf Larson is the entire mainstream of 19th and 20th century America in microcosm.

Larson is no simple brute. He is, rather, a complex brute. He is a master of men and a master of the seas- but that is ALL that he is. Larson is an intelligent, driven, ruthless master of industry (in this case, seal hunting.) He has succeeded through his own abilities, hard work, and talent- or so he would have you believe. Truth is, brutal backstabbing, deception, exploitation, and disregard for the law has played an equal measure in his rise and dominance. You see, Larson believes in the rule of the jungle. He believes in it so much that he is driven to prove that this is all there is to existence. He must always seek to degrade and destroy anyone who seeks to rise above this state. This is also why he must disregard the possibility of the existence of a human soul. Larson is an intelligent, hard-nosed materialist that simply cannot conceive of anything beyond a social Darwinist hell of survival of the fittest. And Wolf Larson must be the fittest of them all. As much as money means to Wolf, it is really power over other beings- men and animals that means the most to him. Without this power to sadistically degrade and dominate others, the money would have no meaning. Ultimately that explains why he has risen to command his own vessel at all costs- he is a control freak that MUST be in absolute, totalitarian command of his whole world. This is why he only mans his ship with the lowest, most bestial types of human being, and does everything in his power to make them worse- not unlike many modern corporations. This is also why the sudden presence of a higher sort of individual, with ideals that transcend mere survival and materialism are so totally threatening to him.

There are moments when one is almost tempted to sympathize with the Wolf as a champion of freedom- until you realize that in his sort of world his "freedom" means that everyone else must be a slave.

Ultimately, the Wolf meets the inevitable fate in a world ruled like the jungle. When he loses his sight and strength, the monsters that he has surrounded himself with turn on him. In the last measure there is nothing great about Larson after all, for in facing death he proves to be a petty, murdering, weakling that would rather take all those around him down with him. It seems that despite his grand pretensions, he was no Lucifer at all, but merely a sick, pathetic, sociopath incapable of making the leap into being truly human.

_This is not a book that one easily forgets. True, you can read it as a simple adventure story of life on a turn-of-the-century seal-hunting schooner, but it is far more than this. It is essentially the story of Wolf Larson- and Wolf Larson is the entire mainstream of 19th and 20th century America in microcosm.

_Larson is no simple brute. He is, rather, a complex brute. He is a master of men and a master of the seas- but that is ALL that he is. Larson is an intelligent, driven, ruthless master of industry (in this case, seal hunting.) He has succeeded through his own abilities, hard work, and talent- or so he would have you believe. Truth is, brutal backstabbing, deception, exploitation, and disregard for the law has played an equal measure in his rise and dominance. You see, Larson believes in the rule of the jungle. He believes in it so much that he is driven to prove that this is all there is to existence. He must always seek to degrade and destroy anyone who seeks to rise above this state. This is also why he must disregard the possibility of the existence of a human soul. Larson is an intelligent, hard-nosed materialist that simply cannot conceive of anything beyond a social Darwinist hell of survival of the fittest. And Wolf Larson must be the fittest of them all. As much as money means to Wolf, it is really power over other beings- men and animals that means the most to him. Without this power to sadistically degrade and dominate others, the money would have no meaning. Ultimately that explains why he has risen to command his own vessel at all costs- he is a control freak that MUST be in absolute, totalitarian command of his whole world. This is why he only mans his ship with the lowest, most bestial types of human being, and does everything in his power to make them worse- not unlike many modern corporations. This is also why the sudden presence of a higher sort of individual, with ideals that transcend mere survival and materialism are so totally threatening to him.

_There are moments when one is almost tempted to sympathize with the Wolf as a champion of freedom- until you realize that in his sort of world his "freedom" means that everyone else must be a slave.

