The call of the wild

12mo, 231 pp., (1) leaf. Publisher's hardcover binding.

191 x 132 mm.

London, Jack. The Call of the Wild.
New York, Macmillan, 1903.

Sought-after first edition ofThe Call of the Wild, “Jack London’s masterpiece” (Daniela Amsallem).

First edition, first printing of Jack London’s masterpiece with the July 1903 date on the copyright page and two pages of publisher's advertisement at end.

“One of the first American novels to examine the quest of the pioneering individual who breaks away from the sheltered environment of civilization and is romantically compelled to find freedom in nature. In the early part of the century this was considered the American dream” (Parker, 16).

The wolf’s howl that concludes the story seals Buck’s final return to the wild and the triumph of the superior dog over the beings and things of nature after cruel experiences with both men and beasts. Born on a vast estate where he reigned supreme in a sunny California valley, Buck is kidnapped during the Klondike Gold Rush and forced with incredible ferocity into the miserable condition of a sled dog. Gifted with exceptional strength, he manages to survive in the harsh environment of the Great North, asserting his dominance over his peers at the cost of bloody fights, resisting the brutality of his successive owners, until one day, beaten to death, he is saved just in time by the prospector John Thornton. Buck will hear with newfound intensity the call that rises from the depths of space and time, accompanying the story and alternating with daydreams by the fire in which he sees himself in the company of a strange, half-human creature in that primordial place he had already sensed in the huskies’ cry; he discovers a taste for blood through the hunt and befriends a wolf.

Initially conceived as a short story but continued over five weeks of compulsive writing, this brief tale achieved unexpected worldwide success and earned the self-taught author the honor of inclusion in the Berkeley literature curriculum.

In this story lived through an animal consciousness, a sort of miracle takes place: by striving to preserve the ambiguity of the point of view, the text unfolds an intermediate metaphor of man and beast, thus transcending the pseudo-scientific representation of the laws of natural selection.

Developed as close to reality as possible, the vision is of a phantasmagorical world both dangerous and familiar, terrifying yet intimate, where the will to tell gives way to what is told, giving the novel a unique quality: it transforms the instinct for survival into a passion for living, and necessity into desire.

An attractive copy preserved in its original publisher’s cloth, as issued.

An attractive copy preserved in its original publisher’s cloth, as issued.

Manuscript ex-libris on the front endpaper.