Best Short Stories of Jack London

If you like Jack London and want a good dose of his many works, this is it.

The Best Short Stories of Jack London As I enter my second childhood, I am re-reading my favorites from my first childhood. Right now I have a shelf of books checked out from the Library: Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, Edgar Allen Poe and Jack London. London could write about watching paint dry and make it interesting. His reporter's eye missed nothing; he had a gift of observation and recording life. From his oystering days in San Francisco, to gold panning in the Klondike, to the South Seas, he was a masterful writer. Occasionally his socialist moralizing becomes tedious, as in "People of The Abyss", but for plain exposition he has few equals. London was one of those fortunate writers who achieved fame and considerable wealth in his lifetime, which ended at the age of forty. This collection contains some of the best of his short stories."The Story of Keesh," "The League of the Old Men," and "To Build A Fire" among them. After reading the latter, I know I'm not going out in the woods without a down sleeping bag, propane stove, and GPS.

For all their moods of isolation, Jack London crafted some soulful stories filled with a kind of humanity that is outside of conventional terms. All of these stories are worth delving into, often more than once even, but the opener 'To Build a Fire' packs a whallop to the gut that has never left me. The narrator's struggle to keep warm, originally one of pride and daring that slowly is reduced to one of futility says all that needs to be evoked about the cold, merciless disposition of Mother Nature towards a sole human being struggling to overcome, but if you are a glass half-full person, as I have known to be on occasion, you just might find the beauty an' enormity of the world around you in even such a tragedy. I am no socialist or existentialist (in fact I'm a Christian) but I find much of worth in Jack London's writings. This is a good place to start.

For all their moods of isolation, Jack London crafted some soulful stories filled with a kind of humanity that is outside of conventional terms. All of these stories are worth delving into, often more than once even, but the opener 'To Build a Fire' packs a whallop to the gut that has never left me. The narrator's struggle to keep warm, originally one of pride and daring that slowly is reduced to one of futility says all that needs to be evoked about the cold, merciless disposition of Mother Nature towards a sole human being struggling to overcome, but if you are a glass half-full person, as I have known to be on occasion, you just might find the beauty an' enormity of the world around you in even such a tragedy. Anyone interested in even the most basic forms of existentialism (which is pretty much all I'm familiar with) should find much of worth in Jack London.

Occasionally a writer creates a story that is both horrible and wonderful; TO BUILD A FIRE is one of these stories. Reading it I thought of some negative criticism I had recently read about London's writing. I think the critic is full of it. TO BUILD A FIRE and much of London's writing is high octane, powerful stuff.