_Ultimately, the Wolf meets the inevitable fate in a world ruled like the jungle. When he loses his sight and strength, the monsters that he has surrounded himself with turn on him. In the last measure there is nothing great about Larson after all, for in facing death he proves to be a petty, murdering, weakling that would rather take all those around him down with him. It seems that despite his grand pretensions, he was no Lucifer at all, but merely a sick, pathetic, sociopath incapable of making the leap into being truly human.

A wonderful Jack London classic. Beautifully illustrated with the colorful artwork of Fletcher Martin. A great introduction by Edmund Gilligan. This oversized book, with heavy cloth boards and green illustrative graphics and gold lettering, is a great addition to any classic library collection.

If "architecture is frozen music" [Goethe] then the magnificent St Pancras buildings must constitute one of J.S.Bach's major concertos.

This is a book for anyone with an interest in world-class architecture, or history, or great engineering. It's probably quite interesting to railway enthusiasts too!

St. Pancras station and its Midland Grand Hotel manage to combine high art and design with a masterpiece of engineering in an incredible, exuberant, completely 'over-the-top' statement of Victorian company confidence. The book explains in an intelligent and entertaining way, why and how it was achieved by the brilliantly innovative engineer William Henry Barlow, and the eminent and sometimes insensitive architect Sir George Gilbert Scott.

"If the Directors and officers of the Midland company had pooled their collective experience with a view to securing a site for their London station that would combine the greatest possible number of difficulties, they could hardly have fixed on anything better than the one they chose at St. Pancras. It was occupied by a canal, a gas-works, an ancient church with a large and crowded graveyard, and some of the most atrocious slums in London; and through it all ran the Fleet River."

Sir John Betjeman reviewed the original, 1968, edition of this book as "readable, learned, and inspiring". More recently, the author and presenter Dan Cruickshank referred to it in his "Story of Britain's Best Buildings" (BBC Books) as "perceptive".

This new edition is revised and enhanced with interesting new photographs and plans, and an additional chapter by architectural historian Robert Thorne about the revival of St. Pancras. The changes somehow manage to make the book better-balanced than the original.

A classic book about a classic building.

"You cannot escape liking the climate....And I warn you, if you have some spot dear to you on earth, not to linger here too long, else you will find this dearer."
From The Sheriff of Kona

This is a terrific collection of short stories set in the Hawaiian Islands in the early years of the 20th century. London's stories are set pieces that capture a very specific time in the Hawaiian Islands, after the end of the monarchy and during the early years of American annexation. He writes with a vigor and directness that makes his stories engaging, enjoyable reading and his mastery of the short story structure is first rate.

I have one warning for modern readers with political or racial sensitivities, though. As a man of his time, London writes with a gentle but obvious racism that reflects his world view (and the common views of the era). People's characters are determined by their race, and race is often used as a shorthand stereotype to describe individuals. If seeing simple, sensual, superstitious Hawaiians, wily Asians, and rational, greedy (often heavy drinking) whites, you should avoid this book. It's never mean-spirited, but it is pervasive.

For those of us who appreciate good stories that capture a unique time and place and who are not offended by anachronistic views on race, these stories are real gems. I think they are better than most of London's more famous stories, myself.

The culmination of ten years of research, including a page-by-page search through London's 15,000-volume library (still intact). An important and fascinating study for students of Jack London.

Let's just quote Jack London, a very political writer, himself, to introduce this volume of three historical essays: "As yet, to the average bourgeois mind, socialism is merely a menace, vague and formless. The average member of the capitalist class, when he discusses socialism, is condemned an ignoramus out of his own mouth. He does not know the literature of socialism, its philosophy, nor its politics. He wags his head sagely and rattles the dry bones of dead and buried ideas. His lips mumble mouldy phrases, such as, 'Men are not born equal and never can be;' 'It is Utopian and impossible;' 'Abstinence should be rewarded;' 'Man will first have to be born again;' 'Cooperative colonies have always failed;' and 'What if we do divide up? in ten years there would be rich and poor men such as there are today.' It surely is time that the capitalists knew something about this socialism that they feel menaces them."