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The Call of the Wild (Unabridged Classics)
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The Call of the Wild (Unabridged Classics) Unknown - 2003

by London, Jack.

About this book

Jack London’s The Call of the Wild is an anthropomorphic canine’s unforgettable tale of survival. Set during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, the novel’s main character, Buck, a large and powerful St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd, is stolen from his ranch home in Santa Clara Valley, California, and sold into service as a sled dog. At first, Buck experiences violence and struggles for survival, becoming progressively feral in the harsh environment. By the end, Buck relies on his instinct and learned experience to emerge as the proven leader of the pack. 

In The Call of the Wild, author Jack London blends his experience as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness with his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, influenced by the work of Darwin and Nietzsche. Thus, although the novel is first and foremost a story about a dog, it displays a philosophical depth absent in most animal adventures.

In the summer of 1903, the story was first serialized in four installments in The Saturday Evening Post, which paid $750 for it. Soon after, London sold all rights to The Call of the Wild to Macmillan, which published the story in book format in August of that same year. As the first printing of 10,000 copies sold out immediately, it is safe to say the novel was enormously popular from the moment it was published. It has since secured its place in the canon of American literature. Today, The Call of the Wild is still one of the best-known stories written by an American author and has been published in almost 50 languages. The Call of the Wild is ranked 35th on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels and 88th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. 

From the publisher

Buck lives a content life. Half St. Bernard, half shepherd, he is top dog on a California ranch. But the gold rush in the Klondike has produced an enormous demand for sled dogs, so when a gardener at the ranch needs to pay off a gambling debt, stealing and selling Buck is a quick way to do it. Having never been mistreated, Buck soon learns that man can be the cruelest animal. He is whipped, beaten, and caged, but never broken. Confronted by the law of survival, Buck learns to fight, steal, and pull a sled. He takes pride in his new strength and ferocity. Buck manages to escape this life of abuse and learns to love a new master more than his own life. He gradually discovers the skills of his forbears and finds his home in the primordial forest-eventually, Buck cannot resist the call of the wild. This classic book brings out the true spirit of the gold rush days at the turn of the last century. It portrays the brutality, kindness, love, and folly that Jack London experienced first-hand during his time in the far north. The Call of the Wild was his first successful book, and it catapulted him to literary fame.

First Edition Identification

Macmillan first published The Call of the Wild in August 1903. Produced in a print run of 10,000 copies, first editions state "Set up electrotyped, and published July, 1903" on the copyright page and contain 10 tipped-in color plates by illustrators Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull as well as a color frontispiece by Charles Edward Hooper. The first printing of The Call of the Wild sold for $1.50. Nowadays, signed copies have sold for upwards of $20,000.

Details

  • Title The Call of the Wild (Unabridged Classics)
  • Author London, Jack.
  • Binding unknown
  • Edition Unabridged
  • Publisher Tantor Media, Inc.
  • Date August 10, 2003
  • ISBN 9781400100941

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