The Call of the Wild Hardcover - 1999

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. 

Details

• Title The Call of the Wild
• Author Jack London; Wendell Minor (Illustrator)
• Binding Hardcover
• Edition Complete Numbers
• Pages 128
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Atheneum Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Date 1999-10-01
• Large Print Yes
• Illustrated Yes
• ISBN 9780689818363 / 068981836X
• Weight 0.89 lbs (0.40 kg)
• Dimensions 10.06 x 6.12 x 0.69 in (25.55 x 15.54 x 1.75 cm)
• Ages 09 to 14 years
• Grade levels 4 - 9
• Reading level 530
• Themes
  • Chronological Period: 19th Century
  • Geographic Orientation: Alaska
• Library of Congress subjects Dogs, Adventure fiction
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 97045019
• Dewey Decimal Code FIC