The Call of the Wild by London, Jack - 1903

New York: Macmillan, 1903. Fourth printing. 8vo. 231 pp + 2 pp Publisher's advertisements. Illustrated color plates throughout by Philip R. Goodwin and Charles Livingston Bull (including frontispiece with tissue guard); cover designed by Charles Edward Hooper. Publisher's green pictorial cloth with gilt lettering; tope edge gilt. Minor wear to extremities; tiny bump to upper rear corner; small bookseller label inside front cover; else a fine and bright copy. Jack Londons' highly popular tale of survival and a return to primitivism. 'The Call of the Wild' is set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively more primitive and wild in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild. As early as 1923, the story was adapted to film, and it has since seen several more cinematic adaptations; various adaptations starred noted actors including Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Charlton Heston, Mike Reynolds, Bryan Cranston, Rutger Hauer and Richard Dreyfuss.